Here's a look at the best new Orlando restaurants, corporate event venues, hotels, conference centers, and private and party rooms to open this spring. These new and renovated Orlando venues can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, conferences, meetings, weddings, business dinners, teambuilding activities, cocktail parties, and more.
As of early January, one of the restaurants inside the Hyatt Regency Orlando has a new name and concept. Urban Tide replaces Napa, which was a carryover from when the property was a Peabody hotel. The physical design of the restaurant is largely the same: 5,000 square feet with seating for 200, plus a private dining room that seats 20. The menu is now focused on fresh seafood and coastal cuisine. The restaurant’s cocktail menu offers guests the choice of classic beverages or a modern interpretation of the same drink, for example a traditional Manhattan or the new Rosehattan made with fresh rosemary, maple, and bourbon.
Tin Roof is part of a Nashville-based chain of “live music joints.” It opened at I-Drive 360 in early January. The 5,000-square-foot restaurant and bar seats 155 people inside and 55 on a patio. The venue has a small stage that hosts live music nightly, varying from rock to alternative to country. The menu leans toward Southern-inspired cuisine, including shrimp and grits, baby back ribs, and a fried chicken sandwich, but also offers lighter fare such as an ahi tuna salad and a smoked salmon sandwich. The restaurant is available for buyouts and accommodates 360 people for receptions.
American Gymkhana opened in November on Restaurant Row, offering a modern twist on Indian cuisine that combines imported and locally sourced ingredients. The concept comes from Rajesh Bhardwaj, the restaurateur behind Junoon in New York. The restaurant has seating for 70 in the main dining room and 30 on the veranda. There is also a large cocktail lounge and a private dining room that seats 50 guests or holds 75 for receptions. The decor mixes contemporary pieces with hunting-lodge accents, in reference to the original Indian sports clubs called gymkhanas.
I-Drive Nascar Indoor Kart Racing is a 65,000-square-foot entertainment complex that opened near International Drive in late December. The main attraction is a half-mile winding track that guests navigate in electric go-karts. There’s also a gaming center with 40 interactive video games, bowling lanes, billiards tables, and a full-service restaurant and bar. Private groups can reserve the facility’s three conference rooms, which have views of the racing course and can be combined for receptions of as many as 800 people. The facility is also available for buyout and holds 1,400 people for receptions.
Artegon Marketplace is designed to be a new shopping concept for Central Florida inspired by such famous marketplaces as Seattle’s Pike Place Market, Boston’s Faneuil Hall, and New York’s Chelsea Market. Located in the former Festival Bay Mall, the 1.1 million-square-foot facility opened in November and houses more than 150 artisanal shops where local craftspeople sell and demonstrate their products and services. There are also anchor tenants such as Ron Jon Surf Shop and Shepler’s Western Stores, an indoor ropes course, multiple dining options, and strolling performance artists. The venue’s Great Hall can be used for private receptions of as many as 250 people. There’s also a smaller Community Room that holds 150 people for receptions.
Inspired by farms in the Italian countryside, Trattoria al Forno at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort has an open kitchen and three dining rooms with Old World-style decor. The menu is focused on regional Italian cuisine such as wood-fired pizzas, house-made pastas, hand-crafted mozzarella, imported charcuterie and cheese, and an Italian wine list. A private dining room seats 24 people. The restaurant opened in late December and serves breakfast and dinner.
Burgers, sushi, and fusion items dubbed “burgushi” are on the menu at the Cowfish, a North Carolina-based eatery that opened a location at Universal Orlando’s CityWalk in December. The brightly colored three-story restaurant seats 477 people and is available for buyouts. The “burgushi” includes sushi rolls created using burger components and pick-up style sandwiches created with sushi ingredients.
Segafredo Café and Espresso Lounge is part of a global network of Italian cafés operating in more than 60 countries. The Orlando location, in the Mills Park neighborhood, opened in early January. The restaurant, which seats about 40 people inside and 60 on a patio, serves Italian fare and an assortment of coffee drinks. At night the rooftop terrace, which holds 100 people for receptions, becomes an upscale lounge. The restaurant also adjoins a park that can be incorporated into larger events.
For a new twist on teambuilding, head to Escapology on International Drive. This is the first United States location for the company that opened last summer in Thailand. Teams of as many as six players are locked in a room and must work together to find clues, solve puzzles, and discover the key to the escape door within one hour. Games are based on themes such as “Arizona Shootout,” “Cuban Crisis,” or “Shanghaied.” Packages are available for private groups that include two games per person, complimentary breakfast, and use of a meeting area that seats 30 people. Escapology opened in December.
Country music, cuisine, and ambiance come together at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill, which opened in late December at Artegon Marketplace. The restaurant includes the chain’s signature 95-foot guitar-shaped bar and a stage used for live music on weekends. The 15,000-square-foot venue is available for buyouts and accommodates as many as 900 people for receptions. Smaller groups can use the semiprivate upper dining room for 150 people or the private V.I.P. room, which holds 48 people for receptions.
