By Ken Storey
When Marlow's Tavern opened its first location in Pointe Orlando in October 2012, they announced many locations would be coming soon throughout Central Florida. Orlando Sentinel then said they were taking over a former McDonalds location in Winter Park, just across from Eat More Produce and Krispy Kreme.
With regards to the announced Winter Park location, we spoke about the remodel. Now we want to share with you some renderings.
The building itself is currently valued at $1,585,915 While the outside will keep many current features of the building the inside will undergo a massive remodel.
Based on the City Commission Public Hearing document, the city of Winter Park had concerns over the hours of operation due
to its proximity to residential areas. The Planning and Zone staff recommended a
conditional use permit and included this explanation for this conditional use
in the Public Hearing;
“The reason why the City has this conditional use requirement is to safeguard and protect adjacent residential neighbors from restaurant/bar establishments that can cause nuisances related to “overflow parking on residential streets, noise which is disturbing to the residential occupants or loitering of patrons within residential areas”. We have many restaurants in town that evolve into bars or nightclubs after 9:00 pm. The City has this conditional use requirement because some restaurants turn into a noisy bar with loud live bands and noisy patrons late at night. The City has also experienced problems with spill-over parking in front of the residence who then get awakened by the car doors slamming, honks of car doors locking and other noise late at night. There are quite a few residences within 300 feet of this property at 1008 S. Orlando Avenue that are potentially affected by this type of conditional use request.”
They go into greater detail abou their concerns an how they wish to address them.
1. No outside speaker system is permitted.
2. The restaurant shall have closing hours of 11:00 pm on Sunday- Thursday and Midnight on Sat.-Sunday.
3. No live amplified musical entertainment other than single acoustic acts.
When Marlow's Tavern opened its first location in Pointe Orlando in October 2012, they announced many locations would be coming soon throughout Central Florida. Orlando Sentinel then said they were taking over a former McDonalds location in Winter Park, just across from Eat More Produce and Krispy Kreme.
With regards to the announced Winter Park location, we spoke about the remodel. Now we want to share with you some renderings.
The building itself is currently valued at $1,585,915 While the outside will keep many current features of the building the inside will undergo a massive remodel.
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| You can easily see the former McDonald's features on these renderings. At left is the 2-story PlayPlace and in the middle, that iconic McDonald's roofline. |
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| The north side appears to be the main entrance |
“The reason why the City has this conditional use requirement is to safeguard and protect adjacent residential neighbors from restaurant/bar establishments that can cause nuisances related to “overflow parking on residential streets, noise which is disturbing to the residential occupants or loitering of patrons within residential areas”. We have many restaurants in town that evolve into bars or nightclubs after 9:00 pm. The City has this conditional use requirement because some restaurants turn into a noisy bar with loud live bands and noisy patrons late at night. The City has also experienced problems with spill-over parking in front of the residence who then get awakened by the car doors slamming, honks of car doors locking and other noise late at night. There are quite a few residences within 300 feet of this property at 1008 S. Orlando Avenue that are potentially affected by this type of conditional use request.”
They go into greater detail abou their concerns an how they wish to address them.
“When staff first looked at the
website for Marlow’s Tavern, there was concern about this request. The business model for the Marlow’s tavern
locations in Atlanta include nightclub aspects that are highlighted on their
website such as live bands playing until 1:00-2:00 am in the morning, late
night happy hours, etc. In that case
there would clearly be conflicts with the standards for approval of a
conditional use.
The staff is pleased to see that the
floor plan submitted is for a restaurant layout and not a combination
restaurant/bar. Staff is also pleased to
see that all service is within the enclosed building and there is no outdoor
patio seating or smokers patio on the exterior because then you can almost
guarantee there would be noise complaints, late at night. From my conversations with the applicant they
understand the neighborhood context of this location and recognize that their
business model needs to focus on the restaurant food aspects of the business and
not the bar drink aspects.
Staff is recommending conditions of
approval as follows:
1. No outside speaker system is permitted.
2. The restaurant shall have closing hours of 11:00 pm on Sunday- Thursday and Midnight on Sat.-Sunday.
3. No live amplified musical entertainment other than single acoustic acts.
This is similar to what they do at
the Shipyard which also has residences in close
proximity and it has worked.”
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| The layout shows they plan to completely gut the former McDonalds. |
What’s interesting with their
statement “The staff is pleased to see that the floor plan submitted is for a
restaurant layout and not a combination restaurant/bar” is that the plans
actually do seem to show a bar area. You can see it clearly near the waiting area on the south end of the restaurant. This is an odd place for a waiting area considering that the north entrance seems to be the main entrance. The bar is clear as day, with its 18 bar stools, 4 fridges, and 2 large
10-seater high top tables. The bar area is similar to that of other restaurants, such as Hillstone or Dexter’s, minus a space for live music.
The other discrepancy in the staff report is the following statement:
If you look closely at the former PlayPlace area of the restaurant, those windows actually open up. That area is classified as "patio dining." A quarter of all the seating is located there. The patio area also has it's own door opening into the main "bar" area, disallowing the air conditioning to affect this patio dining area.
On a personal note, I love the idea of an outdoor patio. Since it will be along Orlando Ave, I don't believe sound will be an issue for the residential area, as the traffic itself is very loud already.
- "Staff is also pleased to see that all service is within the enclosed building and there is no outdoor patio seating or smokers patio on the exterior because then you can almost guarantee there would be noise complaints, late at night."
If you look closely at the former PlayPlace area of the restaurant, those windows actually open up. That area is classified as "patio dining." A quarter of all the seating is located there. The patio area also has it's own door opening into the main "bar" area, disallowing the air conditioning to affect this patio dining area.
On a personal note, I love the idea of an outdoor patio. Since it will be along Orlando Ave, I don't believe sound will be an issue for the residential area, as the traffic itself is very loud already.
The Pointe Orlando location seems to be a popular spot since its October opening. However, the inspection found three critical violations. One stuck out:
- “Critical. Identity of food or food product misrepresented. Shrimp & crab nacho plate contains imitation crab. Crab either to be printed as "Krab" on menu or menu to specify that "imitation crab" is used.”
The online menu lists the ‘Shrimp & Crab “Nacho” Plate.’ They either fixed this, or the Florida menus differ from those presented online.
The next health inspection for the Pointe Orlando location will around April 1st, around the opening of the Winter Park location. We'll see then if "krab" or "crab" appear on the menu there.
The next health inspection for the Pointe Orlando location will around April 1st, around the opening of the Winter Park location. We'll see then if "krab" or "crab" appear on the menu there.