Grub Crawl - Winter Park: Fresh (Closed) and Italio (Closed)

I sampled these two places for lunch on Saturday. Fresh is in Hannibal Square in the old Chez Vincent locale and Italio is on 17-92 near Fairbanks.

Fresh - If the shark has not already been jumped then this place is the point where I am exhausted by the self-satisfied, hippy-dippy, locally sourced food movement. You just buy from a different vendor. You aren't curing cancer. Nobody needs cucumber water. I hope a professional food service location doesn't buy from a supermarket. I had a She Got Seoul sandwich for $10. It's a beef sandwich with Korean flavors. They said the beef was tenderloin cut, but, it was kind of tough and flabby for that. Plus they also have a beef sandwich for $2 more on the menu and I doubt they would use the same cut and sell it at two prices. In any case, the meat ratio didn't equal the bread ratio. They need a much thinner (and fresher) roll. The meat was covered in a spicy terryaki sauce. I forget if Korean BBQ beef has terryaki, but, if it doesn't it shouldn't and this one had way too much terryaki. The kimchi in it was good. They served a side of recently pickled cucumber/carrot salad. It was good. The place has 12 tables for two (including those outside) and 8 counter seats. There were five others there at lunch time. The decor is minimalist. It reminded me of a Tapas bar. They serve wine (no soda). The menu had about 6 appetizers, 6 salads and 8 sandwiches. The prices were around the $10 mark. The dinner menu had a similar distribution. The sandwiches were replaced with entrees. They leveled out at a ludicrous $30 range. The service was fine, but, way too impressed by the mission statement. Again. Not curing cancer. My big mouth may have garnered my meal a little "special attention". I've had the squirts since then and I was getting way too many surreptitious little smirks while I ate. If you have seen some of the third world street food I've eaten, you would know I'm not terrified of your expectoration. I think the owners are/were caterers. I didn't hate the place, but, I'm not sure I needed it. Maybe it will get a LGBT following. It had that sort of vibe.

Italio - Imagine Chipotle. Now imagine they serve Italian food. That's exactly what it is - a Chipotle rip-off. It even looks like one. The menu is a carbon copy. Pick a pasta or wrap (piadino) or a salad. Pick a meat. Pick a sauce. Pick toppings. I had a side of fried calamari and peppers for $5. It was a bargain and fairly well prepared. The squid was obviously frozen, but, it could have been worse and it was atypical. The place seats around eighty. It was about a third full. Most meals were around $8. They are the second of a possible empire. This place is blatantly formulated to get VC money from Chipotle advocates. The original is in Boca. I will say that for all the transparent mimicry, it is the best attempt (non-pizza) at fast foodifying Italian that I've seen. Now someone just has to explain why they put pasta in their paidinos.