Welcome to Monday Morning in Orlando
Quick reminder. If you’re in Orange County, early voting ends on November 1st. The fam dropped our ballots off on Satuday. Be there or be square. Here’s all the spots, and wait times!
In today’s issue: 👇
- Floor Buttons
- Rotten to the Core
- ZOLA
- ….and much more
Did someone forward this email to you? Join over 20K insatiably curious Orlandoans, right here.
Let’s dive in!
- Philip
P.S. Want some hawt community sourced foodie recommendations? Check out the Orlando Signal Restaurant Guide, right here.
(GREATER) ORLANDO REWIND ⏪
Velvet Handrails, Floor Buttons, and a Wrecking Ball
Since this is being heavily talked about, I had to dig into the history.
On the north shore of Lake Osceola, at 1020 Palmer Avenue, sits a Spanish Eclectic estate that has quietly defined a stretch of Winter Park for nearly 90 years.
Merrywood, the largest house architect James Gamble Rogers II ever designed, sold in August for $15 million, reportedly a record for a single residential lot in Winter Park. The new owner, Orlando businessman Steve Lockwood (yes, the Corkcicle guy), wants to tear most of it down. The Winter Park City Commission is deciding what, if anything, gets to stay.
The house was built in 1939 for Caroline Griggs Plant, a Chicago heiress who filed for divorce in 1911, a genuinely bold move for a woman of her standing, and spent her later years wintering in Florida. She hired Rogers, named the finished house with a nod toward cheerfulness, and died in Winter Park in 1947.
And the house she left behind? It’s something. The dining room has buttons built into the floor that once rang a bell in the kitchen, the signal for staff to bring out the next course. The entrance hall runs nearly 45 feet long. Triple arches open toward Lake Osceola. The stair railings are wrought iron, and at some point someone thought it was a good idea to wrap the handrail in velvet. It was a good idea.
Rogers was the city’s signature residential architect, and Merrywood was his biggest canvas. The November 11th commission vote will decide its fate.
🔔 The condensed version gets you caught up. The full article gets you obsessed. We’re talking a sunken courtyard, a boathouse, a rejected $12 million bid, and a commission vote with no guaranteed outcome. Read the full story here.
THE SQUEEZE 🍊
Rotten to the Core (In the Best Way)
Orange County launched its Residential Food Waste Diversion and Composting Pilot Program this past spring, and let’s just say, the interest was immediate.
More than 600 residents raised their hands, though just over 220 ultimately enrolled. The program, backed by the Board of County Commissioners, gave eligible households a free backyard composting bin or a food waste collection service trial. Smart move, considering food waste makes up roughly 10 percent of the millions of pounds hitting the Orange County Landfill every single day.
Seven workshops pulled in 330 attendees, 220-plus residents enrolled, and the knowledge they gained is already spreading, neighbor to neighbor, and in at least one case, grandchild to grandma.
From Healing Hands to Home Keys?
One of Orlando’s most storied properties may get the second act it deserves.
The Orlando Housing Authority snapped up the 5.3-acre former Guardian Care site on John Young Parkway for $2.75 million, with bold plans to bring 106 to 120 affordable housing units, health care services, and community amenities to the area.
The land once held the city’s first hospital dedicated to Black residents during segregation, a time when options for medical care in the community were painfully limited. Officials are dead set on honoring that legacy as the project barrels toward a three-year completion window.
(Get the full buzz on this storied Orlando property’s big next chapter with Amy Russo, right here)
A Nose for the Missing
Thousands of Floridians go missing every year, but in Central Florida, help has four legs and an extraordinary nose.
The Senior Resource Alliance, an Orlando nonprofit, helps fund a program called Bringing the Lost Home, putting trained bloodhounds to work alongside local law enforcement.
The dogs have sniffed out dozens of missing people since 2021: wandering seniors with dementia, missing children, and adults with autism among them.
So far, the program has tallied 131 successful finds.
With $400,000 in fresh grants, ten more dogs are hitting the trail.
👉 Check out Bringing the Lost Home, right here.
(Get the full buzz on the pup squad sniffing out Central Florida’s missing with Adrianne Flores, right here)
👉 Partner With Orlando Signal 👈
💼 Who’s Hiring in Orlando?
Sourced from the Orlando Signal Job Board!
🛒 Digital Marketing Specialist ClosetMaid / AMES Companies | Lake Nona, Orlando (Hybrid)
Own the digital shelf, email campaigns, and e-commerce experience for one of America’s oldest consumer brands, working across Shopify, Klaviyo, and Salesforce on a team that takes digital seriously.
💰 Competitive salary + full benefits | 👉 Learn More & Apply
🎪 Project Manager, Event Production 4Wall Entertainment | Orlando
Put your name on the lights behind Metallica, EDC, the NFL Draft, and Saturday Night Live, managing full production cycles for the entertainment industry’s most ambitious events.
💰 Competitive salary + 5% 401k match | 👉 Learn More & Apply
🧠 Case Manager Aspire Health Partners | Orlando
Help chronically mentally ill adults build real recovery plans, connect with community resources, and navigate the system with dignity at one of Central Florida’s most respected behavioral health organizations.
💰 $19.95/hour | 👉 Learn More & Apply
✈️ Supervisor, Payroll JetBlue Airways | Orlando (On-site)
Keep accurate, timely paychecks flowing to 26,000 JetBlue crewmembers while leading a team of payroll specialists and navigating SOX compliance, CBAs, and multi-state tax law.
💰 Competitive salary | 👉 Learn More & Apply
Check out 100’s of jobs on the Orlando Signal Job Board, right here.
