Just got word from my friends Susan and Simon Veness, who publish the definitive Brit Guide to Orlando & Walt Disney World, that Cricketers Arms, the authentic English pub, will shut down its taps and close today. There is a possibility the popular pub will move to a space at Dellagio on Sand Lake Road's Restaurant Row previously occupied by a florist. There is also a chance they will move back to their original location at the site of the former Mercado in the long term.

{fblike}

While you're on the street for Sunday’s COOK 2011 Quick Fire Challenge, take a look at the spaces on the first floor of the Sanctuary condominiums left empty when the restaurants Graze and Sanctuary Diner (previously Fifi’s) closed. I hear they won’t be empty much longer. A local restaurateur is in negotiations to put in two new restaurants: a Southwestern (no, not Tex-Mex, Southwestern) in the Graze space and an Italian eatery where the diner was. I understand the members of the Sanctuary's board, who have a say in what goes in there, have given their approval. Lawyers for both parties are now talking, so this may be resolved soon or could take a while. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear.

Updated: It's the Sanctuary's board, not the residents, that has given its approval for the new restaurants.

{fblike}

It should be a fun afternoon this Sunday, March 27, on South Eola Drive. That’s the date and the place for COOK 2011, a showcase of food and drink from area restaurants, plus a cooking competition among four of the participating chefs. Which four? No one will know until the day of the event when the names will be drawn at random.

The contest will consist of three Quick Fire challenges, with the last remaining chef receiving the COOK 2011 Challenge Champion Award. Judging the event will be visiting  celebrity chef Yigit Pura, winner of Bravo’s Top Chef Just Desserts and destined to be a favorite solution in future New York Times crossword puzzles; Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, which will benefit from the event’s proceeds; and Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer, who knows a thing or two about food. (Now, you just hush -- I meant that according to his wife, Karen, the mayor is quite a good cook.) Oh, and looky here -- it says in this press release that I’ll be one of the judges, too. Bob Frier, Fox-35 news anchor, will serve as the host.

While the competition is going on, you can wander about and sample food, wine and cocktails from some of the participating restaurants. Some of the restaurants that will be there include: Funky Monkey, HUE, Shine Neighborhood Kitchen, Gringos Locos, Shari Sushi and Tako Cheena, the soon-to-open eatery from Pom Pom.