It has been a while since a restaurant has been able to entice me to make the trip to Clermont, but The Southern On 8th finally got me there. And if the level of quality there is any indication of what’s going on in Clermont, I’ll have to go back more often.

As you might glean from the name, Southern on 8th serves a menu of Southern dishes, both traditional and contemporary, and occupies a corner space at West Montrose Street and – you probably can figure this out – 8th Street.

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For the first time since it opened just over eight years ago, Soco, the Thornton Park anchor restaurant “where Southern meets Contemporary,” has a revamped menu. It’s a major redo – chef/partner Greg Richie tells me there are about 20 new items.

I was happy to see one of my favorites, the Soco Style “Chicken and Dumplings,” still on the menu (one of the few original items to remain). But after I was invited to sample many of the added items, I think I’m going to have some new favorites. And many, like the chicken and dumplings before them, capture the very essence of what Soco was meant to be.

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I recently visited The Licking, a Southern/soul food franchise in the Millenia area. I thought I had ordered one thing but received something different. And even that wasn’t what I expected it to be. But I’ll come back to that.

The Licking, out of Miami, bills itself as “Soul Food to the Stars” and lists DJ Khaled as its brand ambassador and co-owner along with Elric “E-Class” Prince, the founder of Poe Boy Records. Most of the seven locations listed on the restaurant’s website are in South Florida although one is in Chicago’s far West Side.

The name is a reference to the action taken upon one’s fingers following the eating of saucy or greasy foods, as in Finger Lickin’ Good, although that’s a phrase that would unleash a certain colonel’s army of attorneys should another restaurant try to use it. The Licking does include a flavor for its chicken called Fingalickin, but I’m not trying to start trouble.

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During February, Scott Joseph’s Orlando Restaurant Guide is featuring restaurants that are Black-owned or that have Black chefs in observance of Black History Month.

The most interesting thing I learned about Seana’s, a Caribbean and soul food restaurant in West Orlando, is that there is no Seana. Owner Joshua Johnson said that it was just “a name I’ve always loved; it just feels like a warm embrace.” That’s a pretty good description of the restaurant itself.

Seana’s occupies a small space in a little strip mall at the corner of Good Homes Road and Colonial Drive. A counter-service operation with the menu hand-written on a white board that also serves as a screen to the kitchen area, Seana’s gained some renown when it was chosen as one of the local restaurants to serve members of the National Basketball Association during its stay in a pandemic “bubble” at Walt Disney World Resort last season.

The teams ate well.

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During February, Scott Joseph’s Orlando Restaurant Guide is featuring restaurants that are Black-owned or that have Black chefs in observance of Black History Month.

Chicken Fire is really misnamed – the Fire ought to have top billing.

Chicken Fire is a restaurant singularly focused on serving Nashville hot chicken, a version of fried chicken that is marinated, breaded, deep fried and then coated in a paste fashioned out of molten lava. And it is wonderfully delicious.

Kwame Boakye began offering his heavenly bit of hell to Central Floridians from a mobile food van. Then, in December, he opened in a storefront location near the corner of Colonial Drive and Bumby Avenue. Such was the popularity of Boakye’s product that the weekend the new restaurant opened the kitchen went through one thousand pounds of chicken.

(It’s also so popular that it has no website and no published phone number. But more on the ordering process in a moment.)

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Let’s get takeout for breakfast. No, having to drive someplace to get the food isn’t as nice as having breakfast in bed. But if the restaurant offers curbside pickup, you don’t have to change out of your pajamas and can hop back in bed when you get home.

Let’s go to Se7en Bites.

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I got takeout recently from the wonderful Nikki’s Place, the southern restaurant on Carter Street, and came to the conclusion that Nikki either needs to decrease the portion sizes or get sturdier takeout containers.

I vote for the latter.

I ordered three meals for curbside pickup because I couldn’t decide on just two. I pulled up to the restaurant and before I could put the car in park someone, properly masked, was coming out the front door with my food in a plastic sack. She placed it in my trunk and I was on my way.

But when I got home, I discovered that the weight of the two dinners on top had crushed the foam clamshell container on the bottom, such was the heft of the food inside. A little gravy had spilled out from the crushed box, but most of it was still intact.

And there was no detriment to the quality of the food, which is as first rate as ever.

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From left, Venoy Rogers III, Stuart Whitfield, Patrick Montana, and Greg Richie in the kitchen at Soco.

Soco, the Thornton Park Southern contemporary restaurant, recently celebrated its fifth anniversary with a collaborative dinner. Chef/partner Greg Richie invited Venoy Rogers III of American Kitchen, Patrick Tramontana of Antonio’s Maitland, and Stuart Whitfield of the Glass Knife to join him in the kitchen, and the result was a special dinner of great food and wine.

And cocktails, too. PJ Smerechansky of the Nomad Lounge in Animal Kingdom offered guests a choice of welcome drinks: Tea Time with Prudence, Sipsmith VJOP Gin, Earl Grey Tea, King’s Ginger Liquor, honey and rosemary; or Bootlegger’s Basil, Basil Hayden Bourbon, fresh blackberry, basil, Angostura Bitters, and orange peel. I managed to taste both of them and decided I liked the Bootlegger’s Basil best, even though I prefer gin to bourbon.

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As I mentioned the other day, Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining restaurant promotion that was to end on Sept. 30 has been extended a week, through Oct. 7. The extension was ostensibly to make up for lost momentum – and revenue – from the threat of hurricane Dorian.

So quick, before Humberto becomes a thing, get out and dine magically some more.

One restaurant you may want to consider is Soco in downtown’s Thornton Park.

I stopped in to try chef Greg Richie’s Magical Dining menu and enjoyed what I tasted.

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Nikki’s Place is back and everything is just as it was before.

Before meaning prior to the fire that forced the business to close in March 2015. After two and a half years — and thanks in part to a $25,500 grant from the city — the family owned restaurant is back serving its homestyle Southern and soul cuisine.

The menu is peppered with such things as Chitterlings, Ox Tails, Pig Tails (or the ears, if you prefer), Turkey Necks, and Pork Neck Bones. You’ll also find less “exotic” Meat Loaf, Fried Pork Chops and Catfish.

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