Long derided as cultural wasteland, Orlando's restaurant, performing arts scenes grow up

ORLANDO, Fla. Long derided as a cultural wasteland, Orlando's restaurant and performing arts scene has grown up in recent years, and it is starting to attract attention from national arbiters of taste.

Wine Enthusiast magazine recently named Orlando as one of the nation's top wine travel destinations, and The New York Times singled out the city's food scene when it placed the city at No. 13 on its list of "52 Places to Go in 2015."

Wise Bread, a website dedicated to penny-pinchers, calls Orlando the nation's top city for frugal foodies, and the real estate blog Movoto ranked Orlando the nation's No. 2 city for creative people.

The rankings barely mentioned what the city is best known for: theme parks.

"Orlando was very synonymous, and still is, with the Mouse, and Disney, and people didn't really look outside of Disney," said James Petrakis, owner of The Ravenous Pig in the tony Orlando suburb, Winter Park. "Now with some of these newer restaurants, people are looking at some of the smaller suburbs outside Disney for a true local culture."

Adding to the buzz about the cultural scene: a new $500 million performing arts center downtown, and an international hunt for a new symphony conductor that's attracted some well-known names.

"We've gotten some national validation for things that we already thought were cool, but we thought they were cool just because it was something different for us. But now we know it's cool here and it would be cool if it were in New York or San Francisco," said Kamrin Rife, who with her husband, John, and others, opened the East End Market, which houses a collection of artisanal bakers, coffee brewers, sushi chefs and a Basque restaurant.

Orlando always had a strong theater scene, thanks to the many actors who work at theme parks, and also several acclaimed annual festivals, such as the Bach Festival of Winter Park and a fringe theater festival. But the construction of the Dr. Phillips Center, financed partially with taxes on tourists, gives the city a world-class venue for local performing arts groups and national touring acts.

The hunt for a new musical director has led to sold-out shows as each of five finalists performs. Audiences get to vote for their favorite in what locals are joking is the classical music equivalent of "American Idol." The finalists include Eric Jacobsen, a member of Brooklyn Rider, one of the best known and most cutting-edge string quartets around, and Mexican-American conductor Alondra de la Parra.

"All the candidates see the cultural community as on the cusp of something great," said David Schillhammer, executive director of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

See more here:
Long derided as cultural wasteland, Orlando's restaurant, performing arts scenes grow up