I took avail of its participation in Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining Month to visit Amatista Cookhouse at Sapphire Falls, the new Loews resort at Universal Orlando.
The hotel’s website says that it “transports guests to a paradise in the heart of the tropics.” But with its austere and cold decor and vast, open dining room, I thought more about the icy Fortress of Solitude from “ Superman” than anything equatorial. (It might be more solitary than than the operators would like, given the low number of guests on the evening I dined.)
The menu is ostensibly Caribbean but the food is presented in a creative and stylistic way.
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Earls Kitchen + Bar opens today at Mall at Millenia. It’s also opening day for Chroma Modern Bar + Kitchen. It’s clear that new restaurants are starting to, um, add up.
I told you about my preview of Chroma last week. I also got a sneak peek along with some other members of the media of the new Earls. I think you’re going to like this place, too.
The Millenia Earls is the first Central Florida location for a long-established, family-owned Canadian restaurant group, though the founder, Leroy Earl Fuller was originally from Montana. (I’m just guessing here, but maybe he moved to Alberta after a presidential election.) I haven’t been able to figure out why the restaurant is called Earls and not Earl’s; perhaps more than one Earl is involved.
Anyway, there are now, as of today, 68 Earlses, including one other Florida location, in Miami’s Dadeland.
Earls took over the space that had been Blue Martini. But if you were familiar with that drinking hole (and I’m not editorializing with that term) you won’t recognize the place.
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Bulla, a gastrobar out of South Florida, is set to open Wednesday, Sept. 28, in the new Lakeside Crossing center in Winter Park.
This is the third Bulla (say BOO-yah), but others are planned. The menu is Spanish and heavy on the tapas selections, though there are a few larger plates, including paella and suckling pig.
I was invited to get a sneak peek at the place. The interior is bright and open and features a large bar in the front and a side dining area just off the main dining room that can be converted into one or two private rooms seating a large group of 50 or two parties of 25.
Regional chef Diego Solano demonstrated one of the restaurant’s signature tapas, Huevos Bulla, which has house-made potato chips, Serrano ham and eggs deep fried in canola oil. It was pretty yummy. Click to hear Solano explain the concept of Bulla.
