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Generous Servings Of Disney Magic
Ever since Disney executives realized that the eating experience was a vital, integral part of the magic, Mickey's culinarians, led by talented chefs, working with food and beverage managers, have been improving the total package mightily.
Team Disney walked away with enough gold and silver at the Culinary Olympics in Germany and Switzerland to open a bank. The Disney Culinary Apprenticeship program has proved to be a powerful three-year inspirational training ground, providing the personnel for new restaurants opening all over the giant campus.
Other key players have been recruited in Orlando, across the country and in Europe, as the gastronomic imagineers have dedicated themselves to making Disney World "a cutting-edge destination," one with "great family service and spectacular, quality dining," in the words of the vice president of food and beverage, Dieter Hannig. In the '80s, Empress Lilly was the class act; and in the '90s, it's Victoria & Albert's in the Grand Floridian (407/824-1089), a jackets-and-reservations-required, ultra elegant enclave where the elite meet to eat - $80 fixed price menu; $110 with wine pairings from their extensive cellar offering some 350 selections. The six-person chef's table, where you can watch super chef Scott Hunnel up close, is reserved months in advance.
Another stellar example of goal-surpassing success is the California Grill on the 15th floor of the Contemporary Resort (407/824-1576) where manager George Miliotes and chef Cliff Pleau are dazzling diners. George reflects a fair share of his family's skills: Chris' House of Beef was for many years one of Florida Trend's l00 Best Restaurants. Cliff cut his culinary teeth French style at Chicago's highly regarded Le Ciel Bleu.
The menu changes regularly, but it always represents absolute freshness and made-from-scratch originality with sushi and tempura chefs, wood-fired grill, brick pizza oven, rotisserie grill and an overdose of open kitchen imagination and interchange. Pleau's platoon of chefs uses 23 varieties of tomatoes, 70 pounds worth, every night during the June to November growing season, and they all come from the same farm in California. They're picked one day, shipped the next and served 24 hours later.
There are similar exclusive arrangements with California wineries bottling in magnums to supply the 100-label list, all of them available by the glass and most of them dramatically displayed at the striking bar. Responsible for the California dreaming layout is brilliant designer Marty Dorf, who managed to make his interior almost as appealing as the panoramas of Walt's Wonderful World and especially appealing at sunset or during the nightly fireworks. Dinner only is served and the price ranges are $6 to $10 for appetizers and $15 to $25 for entrees.
Flying Fish Cafe
407/939-2-FLY
Disney's BoardWalk Resort
Just opened in October, Marty Dorf recreated the spirit of Coney Island in his highly original representation of roller coaster, ferris wheel and parachute jump (with flying fish no less), all as backdrop for the creations of chef John State, who was also at Chicago's Le Ciel Bleu as well as Entre Nous and a couple of California headliners. He brings in his produce from the West Coast and his seafood from anywhere it's fresh, devising in his display kitchen such "Chef's Thunder" as seared ahi tuna with spiced coriander crust; pan-seared day boat scallops with vegetable risotto; fried crisp calamari, rock shrimp and catch of the day with cranberry bean stew and lemon pepper aioli; grilled center cut pork chop with braised cabbage, cheddar-sprinkled potatoes and bourbon-spiked apples. For finishers, you can order natural fruit sorbets with twisted almond corkscrew cookie or apple tarte Tatin with ginger ice cream. Dinner, with entrees $16 to $24.75, is served nightly.
Spoodles
407/WDW-DINE
Disney's BoardWalk Resort
Another newcomer on the BoardWalk, opened June 30, 1996, this indoor-outdoor cafe specializes in vegetarian fare with a fair sampling of the Mediterranean - insalata Caprese (tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil), Greek hillbilly salad, pizza, pasta, tapas peque-os and tapas grandes. My favorites are the potato-crusted salmon with wild mushrooms and truffle oil in veal broth; grilled lamb chops with couscous; grilled octopus with tabbouleh and parsley oil; and spicy shrimp with garlic, garbanzos and spinach. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with entrees $9 to $22, are served daily.
Fulton's Crab House
407/934-2628
Disney Village
The Levy brothers from Chicago, Larry and Mark, brought their expertise south, converting the old, permanently moored paddlewheeler Empress Lilly into a seafood emporium where chef Ron Pollack is so proud of his fresh seafood selections he posts the air freight bills of lading by the front entrance. For lunch I like their seafood chowder, chopped salad and shrimp in the rough, and for dinner the clam bake, Nantucket Bay scallops baked with sourdough breadcrumbs, a classic cioppino, grilled vegetable platter or the Crab Experience for Two with dungeness, Alaskan king, snow and Florida white crab steamed and served with creamed spinach and hash browns. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with entrees $14.95 to $42.95 (the cost of the Australian lobster tail with drawn butter), are served daily. Levy's other Disney operations are the nearby Portobello Yacht Club and the Fireworks Factory in Pleasure Island.
Gulliver's Grill
407/934-1281
Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
270 years after Jonathan Swift's book about the remarkable travels of Lemuel Gulliver was published, linguists and satire lovers can delight in a dinner of Brobdingnag Fleek Kuhle, Schwompchomper Flapper, followed by Splacknuck Metropolis, Blushklooshen, Woolbaah de Sokin and such Aaahsneers as Bizkit and Kuhle. Reading from left to right, that means chilled jumbo shrimp cocktail, Cajun gator tail, New York steak, red snapper, rosemary-marinated loin of lamb and desserts of pastries, sorbets and ice cream. Dinner, with entrees $17.50 to $28.95, is served nightly.
... and at Celebration, Disney's planned community four miles from the Magic Kingdom [FT, "Building A Town From Scratch," November 1996] ...
Max's Cafe & Coffee Shop/Bread Alone Bakery
407/566-1144
Celebration
The partnership team of Dennis Max and Burt Rapoport, whose eight restaurants in South Florida gross some $25 million annually, opened this diner with bakery alongside in October. It's an updated clone of their operation with the same names in Boca Raton's Mizner Park and features a wide range of comfort foods, including meatloaf, good enough to rival in number the l25 orders which are requested at the l950s-style Prime Time Cafe at Disney-MGM Studios. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, with entrees $6 to $13, are served daily.
Max's Grille
407/566-1141
Celebration
This Max-Rapoport bridgehead is another spinoff from Mizner Park's bistro of the same name and it has the same kind of display kitchen with bar and dining area accommodating 175. Executive chef in charge is Rocky Tarantella with a resume that ranges from Square One in San Francisco to the Astor in South Beach, and he's raised the levels of rotisserie grilling to new heights, emphasizing fresh, fresh, fresh just as surely as the other front-running newcomers in Disney World. Lunch and dinner, with entrees $8 to $22, are served daily.
