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Antonio’s La Fiamma

Written By Administrator On September 3, 2008

Antonio’s La Fiamma still serves fine Italian food in Maitland

I had the pleasure of speaking to the members of the Meridian Club of Winter Park this noon (noon; meridian, get it?). And it was all the more pleasurable because they meet at Antonio’s La Fiamma in one of the restaurant’s upstairs private dining rooms.
Antonio’s is the restaurant that wasn’t supposed to survive, at least no one in the restaurant community thought it would make it, including me. Greg Gentile built his folly in 1990, taking an old Ponderosa steakhouse and adding a second floor to it. Must have cost millions, everyone whispered. He’ll have to fill every seat at least twice every night of the week to even break even, they (we) sneered.

But Gentile knew what he was doing. On the first floor he installed a deli and market with imported Italian foodstuffs. One of his most brilliant moves was to allow the people dining in the deli to purchase a bottle of wine from the retail store to enjoy with their meal without the restaurant markup. He sold a lot of wine (and he wasn’t giving it away). The deli featured a bakery that made fresh bread — and at the time a lot of locals had never seen bread that didn’t come out of a wrapper.
Upstairs, Gentile created a fine Italian restaurant, complete with honest-to-buono Italian waiters. So in this one building he had something for everyone. And just about everyone liked it. (I didn’t at first, but I came around.)
Today’s luncheon was not from the menu but rather something the kitchen created just for the meeting. It was a pork loin rolled with greens and cheese sitting on a mound of some rather delicious risotto. But even without tasting more from the menu, I could tell the kitchen still has it.

I’m happy to continue to recommend Antonio’s La Fiamma. Gentile’s spinoffs, in Celebration and on Sand Lake Road’s Restaurant Row, go on as well. To get more information on all of them, click here.

The Pit

Written By Administrator On August 28, 2008

The Pit, a neighborhood pub with some interesting grub

You don’t really know what to expect from a place that calls itself The Pit. Or maybe you do. Whatever your preconceived notion, it’s not likely to be lofty. And that’s just fine with this particular Pit, a fun little neighborhood pub with ties to the British Isles.

The Pit is in the strip mall that occupies the corner of Michigan Street and Conway Road in Orlando. It occupies the storefront that was the original location of Conway’s BBQ, but let’s not hold that against them.

The owners are from Wales and England, and they bring the camaraderie that British pubs are famous for to their South Orlando bar.

They don’t really bring the food, although The Pit’s Web site claims the menu is an amalgam of American, South African and British cuisine. I see mostly American, with a heavy emphasis of wings, sandwiches and burgers. In fact it was a particular burger, one called the Dagwood, recommended by a Sentinel reader, that sent me looking for The Pit in the first place.

I’m not sure why it’s called the Dagwood; it has little to do with the sandwich made famous in the Blondie cartoon. This is a basic burger, albeit a good and thick one, made distinct with the addition of a fried egg on top. Interesting, maybe a little gimmicky, but it was a good burger even without the egg, which, by the way, had a hardened yolk so it wasn’t too messy to eat. The Pit crew is obviously trying to outdo the burger at Johnny’s Fillin’ Station farther down Michigan Street. (I haven’t made up my mind yet if they’ve succeeded; let me know what you think.)

I also tried the pork loin sandwich thinking it might be the breaded and fried variety found in the Midwest (the Midwest United States, not the Midwestern British Isles). But this wasn’t that. It also wasn’t a sandwich, really. It featured three slices of roast pork loin, seasoned with plenty of rosemary, laid atop a slice of bread. The meat was tender and the rosemary made it especially tender. And I have to say that for $8.49, which included fries, this was a bargain of a meal, even though the fries in question weren’t very good.

There are a few tables and chairs hugging the wall of the narrow space, but the best seating is in the big comfy stools at the bar. But don’t sit there if you have an aversion to being chatted up by the friendly owners. If you’re the type that hates being made to feel welcome, you’re just not going to like this place at all.

The Pit is in the Mariner’s Village, 4580 E. Michigan St., Orlando. For hours, phone and menu, click here.

Enzo’s on the Lake

Written By Scott Joseph On August 20, 2008

I stopped in for dinner at Enzo’s on the Lake in Longwood the other evening. It was the first time I’d dined there since Enzo Perlini died in October 2006. I hadn’t really expected to see much change. After all, Perlini had pretty much turned over operations to his ex-wife, Joann Ross, after he became ill and, for a time, returned to Rome. She was doing a fine job when I last visited for a review in the Orlando Sentinel in 2005. Here are my latest observations…

Enzo’s is situated in an old converted house on the shores of Lake Fairy. The old house is showing some age, but then aren’t we all. Still, it would benefit from a little sprucing up. (And, again, wouldn’t we all.)

The food is still first-rate, however. My dinner companions and I started with the antipasti, a platter of assorted goodies that our server culled from the table at the back of the main dining room. (Note: you are not allowed to go to the table to collect your own selections; it’s not a buffet.) There were wonderful roasted peppers, olives and tangy cheese.

We followed with an arugula salad — rocket salad, the Italians call it — with a light vinaigrette.

Snapper was the feature of the main course, a slightly soft fillet but nicely grilled and dressed with oil and capers. We also enjoyed a side of pasta in a light cream sauce.

