Florida Foodie

Central Florida is home to a wide variety of ethnic markets, offering scents and flavors from all around the world. While wandering the aisle of these shops, the variety of snacks could catch your eye and make you wonder, “What could that possibly taste like?” That is the premise behind a new segment on the Florida Foodie podcast. On the first Florida Foodie Taste Test, hosts Candace Campos and Lisa Bell are subjected to a unique chip flavor from overseas by producer Thomas Mates. The grilled-squid-flavored potato chips are an import from Asia. Even though it comes from a familiar company, Lay's, the flavor is anything but common in Central Florida. Campos, Bell and Mates put the flavor to the test — evaluating the smell and the taste with some surprising results. Without giving too much away, the word “armpit” gets thrown around a bit. The trio also talks about their most memorable meal, which includes the story of a harrowing experience from Bell's childhood. You can hear it all in the latest episode of Florida Foodie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jackie Moore hoped that her Winter Park business, Austin's Coffee, would be something she could pass down to her children, but the cafe faces an uncertain future as the city looks to repurpose the land. “This was meant to be an investment in their future,” Moore said. “I just wanted to make sure I left something behind for them because my kids have actually suffered the most in helping be there for a small business.” Moore and her former husband purchased the business along Fairbanks Avenue nearly 20 years ago. She said the former owner had a good concept, but could never quite balance the cafe's ledger. Since taking over, Moore said Austin's has become a hub for the community; however, she added that some people have made assumptions about her clientele. “They think that we're just, you know, a hippie-dippy coffee shop that has a bunch of people just hanging out and playing music and that's it,” she said. “The majority of our clientele is the community that lives in and around Austin's. We get all ages, we get all forms of life, different political backgrounds, different religious backgrounds." Moore takes pride in the fact that some of the artists who spent time in Austin's have gone on to bigger and better things. “We've had a few people that have gone on to America's Got Talent,” she said. “One of the comedians went on to be a writer for Mad TV. We've had somebody go on to be a writer for SNL." Despite this, Austin's currently faces an uncertain future. The city of Winter Park is looking to redevelop the area — a $4 million city project aimed at alleviating traffic congestion on Fairbanks Avenue. The plan involves expanding the road, potentially displacing several small businesses, including Austin's Coffee. Moore said that if her business were to be shuttered and torn down, there is irreplaceable art that would be completely lost. "It sounds weird to hear that there's art in the bathrooms, but there is. The majority of the bricks in the men's bathroom were painted by an artist named Morgan Steele and he has passed away. You know, I can't just move that." According to Moore, unless something changes in the near future, she will be forced to close Austin's once her lease is up later this year. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Moore talks more about building her business and the community she has helped foster there. She also talks more about her struggles to stay open her hopes for a resolution with Winter Park leaders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shara Pathak never planned on owning a brewery, but her “soft heart” led her down this unexpected path. “I owned a building and had a tenant in there that was a microbrewery (Castle Church) and supported them through the infancy of their brand, which was approximately three years,” Pathak said. “In December of 2019, [the brewery's owners] decided that they were going to shelve it. So at that time, I actually was going to put the lock on the door and I was going to give it to a business broker and I the employees reached out to me and it was two weeks before Christmas.” Pathak agreed to let the employees keep the brewery going so they could at least sell off the remaining inventory and collect a paycheck through the holidays. She eventually decided to keep the brewery running. Originally, she was planning to rename it The City Beautiful Brewing, but eventually landed on the name Brewlando. “One of the reasons that I helped that brewery as much as I did was because I really felt like they had exceptional quality beer. You could just taste the difference,“ Pathak said. ”So I just felt like it would be a matter of time, if I helped them along and push them across that eventually they'd be able to forge ahead.” Part of the reason for that, according to Pathak, was because the previous owners had sunk a lot of money into high-end brewing equipment. Despite this, she did not believe she would maintain ownership of the brewery in the long term. “We were going to find another owner-operator and I was going to find another tenant. And in that search, we were introduced to a big conglomerate brand that actually originated from Trinidad, which is where I was born," Pathak said. She ultimately decided that was not the right move; however, the CEO of that company decided to join her team and help her helm Brewlando. “So [James Webb] came on board and built out a great team," Pathak said. Within a year, Webb had made connections with the head of ICON Park and got to talking about opening a new concept at the attraction. “It used to be a hookah bar and so we went in and we completely rented the entire space and decided that we were going to come out with a different concept,” Pathak said. “We thought, why not open a winery and a tasting room?” The Winery & Tasting Room by Brewlando was the first major expansion for the business, but not the last. Shortly after that opened, Pathak learned that Sanford Brewing Company was closing. She thought this could be an opportunity for a quick flip of the property. “Two days later, I got a call and they said, ‘Well, actually, it's not just the building, it's the building's equipment, it's the whole business,‘” Pathak said. She asked Webb to look into it further and see if this was an opportunity for expansion. “James calls me back an hour and a half later and he says, ‘I think that there is good potential in doing this,‘" she said. Her team is now in the process of reopening the two Sanford Brewing locations under the Brewlando name. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Pathak talks more about the future of Brewlando and what she hopes to accomplish with her expanding business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The holidays have arrived, which for many means a family feast is in order. To help everyone create the perfect spread, a pair of Disney chefs are offering their expertise. Executive chef John Prieto and sous chef Anthony Scott work in Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, where they help feed thousands of guests daily. The pair offered tips on proper turkey preparations, from brining your bird to the ideal way to carve and present it. They also talked about sides and their personal family traditions when it comes to the holidays. The chefs are also part of the Disney team that will help feed the needy at Coalition for the Homeless and Harbor House of Central Florida. It is a tradition the park has been taking part in for more than 25 years. You can hear all of their tips and tricks on the latest episode of Florida Foodie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shereece Mitchell-Sanchez has been working tirelessly since 2021 to help feed people living and working in the Pine Hills community. Mitchell-Sanchez runs a weekly food pantry through her nonprofit, Butterfly Lifestyle. Since she started the weekly giveaway, Mitchell-Sanchez has seen the demand for her help grow. “So on a weekly basis, we could do in our like, 300 and up families... we county by families,” she said. “In August, we almost hit 5000 individuals.” Mitchell-Sanchez currently runs the pantry out of Rise Up Church, 4400 N. Powers Drive. She offers food to the community there every Friday. “The line starts at 8 o'clock, even though we start at 11:30 (a.m.),” she said. When Mitchell-Sanchez started handing out food, she was unable to partner with a larger food bank to provide meals. Despite that, she was undeterred and partnered with a church to provide a space for the pantry. “The pastor said, ‘You know what, Second Harvest won't work with us — they have too many partners or something like to that extent — but if you can find food, go for it,'” she said. So, she went about finding the food. Mitchell-Sanchez ended up partnering with restaurants, coffee shops and convenience stores to source her food. It's a laborious practice that she still does today. She drives around Central Florida filling her cargo van with donated food. “I have a few Wawas that I pick up at,” she said. “I've had people in the line come and say, ‘Hey, you know, I come to this pantry because I heard you give out Wawas. ‘” Mitchell-Sanchez has since been able to partner with Second Harvest, allowing her to provide more fresh fruits and vegetables for the people she serves. “Thursday is the big day when we go to Second Harvest. I rent a truck,” she said. “I will get maybe, like, a 15-footer, and then use my van, you know, and then we distribute food that way.” Mitchell-Sanchez has accomplished all of this with a completely volunteer workforce. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, she talks more about her efforts to feed the community and the other services she provides. She also shares times when her ambitions to help people in need exceeded even her own expectations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cows ‘N Cabs has raised more than $2 million for Central Florida charities since it got its start in 2011. The event was co-founded by David Larue, Executive Vice President at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, and John Rivers, the owner of 4 Rivers restaurant group. “My wife and I were talking about how to use, like my ABC platform, because we have so many great contacts and the liquor business, and we've raised so much money for other things — but how to create something on our own? So we figured out, actually saw something on the Food Network called Pigs ‘N Pinot. I'm like, ‘Well, that is really cool,'” Larue said. Larue had drinks covered, but he did not have the restaurant contacts he would need for the event. That's when he was able to pull on Rivers and his vast network in Central Florida's dining scene. The pair wanted this event to be different from a typical charity event, more casual. “We decided, let's, let's try to figure out if you are the person walking into an event and you're by yourself. Would you have a great time being there for four hours by yourself? And so we kind of started with that mentality,” Larue said. They settled on a Western theme, which the regular attendees have embraced. “We got a guy that comes with, like, an inflatable cow costume. A lot of people just with cowboy hats, which we've actually given away a bunch of cowboy hats the last couple of years through one of our supplier partners. They've given away like, 700 hats,” Larue said. Amid the sea of cowboy hats, chefs from 38 restaurants will be offering up bites and snacks to the hungry attendees. “I would say 25 of the restaurants are coming back because they just love it so much and then we've got a couple of new ones,” Larue said. The participating restaurants include Kaya, Hawkers, The Monroe, Otto's High Dive, Bar Kada and Black Rooster Taqueria, among others. Of course, the food may draw people in, but the charities helped by the event are the star of the show. “It's so much fun just to be able to make that list (of charities) and, more importantly, deliver the checks,” Larue said. The charities helped by the event include 4 Roots Farm, After-School All-Stars, Central Florida Diaper Bank and Harbor House. Cows ‘n Cabs is set to take place in Winter Park on Nov. 9. Tickets are available now. