Ming Court on International Drive

In relative terms, Central Florida has a dearth of good Chinese restaurants, but there are some gems among the few. One of my favorites — and the one I think is most authentic — is Ming’s Bistro. They do traditional dim sum cart service, and it isn’t unusual to find ducks hanging about. (Cooked ones, not live ducks.) I suspect but have never verified that there is are two menus, one for Chinese customers and one for Westerners. If you can, convince your server that you really want to try something traditional. If she mentions anything involving General Tso, just get up and leave, but I doubt that will happen.

I’m also a fan of Eastern Pearl, although the food here tends to blend the traditional with the creative. The surroundings are a bit more upscale than you’ll find at most area restaurants, so it makes a good choice if you want to combine the day’s two celebrations.

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Highland Manor, the creative Southern restaurant that reinvigorated the local upscale dining scene last year, has changed hands and the dining room is currently closed. Reached in New York where he is opening another restaurant, former chef and co-owner of the Apopka restaurant said that he and another partner had sold their interests to a third partner, Richard Wilhelm. Wilhelm was not immediately available for comment.

A woman who answered the phone at Highland Manor said the dining room would reopen to the public Valentine’s Weekend and would thereafter be open Thursdays through Sundays. The restaurant has been holding private catering events on the property while closed to the public.

Mooney said, “We were going in the right direction, and the city dealt with us really well. But the numbers just weren’t there. We couldn’t see it turning around in the next 24 months.”

Mooney is planning to open a restaurant called Bell, Book and Candle at Greenwich Avenue and W. 10th Street in New York in early April.

New York, NY (February 6, 2010) — The Bocuse d’Or USA Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to inspiring culinary excellence, announced this evening that Chef James Kent will represent the United States at the prestigious Bocuse d’Or International Culinary Competition, to be held in Lyon, France on January 25-26, 2011. His commis (assistant) in the competition will be Tom Allan. Established in 1987 by Chef Paul Bocuse, the Bocuse d’Or is the preeminent international culinary competition in which teams of one chef and one commis from 24 countries compete for top honors and international acclaim.  Currently, Chef Kent serves as Sous Chef at Eleven Madison Park in New York City and his commis is a Sous Chef at Eleven Madison Park as well.

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This may be the smartest thing they’ve ever done.

Einstein Bros., the marginal bagel bakery chain, is offering what they describe as the biggest bagel giveaway ever (do people keep track of these stats? Guinness? Anyone?). All you have to do is visit Einstein Bros.’s Facebook page and click on the Free Bagel tab. Indicate that you want to be a fan of Einstein’s (don’t worry, there’s no lie detector involved) and you’ll receive an electronic coupon for a free bagel with schmear.

What does Einstein’s get? A huge boost to its Facebook base and a lot of potential eyeballs for direct marketing.

What would The Ethicist say about joining up to get a free bagel and then de-fanning?

Orlando based Restaurant Parnters, Inc. has announced it will open a Daytona Beach version of iconic Key West hangout Sloppy Joe’s. The restaurant and bar, which will be in the Ocean Walk Shoppes, is scheduled to open Feb. 4.

The kitchen, under the direction of chef Erik Walter, will turn out a full menu of seafood, steaks and burgers (and, one assumes, a Sloppy Joe sandwich). The 9,600 square-foot restaurant will employ a staff of 100.

The original Sloppy Joe’s, of course, is renowned as a hangout of Ernest Hemingway, whose image adorns the restaurant’s logo (Papa would be so proud). Popular Key West events, such as the annual Hemingway look-alike contest, will be imported to the Daytona Beach location, and televisions will feature live streaming images from the Key West restaurant (Islands in the Streaming?). One thing the Daytona Beach Sloppy’s will have that the original doesn’t is a view of the Atlantic — can’t see that from Duval Street.

Sloppy Joe’s – Daytona Beach will be open daily from 11 a.m. to midnight. For updates and more information visit Sloppy Joe’s Web site.

You can find “Restaurant Week” events all over the country at just about any time of the year. They’re pretty much the same — restaurants offer a prix fixe menu that represents a better deal if you purchase the multi-course specially priced meal than if you ordered the same items a la carte.

But during the last week of January there will be a restaurant week event that could take place only in Orlando.

From January 25 through the 31st area restaurants will participate in the first Eat Local Week. The twist here is that special menus will highlight the various ingredients, from meats and seafoods to cheeses, breads, herbs and other produce, that are grown and supplied by local concerns.

The event is sponsored by the Slow Food Orlando convivium, and the nonprofit group lacks the resources to give it the proper fanfare you might see for other Restaurant Week kinds of events. But this is a huge moment for the Central Florida restaurant community.

