Photo: Orlando Police via Twitter
Hideaway, the delightfully divey bar and grill on the Virginia Drive causeway that links Mills 50 to Ivanhoe Village, is back open after a Dodge Ram rammed into the business Sunday evening injuring four patrons. Gee, you don’t suppose alcohol had anything to do with it, do you?
Yes, a tremendous amount, apparently. Orlando police said that the man charged with the crash, Jackson Click, 45, had a blood alcohol level nearly four times over the legal limit. When Click bonded out of jail, he told Channel 6 News – quoted on its ironically named Click Orlando website – that he did not drive into the building intentionally. As if someone with that amount of alcohol in his bloodstream could do anything intentionally.
Two of the four people who were injured required hospitalization.
Farm & Haus has opened on Park Avenue in the space that for many years was Cafe de France. Just around the corner, Hen & Hog, the repackaged concept from the former Mason Jar, has opened on Fairbanks Avenue. Gosh, Winter Park is suddenly all bucolicky rural.
A press release arrived announcing “a new tourist & local attraction is coming to the greater Orlando area” that is “an Instagrammable dessert shop.” Really makes you want to go, no?
It’s called the Dolly Llama, which the press release also said is named after a real honest-to-god llama that lives in France. The chain, however, is based in Los Angeles and specializes in waffles and ice cream. It will open at the Winter Garden Village Shopping Mall on Jan. 7, so beware of tourists and locals snapping Instagram photos if you’re in the area.
I wonder if the llama in France, Dolly, earns a licensing fee from the use of her name.
Ali Ahmed Aslam died earlier this week in Glascow. He was 77. His name may not mean anything to you, but if you’ve ever had chicken tikka masala you have him to thank. According to news accounts, Aslam “invented” the dish one evening when a bus driver came into his restaurant one night in the ‘70s and asked for something besides the regular chicken tikka because it was too dry and too spicy. Aslam placed the too-dry-and-spicy pieces of tondooried chicken into a pan and threw in some tomato sauce. And wah-la (as the British say because voila is too French) a British national dish was born. A recent survey actually placed chicken tikka masala above fish and chips.
So remember, chefs, the next time a customer comes in and asks you to improve one of your dishes that is really too dry and not quite up to standards, don’t just add the first thing that comes to mind (because I know what you’re thinking). Toss in some tomatoes and maybe something to turn it a strange orange color and you, too, may invent a national dish and eventually have your obituary published in the New York Times.
Merry Christmas, and if you’re still looking for someplace for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner, check out our Holiday Listings.