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Larue talks more about the growth of Cow ‘n Cabs and its expansion with a new event, Burgers.Bubbles.Beer, which is taking place on Nov. 7. He also shares the family history behind ABC Fine Wine & Spirits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Collantes started his culinary career inside Orlando's Fashion Square Mall, but he now counts himself among the exclusive ranks of Michelin-starred chefs. Collantes earned his Michelin Star in 2022 for his omakase restaurant Soseki in Winter Park. “After the Michelin Star, we're seeing international clientele and guests, as well as our local guests, but really put us on the map for what we've been doing here in Winter Park,” he said. The same year he won his Michelin Star, Collantes closed his first restaurant Taglish, a fast-casual Filipino concept that had three locations at its height. “As we got busier with the fine dining restaurants and other restaurants, our lease came up, and we decided to close that venture down, never to really open it again,” Collantes said. However, with the success of his fine dining restaurant, Collantes has had the ability to open several other restaurants around the greater Orlando area, including Sushi Saint, which was awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin. The award highlights high-quality food at reasonable prices. “Last year, November, we opened up our doors (to Sushi Saint),” he said. “There (was) no hand-rolled temaki bar in town. So it's a different way to eat sushi, utilizing still the same quality that we do at our fine dining and just making it a little bit more casual.” In addition to Soseki and Sushi Saint, Collantes is rapidly expanding his culinary empire. He recently opened a sake speakeasy, Bar Kada, next to Soseki. He is also planning to reopen Taglish inside the food hall that used to be The Hall on the Yard, which is now under new ownership. “Taglish is Tagalog in English — so good representation of not just traditional Filipino food. It's really the upbringing of everyone who's migrated to America and I would say it was my connecting point back to my culture, which, you know, I grew up here in the States,” Collantes said. Collantes also plans to open a French restaurant there as well, Chez Les Copain. The chef said it is something the area is lacking in. “We saw a big decline in French restaurants (in Orlando) in the past couple years. A lot of them have just closed up shop,” he said. In addition to all of his work in Orlando, Collantes is starting to work on some international ventures. “I've been doing consulting for the past year, year and a half, with other brands, and it brought me to this new concept called Kaimana, which will be opening this fall in Dubai,” he said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Collantes talks more about the opportunities he's gotten since earning a Michelin Star. He also talks about the struggles that many restaurants are dealing with now as costs rise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amid the pandemic and Orlando's ongoing growth and development, Jason Lambert has been striving to keep his businesses running while also being a force for good in the community. “So 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic and trying to survive through the pandemic, I thought were the roughest years we'd ever have to face,” Lambert said. “And then we got into 2023 and we were finally stable, and kind of had gotten caught back up from that two years of craziness and then in October of 2023 is when all the construction started in Ivanhoe Village, and it has just been just detrimental to the whole neighborhood.” Ivanhoe Village, the historic community where the Hammered Lamb sits, has seen substantial growth since the restaurant first opened in 2013. That growth has led to the need for improvements to the area's sewer system. Those improvements have caused issues with parking and navigating the area, keeping potential customers away. “There's been so much construction there, and it's always moving around, that people are just over even trying to — just avoiding the area, because they don't know how to get in to support local businesses,” Lambert said. The problem has gotten so bad that Lambert recently held a fundraiser to help keep his first restaurant, The Hammered Lamb, open. “In 2023 we were having a record year — busiest year we would ever had, setting monthly records — and then the construction started, and now we're down anywhere from 30% to 50% a week from where we were last year,” he said. The problems at The Hammered Lamb are starting to affect his other business, Jack & Honey's in Thornton Park. “We are now closed at Jack & Honey's on Mondays and Tuesdays, and we're closed at Hammered Lamb on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which were just our slower days,” he said. “We're hoping that it's temporary and it could just kind of help us, but those days we just — we weren't making even enough money to pay the people that were there, so it was just costing us money to be open.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Lambert shares more of his experiences in trying to keep his businesses running. He also talks about his activism and how he likes to use his businesses to support the community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yao's Modern Kitchen is all about family. The restaurant is run by three siblings, George, Edward and Diane Yiu, along with their friends and past Florida Foodie guests Chris Chen and Phil Nguyen. The siblings grew up in Central Florida and wanted to combine their traditional family recipes with the flavors of the Sunshine State. “All of our family recipes — like our dumplings, our fried rice — and then also an integration of, like Central Florida's big Spanish influence. So this, these dishes are in a marriage of both of them,” said George Yiu, who also serves as chef for the restaurant. Yao's had been operating as a pop-up for a few years, but it recently opened a brick-and-mortar shop in Oviedo, 15 Alafaya Woods Blvd. “Like any business, there are its own obstacles; however, Oviedo has been so welcoming,” Edward Yiu said. “We've been received with open arms, and they can feel the authenticity that we bring.” The siblings said they saw Oviedo as an opportunity for their business. “Oviedo is a thriving community, one that we felt lacked a lot of staple, family-owned restaurants. There are a lot of corporate restaurants out there, but with that, you know, becomes kind of the monotony of it. So we're bringing something more refreshing that's awesome,” Edward Yiu said. While George Yiu runs the kitchen, Edward Yiu serves as general manager and Diane Yiu is “everywhere, all at the same time,” according to the brothers. The trio have also pulled their significant others in to help with the restaurant. Even their mom helps out in the kitchen, making dumplings and folding wontons. “This really is a family operation. You know, it's a lot of work, but we love what we do,” George Yiu said. The siblings grew up around restaurants, with their grandparents running businesses in New York and their mother opening kitchens after her move to Central Florida. Of course, they also have a lot of help from their college friends, Chen and Nguyen. “We were just hanging out Christian, Phil and I... we were mentioning on a concept (my siblings and I) were thinking of,” Edward Yiu said. “Couple years flew by, and then it really got serious. They became more interested that we really wanted to hone in and chase our dreams.” The siblings said Chen and Nguyen's experience with Viet-Nomz has been invaluable to them. “It was pivotal, for sure. I think without them, we couldn't be this far in, I would say,” George Yiu said. The restaurant is currently in its soft opening. The grand opening is set for Sept. 10. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, George and Edward Yiu share more of their family's history in the restaurant industry. They also share some of their favorite dishes with Candace Campos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glen Providence wears many hats as the leader of a nonprofit, the publisher of a small newspaper and the owner of his own ice cream company. In his day job, Providence is the head of Hebni Nutrition — an organization that offers help to underserved communities, giving them access to and education about nutritious meals. In his entrepreneurial endeavors, Providence is spreading joy with Smile Ice Cream Company. “It was a passion project,” he said. “I wanted to do something food related and ice cream popped into my head.” Providence had made some ice cream as a kid and he wanted to recapture some of that nostalgia. “There was a magic moment when you're with your kids, you're with your family, you're out and you say, ‘You know what, let's go get some ice cream,'” he said. “And in that moment, when you get there, it's a feel-good moment.” Providence “went to ice cream school' to hone his craft, but the equipment he needed to produce ice cream on a commercial level was a little out of his price range. “God is good. About a month later — when you graduate from the course you get enrolled into an ice cream Facebook group, and someone was selling one of these machines — again, brand new $15,000 — he was selling for $6,000,” he said. Providence then took a road trip to South Carolina to pick up the machine. “I left at two o'clock in the morning — didn't tell a soul because people (would say) ‘You're crazy,'” he said. “Drove up, picked up that machine, was back in Orlando at 6 p.m. that evening and that was the beginning of the ice cream journey.” Providence then spent 2019 perfecting his flavors. Through the pandemic, he would provide catering orders with Smile, offering single-serving containers for events. “I was doing great. I really was not looking for a location. I wasn't actively looking but I knew when the right opportunity presented itself I would know,” he said. “I was doing all these ice cream catering and people always ask me, ‘Where can I buy this?' I didn't have an answer.” Eventually, the opportunity presented itself. A friend working in real estate had an opening at a shopping center near the intersection of Fairbanks Avenue and Edgewater Drive in Orlando. “I went back and it was like, ‘This is it. I can make you go at it,'” he said. Smile Ice Cream Company opened its brick-and-mortar location on May 3. “Everything is made right in-house. It's not being trucked in from a factory, you know, and it's great. I love the connection to the community,” he said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Providence shares some of his favorite flavors with Candace Campos and Lisa Bell. He also talks more about his work with Hebni and his paper, The Midtown Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marie Mercado had no plans of becoming a “professional ice cream lady.” She had her sights set on the stage. “I wanted to be an opera singer,” Mercado said. “I did perform. I did shows in New York. I moved to Japan, I did a couple of performances there. I was there for a year and then I was going to move to Germany, but then I'm like, ‘OK, let me pay down some student loans. Let me figure out my life, get everything settled, get everything squared away before I move.'” That decision brought the South Florida native to Orlando. Mercado said she met her partner in the City Beautiful, who introduced her to the idea of running her own business. “When you're a musician you work 90% of your time alone, right, actually. So I like the idea of building my own community,” she said. Mercado looked to her childhood when she decided to start her own business. Growing up in South Florida, she said her neighbors would give her family a glut of mangos every year. “My dad one day was like, ‘Hey, why don't we turn this into ice cream so we can enjoy this for a couple more months instead of trying to eat this all in one day,'” she said. Mercado said she was always dabbling in the kitchen as a child, so her parents thought making ice cream would be a perfect fit for her. “I started my career as an ice cream lady at 7 years old,” she said. This ultimately led her to open the Greenery Creamery in downtown Orlando in 2018. “I consider myself a professional ice cream lady and I have a very important job,” she said. “I have to provide ice cream options for people in the community.” Mercado takes the job seriously. She tries to make sure that everyone can have something in her ice cream shops — offering vegan and allergen-friendly options. “People don't realize consciously that ice cream is a way to create core memories. So people don't think ‘Oh, it's baby's first steak.' They think, ‘Baby's first ice cream,'” she said. Greenery Creamery offers a wide variety of flavors, some familiar and some that are a little more outside the box of traditional ice cream. In 2023, Mercado took her passion for ice cream in a different direction. She opened Sampaguita in Orlando's Mills 50 District. “I say Greenery Creamery is a journey of self-expression and Sampaguita to is an exploration of self-identity,” Mercado said. Sampaguita is focused on offering Filipino-American-inspired flavors, a nod to Mercado's Filipino-American heritage. Sampaguita is the Filipino name for the Jasmine flower, which is also the national flower of the Philippines. “Jasmine flower means love and purity, guidance and truth and so it just has so many layers to it. So I said, ‘Yes, this is the name that fits everything,'” Mercado said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Mercado shares more of her journey from opera to ice cream. She also talks about some of her experiments with ice cream flavors and shares some frozen treats with Candace Campos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Webber and Steve Nichols did not originally plan on becoming moonshiners. The pair saw it as an opportunity when Florida decided to relax some of its craft distilling laws. “Florida changed their craft distilling laws in 2020 and relaxed them a little bit more in 2022 to match those of Tennessee,” Webber said. “Today, there's a very popular 13 Moonshine craft distilleries in a five-mile stretch in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. In 2002, there were none. (Tennessee) changed (its) craft distilling laws to allow craft distilling in a public place like Orlando Vineland Premium Outlet Mall, just like Florida did, and we wanted to be on the front end of telling the story.” The pair decided to call the business Caribbean Moonshine as a nod to history. “Moonshining was actually born in the Caribbean and was way popular for centuries before it was ever done up in the hills of Tennessee and Kentucky,” Webber said. Of course, the pair had a lot to learn before they could set up shop. They managed to find an expert from Tennessee to teach them the trade. “Steve had a friend that introduced us to a shiner up in Tennessee called Shine Girl. Her name is Danielle Parton. She's actually Dolly Parton's niece,” Webber said. That was their foot in the door. The pair wanted to take the process back to its roots, using cane sugar in the fermenting process. “We use Florida cane sugar, and we distill that to 185 proof,” Webber said. “Then we go to a distillery that has access to the Zephyrhills Springs in New Port Richey, and we blend our 185 proof with Zephyrhills Spring water, which is smooth and ultra-purified, we'll add more Florida cane sugar in the flavoring to flavor it.” The flavors are nods to the Caribbean and Florida, including banana, coconut, marmalade and peanut butter and chocolate, which is their No. 1 seller. Caribbean Moonshine opened its doors in the Orlando Vineland Premium Outlet Mall, right in the heart of Orange County's tourist district. This has allowed them to have people from all over the world taste their product. “A lady come in and she says I'm from Barbados, and I want to try the rum,” Nichols said. “So she tried our flavor. She said, ‘This is amazing.' She called her husband over. Well, her husband's a rap artist named Etcetera and he come over after a long day at Disney with the kids and he was tired. He didn't want to move but he did and when he come over here, he was blown away. So much so that he invited Mike and me out to the Grammys for the release of his album, Sagittarius.