Beefy King, the popular steamed beef sandwichery in the Milk District, is celebrating its 55th anniversary this week. They’ve been the local king a lot longer than King Charles III, who, let’s face it, isn’t all that beefy, either.
The fast-food restaurant opened on Bumby Avenue in 1968 (2023 minus 1968; yep, the math works out) long before the area would become known as the Milk District. It was a franchise location for a chain that eventually went out of business. Freeman and Margaret Smith decided to keep operating the restaurant as they had under the franchise banner. Three generations of the family have turned it into a local landmark.
On Saturday, June 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., all three generations will be at Beefy King, 424 N. Bumby Ave., for a party with cake and cookies and discounted sales of a commemorative t-shirt with a tie-dye design (very nineteen-sixties). The regular menu will be available, of course, but be warned that the drive-through will not be open that day because the space will be used for merch.
The Winter Park Hangry Bison, which is also beefier than King Charles III, is undergoing renovations over the next couple of weeks. It will be closed Monday through Thursday, June 12-15, then back open for the weekend, then closed the following Monday through Thursday again. It will reopen on Friday, June 23 with a whole new look. The Winter Park HB is the original (there’s one in Winter Garden and more on the way) and opened in 2018, so it’s (math, math, math) five years old.
Speaking of Winter Garden, Main House Market, a kombucha bar, is leaving that city and moving into the Market on South space in the Milk District that was recently vacated by Dharma Southern Kitchen and Valhalla Bakery. Main House Market is vegan; so were the previous tenants, so no purifying seances will be necessary. MHM will be adding The Kind Cleaver, a vegan delicatessen, a coffee vendor and Vegan Scoops ice not-cream. Bungalower‘s Brendan O’Connor first reported Main House Market’s move. Dharma and Valhalla have moved to Old Cheney Highway a couple of blocks west of Semoran Boulevard in Orlando.
The Curry Ford West relocated F&D Woodfired Italian Kitchen opens Monday on the corner of Curry Ford Road and Primrose Avenue 15 months after the original closed in the Hourglass neighborhood. The former building, which has been home to numerous restaurants over the past several decades, was vacated because of the imminent redevelopment of the block into a multi-purpose facility. (No construction has yet begun.) The new restaurant has more capacity – 150 seats – including on two spacious upfront covered patios, and more parking, too. It will be the first – there are F&D Woodfired Italian Kitchens in Winter Park and Longwood – to have a full bar.
Later this summer, F&D Restaurant Concepts will rebrand its original restaurant, F&D Kitchen and Bar in Lake Mary, as F+D Prime Modern Steakhouse. I think the use of a plus sign instead of an ampersand means it will be more upscale. Or maybe they’re just math fans. The company also operates F&D Cantina with locations in Lake Mary and Thornton Park.
What’s the F and D stand for? Food and drink, of course.
