Francisco Mendonça, a classically trained chef who was one of the early participants in Orlando’s food truck boom, died Saturday at the age of 57. His wife, Dee, said that Mendonça had been diagnosed with cancer in October.

Known to his friends and customers as chef Chico, Mendonça and his wife founded a food truck in 2012 called Bem Bom that featured the cuisine of his native Portugal. The name comes from a Portuguese response given when someone is asked how the food tastes. It means good good.

Plenty of people agreed and the truck became a local favorite of the then-burgeoning food-truck scene. In 2014 it was featured on the Food Network’s “Eat St.” and it still operates today.

But in 2018, the Mendonças opened a brick and mortar version of the food truck in the Audubon Park neighborhood of Orlando. And it, too, became a hit, earning critical plaudits and a mention in USA Today as one of “10 Best Value Venues in Orlando.”

JW Marriott Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa has announced May 27 for the opening of its new rooftop restaurant and bar, Illume. The venue will offer panoramic views of the surrounding area, including the various nightly Disney fireworks shows.

The ninth-floor space was designed my Street Sense to take full advantage of the views, with glass walls, a 360-degree bar and an outdoor space that is larger than indoor. Illume will feature a sushi bar led by chef Myra Burkle. Heliana Bartlett is the general manager.

Illume joins the JW’s well-received Sear + Sea restaurant. Reservations for Illume are now being accepted at OpenTable.

Tap Room at Dubsdread celebrated its twentieth anniversary Monday by closing. Just for the evening. Owner and operator Steve Gunter and Barbara Teal wanted to celebrate the staff and not make them work – Tim Webber Catering sent over staff – and started the evening off recognizing those who have been on the team the longest, including Erick Ortiz, pictured above with Gunter and Teal, who’s been with Tap Room for the entire 20 years, joining shortly after the restaurant opened. He now is the senior banquet captain.

With this milestone, Tap Room at Dubsdread becomes an official Orlando Classic.

Saffron, the Indian restaurant on Sand Lake Road, is halfway there. It is commemorating 10 years on Restaurant Row. Chef/owner Sunny Corda recently shared his recipe for Goan Prawns Xacutti for a Scott’s Kitchen segment. Even if you don’t want to cook it, watch the video to get an appreciation for the complexities of Indian cuisine.

The owners of two independent restaurants, Pig Floyd’s and Stasio’s Italian Deli, are teaming up to create a new concept called Pigzza. I think I might have named it Pigsio’s or maybe Stasioyd’s. On second thought, that sounds like an uncomfortable medical condition. As you might deduce from the chosen name, though you’d be forgiven if you do not, it will be a pizza restaurant whose specialties will include P.F.’s style of barbacoa. It will be located in a former service station in the Mills 50 district.

Speaking of barbecue, Red Eye’s Git-N-Messy Smokehouse & Tavern announced on its Facebook page that William O’Neal has been named its new chef and pitmaster, replacing Git-N’s founder Chuck Cobb, who was killed in a motorcycle accident last month. Perhaps there was no delicate way of putting it, but the Facebook post wanted people to know that O’Neal has in fact been the sole pitmaster ever since the operation moved from its original gas station location to the Winter Springs tavern. Cobb, it said, had been “pursuing other projects.” O’Neal, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, is expected to add some new items to the menu.