I tried these spots Friday at lunch. The first is in a strip mall on South Orlando (south of Fairbanks) across from Chicken Guy. The second is next to the East End market on Corrine.
Graze Craze - As stupid, enabling and overpriced as I imagined. Charcuterie. I "escaped" (cheapest thing) with a $9 cutie cup that consisted of two thin slices of "soppressata" and salami (average quality), three blueberries, two blackberries, two cherry tomatoes, one strawberry, one thin slice of manchego and a thin slice of another cheese (cheddar?). Probably a dollar's worth of product. I asked for a keto. I'm not sure if that is what they gave me. They do boxes and boards. S/M/L. They name their options with clumsy word play (ie cutie cup - cuterie). Vegegrazian, grazey for keto, sweets and grazey, gone grazey classic. I think they started at $20. A chain from Massachusetts. No seating. Please tell me that society isn't at a point where we are willing to pay a 900% mark up to avoid slicing cheese? I guess you can't complain about taxes being too high or not being paid enough unless you are. Craze? More like Crazy! Open for a week or so.
Grazie - A modern Italian kitchen. More mediocre than modern. I can't really cite a "modern" component. It has posters of some woman and Sinatra (always a red flag) on the wall. Molto moderno. I had an AVG chicken pesto sandwich with fries for $16. They had a placard outside stating it was the best in town. I hadn't realized no other restaurants offered that dish. The chicken was sliced in half to make it look like more. The mozz was ok. Red pepper and tomato. Pesto was ok. Nice "bun". Tiny. The fries were "pringles" fries. Those machine made (probably from dried potato mix) imposters. They have apps, salads, pizza, sandwiches, pasta and secondi. The online menu was a little different than the printed. I had come in for the chicken parm sandwich. They only had it with mixed veg that I didn't want ($2 extra for pasta). The apps were things like calamari, bruschetta and meatballs. Priced near main prices. The pastas were spaghetti (and with meatballs), tagliatelle Bolognese, cacio e pepe. The most expensive category. The mains were things like chicken marsala. Around $20. Pizza (around $16) looked like ok. Didn't see the underside. Only one server/bartender. One cook (seemed Mexican). Had to wait for attention at points. Food came out pretty quick though. Parking was limited. Patio. Maybe ten tables and a bar inside. Gray and black interior. Low ceiling. Poor ac. The type of place that has a neon sign with one of those cat lady/wine mom pillow quotes on it. About ten other customers there. They run some other restaurant that I forget. Opened in the Spring, I think. Used to be dinner only. Now lunch too. I think they are struggling.
*Travel Notes - Colorado: I went to knock another stadium of my list. Flew Frontier (9p/10a) for $98. Two hours late getting there. Used a coupon for the four day rental (would have been $303) with Budget. They only had trucks. It turned out to be a busy weekend to come in on. Stayed the first night at the grubby airport Econolodge (Expedia 7.4) for $105. Everything else was more than usual and I was in at 1am. Drove the next day to Colorado Springs (on 225 to 25, I think). I tried to go the PGA event in Castle Rock that I learned about the day before. They were such dicks about buying tickets and parking and getting to the course (no shuttle buses) that I told them to fuck themselves and left. In CS, I mistook their new USL stadium for a minor league baseball stadium and booked a shit hole nearby (Expedia 6.6 Nevada Flats Motel for $96) so I could walk to the game. I ended up getting out of the reservation (because they weren't there for three times when I tried to check in and I didn't need to be in the area any longer). I finally got a $96 rack rate shit hole La Quinta Inn one exit north. But before then, I parked at the motel and had four great cachetes (beef cheek tacos) with a side of kernel corn at Tepex inside the Avenue 19 Food Hall in town. And had great beer, cider, mead and a few shots of local-ish whiskey at Bell Brothers Brewery. Ask for the Black Hole. The minor league team (Vibes turned out to have been dropped by the Brewers) played a few miles northeast. A home plate ticket cost $18. Parking $5. Had I known ahead of time that they were dfa'd, I wouldn't have wasted the time and money. I only went to begin with because I needed to do something. Dinner of an Ultimate Wrap (fal/ch/gyro) at House of Jerusalem. Turned out to be same people as our Winter Springs location. I saw a billboard they put up on the highway. The next day I drove to Denver and went to the Broncos v Cardinals. Parking was $60. Tickets at the 50 in the nose bleeds was $60. They print out tickets on game days. Ate 1/2lb of good brisket from the Woodhill Small Batch BBQ food truck. Stayed the next two nights at the Quality Inn at the airport (Expedia 8.4) for $100 a night. By far the best deal. The next day I was lazy and just went to a local brewery (Danico) and had a Korean hot dog and fried pot stickers from a Cupbop food truck outside. Tried to see the Gaylord property. Wanted payment for parking. No issues flying back. Airport was empty. If you fly Frontier, there is a "bridge" gate entry point to their gates that is always less frequented. Try and find it. Weather was in mid-eighties. Weathermen wiffed on rain warnings. Crowded. Gas was around $3. Ate fast food for missing meals.
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