Florida Foodie

The Florida Foodie Team Talks To Karen Zielke. Karen and her husband, Mike, are the founders of Chuluota Free Vegetable Distribution. a grassroots effort to help their community. Twice a month, the couple creates up a pop-up farmers market in front of VFW Post 10139 in Chuluota.

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The owners of Black Rooster Taqueria have plenty of reason to celebrate.

The restaurant owners, John and Juliana Calloway, are getting ready to mark five years in business in the heart of Orlando’s trendy Mills 50 district. At the same time, the couple is working on opening up a second location in another up-and-coming part of the city, the Hourglass District.

It’s a plan the pair have been working on for years but thought they would have to put it on hold as the pandemic hit. 

“We looked and looked and then we just couldn’t find the right thing and then 2020 hit and we were like ‘okay, maybe let’s pause,’” Juliana Calloway said. “And then all of a sudden this space became available and now our biggest thing was outdoor seating.”

The Calloways say the new location on the corner of Curry Ford Road and South Crystal Lake Drive will offer the outdoor seating that’s become such a hot commodity since the pandemic began. The new restaurant is also double the space of their Mills 50 spot and which will allow them to expand their catering business and their menu.

The couple says the new location is likely to open sometime over the summer, but they also say their expansion plans do not end there.

“I think we just want to try to continue to grow our company,” John Calloway said. “Keep being a part of the community and involved with Orlando and, down the road, open up another location or two.”

You can hear their entire conversation with Candace Campos on the latest Florida Foodie where the Calloways share how they’ve managed to navigate the pandemic and thrive. They also explain the origin of the black rooster they named their business after.

Be sure to follow our host, News 6 anchor Candace Campos, on Twitter and Facebook.

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Food Insecurities are a real issue for many communities right now. The need has stretched many food pantries to their limits. The Florida Foodie team talks to Stephanie Bowman, Founder and CEO of One Heart For Women and Children about what it's like to feed anyone in need right now during the Pandemic.

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Kwame Boakye knows that hard work pays off. He is from Akron, OH and was raised primarily by his grandmother, as his mother worked multiple jobs to support them. Boakye says, took that work ethic to school and received several degrees, included an MBA.

He applied that knowledge to some previous businesses, but, a little more than a year ago, he decided to start Chicken Fire. The food cart served up what he called “soulful hot chicken.” Despite being born and raised in the Midwest, Boakye says his grandmother was from the South and brought that heritage into her cooking. It’s a tradition he carries on with Chicken Fire.

The food cart started in October of 2019. Things were going well, but about five months in we all started feeling the effects of the pandemic. Stay-at-home orders forced many businesses to close, but much of the food service industry was allowed to stay open. Boakye says, his business stayed open the entire time and he was able to retain his employees, even though things looked grim at times. Despite those challenges, Boakye used Chicken Fire as a way to give back the community by providing free meals to kids who were out of school.

Through all of that, Chicken Fire ultimately flourished. So much so, that the business has grown, the trailer where it got started is retired and Chicken Fire is now moving into it’s first brick-and-mortar location in Orlando’s Coytown neighborhood.

Boakye tells us all about his business and the ups and downs that brought him to this big moment. He also shares his thoughts on how much spice is too much and the must have meal for anyone checking out Chicken Fire for the first time.

Be sure to follow our host, Candace Campos, on Twitter and Facebook.

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Doug Miller is a man who appreciates what he has. He now owns three restaurants after he was able to retire early from his previous career in sales. His most recent location in just recently opened. However, his life started out far differently.

Miller’s parents died when he was young, and he ended up in an abusive home. From there, he bounced from foster home to foster home. He spent 12 years in foster care. During that time, he says food was often scarce.

In his years since leaving foster care, cooking became a hobby and feeding others was a way for Miller to show others how much he cares. It’s a practice he carries over into his chain of restaurants,

FK Your Diet. The “FK” stands for foster kid. Millers says, he wants to make sure every customer leaves with some extra food, offering generous portions that guarantee leftovers.

But, his efforts to give back extend beyond his meals. He also makes efforts to hire other people who have gone through the foster care system, along with others who might need a second chance.

Miller shares his experiences in the foster care system and how he was able to hustle, starting several businesses along the way. He also shares some of the problems he ran into with the name early on, before eventually winning people over.

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Chef Nick Aikens has spent much of his life in the kitchen with his family. He got his start working for his aunt in 1952. Since then, he’s served meals to Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presely, but, above all, Aikens says he is “cooking for the people.”