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Webber and Nichols share more of their story about opening their distillery. They also talk about tours of the distillery and mixology classes offered there, along with some of the products they still have in the works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Edward Colón has been working in his parent's business, Melao Bakery, since they first opened it in 2008, shortly after moving to Kissimmee from Puerto Rico. “The first years, we slept inside the store,” Colón said. “We had those foldable beds. We folded the beds, we put them in storage and we opened up.” Colón was in his teens at the time and his younger brother had just been born, adding to the challenge of churning out authentic Puerto Rican cuisine daily. “I did a lot of (making) bread while I was trying to finish school and college,” he said. “So I was making bread and I would go to college and then come back and forth. So it was not easy.” The family started renting a small building on a quiet road in Kissimmee. “We struggled,” Colón said. “There was no Spanish places around at that point — not like now, obviously. We knew we had a great product at that point, So, we took the risk.” The gamble ended up paying off for the family. They now own the building they first opened in and have a second just outside of Orlando. The family also employs more than 150 people. Despite the success they have seen, the family still puts many hours on the business. “I work basically seven days a week,” Colón said. We work around the clock. It's an everyday thing. I got employees that come in at three in the morning. And I have employees that get out at (midnight).” That dedication has turned Melao Bakery into a destination spot within the Kissimmee community. “Most people come straight from the airport,” Colón said. “People get there and get to eat every type of food that you find in Puerto Rico.” Colón said the goal was always to give people a feel and taste of the island territory, but making it accessible to everyone. “We don't just have Puerto Rican clients, obviously, we have all kinds of clients — specifically in the Kissimmee store,” he said. The bakery is located just outside of Heritage Park. Many people stop by after various activities at the park or the Silver Spurs arena. The family is now looking to expand their business and get their products into more places. “We're working on mass production,” Colón said. “We're growing our kitchen area, and our bakery area — everything's, gonna be double of what it was.” He added that the family wants to make sure they can maintain the same quality as they increase the quantity of their product. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Colón shares more of his family's story and the challenges they faced. He also gave Lisa Bell a sample of some of the delicious food available at Melao Bakery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Hackett has spent most of his professional career working in resorts across the country and around the world, but he said Caribe Royal Orlando is his “home.” “I'm staying there. I mean, I love the property. I love the culture that we have there,” he said. Hackett has been at the boutique resort for about four years now. Before that, he had done stints at resorts such as the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Trump National Doral in Miami and even spent a few years working at a resort in Dubai, among other locations. In all, Hackett said he has been an executive chef at various resorts for about 25 years. Of course, his culinary career started well before that. “I started the business when I was 12 — at a ripe young age just by pure accident,” he said. His brother was supposed to go into a restaurant for a job interview, but couldn't make it due to a broken ankle. So his mom offered up his services instead. “I went and washed bar glasses on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at the age of 12. You know, shagging ice and booze and things like that,” Hackett said. Despite his early exposure, Hackett said he really wanted to be an architect when he was younger. “Then I realized, ‘Wow, food as so many different mediums besides pen and paper. Why not go be a chef?” he said. His first exposure to working at a resort was at Walt Disney World. “Disney was — it was a great opportunity for me especially to open MGM Studios,” Hackett said. “When I got there in ‘88, Disney was strong in their culinary program.” The “great opportunity” led Hackett down a path that eventually led to Caribe Royal. As the executive chef of Caribe Royal, Hackett is in charge of eight different dining options at the resort, including a brand-new, two-story sports bar, Stadium Club. Hackett said he tries to make sure each dining option is unique. “We don't like menu bleed. So granted a burger we have to have in a couple different areas,” he said. “But it's all about what's on the burger.” Hackett said he prefers to buy his ingredients from Central Florida farmers and producers whenever possible. “I think great food comes with a great start — a great product to work with — then we do minimal to it,” he said. “I think a lot of chefs have lost their way where they're trying to do so much to food. I think that food needs to speak for itself, you know, salt and pepper, basic preparation to kind of bring you back to how we all grew up.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Hackett shares some of the challenges of managing all of the venues at the resort. He also shares more of his travels in the industry, as well as a bounty of food for Candace Campos and Lisa Bell to sample. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tina Aldrich is a Florida native who chose to live in Montverde and open her business there because she knew it would keep its small-town charm. “When our daughter went to college, we went ahead and moved to our cabin in North Carolina,” she said. “Then when we moved back, I'm like, ‘I want to move back to a place where the footprint will not change,' and this little burb is not going to change. It's going to change all around us and has — I mean Hancock (Road) was not even a road when we moved up to North Carolina, you know? So that's what made us decide to come back here to Montverde.” Before moving back from North Carolina, Aldrich had the opportunity to work in a fudge and candy shop, learning the ins and outs of the business. She admits it was not a great passion of hers, but when she moved back to Montverde she noticed something was missing in the community. “I'm like, ‘The only thing we don't have is sweets. We don't have sweets. So let's do ice cream and candy — that'd be fun,'” she said. This revelation led her to open Orange Blossom Candies & Cream. Though she was a novice to the candy business, Aldrich had run other businesses in the past including a long-time florist shop in Winter Garden. “I am just an entrepreneur, and obviously my personality is kind of very outgoing and so I just I don't like to give up,” she said. As it turned out, she would need that stick-to-it-iveness as she wound up having to open her business right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Anybody who's ever started a business knows that you don't, you don't start the business two weeks before you open. It's like months before,” Aldrich said. “So once you're already doing that, and then the pandemic hits, you're like, ‘Huh, you know, what? Worst (thing) that happens is that window is going to become a new window where I can serve out of the window and all of this that won't last forever and at some point, we will open' but we never did have to do that. We were able to put our lines and everybody wore masks, and we got through it.” Now, roughly four years later, her business is a thriving community staple. The shop is near Montverde Academy and has become a lunch hot spot for the student there. “So the kids coming in her always like ‘Miss Tina, Miss Tina,' (and) everybody gives me hugs,” Aldrich said. On the latest Florida Foodie, Aldrich shares what it was like for her growing up in Florida and growing her family in Montverde. She also shares some of her confections with Candace Campos and Lisa Bell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Willie's Bar-B-Que has only been a part of Montverde for six years, but it has become a fixture in the small community. Willie Fulmore and his daughter, Tomeka Fulmore-Smith, have spent their lives working with food. Willie Fulmore opened his barbecue restaurant nearly 30 years ago, first setting up shop in Winter Garden. “When I was stationed in Leesburg and there was a gentleman on Pine Street (with a business) by the name of Jim's Barbecue Place and every weekend, everybody at the facility would go there and I would go there,” Willie Fulmore said. “So I said, ‘You know, that would be a neat little business,' because he was open two days a week. I said, ‘Can't get any better than that. A guy can work two days a week and he can make a living.'” At that time, he and his daughter worked as food safety inspectors for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Willie Fulmore worked with factories dealing in processed foods while his daughter worked with commodities and fresh produce. He opened his restaurant, having people help him run it. “I would get promoted on the job and then I would lease it out to a group of people and then they wouldn't do so well and I'd have to come back and get it boosted up again,” he said. That pattern persisted until he and Tomeka Fulmore-Smith both retired allowing them to run the business together. The pair sold their property in Winter Garden to Matthew's Hope and moved the business to Montverde about six years ago. “I love Montverde. I call Montverde ‘Mayberry,'” Willie Fulmore said. “It's a quiet, cool little place. I like Montverde. It fits me.” “They've been very welcoming. The community is absolutely amazing,” Tomeka Fulmore-Smith added. “It's such a beautiful, beautiful community.” Willie Fulmore brings a lot of expertise to his craft. He grew up in South Carolina, where his family regularly barbecued. He also made friend's with the owner of Jim's Barbecue Place. “I went and I worked free the whole summer for the guy, you know, as a friend,” he said. “So he kind of showed me a lot of tips and I what I learned from my dad and the other guys — I put it all together.” Those tips have paid off. The father-daughter duo said they have had people coming from miles for their food. There have been quite a few people who love taking road trips, and they would literally travel just to try barbecue,” Tomeka Fulmore-Smith said. “We've had people come up (from South Florida). They drove up for the day — ‘Yeah, we're from Miami. We heard about you, we read your reviews.'” Willie Fulmore believes the restaurant only being open two days a week adds to the hype. “People always want what they can't get enough of,” he said. Though he likes to brag about only working two days a week, Willie Fulmore is a busy guy. He is also a minister and works with the homeless. “I preach at the men's homeless shelter. I've been doing that for the last 12, 15 years and I'm really involved with that,” he said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, the pair share their entire menu with Candace Campos and Lisa Bell. Willie Fulmore also shares what sets his barbecue apart and why it takes some special skill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chef Delaño Lambertclare has dedicated nearly two decades to helping seniors across Seminole County get nutritious meals for free. “I worked at the Swan and Dolphin for two and a half years and I wanted to shift and change (away from) corporate life,” Lambertclare said. After leaving the Disney resort, the chef came to Meals of Wheels of Seminole County. “I saw this kitchen and the possibilities and I started here under just Meals on Wheels and then started the catering division about a year and a half, two years after I took over here,” he said. That was the start of Top Hat Catering. The catering service covers everything from weddings to corporate events, with the money feeding back into Meals on Wheels. “Basically, when I do my price on a catering event, I want to bring at least 40% back return. So that goes back to Meals on Wheels,” Lambertclare said. Lambertclare also offers cooking classes at the Meals on Wheels kitchen and private classes in people's homes. “Sometimes we'll have wine — you can sit back and I'll have everybody dig their hands in and get dirty and have a good time,” he said. The money generated from the catering and cooking classes helps Lambertclare and his staff churn out 2,000 to 3,000 meals daily. The program is primarily for seniors but it also serves schools and daycares. “Kids are very picky, but you have to put some things on (on the menu) — put chicken nuggets you put hamburgers on there — but then also balance it with like things you cook from scratch,” he said. “You give them chicken fried rice, but like you do in a healthy way with brown rice and things like that. So you kind of trick them.” Lambertclare said he changes his menu monthly as different seasonal ingredients become available. He added that he enjoys getting feedback from his clients. “I don't want them throwing the food away. I want them to actually eat,” he said. “So I'm always testing them out — see if they'll eat more kale or eat quinoa and things like that.