Here’s an article I wrote for Mouseplanet.com back in the early 2000s about Walt Disney’s Empress Lilly restaurant, called “The Queen of Lake Buena Vista“.
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The Empress Lilly – Walt Disney World
Tags: disney - food - restaurant - riverboat - sternwheeler - walt disney world
Categories: Disney, florida, food
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Food Truck Round-up at Fashion Square
The food truck craze has hit Orlando and is delivering a lot of delectable eats to the locals. In a town dominated by chains, it’s refreshing to see so many local independent food mongers plying their trade in this way. This isn’t carnival food either. These trucks are delivering some really high quality food. Everything from Luther Burgers to Korean BBQ Tacos. On a daily basis, these trucks are parked at strategic spots around town, but several evenings a week, they gather at specific spots to take a unified stand. These events bring in a lot of local traffic. My wife and I have hit the Lake Lily Round-Up (Tuesday nights) twice, and today we were at the big round-up in the back of the Fashion Square Mall parking lot.
Personally, I prefer Lake Lily Tuesday nights to the Fashion Square Round-up. It’s true that while there were even more food trucks at Fashion Square than what I’m used to, the Lake Lily location is just a much smoother jive, and includes a good deal more comfortable dining space (if you walk around to the other side of the lake.) What follows after the cut are some photos of the trucks. I only got photos of about half of them, unfortunately. Missing are the Korean Taco Box trucks, The Brisket Bus, The Crooked Spoon, and others.
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Tags: florida - food - food truck - mobile food - orlando
Categories: florida, food
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Orlando Food in the 1970s, Pt. 2
Sweden House, Orlando. Click image to enlarge.
This is another bunch of ads from the Orlando Sentinel food sectionals from 1972. Check the original article here. Above is an advert for Sweden House. My love for “All You Can Eat Buffets” knows know boundaries. Of course, back then it was called a “Smorgasbord”. I’m not sure which is the classier moniker. These places were all over Florida in the 60s and 70s. I hope they had Swedish meatballs. If Ikea had all you can eat meatballs, they’d have to wheel me out on one of those HÅVET chair beds.
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Tags: florida - food - grocery store - orlando - restaurant - retro food
Categories: florida, food, Restaurants, Retro Florida
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Retro Florida Menu – Aunt Hattie’s Chicken in a Woodpile
Aunt Hattie's 'Chicken in the Woodpile' restaurant in St. Petersburg, Florida. Click image to enlarge.
I found this menu for Aunt Hattie’s on eBay a few years ago. It’s especially neato because it’s autographed by Edward “Uncle Ed” Boore, husband of Aunt Hattie and founder of the restaurant. Aunt Hattie’s was opened in 1939 by Ed and Hattie Boore who had previously run a fruit stand. It closed in 1985. The full history of the restaurant is recounted by Scott Taylor Hartzell in this excellent St. Petersburg Times article.
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Tags: ephemera - florida - menu - restaurant - retro - st. petersburg - tampa
Categories: food, Restaurants, Retro Florida
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Pumperniks Menu
Pumperniks was a Saturday afternoon staple for my family when I was growing up in Miami. It’s the first place I ever ate Matzo ball soup and a brisket sandwich. The experience of eating this food for the first time was enough to make me consider converting to Judaism.
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Tags: deli - florida - jewish - miami - pumperniks - restaurant - wolfie cohen - wolfies
Categories: food, Restaurants, Retro Florida
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Christmas Catalog Mix – Sausage & Cheese
Oh friends! Here is a photo mashup I made just for you! Okay, that’s a lie. I did this entirely for me. It’s about one of my favorite subjects. Sausage and Cheese. As I was perusing one of my favorite sites, Wishbookweb.com, wondering if it’s too late to order that Millennium Falcon in the 1981 Montgomery Ward catalog for only $30.87, I made a discovery. It turns out that as far back as 1947, they were selling those lovely sausage and cheese variety boxes in Christmas catalogs. How intriguing! I needed to know more. So without further preamble, let’s hop in the Tardis and go on a gastronomic voyage of discovery!
Oh, and click the photos for a larger view, in most cases the full catalog page.
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Tags: catalog - cheese - christmas - jcpenney - Montgomery Ward - sausage - sears - spiegel - wishbook
Categories: christmas, food
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Orlando Groceries and Food in the 1970s
Oh, hello Richard Deacon, character actor of such classics as “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. I had no idea you were a television chef. Was this before or after you were in “The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood”? Answer: It was before.
I found a stack of “Orlando Sentinel” Food sectionals from the early 1970s, loaded with adds for local restaurants, grocery stores, appliance stores, etc. I have tons of these, so this is the first in a series. Click the images to make bigger.
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Tags: food - grocery store - orlando - publix - retro food - winn-dixie
Categories: florida, food, Retro Florida
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Burger King in the 1980s
I found a trade journal put out by Prosperity International in 1984 called, “FLORIDA: In Shape for The Future”. It’s filled with all kinds of promotional materials for Florida companies. (Ironic note… it was printed in Japan. I guess there were no Florida printing companies that would pay for advertising?) In it I found some fun Burger King photos. Click photos to make larger.
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Tags: fast food - florida - food - restaurant
Categories: florida, food
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