Craig Tremblay and his crew are putting the final touches on the new restaurant and bar at the confluence of Fairbanks, Orange and Pennsylvania Avenues. The restaurant will be called the Boathouse, and the bar is Drake’s.

Old-timers will remember this spot as the home of another restaurant and bar combination: Harper’s Tavern and Le Cordon Bleu. Harpers was one of the oldest bars in the region, including a history as a speakeasy during Prohibition. Le Cordon Bleu was one of the few fine-dining restaurants in Central Florida, a place to get dressed up for a fancy French meal. Both businesses had an abrupt end in 1996 when a fire gutted the structure. Following restoration, new businesses occupied the space -- including, in 2002, one called Harper’s Tavern and Grill, that was nothing but a disappointment. The following year it became Coyote Grill and Sports Bar. Most recently it was an O’boys barbecue restaurant.

Tremblay is trying both to recreate the old Harper’s atmosphere and reinvent it. For starters, he has re-closed walls that had been removed to open the bar and restaurant into one big space. The separate names for the two entities will also reinforce that idea, although technically both will operate under the same license.

Science has finally solved the question regarding why restaurants are so loud. For years it was conjectured that restaurants turned up the music and removed noise absorbers to create a sense of conviviality and fun. Anyone walking into a loud restaurant, it was believed, was likely to think that everyone there was having a good time, and therefore it must be a great restaurant. Now this article from Scientific American (I told you it was about science) has the real answer: restaurants are noisy so you won't be able to taste the food! Shhhh, don't tell anyone. I SAID, DON'T TELL ANYONE.

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