New Restaurants April 2017

What are your favorite or least favorite new restaurants and other food related businesses?



Here are some new places that look interesting:


Big Kahuna Poke bowls on Tuskawilla, https://www.yelp.com/biz/big-kahunas-island-style-bowls-winter-springs

Tin and Tacos: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tin-and-taco-orlando

Omelet Bar: https://www.yelp.com/biz/omelet-bar-orlando

Capsized Kitchen: https://www.yelp.com/biz/capsized-kitchen-orlando

Reel Fish: https://www.yelp.com/biz/reel-fish-coastal-kitchen-bar-winter-park

Mesa 21: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mesa-21-orlando

Florida Film Festival 2017

The Florida Film Festival will be held Friday April 21st-Sunday April 30th at the Enzian theater in Maitland. They have a number of great events with some spectacular food, chefs and restaurants involved. They also are showing a few food related movies.

http://www.floridafilmfestival.com/

The highlight for food lovers is the opening night party.


Opening Night Party:

Friday, April 21
6PM–1AM

Celebrate opening night of the 2017 Florida Film Festival with a thrilling new film, THE HERO. Sample food and cocktails from your favorite local spots—a moveable feast where you can mingle and celebrate with all the folks who will be your new best friends for the next 10 days. Eat, drink, be merry, and discuss all the films you cannot wait to see at the festival ahead.

Participating restaurants, bars, and select vendors include: Arthur's Catering, Bubbalou's Bodacious BBQ, The Copper Rocket Pub, Cuisiniers, Enzian Theater & Eden Bar, Hourglass Brewing, Hunger Street Tacos, La Empanada, Pizza Bruno, Rogue Pub, Rosen Shingle Creek, Southern-Glazer's Wine and Spirits, Ten10 Brewing Co., Terrapin Beer Co., and Tito's Vodka.

6PM: Champagne & appetizers served
6:30PM: Theater doors open
6:55PM: Welcome and introductions
7:10PM: Begin film: The Hero preceded by “5 Films About Technology”
8:30PM: Party starts for “Party Only” ticket holders
8:30PM-Midnight: Dinner & drink stations open outside
9:30PM: Film lets out
10:30PM-1AM: Dessert served inside Enzian
1AM: Event ends

Another event related to food during the film festival is:

Locally Fresh!

• Sun, April 23rd 11:00AM - 2:30PM Enzian & Eden Bar

Locally Fresh! Scrumptious Cinema
Sunday, April 23

Feed all your senses! Central Florida farmers and food purveyors partner-up with local filmmakers at this utterly unique (and mouth-watering) event—a festival favorite! Filmmakers Matthew Tullo, Miguel Gomez, Julia Spada, Brett Downey, Loretta Troutman, Alex Reynoso, Donald Tynes, Sheri Kebbel, and Veronica Jaramillo dig into the stock and trade of what makes Central Florida delicious. Watch their documentaries highlighting The Dinner Party Project, Ten10 Brewing Co., and The Fresh Stop Bus, accompanied by cooking demonstrations and sumptuous samples. A feast for the eyes… and the taste buds.

Locally Fresh! Farmers Market
Sunday, April 23
Noon-2:30PM
FREE

After Locally Fresh! the lawn at Eden Bar transforms into a Farmers Market, filled with local products fresh from the field. Get to know Central Florida’s finest famers and vendors.

Movies

Here are a few of the movies that are food related:

New Chefs on the Block

• Sun, April 23rd 2:30PM - 4:20PM Regal Winter Park Village A

• Directed by: Dustin Harrison-Atlas
• USA, 2017, 96 minutes
• Florida Premiere

In the restaurant business, hard work doesn’t always pay off. Nearly 50% of restaurants fail in their first year, while 60% don’t even make it to their second year. Two chefs—Frank Linn of Frankly…Pizza! and Aaron Silverman of Rose’s Luxury—with blind determination and even slimmer odds, struggle to open and maintain their first restaurants in Washington, DC. In parallel development, these two young ambitious chefs with very different personalities and restaurant styles reveal the journeys and the hardships of bringing their visions to life. Construction delays, skyrocketing costs, rookie mistakes, and the growing pains of new restaurants push both chefs to the brink. Who will make it? NEW CHEFS ON THE BLOCK delivers a nitty-gritty real-life look into the adversities, pressures, and enormous rewards of opening a restaurant. Featuring legendary chefs and restaurateurs Danny Meyer, Michel Richard, Mike Isabella, and Washington Post food writer Tim Carman.