Other favorites remain on the menu. I’ve always been a fan of the bucatini alla Enzo, which features fat, hollow pasta tossed tableside with prosciutto, peas, bacon and mushrooms, all topped off with a sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan cheese. And the costaletta di vitello is about as good a veal chop as you’re likely to find in the town, grilled to perfection and finished with butter and just the slightest waft of truffle essence.

And the abbachio del duca, delicate lamp pops stuffed with siitake mushrooms and fresh herbs, is a real treat.

When dessert rolls around, and if you’re not rolling around too much yourself by then, go for the tiramisu.

Enzo’s has been around a long time now. It’s another testament to the growing sophistication of Central Florida’s diners. When it first opened, locals didn’t understand that what Perlini was serving was authentic Italian fare — most wanted to know where the spaghetti and tomato sauce or manicotti were. (They were in the Americanized chain restaurant down the street.) Slowly, Central Floridians came to embrace true Italian food. Now it can be found in dozens of local Italian restaurants, and many do it quite well.

But few do it as well as Enzo’s did, and still does.

Chatham’s Place

Written By Administrator On August 17, 2008

Chatham’s Place

It had been a while since I’d dined at Chatham’s Place — five years, I think. And that time I was someone else’s guest so I wasn’t officially “working” and I wasn’t paying close attention to what was going on. I do remember the food being quite good, as it always has been in the past.

Chatham’s Place has gone through some changes, and much more than the fact that there are no members of the Chatham family involved in the restaurant. That’s not an issue; Louis Chatham, who served as executive chef, and his mother, Bettye, who ran the dining room in those first years, sold the operation years ago to Chatham’s sous chef, Tony Lopez, the maitre d’, Maurice Colindres, and a hostess, Carol Conwell. The three of them kept it going as strong as ever, perhaps stronger. It was clear that this was an operation of love for the three of them, and they worked together to make it a continued success.

Late in 2006, Carol Conwell died. Lopez and Colindres have kept the place running pretty much the way it has always been run, as a fine dining restaurant with a small but versatile menu served with professionalism and grace in a romantic atmosphere.

Many of the dishes that became signatures back in Louis Chatham’s days remain on the menu, including the Florida black grouper ($34), which has been one of my favorite Central Florida entrees for many years. It features a fresh fillet, thick and white, lightly sauteed and topped with pecan butter and scallions, dusted with just a soupcon of cayenne pepper. The pecan butter places the dish firmly in the south and the pepper points it towards New Orleans. But with the use of Florida black grouper I think we can just claim this one as one of our native dishes, don’t you?

My companon had the rack of lamb ($34), another long-time favorite, this one distinguished only by its high quality meat, pan-roased to a flacid medium-rare, and served with rosemary infused jus.

Appetizers weren’t as stellar as in the past. The lobster bisque ($7/cup) was heavy and with too little lobster flavor. Crabmeat en croute ($19.50) featured a very large puff pastry with jumbo lump crabmeat and shiitake mushrooms dressed in a garlic and Cajun butter sauce. The puff pastry overwhelmed in this case.

Service is still stellar, with Colindres handling the bulk of the dining room duties. It doesn’t appear that much has changed in the decor, which is tastefully elegant with white tablecloths and red napkins in the intimately small dining room. The window into the kitchen, however, has never offered much of a pretty view.

When Conwell died, Colindres told me that it was the intention of the remaining partners to keep the restaurant open in her honor. They’ve done her memory proud. It’s still one of the gems of Restaurant Row, and I hope it will continue to be for many years to come.

Liam Fitzpatrick’s Irish Pub

Written By Administrator On August 16, 2008

Liam Fitzpatrick’s Irish pub in Lake Mary

Liam Fitzpatrick’s is a new Irish pub in Lake Mary’s Colonial Town Park complex, just across from Dexter’s and Amura and almost next door to the restaurant space that has had at least three tenants in just a few short years. Lake Marians, it seems, will not suffer inferior restaurants gladly.

So it will be interesting to see how they accept this new business. On one hand, it’s a beautiful pub, elaborately styled with painstaking details that call to mind a sort of upscale Dublin drinking house.

On the other hand there’s the food.

The menu has all the traditional pub favorites. There’s shepherd’s pie, fish and chips, and, of course, herb-marinated Hawaiian sunfish.

Huh?

I stuck with the shepherd’s pie, a dish that, frankly, one never expects too much from. It’s really quite basic. But this one was particularly disappointing. The meat was meager and the mashed potatoes that topped the soupy gravy were too thin. However, I did like the fresh vegetables that were served on the side. There were zucchinis. yellow squash and carrots, all in big hunks and all al dente.

I also liked the practice of bringing a bowl of thick, kettle-cooked potato chips to the table. It reminded me a little of Gallagher’s in New York.

My server made a couple of missteps, but overall she was good. When a guest left all his change in the check folder, the server returned after picking up the folder to make sure he had meant to leave all that change for a tip. (He hadn’t.) You don’t see too many waiters do that, so kudos to her.

With only a single visit, my assessment of Liam Fitzpatrick’s is that it would be a fine place to go for a pint or three, but they need a little help with the food.

For more information, go to Liam Fitzpatrick’s Web site.