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Chef Norman Van Aken, the founding father of new world cuisine, has opened a new Orlando restaurant dubbed Norman’s.
It is on Restaurant Row in the Dr. Phillips area at 7924 Via Dellagio Way.
Why this matters: New restaurants create jobs and business opportunities for local contractors and suppliers. They also help landlords lease up shopping centers and provide an amenity for existing residents and workers in the area, helping make developing areas more desirable.
Van Aken is the only chef in Florida who has been on the James Beard Foundation’s “Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America” list. He also won the coveted “Best Chef: South/Southeast” Award.
Further, celebrity Chef Wolfgang Puck has called Van Aken, who also is the author of seven books, “a true pioneer of the American food movement.”
Norman’s offers both fine-dinning and casual settings with menus inspired by new world cuisine, which incorporates flavors from Asian, American, Latin, Caribbean and African cuisine. The overall vision for Norman’s is an experience that tastes truly like home and patrons are able to taste the magic of Florida, said Van Aken in a prepared statement.
Van Aken and his longtime partner Kim Woods helped bring this vision for Norman’s to life. Woods started working with Van Aken in 2002, she helped open Norman’s Coral Gables and is a hospitality entrepreneur, handling more operational needs.
“We want to be able to enjoy our restaurants as we do other forms of entertainment,” Woods said in a prepared statement. “At Norman’s, we have created two distinct vibes — elegant fine dining in a modern setting and elevated al fresco dining in The Patio. It’s the perfect combination.”
This 7,300-square-foot restaurant has 80 seats in its main dining room, which is more of an intimate fine-dining setting. The inside features dark wood and a hand-cast brass bar. The main bar has a speakeasy vibe and there also are two private event spaces that can seat 24 and 16 guests, respectively.
Inside the main dinning room, menu items include tapas, appetizers, entrees and desserts, with items such as Brazilian-style shrimp, angus beef ribeye, pan-cooked filet of yellow tail and yuca-stuffed crispy shrimp.
The restaurant’s casual outdoor patio and bar area, which can accommodate up to 150 guests, has a separate menu featuring tapas such as pork dumplings and coconut shrimp hush puppies.
There are about 50 employees at this restaurant, Van Aken said.
This is not the first time Van Aken opened an restaurant here. In 2003, he opened a Norman’s at The Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grand Lakes, which was a semi-finalist for “Outstanding Restaurant in America” in 2019 — this location now is closed.
Check out the gallery above for a inside look at Norman’s Orlando.
Meanwhile, David Gabbai, executive managing director of retail services with Colliers in Orlando, who was not involved with the new eatery, said Florida restaurants should succeed in 2023.
“I feel the restaurant industry will fare quite well this coming year, but we likely will see a drop off in average unit volume across the board as belts/budgets start to tighten and inflationary pressures — and thus menu pricing increases — start to ease,” Gabbai said. “The general consensus among my peers is that Florida is likely to fare better than most of the other states during the upcoming economic downturn that most are expecting. The biggest reason is that we still have a net influx of people moving here. It’s as simple as that.”
The restaurant industry had a positive sales month in January 2023, with a 24% increase in preliminary sales volume when compared with the year-ago period, according to a recent report by the National Restaurant Association.
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