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Orlando hotelier Harris Rosen, working with Florida Senator Bill Nelson and members of Orlando’s Haitian community, has initiated a drive to raise $1 million to aid the people of earthquake-devated Haiti. Rosen has started the campaign with a personal donation of $250,000.

For the Rosen hotels — and many others of the Central Florida tourism industry — the crisis has hit close to home, literally. According to Rosen spokeswoman Mary Deatrick, approximately 30 percent of the 4,500 workers in the Rosen chain of hotels are from Haiti or of Haitian descent. It should be no surprise that a good number of the people who clean the rooms, make the beds and work in restaurant kitchens are Haitian. They’re co-workers and neighbors, and they need assistance.

According to a press release from Deatrick: “Rosen and his internal team met with Senator Bill Nelson and several leaders from Orlando’s Haitian community to determine the immediate needs of those affected by this week’s earthquake. Along with cash needed to buy supplies, the group is collecting first aid kits, medical supplies (bandages, gauze, peroxide, etc.), blankets, towels, washcloths, hygiene products (soap, toothpaste, shampoo, etc.), antibiotics and bug spray. No clothes, shoes or food will be accepted at this time. Rosen is also working with pharmaceutical vendors via his onsite Rosen Medical Center to secure donations of medical supplies.”

One hundred percent of donations received through the Harris Rosen Foundation will go to relief efforts, said Deatrick.

Supplies may be dropped off at Rosen Centre hotel, 9840 International Dr., Orlando, FL 32819 or at First Haitian Baptist Church of Orlando, 4701 Lenox Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32811 or at the Child development Center of Orlando, 11553 Winter Garden Vineland Rd., Orlando, FL 32836. Monetary donations may be mailed to the Harris Rosen Foundation, memo: Haiti Relief, 9840 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819. The Harris Rosen Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization (FEIN #59-2890420). For more information, call 407-996-6715 or visit Rosen’s Web site.

Looking for a restaurant where you can enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner? Check out the Holiday Dining 2009 section of the flog. There you’ll find a list of restaurants that have indicated they will be open Nov. 26. You’ll also find links to their menus.

And if you’re a restaurateur who would like to have your restaurant included in the list, send the following information to [email protected]:

• Exact physical address of the restaurant (please give more than the name of the hotel or the cross streets, although that information can be very helpful, too).
• Hours of operation for Thanksgiving Day.
• Type of service, whether it’s a holiday buffet or a la carte menu.
• Cost for adults and children (please include age range for children); if not a prix fixe, give a price range for entrees.
• Phone number to call for reservations; please indicate if reservations are available through OpenTable.
• You’re welcome to attach a menu.

Check back often as the list grows. And as Thanksgiving gives way to December, I’ll also be listing restaurants that will be open on Christmas Day, and some of the happenings on New Year’s Eve, too.

I first wrote about OpenTable.com, an online restaurant booking site, three years ago in the Orlando Sentinel. OpenTable had been around for a few years but was still just catching on locally. Here’s a link to that Sentinel article.

A few things have changed since I first wrote about OpenTable. I mean besides that I’m no longer at Sentinel. In the article you’ll see quotes from Edward Nickell, who was at Dux at the time. He’s no longer there — in fact, neither is Dux — but is the proud co-owner of two Funky Monkeys.

But Bill and Adrienne Katz are still around and are readers of the flog. (Hi, Bill and Adrienne!) They were the ones who first alerted me to the joys of OpenTable, which spurred me to write the article.

OpenTable has grown in this area — new restaurants sign up almost weekly — and restaurant owners tell me they just love it. So do diners.

So, beginning today, I’m offering direct links to restaurants that participate in the OpenTable program. You’ll find the links in regular reviews and in the restaurant listings here on the flog. There is, of course, no charge to you to use the OpenTable service. And in fact you can earn free meals just by making reservations. Click here or on the OpenTable logo above to learn more about the program. And happy dining.

