What is Stefano’s without Stefano?
Or Marie? Or Antonella and Frank and Lenny?
Stefano’s Trattoria in Winter Springs was sold by the LaCommare family last year. Stefano and his wife, Marie, wanted to retire. Their son, Lenny, and daughter Antonella, and her husband, Frank Paradiso, wanted a smaller place, so they opened Antonella’s Pizzeria in Winter Park.
But Stefano’s went on being Stefano’s, but under the new ownership of F. Alejandro Martinez. It’s very possible that nothing has changed in the decor or the food. In fact, I’m pretty sure nothing has changed in the decor — it’s still a sort of cheesy plaster walls with faux cracks painted in, fake block doorways and elaborate painted murals of Italian coastal scenes that never make you think they’re the real thing.
But now there is no Marie or Antonella to welcome guests. And Stefano won’t come out of the kitchen in his stained apron to walk among the tables and chat with the customers.
Was it the LaCommares who made the food taste a little better?
Looking back at my previous review, from 2006, I pretty much said that.
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It’s nice to see Red Mug Diner open in downtown Orlando, and not just because it replaced a perfectly dreadful restaurant that occupied the same space for a mystifyingly long time.
Red Mug brings an old timey style diner to the area’s urban core. It serves basic hash house type items as well as more chef styled entrees in a polished tile and Formica countered decor. And it is open 24 hours a day every day of the week (though just between you and me, don’t expect that to last very long; I doubt that there’s enough business to sustain that model).
The menu stops just short of being overwhelming. It features a section of egg dishes, another with waffles, then sandwiches, then soups and salads, followed by entrees and desserts. Then there are 14 items listed as sides or small plates.
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