Bugs

• Sat, April 22nd 2:00PM - 3:00PM Regal Winter Park Village A

• Directed by: Andreas Johnsen
• Denmark/Netherlands/France/Germany, 2016, 73 minutes

Part eco-doc, part food film, BUGS begs the question: how tasty can a queen termite really be?  This gorgeous film features two intrepid researchers from the Nordic Food Lab, who travel the world in search of exquisite insect flavors. Not only do they seek cultures in Australia, Kenya, Uganda, Italy, Japan, and more that feast on crawly things, they work to create haute cuisine from local maggots and bees. And young chef Ben Reade and food-science researcher Josh Evans eat it all. The founders of the world-renowned Danish Restaurant NOMA created the Nordic Food Lab as a “non-profit, self-governed, open-source institution that investigates food diversity and deliciousness.” These young missionaries are as concerned with sustainability and economics as with good food, which makes BUGS a beautiful, insightful, worldwide investigation into the complicated promise of protein from insects.

One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts

This short is a part of

Bugs

• Sat, April 22nd 2:00PM - 3:00PM

• Directed by: Peter Byck

• USA, 2016, 15 minutes
• Florida Premiere

Meet Will Harris, a truly awesome guy. His journey from industrial rancher to sustainable, humane food producer will fascinate and inspire you.

Kasa Tapas Downtown Orlando

Kasa Tapas has been open in downtown Orlando for a few years now. The theme is menu comprised of diverse small plates(tapas) with global influences


Menu


We started our meal with a duo of cocktails, one was called "The Gin Joint"




Kasa has a tapas themed menu and recommends 2-3 orders per person. Our first item was the Pork Belly Poutine a Canadian tradition with a gourmet twist. It was rich and filling.



Pork Belly Poutine - Fingerling potatoes, chorizo gravy, Wisconsin Wisconsin​ cheese curds, queso fresco, 63 degree egg

Next up was a sous vide Pompano this was a nice counterpart to the poutine. Edges were crispy, flavor was mild but good.The acidity of the blistered tomatoes balanced the sauce.


Seared Pompano from togarashi-spiced baby bok choy, baby heirloom tomatoes, lemon caper, beurre blanc.

The third dish was Yucca with a gouda cheddar and truffle fondue. Often I find that truffle flavor can overpower a dish but that was not the case with this one. One minor complaint the yucca still had the spine, a center piece that runs down the middle of the yucca root, had to extract that from some of the pieces.







Yucca with dip



Sangria

Our final dish was a special sushi roll creation the Chef made for us. It's not on the menu but they are considering adding it. It was creative and unique. I really enjoyed the sauce as well.


Chef's special creation Sushi - tuna with goat cheese and avocado, panko breaded flounder topped with slivered almonds, green onions and red peppers over avocado chive sauce.

Overall I think Kasa offers some really unique and creative tapas and dishes at a fair price.

Their space is expansive and clean.

We'll be back.

They have a variety of drink specials for happy hour and certain days, check their social media for the latest details.

http://www.kasarestaurant.com/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kasaorlando/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/kasaorlando

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/kasatapas


Hours:

• Mon: Closed
• Tue: 11:30 am - 9 pm
• Wed: 11:30 am - 11 pm
• Thurs: 11 am - 10:30 pm
• Fri: 11:30 am - 11:30 pm
• Sat: 5 pm - 11:30 pm
• Sun: 11 am - 9 pm