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Lambertclare talks through all of the services Top Hat Catering offers. He also shows Lisa Bell how to make two of his signature appetizers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wilson Santos has been thinking about opening a French fry-centric restaurant for years. “This concept is like decades in the making,” Santos said. “To be honest, I went to Amsterdam, the first trip was in 1994. I was doing a study abroad program in England and on the weekends, I would try to take a trip around Europe. And I just took a trip with some friends that I met in England, went to Amsterdam and I saw these fries.” The fry shops became a common snack for Santos during his visits. “I just thought, ‘Why don't we have this in the U.S.?'” Santos said. He got his first chance to try the concept when his first restaurant concept, Vinyl Arts Bar was undergoing a rebranding during COVID. Vinyl Cafe served as Santos interpretation of an Amsterdam coffee bar, but instead of marijuana, he offered hemp. He also offered fries. “So I put about six different sauces on the menu, I did the cone fries, and then you have the hemp,” Santis said. “Now people are smoking hemp They're eating the fries and they get the whole Amsterdam experience.” Santos sold the space about six months later. That was in 2020. In March, he was finally able to open The Fry Shoppe at 489 N. Semoran Blvd. “We're a few blocks up from Full Sail University — just light up from University Boulevard to Aloma (Avenue) so we're right on the corner of Semoran Boulevard and Aloma (Avenue) — really high-traffic intersection for us,” Santos said. The business owner truly believes in the concept and is taking a big gamble on himself to get The Fry Shoppe up and running. “I was looking for investors for a long time, I had presentations and meetings and nobody wanted to invest. Nobody believed in it. You know, people said I was asking too much,” Santos said. “I'm glad I didn't get any investors at the end of the day. It would have been a mistake. So things happen for a reason. I ended up — I couldn't get funding for it and I didn't have the money. I just — I'm a risk taker, I sold my house.” Santos is now renting a place near his restaurant. He believes the concept is ripe for a franchise. “I'm not gonna stop until we have multiple locations. I'm persistent,” Santos said. He believes The Fry Shoppe could find itself in mall food courts, food halls, or at airports. However, he needs to get this original location firing on all cylinders first. I know that in the next month, we'll be at 100%. We have to add delivery — so we have to add DoorDash UberEATS are the two big ones. We haven't even marketed heavily to the student population right down the street at Full Sail They have over 20,000 students. This is affordable food for students,” said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Santos talked more about his trips to Amsterdam that inspired his restaurant. He also gives Candace Campos a rundown on his most popular sauces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pandemic was a trying time for people across the food service industry, but Jay and Johnny Nartowicz and their partner Colton O'Dwyer ended up opening the right business at the exact right time. They opened Ghost Kitchen Orlando in February 2020, just weeks before COVID-era restrictions started taking effect. “It was very strange timing because it was almost like we were building this business just for COVID because all the restaurants were shutting down,” Johnny Nartowicz said. We were planning the idea back in October of 2019. So, yeah, four or five months later COVID hit — all the restaurants shut down and we were planning this delivery pickup-only restaurant for five months.” Ghost Kitchen Orlando went on to be a success during the pandemic, especially with its heat-and-eat meals, but as the world began to reopen their lunch and catering business became the focus. Because of that, the team decided to expand into a brick-and-mortar location. The first Bricks & Bowls location opened in the Mall at Millenia in 2022. “The way people are eating is changing and there's a lot of really bad processed food out there,” Jay Nartowicz said. “And so we want it to be wholesome, nutritious — we don't want to come across as super healthy. We have a really good balance. We have a lot of superfoods and then we have a lot of indulgent foods and wholesome foods.” The restaurant offers sandwiches served on focaccia bread along with a variety of bowls featuring proteins, grains and vegetables. The Millenia location has served as a testing ground for the concept and now it is going to expand. “We had to go from pickup and delivery only to now having a full storefront with staff interacting with customers,” Johnny Nartowicz said. “It's completely different. So it's definitely been a learning curve but we feel it's been (a) proof of concept over the past two years and we've really kind of nailed it and are excited to open this new store in Winter Park.” For Johnny Nartowicz and O'Dwyer, opening a store in Winter Park is something of a homecoming, as the pair met while attending Rollins College. “Winter Park is cool for us because where we're opening is like 100 feet from where we graduated,” O'Dwyer said. “We're going to have a couple exclusive offerings. We're going to have focaccia pizza, which is baked actually using our focaccia bread, and we're gonna have beer and wine, as well as some seltzers and things like that.” The new restaurant is set to open at 331 S. Park Ave. by the end of April, no official opening date has been set. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, the trio talked about their plans to expand their businesses further. They also share their favorite sandwiches with Lisa Bell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christina Hollerbach is carrying on her parents' life-long dream. “My parents always wanted to run their own restaurant and obviously my dad, being from Germany, wanted it to be a German restaurant,” she said. That dream became a reality in 2001, when her parents bought Willow Tree Cafe. The restaurant was tiny then but has since ballooned with the success of the business. “They actually bought the restaurant with 60 seats and six employees for $60,000,” Hollerbach said. “And of course, since then, we now have about 160 employees and see almost 10,000 guests a week between all of our businesses.” Hollerbach's German Restaurant has since taken over a large portion of the building it sits in. The family has also expanded to have a market, selling baked goods and imported meats, and an outfitter full of authentic German costumes and outfits. In the more than 20 years since the restaurant first opened, Hollerbach has taken the reins of the business as its CEO. Hollerbach said the businesses are selling more than just food. They are selling a feeling of warmth and friendliness expressed best by the German word gemütlichkeit. “That's what we're trying to achieve all the time for these guests,” she said. “It's why people like to celebrate special occasions here because you get that energy and like yes, the food is a huge part of it because it adds to that experience, but it is just one part of it.” Part of that effort to provide a cozy experience is by offering something for everyone, including its main restaurant which mimics a German beer hall with live music, a lodge for more of a bar atmosphere and the upstairs restaurant, Uber Keller, which offers a more laid back experience and serves German tapas. Hollerback feels as though the restaurant has helped to drive some change in Sanford — helping to take it from a sleepy suburb to a destination. “I would definitely consider us as a catalyst of making people believe that Sanford had a nightlife and a future because, you know, (the restaurant) was lunch only and we used to open for dinner on just Fridays and Saturdays and we would have like 10 covers. Now, there's a line out the door,” she said. Hollerbach is very active in the community as well. She is an advocate for the city and works closely with the Sanford Main Street organization to push for improvements in the city. “I can still pause and appreciate and be grateful for what is happening right now while still simultaneously going ‘Alright, well, we got to fix this,” she said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Hollerbach shares more of her family's history and how it is woven into the fabric of the restaurant. She also shares some of the food that can be found there with Lisa Bell and Candace Campos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chef Jill Holland found her path later in life when she went into culinary school at age 36. “It took a lot of soul searching to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up and now I just need to grow up,” Holland said. Holland worked in retail, real estate and was even a swim instructor for several years, but she found a love for cooking when she went to a birthday party. “I went to a friend's birthday party who was doing like an in-home cooking class and it just really intrigued me,” she said. “A couple of weeks later, her sister had a birthday party with the same person and I, of course, went back and I'm like, ‘I think I could do this. Yeah, I think I could do this but I'm gonna need a lot more information.' So I went back to college and graduated from Valencia in 2011.” From there, Holland worked in several kitchens, but she found her true calling when she became an instructor with Second Harvest's Culinary Training Program. “Second Harvest actually started a catering company,” Holland said. “I came on to Second Harvest as a part-time instructor and six months later, I took over the position as head chef (of catering).” The company, now called Plate Above Catering, offers full-service catering for large and small events with all of the proceeds going back to funding the culinary training program. Second Harvest said it costs about $7,000 to put a student through its intensive training program. The proceeds from Plate Above help to keep the classes completely free for those students. “(It) is an amazing program — building up adults who have some sort of hardship in their background,” Holland said. “It could be as — and I use this term very loosely — it could be as simple as being underemployed all the way to the extreme of homelessness — we've had students who are living in shelters, living out of their cars, living on a friend's couch — and everything in between those two scenarios.” Plate Above offers pick-up and reheat menus for families during holidays, but it can also cover events of nearly any size. “We've catered wedding receptions, we have a rehearsal dinner and a couple of weeks that we're doing. We've done retirement parties, birthday parties, we've done some Bar and Bat Mitzvahs,” Holland said. She added that the company is willing to work with customers to offer up nearly any kind of menu they like. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Holland shared more of long and varied resume. She also sampled some delicious candied bacon, cookies and a frittata for Lisa Bell and Candace Campos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Olivier Saintemarie was raised in Paris but he has spent a portion of his career bringing the flavors of the City of Light to Central Florida. Saintemarie has spent time working Chefs de France in Epcot but is now in the process of opening his own business in Orlando's newly expanding Packing District — La Maison Du Macaron. “I'm really happy to bring all these exciting products here,” Saintmarie said. As the name implies, the bakery specializes in macarons — which are a small cookie made by combining meringue and almond flour to create shells that are then sandwiched around a filling. “It's one of the favorite things I make,” he said. “I mean, it's very popular. All the times I go to a party it's like, ‘Hey, where are the macarons?'” The chef and his team plan to deliver a variety of macarons for people to enjoy, including coffee, coconut lime, caramel with sea salt and back currant, among others. “In each box, we're gonna have a description of all the flavors so it's depending on your on your taste,” Saintemarie said. “I'm pretty sure you can find something you're gonna like.” The bakery is not open to the public as it is focused on volume, but customers can order boxes of macarons online. “We're gonna have different collections — we're gonna have a classic collection with the caramel, the spice, the coffees the vanilla. We're gonna have a fruit collection,” the chef said. “We're gonna have 100% chocolate. So we're going to have a fudge we're gonna have a regular chocolate, chocolate passion (fruit), chocolate orange.” Saintemarie's operation is still being built out and he is planning to expand into making chocolate candies. For now, the chef is focused on his macaron operation. “I want people to really taste the macarons like we have them in France,” Saintemarie said. “It's something I grew up with, macarons. I learned to make macarons a long time ago.” The chef is ready to introduce his taste of Paris to a lot of people. He said his operation can produce 10,000 to 12,000 macarons every day. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Saintemarie shows off his operation and goes deep on how macarons are made. He gives Candace Campos and Lisa Bell a lesson on how to fill the cookies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pine & Oak Tavern sits inside the newly renovated Rio Pinar Golf course, but despite its new look, the walls are covered in history. “Arnold Palmer's trophy is on the wall behind us and Lee Trevino is a champion here and Hal Irwin and a lot of the great old golfers. The history is just priceless. That's one of the reasons why the property is purchased. You can buy a golf club, but you can't buy the history,” said Greg Allowe, the president of Delaney Hospitality, which owns Pine & Oak. Allowe partnered with the new owners of Rio Pinar to bring Pine & Oak to life. The golf club had been mothballed for several years before it was purchased, so it was in need of an update by the time Allowe came to it. “So we had to start from the beginning and the vision was not to be a stodgy old country club,” Allowe said. “We wanted to modernize it — make it more relevant with keeping some of the traditions in place. So if you look in the main part of the restaurant, you'll see the artwork is not typical for for a golf club. We wanted to build a restaurant that was a restaurant that just happened to be located at a golf club, not a golf club restaurant.” Allowe was not a stranger to restaurant ownership. He also owns Delaney's Tavern, inside the Delany Hotel, in downtown Orlando. The businessman brought in Anthony Albino, his corporate chef who had helped to develop the menu at Delaney's Tavern. “Some of the flavors of (Delaney's Tavern) are here but we wanted also make this property a little bit more unique so, the menu is tailored a bit more for this market,” Allowe said. Albino came to the culinary world following a career change. Previously, he worked as a mortgage broker until 2008. “That's when I put myself through college,” Albino said. “I went to attend Le Cordon Bleu.” Albino said he got his passion for cooking from his family, especially his grandmother. “I grew up with a single mom. So every year she sent me down to Puerto Rico to live with my grandma,” the chef said. “And my grandma cooked every day, no matter who was coming by, or who was who was in the house. She cooked every day and people just stopped buy to eat — so I just got a passion and love for cooking from her.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Allowe shares more of the history behind Rio Pinar and Pine & Oak, while Albino shows off some of the menu. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Barnie's Coffee has gone through a lot of changes over its 43 years in business. The name comes from one of the founders of the business, Phil Barnie Jones. “He was an inventor himself,” said Shannon Wolfgang, director of marketing for Barnie's. “And he was like, ‘You know what, no one's doing flavored coffee.'” According to Wolfgang, Barnie's became one of the first companies to offer flavored coffees. “You can have all the flavor within the coffee and you don't have to worry about adding the sugar adding the creamers or adding the whipped cream and all that goofy stuff because that's not really what we're about,” she said. The company saw nationwide expansion at one point, predating Starbucks, opening several locations inside malls across the country. “Then our investors and our business managers decided to change plans and then at that point, we closed down our mall locations and we decided to keep our flagship location (in Winter Park),” Wolfgang said. “Then we kind of just did our online store for barniescoffee.com.” In addition to its online sales, the brand is also available is several supermarket chains, including Publix and Winn Dixie, among others. Barnie's is also now focused on partnering with Central Florida businesses. “We've already had our Publix of flavored ice cream(s),” Wolfgang said. “Then there's Ten10 Brewery who's doing a beer with us. We have Se7en Bites, who's done a brownie with us and also a cookie with us with the flavoring. So we have a lot of local collaborations.” The company is also working with colleges in the area, such as the University of Central Florida. “So we closed down all of the mall cafes and now we're opening businesses or collaborating with businesses through schools and the reason we did that was so that we could also do a give-back donation to the school,” Wolfgang said. “We created three different blends with (UCF) — flavored coffee, like our Pegasus blend — and if you purchase that coffee, not only at the UCF cafe that they have, but purchase it online from Barnie's Coffee, $1 of that bag actually goes back to their food insecurity program.” The company also works with Stetson University, Rollins College and the Orlando Science Center with similar give-back programs. Despite the brand's reach, Barnie's is a relatively small operation. Its roasting facility only has 13 employees “doing everything by hand,” according to Wolfgang. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Candace Campos and Lisa Bell learn all about the coffee roasting process. They also get a peek at how Barnie's flavors its coffees. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Wheeler is no stranger to the restaurant industry or Tex-Mex cuisine. Both have always been a part of his and his family's livelihoods. “Back in 1995, (my dad) launched Tijuana Flats. In 2015, he sold it. So now we're here and it's my turn to take the reins and do something new,” Jake Wheeler said. The family also owns Tibby's New Orleans Kitchen and Jake Wheeler had been working there as a manager, handling events and marketing. Jake Wheeler and his father, Brian Wheeler, opened Big Taco in Casselberry in early November. Jake Wheeler said his dad had been getting restless since retiring. “The way this went is my dad, he retired about four or five years ago,” Jake Wheeler said. “He got bored in retirement — like one day, I walked outside and he had our dog on the jetski in the backyard. So he gets bored. He always wants something new and he thought, ‘You know if I'm going to be spending my money and resources to do something, how about I help out my kids?' So he said, ‘I was good at Tex-Mex and I think we could do it again.' So then he came up with Big Taco and the whole idea of this was to provide an outlet for me and my brother to take the reins, run, do our thing and hopefully create another Tex-Mex empire.” Jake Wheeler said Big Taco had been a nickname for his dad since the elder Wheeler opened up Tijuana Flats. “He's been called Big Taco since 1995,” Jake Wheeler said. “His friends gave it to him. They would hang out, ‘Hey, Big Taco, what's up?'” Taking command of Big Taco has proved something of a challenge for Jake Wheeler. He had restaurant experience with running Tibby's, but Big Taco is a completely different setup. “I had no clue of how to run a fast-casual restaurant,” Jake Wheeler said. “Luckily had the training of the full service, which is a much bigger operation. I wouldn't say it's easier or more difficult than this, but once I came here to the fast-casual setting, it was kind of refreshing.” The decision to open in Casselberry was a strategic one. Jake Wheeler said the idea was to save money on rent while building up a reputation. “We thought Casselberry is a great place — you have a family environment, a good town, and we're not breaking the bank and we could really build a good community here. Our neighboring restaurants — Bagel King and Anthony's — they've been here for 20-plus years. They're all very respected. So we decided we go next to them so we can build that same reputation that they have.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Jake Wheeler talks about what makes Big Taco unique from Tijuana Flats. He also talks about the artwork on display inside the restaurant and shows off some of the most popular menu items. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's books, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aly Lalani has poured everything into making his restaurant, Build My Burgers, a success. Lalani and his wife started looking into purchasing a franchise of an established business in 2018, but they could not find any options in their budget. “The ones that were reasonably priced, they did not have a presence in Orlando,” Lalani said. “We're big foodies, and we love eating burgers. So we were always looking for something where you get a good quality burger, but the price is ridiculous or the quality is not there. So we decided to we're gonna have let people build their burgers the way they like.” That was the idea that became Build My Burgers. The pair started the lease on their restaurant — 3402 Technological Ave. Suite 136 — in 2019 and the restaurant was originally supposed to open in April 2020. “And then we know what happened in March — and actually, it happened March 19 which is my birthday — so literally, I found out that the country's shutting down on my birthday,” Lalani said. Despite that, Lalani continued to work on the restaurant and was finally able to open in January 2021. “It took almost a year and then I was maxing out all my credit cards,” Lalani said. “In November, we had a baby and, and then I took two more months off and I said, ‘I'll start the new year fresh,' and thankfully, as soon as we were opening, the country was opening, and they had made the dining like 50% (capacity). So people were excited. People were excited to get out of their house.” The restaurateur said the reaction to Build My Burgers has been positive, so much so that the business has been able to rely on word of mouth to draw in customers. “We don't really spend money on advertising or any of that. We just believe in our product. We believe in our food. And we believe in our customers,” he said. Build My Burgers is situated close to the campus of the University of Central Florida and Lalani offers a lot of deals for the students there. “I always tell people, as long as the community is supporting me, I'll keep supporting them,” he said. Now, after two years of hard work, Lalani is getting ready to franchise Build My Burgers and he is actively looking for people nationwide to buy into the business. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Lalani talks all about what makes his burgers stand out from the rest. He also talks about working with his family and building the business all while raising two children. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's books, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It took Joe and Ginger Leigh more than two years to realize their dream of opening Orlando's first meadery — a winery focused on making honey wines. The effort has seen the pair put in long hours. “It's incredible. We've been doing 120-hour weeks for the past year,” Joe Leigh said. “It's just the two of us. We have wonderful bartenders. But we do everything else.” The pair opened their taproom at 1121 N. Mills Ave. in August after a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2021. After that, they had to find a location and then jump through all kinds of red tape. “Alcohol production is highly regulated with the government. It's both state and federal. So every formula needs to be approved, every label needs to match the formula — so every word is regulated,” Joe Leigh said. Beyond the regulatory hurdles, Ginger Leigh, who is also an artist under the name Synthestruct, designed the entire taproom while also working with the city for various grants. “We complement each other really well,” Ginger Leigh said. “Alongside with doing the creative, the fun parts, there's also applying for the permits and things. It couldn't possibly have gone faster because we were working on that — we would wake up in the morning, and then pretty much until we went to sleep at night.” All of the hard work has paid off for the couple, as their taproom has been a big draw in Orlando's trendy Mills 50 neighborhood. “People notice as they're driving down Mills Avenue, big black building, and a lot of people the logo catches their eye,” Ginger Leigh said. “They don't know what it is, so it intrigues them. So, yes, we've had so many people say that they were driving by and they had to do a quick U-turn to see you know what exactly is this big black building.” The pair said they get a of people who have never tried mead before entering their taproom. “They don't realize that it can taste very different depending on the honey that we use,” Ginger Leigh said. “And there's different styles — it can be fruited, it can be spiced — and so even if they've had it before, a lot of people that come in, they're still trying it like it's the first time they've had it because they're trying something new.