To the attic already full of outdated relics rendered quaint by the digital age, consign now the restaurant reservation book.
The days of calling a restaurant to make a reservation and hearing someone flipping through the pages are coming to an end. In fact, the days of calling the restaurant may be numbered. More restaurants are computerizing their reservations systems, using software from companies like OpenTable.com to track their customers and manage their dining rooms. And it allows the customers to log on, choose a restaurant and book a table for the date and time they want without having to phone in and be placed on hold.
But it might surprise you to know that even if you’ve never heard of OpenTable.com before, you could still be in its database. If you’ve ever called a restaurant and given your name and phone number, it’s possible that information was being entered into a computer. If the person taking the reservation requested both a first and last name, it’s probable. If they offered to send you an e-mail confirmation of the reservation if you could just leave an e-mail address, it’s a sure thing. Not only is Big Brother watching, he’s also taking your dinner reservation.
Well, maybe it isn’t as dire as that.
Bill and Adrienne Katz think it’s a great system. The Orlando couple discovered OpenTable last year while traveling to New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. A relative in San Francisco, where OpenTable is based, told them about it and they ended up using it to reserve restaurants for their trip, including a last-minute booking at Mustards, a popular Napa Valley restaurant.
When they returned home last year, they found that about a dozen Orlando area restaurants were on the OpenTable system.
Now there are nearly 50 participating restaurants in Central Florida, ranging from Carrino’s Italian trattoria to the elegant Dux at Peabody Orlando. And the number is growing. There are currently 5300 restaurants in 44 states and a few major cities around the world. Last year the company noted an increase of 65 percent in the number of restaurants who signed up for the service. Last month the system seated 1.3 million diners.
Edward Nickell, Peabody’s sommelier and general manager at Dux, is a fan of OpenTable. “I think it’s the most amazing invention ever,” he says. Nickell became a convert while working at Primo, the Italian restaurant at Grande Lakes Resort. “We had it three years,” says Nickell, who became accustomed to the way the software managed the dining room. The manager or host can go into the system, he explains, and assign the waiter stations, keep track of when guests were seated and know approximately when they will be finished – it will alert the host’s station when dessert is served so the manager will know another table is about to open up.
If you told the restaurant it was your anniversary when you made the reservation, click, that little detail goes in the database. Next year, don’t be surprised if the restaurant sends a note inviting you to return for another celebratory visit. Did you order a bottle of champagne? The waiter may ask if you’d like the same vintage this year. Before, all this information had to be noted in the voluminous reservation book, which Dux was still using until a few months ago.
Nickell says he had fallen in love with the computerized system, and when he joined the Peabody a few months ago and “saw that book” his heart sank. Both Dux and Capriccio recently went online.
Gregg Fontecchio, director of food and beverage at the Grand Bohemian, says, “It’s fantastic.” Besides tracking guests and their preferences, he says diners can link to the restaurant’s Web site where they can print recipes for favorite items. Bill Katz says a feature he likes allows him to make a reservation and then e-mail, through OpenTable.com, an invitation to friends to join them for dinner.
The good news for those who value their privacy is that a lot of the personal information is optional. In fact, you can log on to OpenTable.com and use the system without giving an e-mail address. And if you choose to leave an address for the convenience – and proof – of a confirmation, you may specify that you do not wish to receive other e-mails from the restaurant or OpenTable. Even if you say it’s OK, say restaurant owners and officials at OpenTable, the e-mail addresses are never sold to third parties, so there’s no fear of dining-related spam.
And some diners may welcome the opportunity to leave details. Someone with a food allergy can note that in the reservation. But that information is stored only at that restaurant – no data is shared between restaurants, so if you told them at Primo that you break out in hives if you eat scallops, don’t assume they know that if you make an online reservation at Adair’s. And if you ordered a bottle of Taittinger at Dux, don’t expect the sommelier at Emeril’s to know that’s what you like.
As an enticement, customers who register fully with OpenTable can earn credits toward dining certificates that may be used at any of the 5300 restaurants nationwide. Think of them as frequent diner points.
And all of this is free to the consumer; OpenTable makes money from fees paid by participating restaurants. There is an initial setup fee, $1295, according to Ann Sheherd, senior director of consumer marketing from OpenTable. Restaurants also pay a monthly fee of about $200 and $1 per reservation placed online. If a diner calls the restaurant directly, OpenTable is paid about 25 cents per person.
There are other sites that claim to offer reservations online. Dinnerbroker.com shows Dux as one of the restaurants diners may reserve through them, although Dux’s Nickell says he is not aware of DinnerBroker and the restaurant has not received any reservations through it since he has been manager.
According to Shepherd, those sites operate under an allocation system – participating restaurants make a number of tables available for the site to book. But the main difference is that OpenTable is the only online site that is “live.” “It’s real time,” she says, “when you search you’re actually seeing what’s available.” And you can make your reservation any time of the day or night, not just during the restaurant’s business hours when the phones are answered.
One thing you can’t do is see a layout of the restaurant and point and click on a particular table. She says that’s because restaurants frequently pull tables together and change the dining room configuration to accommodate different groups, so any seat you might choose may not exist on the evening you dine.
The system cannot guarantee a table. Emeril’s Restaurant at CityWalk is the most popular local restaurant on OpenTable.com. When I went to the Website and tried to book a table for an upcoming Friday night at 8, I was told no tables were available, which is not surprising. OpenTable offered a chart of other restaurants in the area that had availability at that time, another helpful feature that users like.
But instead of choosing another option, I called Emeril’s directly. Yes, the woman on the phone said, there were tables available at 7, 7:30, 8 and 8:30 p.m. I told her I’d like a table for two at 8, then I gave her the name I use to make reservations.
She asked me if I was still at the same phone number I gave the last time I dined there.