•        Caribe Royale has a new executive chef. David Hackett, who most recently was the executive chef at the Four Diamond Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Maryland, has joined the Disney-area resort whose restaurants include the estimable Venetian Chop House. Hackett, who has also worked at properties owned by Marriott, Kessler, Starwood, Biltmore and Walt Disney World – he’s obviously a hotel man – has one multiple culinary awards, including the Brillat-Savarin Medaille de Merite. You know an award is prestigious when you can’t pronounce it.
•        Disney has announced a flock of new restaurants for its under-development Flamingo Crossings Town Center and boy does it sound like just about every other strip mall in town. You’ve got your Wendy’s, your Domino’s, a Firehouse Subs, Five Guys, PDQ and other chains. There will be a Pieology Pizzeria, another franchise with its first Central Florida location. (That Domino’s didn’t have an exclusive pizza clause in its lease agreement is surprising.) Ellie Lou’s Brews & BBQ, an Ocoee and Clermont restaurant, will open its third location at Flamingo Crossings – whose portmanteaunic name may or may not become Flam-ings – as will Persimmon Hollow Brewing, the DeLand beer maker that opened recently in downtown Orlando in the former Lake Eola Panera location. Nice that Disney included a couple of local businesses, but they’re growing fast enough to soon qualify as chains, too.
•        Kona Poké, which has become its own little chainlet, opened its first Orlando Kona Poké Express, seen at top, last weekend outside Quantum Leap Winery in the Mills 50 district. Why does Poké Express sound like a contradiction in terms?
•       The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended that restaurant workers be in the third group of Americans in line for a Covid-19 vaccine. So servers, bartenders, cooks and dishwashers will have to wait, unless any of them are over 74 years old, which is one of the criteria for the second group to receive the shots. When the shots can be given depends on the availability of doses and how many people who qualify for early vaccinations get them. The guidelines are only recommendations and the final say on prioritization is being left up to individual states. That doesn’t sound encouraging, does it, Florida?
•      Now would be a good time to suggest that if you have a favorite restaurant you should consider buying gift cards – as many as you can – to help a struggling business with some cash flow. And believe me, if a restaurant is still open, it’s struggling. Normally my advice on gift cards is to use them immediately because you never know when someone will go out of business. This year I’m recommending that you buy as many as you can and just sit on them until the pandemic is over. Then pass them out to all your vaccinated friends and have them meet you at the restaurant for a big party.
•        If you still need dining information for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, check out our Holiday Dining listings.

Every year, we compile a list of restaurants that will be serving on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. Why should it be any different this year just because we’re in the middle of a pandemic?

The good news is that while many of the restaurants on this year’s list are offering in-house dining – following recommended occupancy and distancing guidelines – many are also making their menus available for takeout. In fact some on the list, especially for Christmas Day, are taking preorders for pickup before the 25th and plan to be closed that day.

You can take a look at the Holiday Dining lists here. For Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, we’ve listed only restaurants that are offering special menus on those nights. The Christmas Day list includes all restaurants – those who have notified us – that they will be open on Dec. 25 whether they’re offering a special menu or not.

Among those you may want to consider are:

The restaurants at JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek, especially the new and excellent Sear + Sea, which is offering a menu of sharables as well as its regular menu;

The new Russell’s on Lake Ivanhoe, with a three-course dinner for $55 per person (can also be prepared to go with reheating instructions);

Big Fin Seafood Kitchen, where you can check out the new chef, Eric Enrique, on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve, the latter with a four-course meal;

Taverna Opa and Tapa Toro for Greek and Spanish takes, both Christmas Eve and Day;

Tabla, where both locations will be serving its wonderful Indian menu plus a special Christmas table d’hote;

And Mia’s Italian Kitchen, which is offering Christmas to-go packages that can actually be picked on on Christmas Day if you prefer.

Whether you’re dining out, getting food to-go or staying in and doing the cooking yourself, have a safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It’s got to be happier, right?

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has extended a shutdown on wild oyster harvesting in Apalachicola Bay through the end of 2025.

The commission had initially issued an emergency shutdown that went into effect Aug. 1. The extension, which passed unanimously at the commission’s meeting Wednesday, bans on-the-water harvesting equipment such as tongs – long-handled baskets used to scoop oysters.

During the shutdown, a $17 million restoration project to restore 1000 acres of oyster habitat will be conducted. In recent years, the harvesting of oysters, once robust enough to provide 10 percent of the country’s supply, had smaller yields, due to low water flow into the bay and diminished natural reefs.

In announcing the ruling, the commission noted that the ban could be lifted sooner if conditions improve.