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Joe and Ginger Leigh walk us through the mead-making process. They also share insights on the different kinds of honey they use and all the different styles of mead they offer. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's books, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kee Gainey spent 25 years as a stay-at-home mom before starting her culinary career. “I decided it was time for me to get back out there and I was like, ‘Well, what can you do? No one is going to hire you after this long You don't have any experience,'” Gainey said. “And I was like, ‘Well, what can I do? You can cook? So I said, Well, I do need credentials, where can I go?'” This self-appraisal led her to Second Harvest's Culinary Training Program. “I was highly blessed to be able to get into that program,” Gainey said. “They have these fabulous chefs. They teach you everything from A to Z. In my case, I already had experience. So it was a little bit easier for me than for some people, but it really was a great learning experience.” Gainey, a native Floridian, said she grew up learning to cook from her grandmother and mother. She took those lessons with her to Second Harvest. Through the culinary training program, Gainey was able to find work at Nourish Coffee Bar + Kitchen, which features a scratch-made menu focused on nutritious foods. “It's been four years, this past October, and I love it there. It is a really great place to work. There are great people there,” she said. Gainey also started her own cottage business out of her home, Kitchen Arrabon. “In the Greek, (Arrabon) means downpayment,” Gainey said. “I am a Christian. I read my scriptures every day and one morning in the devotionals this word ‘Arrabon' (appeared) and I was like, ‘I like the way that sounds!' And it was there, explained that it means downpayment. So I chose Arrabon because I considered at that moment, this would be the downpayment on my new life.” Gainey said the business has been a confidence booster for her. “One of my secret issues is a low confidence level and when people enjoy my food, I do feel really good because that means that I did good because I didn't really grow up with a lot of encouragement from the family that I had,” she said. “But I get it from other people and I'm growing in that area and I feel so blessed to be able to share my experience with others.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Gainey shows off some of the delectable treats she offers through her business. She also tells the story behind her first cake and how she made her way onto the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A family's shared love of anime has grown in three restaurants serving up ramen, pho and other pan-Asian delicacies. Soupa Saiyan first opened its doors in 2016 at 5689 Vineland Road, near Universal Studios in Orlando. “It all started with my (brother-in-law),” Jimmy Chhun, the manager at Soupa Saiyan, said.”He loves food. He's always wanting to create it. One day (he was) trying to figure out ‘What's a good way to have like a soup-themed restaurant.' So when they were just watching anime, he sees Goku eating soup noodles (and said) ‘You know what, that's what I'm gonna call it.'” Soupa Saiyan is themed on the wildly popular Dragon Ball anime. The name Soupa Saiyan is a reference to the show in which several of the main characters come from an alien race called Saiyans who can power up and become Super Saiyans. The restaurants stand out, as they are heavily decorated with Dragon Ball-themed toys, statues and art. However, they didn't start out that way. “Everybody coming in here loving it. Even when we started, we started off with very small figures and artwork and then everybody started donating art,” Chhun said. The menu came from a blending of cultures. Chhun said his brother-in-law's family is Lao while his wife, Chhun's sister, is Vietnamese. “So we put that together — combined it,” he said. Chhun said the Dragon Ball theming helps to bring people in, but added that it is the food that keeps people coming back. “It's just what's in our broth,” he said. “Our soup cooks for about 12 to 15 hours — savor the flavor. Everybody loves it and you can build it the way you want it here.” Despite the growth of Soupa Saiyan, success did not come overnight. “(My brother-in-law) was just doubting (himself),” Chhun said. “I'm like, ‘No, you give it a shot.' Then after like a couple of months later he's like, ‘We just started blooming.'” Chhun was living in Utah when Soupa Saiyan first opened. He was invited to come to Florida to help out with the business about five years ago. Since then, two additional locations opened — Soupa Saiyan 2 in Jacksonville and Soupa Saiyan 3 near the University of Central Florida, which is the location Chhun manages. “The college kids there love it. The artwork and everything,” Chhun said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Chhun shares more about how Soupa Saiyan has grown over the years. He also shows off some of the most popular menu items. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A trip to Denver led Andy Sheeter down a path that has him getting ready to move his business into a 40,000-square-foot brewery. I went on a ski trip with some friends. We were out in Breckenridge and then we were in Boulder, Colorado, and we went to a brewery,” Sheeter said. “And there were three of us and we thought ‘This is really cool. We should try this,' and so on the flight home from Denver, by the time we landed, we had a brewery concept.” Crooked Can Brewing Company officially opened for business in March 2015. Sheeter said he knew he wanted to open in Winter Garden. “We just felt that Winter Garden was where it was at,” he said. Sheeter and his then-partners, he has since bought them out of the business, purchased an empty apartment complex that had gone into disrepair and become a nuisance property. They had the place leveled and began building what would become the Plant Street Market — a brewery and food hall. “Once we started building the brewery, I knew instantaneously it was going to be a hit because we would go there on a Saturday or Sunday and would go to the worksite and it was literally like a parade of bikes, golf carts, cars, everybody going by and everybody staring at us trying to figure out when we were going to be done,” Sheeter said. Sure enough, he said the brewery saw instant success. “What I'm surprised in is that we continue to grow year after year,” he said. “Because every year, I look at the amount of business we do, the amount of customers that come through here and I say to myself, ‘I don't know how we can handle more than this,' then every year we do.” However, even though Crooked Can has handled the growing business up to this point, it is time for the business to grow. The brewery is starting construction on a new flagship brewery in Minneola. “It's going to go into what's called the Hills in Mineola, which there's a new turnpike exit on Hancock Road,” he said. “There's going to be a roughly 132-acre development there that's going to have mixed-use section. It's going to have a hospital. It's going to have a hotel. It's going to have a lot of retail, grocery and, last I heard, roughly 1,000 apartments that are going to be on top of the retail.” Sheeter said he hopes to have the new brewery open by 2025. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Sheeter talks about why he is so focused on keeping his brewery in Central Florida. He also talks more about the new brewery and his possible plans for the future. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Bair is no stranger to the restaurant industry having already built two successful Central Florida chains, Gringos Locos and Tin & Taco. Now he's building a third chain, but this time he is stepping away from the Tex-Mex cuisine that brought him so much success and moving toward a flavor of his childhood — Detroit-style pizza. “I'm originally from the Detroit area,” Bair said. “I left when I was 15 years old but I grew up on — we didn't call it Detroit style pizza — you either get a square pizza or a round pizza and we always loved the square pizza.” In 2022, Bair opened SoDough Square, which serves a version of the “square pizza” he grew up with. However, he did not set out to open up a pizza place. “During COVID, I really dug into this style of pizza,” Bair said. “I've been making it for a long time, but I've never really gone down the rabbit hole, so to say. So I started making it for my family and every time I would do something different whether it's the flour, whether it's the fermentation.” Bair said his kitchen turned into a lab for pizza dough. After multiple tests, it was Bair's wife who finally told him when the pizza was perfected. “I brought it out to my wife and she took a bite and she said, ‘Whatever you just did, stop right there. That's it. That's it,'” he said. Around this time, a Hungry Howie's pizza place next door to the SoDo location of Tin & Taco closed up shop making the space available. “I took over the Hungry Howie's spot and it was nice because it was all built out and all I had to do is swap out the equipment,” Bair said. Since then, Bair has opened a second location of SoDough Square in Winter Park, taking over the space from a former Tin & Taco location. He also has plans in the works to open a third location in Lake Mary. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Bair goes into great detail about what makes a Detroit-style pizza unique from other regional variations. He also shares memories of eating pizza at Red Wings' hockey games and how he might expand the menu with another Detroit favorite. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Mercedes Jr. started the business that would become The Dancing Empanda by selling food out of the trunk of his car. “I was looking for a little side hustle to do and I just remember grandma making the empanadas,” Mercedes said. “So that's what I decided to do. So we talked about it and she gave me the recipes and I started making empanadas and going to barber shops and mechanic shops out of the car and just to see how we grew and they loved it.” At the time, Mercedes was working at a transitional home through the Department of Corrections. He was selling his empanadas on the weekends. “Then once I got to the place where I was making the same as my check, that's when I decided to give my two weeks' notice and I ran with that,” he said. “I was very surprised to see that if you put into work, you know, and the product is good, you can make money off of it.” That was eight years ago. Since then, Mercedes has expanded his business into two food trucks — which he's been running for four years. His wife has also become a part of the business. “The hardest part is what my wife does, which is making the empanadas and also getting us job contracts,” Mercedes said. “I'm driving the food truck — it's the easiest part — working it is easy because we only have empanadas.” Now, four years into running his food trucks, Mercedes is getting ready to retire. “Now we're actually selling the business with the recipe, the empanada machine, everything that comes with the business — the name, the brand,” he said. Mercedes has parlayed his success with The Dancing Empanada into purchasing property in North Carolina, which he has outfitted with some tiny homes he plans to use as vacation rentals. “(The Dancing Empanada is) a great business to have is just our journeys over with it,” he said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Mercedes shares more about how he built his business. He also talks about working with his wife and children, as well as his plans for the future. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vinnie Nguyen and his wife, Phi Phi Lam, started their food truck, Pho Wheels, so that they could have more time to spend with their children. “The hours and restaurants are just really long,” Nguyen said. “You go in — opening, you've done everything — by the time you go home, it's almost midnight as well. I miss a lot of time with my children. I was a stay-at-home dad at the beginning when they were born for like five and a half years and when going back to the workforce, it just felt like I was missing a part of myself.” Nguyen has spent much of his life around restaurants. His family has been in the restaurant business and he has worked in a number of kitchens around Orlando, such as Umi Japanese Fusion in Winter Park and Hana Sushi in Altamonte Springs. “I just love how food makes people feel and any kind of a field that you're in it's really hard to try to please a lot of people,” he said. “But if you get the correct ingredients, the correct food, it makes people happy and that's our kind of occupation.” However, after spending time as a stay-at-home dad, Nguyen decided it was best to be his own boss. “If we don't make enough money, we'll just spend less money. So that's that's our scenario,” Nguyen said. “We're not as successful as some restaurants are but we do get to spend the most amount of time with our kids. We try to work during the time when they're at school so that when they come home, they don't even know that we left for work.” Even though Pho Wheels gives the couple the freedom to spend plenty of time with their children, it does still keep them busy. “We've been all the way to Winter Garden. We've been to Tampa, we serve a lot over in Titusville, in the Space Coast area, but most of the time we are headquartered in Winter Park and we serve a lot of the outer Orlando area — downtown a lot,” Nguyen said. Getting ready for each event also has the couple working long hours. “The prep time is a lot. We do wake up early, and we do stay up late, but those are the schedules that we picked so that we can have the time with our child. It is a lot different from a brick-and-mortar where you have enough water, enough electricity — so it does take a lot of adjustment,” Nguyen said. The couple serves a variety of Asian street food including Vietnamese dishes like pho, Korean fried chicken and even some sushi. So we just love that we're able to accommodate a lot of the Asian culture and a lot of different food for all our events,” Nguyen said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Nguyen and his wife talk about what it is like to work together in their food truck. They also show off some of their favorite dishes. