John Paonessa and Mike Rogier, owners of the Orlando Hamburger Mary’s franchise, announced this week that they close the restaurant in the historic Church Street Station on June 2. So that’s kind of a drag, but take heart – the duo pledge to reopen in another location as yet to be decided.

In a post on HM’s Facebook page, Paonessa wrote: “Downtown Orlando has been great to us. However, times have changed. The hustle and bustle of Downtown Orlando has given way to a sleepy city with few people working downtown and opting for remote, and less traffic in the evenings.”

Our latest Dinner Party was held Wednesday at the illustrious illume, the ninth-floor rooftop restaurant and lounge at the JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek, and as they have before, the staff went our of their way and over the top to impress everyone who attended.

We were whisked to the rooftop by express elevator at precisely 6 o’clock and greeted by servers with lychee martinis, elegant cocktails made with Empress 1908 gin and Giffard Lychee liqueur, a lovely fuchsia hue and garnished with an orchid.

Taste! Central Florida, the annual fundraiser to end childhood hunger, is Aug. 10 and in a new location – Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek (that’s the hotel next to the Waldorf-Astoria).

It’s a lovely hotel and it’s going to be a great place for the event, which includes lots of eating and drinking opportunities. And so instead of drawing straws to see who in your group will be the designated driver, you should just book a room at the Signia for the night. And to make that more attractive, Taste! has partnered with Signia to offer $100 off the room rate for that evening. Just go to this link and fill in the reservation form.

And to make it an even better deal, when you go to this link to purchase your tickets, enter code SJO25 at checkout to get $25 off each ticket. (Coupon code valid through Aug. 1.)

I wonder about the etymology of the word dive, at least in its use to define a place. I assume it refers to an establishment, usually a bar, that was once reputable but has gone downhill, taken a dive, in quality. Personally, I’ve always relied on the clientele to be the real defining factor. Sleaziness isn’t required but it helps.

So can you declare yourself a dive? Is it something to aspire to? The owners of Mid Drive Dive apparently think so. It’s a new restaurant on Edgewater Drive in College Park that is a joint project of Jacob Zepf of Freehand Goods and Matt Hinckley of Hinckley’s Fancy Meats at East End Market.

It takes over the space that had been a Graffiti Junktion – the burger chain with its own aspirations of diviness – on the corner of Vassar Street (named for a tony college with few if any dive bars nearby). The space is open and bright – dives are notoriously dark – and any graffito from the previous tenant has been excised. A central bar is the focus of the room with seating there as well as at tables, high and low, about the room and out front. The floor features what was likely the building’s original terrazzo, some of it patched and in the sort of disrepair that would be the envy of any dive.

Orlando based Red Lobster, once one of the largest purchasers of seafood in the world and a massive restaurant chain, is closing restaurants as it faces ongoing financial troubles. Make that “temporarily closing,” a term that is often used euphemistically by restaurants in trouble that refuse to face the inevitable. But sure, maybe the dozens of restaurants that closed recently may reopen, but probably not the ones that, according to some news sources, are auctioning off their kitchen equipment.

Included in the nearly 80 restaurants shuttered are locations in Altamonte Springs, Kissimmee, Sanford and on East and West Colonial Drive in Orlando. The closures – so far – are spread across 27 states.