Monster Mash Masquerade is Sat., Oct. 28, and host restaurant Bites & Bubbles is giving away a ticket to 10 lucky winners.

MMM is a fundraiser to benefit the Restaurant & Allied Partnership of Central Florida (RAPCF), a nonprofit organization with a mission to support, promote and educate local independent restaurants and affiliated businesses within Central Florida. 

The experts who design restaurants will tell you that each one has – or should have – its own personality. You should know the restaurant’s gender, favorite color, clothing style and preferred music. These things will dictate the decor and ambience and other aspects of the design.

I doubt that there’s a better local example of this theory than Maxine’s on Shine. Everything about the place seems to be a personification of the very woman it’s named for, Maxine Earhart. It’s bold, eclectic, fun. It’s a surprise find, a lone business among the bungalows of the Colonialtown South neighborhood.

It’s undoubtedly the atmosphere that appeals most to its many loyal fans. Based on my recent visit, it isn’t likely the modest food or the laughable service. 

Pam Brandon, managing editor of Edible Orlando, announced Thursday that the October issue of the quarterly publication that has highlighted and celebrated the area’s rich food resources and culinary personalities for the past 13 years will be its last under current ownership.

Kendra Lott, Edible Orlando’s publisher, said by phone that she had been planning to sell the magazine but hoped to take the publication through the spring edition, then help a buyer through the transition. But her daughter is now in 12th grade and “parenting a senior is a lot a lot,” she said. “I realized she needs me now and I need to spend more time with her.”

In February I paid a visit to Italian House Pizza & Restaurant, a Curry Ford West District eatery that had been in the converted Pizza Hut hut it called home for many years. In my review, I noted that the food was so-so and the service less so, but noted that it must have a loyal fanbase to have such staying power.

The leaving power was stronger – Italian House has closed and a new business, Smokemade Meats + Eats, is moving in. Smokemade’s maker is Tyler Brunache, who has been serving his Texas style barbecue at popups around the area and will continue to do so at least until the location on Crystal Lake Drive is open. (He’s popping up Sat., Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. at Hoods Up on the corner of Bumby Avenue and Robinson Street. He’s also offering a pit master master class on brisket and rib prepartion at the future restaurant’s site on Sat. Oct. 7; $450 per student.)

No date yet for the restaurant’s opening.

I recently had a chance to stop by Epcot and check in on the 2023 International Food & Wine Festival, which started July 27 and continues through Nov. 18. I found it rather muted and unexciting; dull, even.

But then, it has been since the Covid pandemic forced a watered down version in 2020 in what the organizers dubbed “A Taste of Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival” and what I called a festivalette. Gone were the cooking demonstrations, the wine tasting seminars conducted by visiting vintners, the food and beverage pairing luncheons and dinners, and most missed, the weekly Party for the Senses extravaganzas inside the World Showplace.