He now runs his own restaurant with his wife and his daughter. Over the last 20 years, Nikki’sPlace has become a staple of Orlando’s Parramore neighborhood. Aikens started the restaurant in 1999, naming it after his daughter Shannea “Nikki” Akins, who will eventually take over the business.

The restaurant’s standing in the community is a fact that is not lost Aikens. He and his daughter know the business would not be around without their customers, especially through the hard times brought on by the pandemic. They say people regularly stop by for a meal, saying they are coming in just to make sure their business can stay open.

Nick and Shannea join us to talk about what makes their soul different from what people might expect and how they are giving back to the customers who help keep them going.

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The coronavirus pandemic has forced thousands of Floridians out of their jobs, many of whom worked in the food service industry. Chef Francisco Cortes had just started a new job in March at B Resort and Spa. Seven days later, he was laid off. What followed was a months long job search that ended up being fruitless. Then, he got a call saying a player inside the NBA bubble needed someone for meal preparations. As it turns out, Oklahoma City Shooting Guard Hamidou Diallo, needed someone to prepare meals for him. That was the start of Cortes' rebound.

Cortes has had experience feeding professional athletes, he spent years working as a cook for the Atlanta Braves, and he was able to secure the job of preparing meals for Diallo.

Since then, he has started Simple as 123 Meal Prep and Catering.

Cortes shared with us the work he’s had to put into starting his own business in the middle of the pandemic, what his plans are for the future and also, some of the favorite dishes of the athletes he’s worked with.

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Neal Crosier has been dealing with a lot of change in the last couple of years.

He and his wife moved to Central Florida from Chicago for the weather, unsurprisingly. Then, in 2017, the couple opened their business, Popcorn Junkie, in the heart of Orlando’s Parramore neighborhood, an historically black and underserved community.

Since opening up their store, Parramore has gone through a lot of changes of its own. More affordable housing has moved into the area, along with restaurants and businesses. At the same time, Crosier and his wife have been working to preserve the history of the area, while continuing to build it up.

Then, the Covid-19 Pandemic hit and, like so many other businesses, Crosier was forced to pivot and adapt his business model to stay open. Amid that, the nation has seen a sweeping push for racial justice and equality, bringing a new attention to Black-owned businesses and encouraging an effort to support them.

Neal Crosier shares his story with the hosts of Florida Foodie, explaining how Popcorn Junkie came to life and what’s changed for him during the pademic. He also talks about how he is supporting other people who want to start their own businesses.

Please, follow our hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos, on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out Lisa’s children’s books, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.”

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Bars and craft breweries have been closed across the state of Florida since June 26th, after contact tracing linked several outbreaks of the Coronavirus to bars, according the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Craft breweries are calling that move unfair. Business owners say, their breweries are distinct from bars in that most are not open late and do not cater to the same type of close contact socializing.

Because of that the Florida Brewers Guild has issued an open letter to Governor Ron DeSantis and the head of the DBPR, Halsey Beshears. The letter paints a grim picture of the state of Florida’s craft breweries. It states that a majority of the state’s 320 craft breweries are working on a “to-go” only model of business, which typically only represents 10% of sales for the those businesses. It also states that at least 100 craft breweries are on the verge of closure.

To learn more about these problems and what the Florida Brewers Guild would like to see done about it, we sat down for a conversation with Glenn Closson, the CEO of Ivanhoe Park Brewing and the Treasurer of the Florida Brewers Guild.

He tells us about the frustrations many breweries are facing and how they are willing to compromise and work with the state to keep people safe while staying in business.

Since we recorded this on conversation, the head of the DBPR announced that he would be meeting with bars and breweries across the state, starting on Friday, July 31st, to discuss ideas on how those businesses can safely reopen.

Be sure to follow our host, Candace Campos, on Twitter and Facebook.

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he coronavirus pandemic is leaving a devastating financial impact on Central Florida. It has forced millions of furloughs and lay offs across the state, forcing people onto unemployment, unable to make ends meet.

That is forcing more people to rely on food banks to feed themselves and their families. Second Harvest Food Bank is working to help bridge the gap for those people. The food bank is seeing roughly double the amount the families it would normally help. Even with the state beginning to reopen, the demand remains high.

The Florida Foodie team spoke with Dave Krepcho, the president and CEO of Second Harvest, to talk about the need for food assistance here in Central Florida. He also talked about how the food bank is preparing for hurricane season amid this pandemic and how people can get involved in helping those in need.

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