✈️ Orlando’s best flight deal - Cobblestones and Caribbean flavor edition
500 years of history, year-round warm weather, no passport required, and the food will absolutely wreck you in the best possible way. San Juan in mid-November is firing on all cylinders. Hurricane season’s wrapping up, the crowds haven’t arrived, and Old San Juan is yours to wander. Walk the city walls at sunset, explore Castillo San Felipe del Morro with those jaw-dropping Atlantic views, and get lost in blue cobblestone streets lined with candy-colored colonial buildings. When hunger hits, Raices does classic Puerto Rican cooking right and the street mofongo alone justifies the flight. El Yunque rainforest in the morning, Condado Beach in the afternoon, cold Medalla at night.
Orlando (MCO) → San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU) for 248 bucks* (non-stop!), round-trip Thursday through Sunday, mid-November. See the deal.
*Price shown above is accurate as of the time this newsletter was sent.
TASTY NEWS 🧑🍳
Orlando Area Eateries Coming & Going
1️⃣ NOW OPEN: Mecatos Winter Park - Empanadas, Arepas, and Coffee Done Right
Mecatos Bakery & Cafe (Insta) has landed on Winter Park’s Morse Boulevard, filling the former Coop space with the flavors of Colombia. The menu spans empanadas, arepas, pastries, and cakes, but the real draw may be the in-house roasting of Colombian-imported coffee beans. It’s a café built from the source up, and it smells like it.
#ORLANDOSIGNAL 📸
Mexican artifacts inside Aguila coffee spot
📷 via @orlandosignal |📍Ivanhoe Village
Tag @orlandosignal to get your photo featured in the newsletter!
FOODIE FIND, FORK YEAH! 🤩
ZOLA Bar & Tables
📍1185 Spring Centre S Blvd #1080, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714. Map to this location.
Altamonte Springs’ new neighborhood haunt already feels like it’s been there for years. Zola Bar & Tables (Insta) is unhurried, welcoming, and built around good drinks and honest food.
The cocktail list is confident without being showy (the Toasted Banana Old Fashioned and Florida Heat Margarita are early standouts), the wine cellar holds over 600 bottles, and the kitchen turns out crowd favorites like Pan-Seared Grouper and a 32-ounce Tomahawk ribeye that turns any weeknight into an occasion.
Come for one drink. Stay for the evening.
👉 Check out the menu, right here 👈
Source: ZOLA Bar & Tables
MORE PULP! 😎
Weekday things to check out
MORE PULP! 😎
Weekday things to check out
CFCArts Stage 55 Presents: Pumpkins & Punchlines
Laughs, mysteries, and a little mischief. Save room for something wickedly fun.
Settle in for audience-driven improv, classic 1940s radio whodunits, and 5-minute mysteries to crack before the cast does.
Enjoy pre-show trick-or-treating or come in costume to be part of a contest!
Saturday, October 31st & Sunday, November 1st | 3:00 p.m. | Schaeffer Hall at St. John Church
No tricks. Just punchlines, and a little suspense.
Tap/Click here for more info & grab tix
🎭 REDRUM: The Unauthorized Parody Musical of The Shining
📅 Thursday, October 22nd
📍 Alexis and Jim Pugh Theater, Dr. Phillips Center
Jack Torrance picks up an axe and a microphone in this wickedly funny musical send-up of the Overlook Hotel. Catchy songs, creepy twins, and absolute chaos await!
👉 Here’s Johnny
🎃 Halloween Flix at the Garden: Poltergeist
📅 Tuesday, October 27th | 7pm
📍 Garden Theatre on Plant, Winter Garden
Classic horror in a historic theater for just $5. The ambiance alone will give you chills before the movie even starts.
👉 They’re Here
🧛 Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors
📅 Tuesday-Saturday, October 27th-31st
📍 Orlando Shakes
Five actors, dozens of characters, 90 minutes of gender-bending, quick-changing vampire chaos with a Mel Brooks twist. Perfect for every blood type on Halloween week!
👉 FANGtastic Fun
🎸 Last Wednesdays at A&H
📅 Wednesday, October 28th | 5:30-8pm
📍 Art and History Museums, Maitland
Free gallery admission, cash bar, curator tours, and sunset views over the iconic lily pond. Your Last Wednesday just got a whole lot more interesting.
👉 Art After Dark
🎤 Dolly Parton Tribute Show
📅 Wednesday, October 28th | 7pm
📍 Will’s Pub
Orlando’s finest musicians pay all-acoustic tribute to the GOAT with hits and deep cuts, followed by an after party with DJ Pawli Parton. Partial proceeds support children’s literacy!
👉 Jolene, Jolene
🎭 Last Wednesday Laughs
📅 Wednesday, October 28th | 8-10pm
📍 Downtown Orlando
Monthly comedy showcase packed with hilarious jokes, good vibes, and great company. The perfect midweek pick-me-up before Halloween weekend hits.
👉 Laugh It Off
🎵 DTOLive Artist Jam at Art²
📅 Thursday, October 29th | 5-8pm
📍 Art², 274 N Orange Avenue
No set lineup, no script, just Orlando’s best musicians showing up with instruments, taking requests, and creating something spontaneous. Food trucks on site!
👉 Pure Magic
🦄 Fables, Feathers, and Fins: Bach Vocal Artists
📅 Thursday, October 29th | 7:30-9:30pm
📍 Tiedtke Concert Hall, Rollins College
Unicorns, gorgons, and manticores take the stage in Menotti’s madrigal fable blending humor, satire, and gorgeous vocal storytelling.
👉 Mythical Music
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THANKS!
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Thanks for reading! I’ll see you again on Thursday’s weekend fun issue.
My Best,
Philip - Publisher, Orlando Signal
