Photo: Voodoo Bayou
Voodoo Bayou, a South Florida restaurant in downtown Palm Beach Gardens, is planning to take over the former Moonfish space on Sand Lake Road’s Restaurant Row. It describes its cuisine as “Southern Cajun,” though it lists Louisiana fried chicken as a signature dish.
Moonfish, a Talk of the Town Restaurant Group brand, closed in 2020 after choosing not to renew its lease. It had occupied the space since 2002.
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Now through the end of the month, Grande Lakes Orlando is hosting its popular Fall on the Farm weekends, every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Spread out around the resort’s 18,000 square-foot Whisper Creek Farm, the event includes numerous activities, including pumpkin carving with guidance from the resort’s Olympic World Champion culinary artist and carver Victor Dagatan. The kids can make a really jacked up jack-o’-lantern for Halloween.
Photo: David Fox
As I told you in March, North Italia will open in the former J. Alexander’s space on Sand Lake Road’s Restaurant Row. The grand opening is scheduled for Nov. 3.
The restaurant was developed by Fox Restaurant Concept’s Sam Fox in 2002 and was acquired by Cheesecake Factory. The Orlando location will be the twenty-ninth nationally and the third in Florida. Other North Italias (NoIts?) are in Miami and Dadeland.
The restaurant, at 7335 W. Sand Lake Road, will be open for lunch and dinner daily and will offer brunch on weekends.
J. Alexander’s, a Houston’s/Hillstone-like concept, opened in 2008 and closed in 2013. The space has been empty since.
On a Sated Ventures tour in Oaxaca, Mexico, shopping for spices to be used in a cooking class.
As the world begins to reopen and restrictions lifted, or at least normalized, people are beginning to travel again. With increasing frequency, their travel plans are centered around food.
Not just deciding where they’re going to eat while they’re away or doing an online search for the destination’s best restaurants, which, by the way, can be quite unreliable. (A quick search for “best restaurants Orlando” brought up one list that included a fast-food chain and a now-defunct restaurant that served what was arguably the worst Cuban food in town.)
The new travel trend makes food the main focus rather than ancillary. And travel agencies have started to take note of this growing segment of food-centric travelers and are curating tours and journeys especially for them.