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A.J. Haines — the chef and owner of The Hen & Hog in Winter Park — has been relatively open about his health struggles. “The first time it hit — as far as the diverticulitis attack — it was a Tuesday morning,” Haines said. “(I was) like, ‘I don't feel good. This is really hurting me today.' I woke up at like 11:30 at night drenched in sweat — took the thermometer, I had 104 degree temperature. I'm like, ‘I'm in bad shape.' So drove myself to the hospital and four and a half hours, five hours later was emergency surgery.” This happened in January. The restaurant had just opened a few months prior in October. Haines said this first stint in the hospital forced him to shut down his restaurant for two and a half weeks. “I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything. So the whole restaurant just was closed,” he said. When he was finally able to return to work, Haines posted online about the experience. The post ended up getting a lot of attention from the community. “When I did my little post it was more of like, ‘Hey, we're back open' and I didn't expect it to go as viral as it did,” Haines said. “I'm just telling everybody we're back. Come help out, come support local.” The chef has had to deal with a few more stints in the hospital and is still experiencing “a lot of pain.” Despite that, Haines remains active in his business, though not as much as he would like. “They (doctors) told me three months of nothing over 25 pounds. So (my) staff has been great as far as carrying me — you know, grabbing stuff, doing deliveries, coming with me to go shopping and pick stuff up,” Haines said. “It's been tough and I always feel like I'm not the go-getter anymore. I can't be. I have to watch myself and say ‘No, no, I can't. Can you come grab this please?' Because I don't want any more surgery. I never want to go back.” In addition to his health problems, Haines has also had to contend with rising food costs and parking issues around his restaurant on West Fairbanks Avenue. “We have our own parking lot across the street, but it's always full,” he said. “There's a couple of other businesses in the area that fill it up and cars sit there for two or three hours and very hard to rotate in and out.” Fortunately, Haines has cultivated some strong relationships with his neighboring businesses that have helped him with his parking woes. “Fannie Hillman (& Associates) is great and has been wonderful to us. So we get their parking lot which is about 45 spots. That's great,” he said. Other nearby shops and restaurants are also willing to let Haines' customers use their spots after hours or on the weekend. Despite the hurdles put in his path, Haines is pushing ahead with The Hen & Hog and he hopes that customers will keep his restaurant in their regular rotation. “You got to stay afloat,” he said. “This is our first year. I'm not planning on making any money and never was.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Haines talks about growing up in Wisconsin, his family's restaurant and coming to Orlando. He also shares his plans to write a cookbook and talks about the career he had before starting his culinary journey. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The chefs at Universal Orlando are looking to raise the bar when it comes to the food guests can expect to find at a theme park. “We really want to reinvent the thought of what theme park food is,” Ron Cope, executive chef of Universal Studios Florida, said. “We've really tried to elevate everything we do here — from our simple little desserts, a sandwich, a soup, whatever it is. That's our real goal is to get out of that old school this is just carnival theme park food. This is really a dining experience that you're gonna have.” Cope said a lot of thought was put into the menu at Universal's new Minion Café, bringing both creativity and whimsy to the menu. “We thought about what would an adult like, but what would a kid say,” he said. “You know, it's something for everybody and we think we really nailed it.” The menu features dishes like Otto's noodle bowl, which features a tonkatsu broth, braised pork, a shrimp dumpling and roasted corn. It also showcases sugary, sweet drinks featuring whipped cream and Pop Rocks. It's a wide range of flavors for both adults and children. The level of thought and creativity in the menu is also reflected in the amount of time it took to develop everything. “We probably did it for about a year, year and a half,” Cope said. “We wanted to really capture what would be fun for everybody. So with the Illuminations partners, they really pushed us to get playful things in and we're really happy with the way it came out.” The chefs at Universal work closely with the creators of the intellectual properties they are representing with their food. This is also true for the park's annual Halloween event, Halloween Horror Nights. “With Halloween Horror Nights, we get to have the most fun,” Christoper Colon, executive sous chef of research and development at Universal, said. “You don't get to see a cordyceps corndog or a meat stew somewhere on your day-to-day restaurant tour. So it's definitely the most fun that we have.” Colon worked to bring dishes inspired by the hit video game “The Last of Us” to life for the 2023 event. “We have an amazing research and development team,” Colon said. “We love to do this. We all played the game. We all did our research by playing some games and then we get to bring it to life with Chef Ron Cope. His team comes out here and executes at us for us every single day.” Colon said it took his team about six months to develop the menu items that guests will be able to enjoy during HHN. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, the chefs share more of the development process for the highly themed items being served up at the park. They also show off several of the dishes and how they are prepared. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Austin Blake started his business, Stackd Brownies, while playing around in the kitchen with his family. “COVID hit and that's when everything kind of shut down,” Blake said. “Everything was not what was expected. So during that time, my parents were not doing much. I wasn't doing much during that time and during that time we were in the kitchen. We were playing and food was always in our background. We love food. Going through social media and seeing how viral other baked goods places were all over the country — we're like, ‘Man, it'd be cool to get in that world.'” As the family was looking for the best way to break into the bakery business, they discovered that brownies were under-represented online. “We took it a little bit further and made round crispy edge delicious brownies — because that's what is everyone's favorite — it was either ‘Hey, I want the crispy edge' or ‘I want the fudgy inside.' So we created a combo of both to create everyone's happy middle,” Blake said. Stackd specializes in brownies, but their menu doesn't stop there. “We make more than just brownies; brownie stuffed cannolis, brownie ice cream, brownie croissants — brownie, everything. So we're a full bakery of brownies, which makes it more exciting than just one brownie,” Blake said. Once they settled on a concept, Blake and his family dove in headfirst and opened a brick-and-mortar location. “Our first location in Lake Mary was kind of in like a building type place — if someone looks up, they'll see we were in an office building,” Blake said. “We were there purposely to prove the concept, to see if we had legs in the market to bring brownies into a retail setting.” It took a lot of hard work just to get people through the door of the first location. “It was in an office building. When we told people — because on social media we started posting and people like ‘Where's this place?' It's not like it's an easy ‘Hey, it's right next to Publix.' We're an office building. So we were outside. We were at the farmers market to start to tell people who we are and where we are — like we're actually a real company,” Blake said. The work paid off and the family business has now expanded to four locations around Central Florida. Two of the locations have since been sold as franchises. “We have great owners that were able to see the opportunity and want to be a part of it,” Blake said. “Things are going very well. We're actually turning our two other stores into franchises. We're going to sell those off as well. So then we can basically go full steam ahead into franchising and create a foundation to grow all over this state.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Blake talks more about his plans to franchise Stackd Brownies. He also talks about the myriad of flavors available to customers and balancing his work while caring for a newborn. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jamilyn Bailey and Lordfer “Lo” Lalicon, the owners of Kaya, know that Filipino food is not normally associated with “fine dining,” they are looking to change that perception. “I think everybody and not just our parents, even our friends are doubtful, like ‘You're opening a Filipino restaurant? Casual fine-dining Filipino restaurant? Are you crazy? You can make Filipino food fine dining.'” Lalicon said. “And one of the misconceptions too is that Filipino food is ugly and no, it doesn't have to be.” The duo like to describe Kaya as offering “casual fine dining.” They want people to feel comfortable in the space but offer food with close attention to quality and detail. “We do karaoke on Wednesdays. We have these festivals and farmers' markets,” Bailey said. The pair opened Kaya at the start of 2023 but in that short amount of time, they have managed to get some prestigious accolades including recognition from the Michelin Restaurant Guide. “I sometimes sit back and just like realize how great that is for the community and for a restaurant,” Lalicon said. “And it's cool to see that they're paying attention to a small restaurant like us who's doing a very unique thing and Filipino food.” The name Kaya means “capable,” which has become a mantra for the “small restaurant.” “It's like saying, since we were one of the few Filipino restaurants in Central Florida, we're saying that Filipino food is good enough. It's flavorful enough. We can live our dreams and do what we want to do,” Lalicon said. In addition to the food, the pair want Kaya to be a space to build and support their community. “We actually just had a ‘know your farmers market' yesterday. We invited our farm partners to come and talk to the community about how they can also source their vegetables more locally and support the local ecosystem,” Bailey said. “It takes a lot for a meal to come together on your table and we want folks that be a little bit more connected to that process of eating.” The support of the community has been big motivator for the pair. “It's really amazing. I'm so proud. Like, I get emotional sometimes just looking around,” Bailey said. “You really can't put a finger on what our guests are. I mean, every kind of ethnicity, background — it is just really amazing to see that and to share that.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Bailey and Lalicon talk about how they first met in college and how they built their partnership after reconnecting years later. They also talk about how the restaurant has evolved since it opened and how they hope to expand the business moving forward. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brent Tucker, the owner of First Responder's Coffee Company, dedicated much of his adult life to serving his country. “When 9/11 hit, I joined the military,” Tucker said. “I had no intention to join the military, but 9/11 hit, I was in the military on 9/27/01 — as fast as they'd let me in,” he said. This led to more than 20 years in the military, which included stints in the Green Berets and Delta Force. “When I retired from the military, I had to figure out what it is I wanted to do when I grew up,” Tucker said. The veteran started putting his combat experience to good use, helping to train SWAT Teams and police departments. “It was a lot to see — coming from my world where I had all the resources that I want. Everybody, generally speaking, supported my service and you get put in this situation where you see (first responders), that their communities rely on them, need them and they don't have nearly enough resources that they need,” Tucker said. The veteran had always planned to start his own business, but he also saw it as an opportunity to support the first responders he saw struggling to do their jobs. “So I had the idea, ‘Hey, let's create something that puts the force of this business behind and for first responders' and that's the birth of First Responders Coffee Company,” he said. Tucker landed on coffee because he wanted a business that not only benefited first responders but also produced something they would use. “There really wasn't a coffee company aimed just at first responders, he said. The company is a for-profit business, but some of the proceeds raised from coffee sales go back to support firefighters, law enforcement and paramedics. “We're super proud of what we've done to date,” Tucker said. “We opened in November of last year and we've already donated over $20,000 to first-responder causes.” The company's most recent donation was to an EMT who was injured on the job. “She was caring for this victim, who was a criminal — wakes up stabs her three times in the back of the ambulance and now she's in a fight for her life. So we sent her a bunch of coffee a bunch of T-shirts sent her a check said, ‘Hey, this is this is for you,” Tucker said. In addition to donating some money from coffee sales, Tucker is also working directly with members of the first responder community. “We've taken law enforcement guys out shooting just to have a relaxing day and talk about mental health,” he said. Tucker also recently opened up the experience to firefighters as well. “We just had a really good time out there and then at the end of the day, we finished it with a talk about mental health,” he said. And, again, with everything that I've been through — what I did wrong, you know what I did, right — letting them get to hear again from someone who's been there.” In the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Tucker talks more about how his coffee is helping first responders. He also shares how Central Florida first responders are represented in the packaging of his coffee and how his business is expanding into selling cigars. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando, 2100 Lee Road, has been giving food to those in need for 45 years. However, the organization has never given out as much food as it has in 2022. “The amount of food going out of our establishment is record-breaking for us,” JFS president Phil Flynn said. “May broke all our records. Then June broke May's record and I've just closed the books on July and July broke June's records. So we have a tremendous amount of food going out.” Flynn said the food insecurity in Central Florida was greatly exacerbated by the pandemic. “Prepandemic — go back to 2019 — we were averaging 22 clients a day,” Flynn said. “We then, during the pandemic, rose to 124 (clients) per day.” Flynn said JFS' food pantry is now seeing about 100 people a day — which the organization believes is the new normal. The majority of people being served by JFS are people who are working, but struggling to make ends meet. “I see the working poor,” Flynn said. “My facility, we do serve — if you're homeless, and you show up, we feed you. We give you the food to go. But, the vast majority of clients — over 95% of people coming in — they're working, right? So they're working two, three jobs, but they can't get to the end of the month.” Flynn said that it takes a lot to meet the growing demand JFS is experiencing. “We rely on a combination of tremendous amount of donor support. We are a nonprofit agency. We're raising money all the time and through government programs and government grants,” he said. However, Flynn added that the funds have not quite kept up with the demand for help. “They have enough for us to just do today's job and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow,” he said. JFS bases its mission on the Jewish principle of “tikkun olam,” which translates to “repairing the world.” “You show up at my front door, you're hungry, I feed you,” Flynn said. “You need help, I help you. Our job is to save the world.” Flynn added that there are no qualifications to receive assistance from JFS “You're hungry, we feed you. It's plain and simple. Yes, because we do take government grants, we do ask some questions. Do you live in Seminole County? Do you live in Orange County,” he said. “We take that information so we can report back to the government because they are interested in tracking.” Flynn described his work as humbling but added that he would not be upset if his job became obsolete. “If food insecurity went away, then you wouldn't need the food pantries,” he said. “Just take it away. We'll do something else.” In the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Flynn talks about the other services offered by JFS to people in need. He also shares information on a new program aimed at helping survivors of the Holocaust. Those interested in donating to JFS can click here. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Norman Van Aken is not a native Floridian but his name is synonymous with the state's cuisine. Van Aken lives in South Florida but has his restaurant, Norman's, in Central Florida. Van Aken grew up in Northern Illinois. He knew from an early age that he loved cooking but did not realize that it could be a career. “I had no understanding (or) inkling that being a chef was a road for a person like me. No one spoke about that growing up in Illinois,” he said. “People in that area might have been school teachers if they were smart, but most of us (were) brick layers and cops and my mom was a waitress.” Van Aken spent the early part of his working life trying out a string of blue color jobs including factory jobs, hot tar roofing and he even worked with a carnival. “I worked the Ferris wheel and they asked me if I wouldn't mind climbing up on the wheel to move one of the little chairs out of the way so a truck could pull through. I was like, ‘No sweat.' I was a gymnast in high school and monkeyed up there to do that,” Van Aken said. “Unfortunately, the Ferris wheel wasn't properly grounded for electricity and I became totally stuck under that wheel until I kicked myself off and one of the carny workers saved my life by catching me from hitting the asphalt.” Eventually, he found himself working as a short-order cook at a diner, but he still did not realize that cooking could be a career. Van Aken said he did not come to that realization until he made the move to Key West in 1973. He had grown up going to Florida on vacation with his family, but decided to make a move to the Sunshine State after visiting a friend who was already living in the Keys. It was there at the Pier House Hotel that Van Aken realized what he could accomplish in a kitchen. “My aspirations were more about being a writer than anything I didn't know about being a chef,” he said. “But, I could see somehow this thing colliding with both the ability to be artistic and cook.” Van Aken said his time in diners helped him to learn speed with his cooking, but in that kitchen, he was surrounded by classically trained chefs who began imparting their knowledge to him. “And I was like hooked —like falling-in-love hooked. I was like, ‘OK, I gotta start buying books. I gotta get some knives.'” As Van Aken continued down this path of building a culinary cuisine. He found himself as part of the movement that would be come known as New World Cusine which involved marrying classic American recipes and ingredients with Europe techniques. At the time, much of the movement was budding out of places like California and New Orleans. “Here I was in Key West seeing all this stuff primarily through magazines because it was before television was covering it, and thinking, ‘Well, they're doing it there. Do I need to move there so I can do it there,'” Van Aken said. “Then hit me, I should not do that. I should bring it here — do something representational of what Florida is all about.” With this inspiration, Van Aken moved to Miami, taking his talents to a bigger stage. He came out with his first cookbook. Van Aken has carried this movement forward to the present day with his eponymous Orlando restaurant, Norman's, which recently reopened at 7924 Via Dellagio Way. In the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Van Aken shares more of his story of coming to Florida and learning his craft in Key West. He also shares how he came to coin the term “Fusion Cooking” and how he once got into a fistfight refereed by actor Mickey Rourke. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Diaz is constantly pushing to make his restaurant, Alex's Fresh Kitchen, a success. “It's my baby. It's my dream, you know, and I do anything for it. I've sacrificed for this place,” Diaz said. Diaz opened his restaurant in 2019 at 1015 State Road 436 in Suite 109 of a strip mall in Casselberry. The pandemic hit not long after, creating new challenges for the budding business. In 2021, Diaz described the ups and downs of coming out of the pandemic — like supply chain issues and inflation — as being like a roller coaster. Now, he said those issues have only gotten worse. “I would say it's torture,” Diaz said. “One minute, you have a good week — and you have good labor costs, good food costs going across the board — and then you do your next order and everything's up, like $20-$30 or more. It's like, ‘When did this happen?‘” Despite the challenges, the chef and his team manage to put out an impressive menu of, largely, scratch-made food from a tight kitchen. Diaz chalks it up to the work culture he maintains at the restaurant. “We respect each other. We call each other chefs throughout the whole kitchen,” Diaz said. “think it starts with that and I appreciate my guys, I always tell them all the time, ‘I appreciate everything you do.' I think throughout my career, I think that's something that's missing in a lot of places. People are not appreciated enough.” Diaz and his team have seen some significant successes, including an invitation to South Beach Wine & Food Festival. “We had no clue what we were doing when we came down there, ut it was, it was a really good experience,” Diaz said. He and his team got the chance to hand out 3,000 of the restaurant's award-winning Mamba burgers. Diaz is also set to be featured in an upcoming TV cooking competition, though he couldn't say much about it. “We got something coming out in October. I'm sworn to secrecy. So I can't say what show it is, but it's definitely going to be an interesting show,” he said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Diaz talks about working with his mother and now his wife. He shares his plans to move Alex's Fresh Kitchen into a bigger space. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A sense of fun is very important to Robert and Teresa Ly and that value is a big part of their business, Sus Hi Eatstation. The importance of fun and food helped the two hit it off, in both their romantic and business partnership. “Our core values also aligned. We love to have fun. We love eating,” Robert Ly said. “The concept (for Sus Hi Eatstation) came up about a year or so after us dating. We wanted to start a business together and we're just thinking like, ‘What is it that we want to start,' and we're like, ‘We want to start something that we want,' and during that time, there was no create your own sushi.” The young couple opened their first location in 2011 near the campus of the University of Central Florida, where Teresa Ly was still attending school. The restaurant, or dojo as the Lys like to call it, is ninja-themed. “We just love having fun. That's the thing. That's our whole culture is built upon that fun core value of ours. So we thought, ‘What's more fun than ninjas? We have to do that,'” Teresa Ly said. All of the employees at Sus Hi Eatstation are referred to as ninjas. “So when you come into our organization, the first thing you do is you come up with a ninja name,” Robert Ly said. “So that's kind of your entry into the brand. So every single employee — we don't call them employees, we call them ninjas — has their own identity that they come in. That's the first thing to choose, they discover their own ninja name.” The Lys also get in on this fun. Teresa Ly is Grand Master Miso Eel and Robert Ly is Grand Master Fun Ly. Of course, in the early days of Sus Hi, it wasn't all fun. “I remember the first three, four years of our first restaurant, we were working over 100 hours a week,” Robert Ly said. “As (we're) building a new business, a new concept, we have to put on multiple hats — and we're still wearing multiple hats — but we literally had like 20-30 hats when we first built it and no sleep,” Robert Ly said. Despite those early hardships, the pair persevered. Now, they have nine locations and will soon be opening a 10th. The pair also have a small army of over 200 ninjas in their employ. On top of running their business, the pair have also been busy raising three children — two daughters, 6 and 5, and a baby boy. In the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Robert and Teresa Ly talk more about juggling family while also running their business. They also share how they managed to get through the COVID-19 pandemic and what it was like when their wedding went viral online, racking up millions of views on YouTube. Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children's book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices