The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes (Web | Twitter | Facebook) is opening up a new restaurant called Highball & Harvest (“H&H”) in September 2014.
Featuring seasonal Low Country and Cajun-inspired cuisine from young, Southern-raised Chef de Cuisine Mark Jeffers, H&H will offer hyper-local dishes infused with Floridian citrus and ingredients from nearby purveyors as well as the resort’s own 7,000-square-foot Whisper Creek Farm, which opened in October 2012.
Ingredients from local farms and Whisper Creek Farm will be specifically noted on the restaurant’s seasonal, playful menu.
H&H’s railroad-inspired design will feature communal seating, a large bar/lounge area, a raw oyster bar (with chefs shucking oysters by hand), and custom hand painted dishware.
Signature dishes
Signature dishes
- H&H Pig-n-Potatoes: a decadent all-day breakfast dish
- House-made beef jerky
- Dips with pickled veggies presented in a rustic tackle box
The central Florida resort’s thirty-strong pastry team, that works magic baking everything from scratch, has created one of the restaurant’s most exceptional offerings: Parker House Rolls made from old-world Khorasan wheat, served up warm and moist with significantly less gluten than typical bread.
“The dishes we create at Highball & Harvest are designed to give restaurant-goers a sense of nostalgia,” says Chef Mark Jeffers, Chef de Cuisine for Highball & Harvest. “We are thrilled to showcase our kitchen’s extraordinary creativity in one of the first Ritz-Carlton casual dining outlets of its kind.”
The thirst-quenching heart of the restaurant will be an interactive cocktail table, where knowledgeable bar chefs muddle ingredients while instructing over carefully curated and personalized cocktail classes. H&H will offer a hand-crafted, seasonal cocktail menu—signature cocktails include:
- Moonshine “Whistle-Stop"
- "Green Acres” with house ginger beer and jasmine tea
- “Cranberry Cobbler” mixed with honey from the resort’s on-site apiaries
Most cocktails will be served on the rocks with hand-carved ice, sculpted bar side with a Japanese ice saw and often infused with herbs and citrus from Whisper Creek Farm.
H&H will also feature Central Florida’s largest selection of wines from the cask, carefully selected by Advanced Sommelier Kris Soto, to ensure perfect temperature control and freshness.
The opening of Highball & Harvest at The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes marks a series of improvements and renovations to the family resort in the coming year:
The opening of Highball & Harvest at The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes marks a series of improvements and renovations to the family resort in the coming year:
- The Kitchen: charcuterie, Whisper Creek Farm ingredients
- Orlando Nano Brewery