Primo, the Italian restaurant at JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes, has been named a Forbes Travel Guide Recommended Destination, one of only four restaurants listed in the Orlando area. It joins Knife & Spoon, its next-door neighbor and fellow Grande Lakes venue at the Ritz, Capa, the Four Seasons steakhouse, and Victoria & Albert’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian.

Primo, which opened in 2003 as Primo by Melissa Kelly, underwent a complete redesign two years ago and Kelly’s name was dropped. However, the James Beard Award winning chef is still in partnership at the restaurant and will be in town next week for an invitation-only celebration ceremony.

Easter is just a couple of weeks away (March 31, a Sunday, I think) so it’s time to start thinking about where you’ll have Easter Brunch.

Check out the list of restaurants that will be open that day with special menus, including favorites like Four Flamingos, illume, Sear + Sea Woodfire Grill and UnReserved Food Bazaar’s Peter Rabbit Easter Brunch (don’t be alarmed, there will be no lapin on the line). See the full list on our Holiday Dining page.

Our next Scott Joseph’s Dinner Party will be at Tabla in Winter Park Thursday, April 18. We’ll begin with a welcome cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m. and then sit for dinner at 7 o’clock. Tickets are $125 per person including tax and gratuity. Reservations are required and can be made at 407-248-9400.

The dinner will be a sneak peek preview of a new chef’s table menu that Tabla will be rolling out following our event. It elevates Indian cuisine to a fine dining experience. The menu features five courses – each with a wine pairing – plus an amuse bouche and palate cleanser. (See the menu below.)

Mike Trudnak, who was the opening executive chef for the Celeste hotel at UCF and its restaurant, Aurora, but then left last spring to become exec chef at Daytona Grande hotel (taking his executive sous chef, sous chef and other kitchen staff with him) has returned to the Celeste. Trudnak said in a post of Facebook that he returned March 1 – and so have six of his original team members.

Soco Thornton Park is hosting a dinner to commemorate the release of its Wyoming Whiskey single barrel private stock on Monday, March 25. Evening will begin with a cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m. with seated dinner at 7:30. Executive chef/partner Greg Richie has put together a four-course menu with whiskey pairings (see the menu at the bottom of the page). Tickets are $125 plus tax and gratuity and can be obtained through Soco’s OpenTable reservation page.

Turci Panino, the next-door sibling to Turci Pasta on Edgewater Drive in College Park, has introduced happy hours from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with appetizers and glasses of wine or beer starting at $5. There is also something called The Experience, with wine and antipasti for two for $59. Happy, happy, happy.

The Chevys Fresh Mex that moved to Millenia a little over a year ago is virtually up on blocks. The chain restaurant, which is owned by California-based Real Mex Restaurants, Inc., had relocated from its original Central Florida location in Lake Buena Vista, taking over the space that had been Duffy’s Sports Grill, Crave and Village Tavern. Apparently, the only remaining Florida Chevys is in Miami. Real Mex Restaurants is also the parent company of Solita Tacos & Margaritas in the former Wahlburgers space in downtown Orlando.

A Saturday afternoon wine tasting was one of the highlights of the 2024 Orlando Wine Festival & Auction last weekend. Here are some of the sights.

The Drake Kitchen + Bar, from chefs and co-owners Heberto and Rona Segura, officially opened last week at the Radius apartment following a ceremony by mayor Buddy Dyer. You can’t get any more official than having the city’s top official officiating.

I’ll have a full review coming up, but I can tell you that it’s a lovely space with food brought to you from chefs with street cred (the street being wherever they parked their popular food truck). Here’s a link to the website.

The Orlando Wine Festival and Auction, the annual food and wine event benefitting the Orlando magic Youth Foundation, will be March 1 through 3 at its new home, the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort. As in past years, the event begins with a series of dinners in private homes on Friday, each headed by one of the featured chefs, then continues on Saturday afternoon with an outdoors grand tasting paired with foods from those same chefs.

Things move inside at 5 p.m. for the live auction, featuring vacations, winery tours, sporting events and other high-ticket items. Then a sit-down dinner and entertainment. Things wrap up on Sunday with a Magic home game (that’s played at Kia Arena, not at the Four Seasons.

This is where I would normally tell you how much it costs and give you a link to purchase tickets, but there’s no need to do that.

I recently told you about the fabulous new Judson’s Live, an intimate music room at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Most evenings will be filled with music groups and soloists, but on Sundays, plans are in the works for master sommelier George Miliotes to host a wine tasting brunch from the stage. No specific details yet; I’ll let you know. The wine tasting brunches are not intended to offer music. But Miliotes has been in the restaurant business most of his life, so surely he knows how to sing the blues.