PHOTO VIA TUCKER/HALL
“The Chef’s Table and The Tasting Room will continue operating at their current location without interruption throughout the transition, with the new Bond Building locations expected to open in mid-2027. Additional details regarding the Edgewater will be announced separately when the plans are ready.”
– ALICIA HAVARD, GENERAL MANAGER
The Chef’s Table and The Tasting Room announced Thursday they will relocate from the 1927 Edgewater Hotel to the historic Bond Building at 2 and 12 W. Plant Street [GMap] in downtown Winter Garden, with both restaurants expected to open in their new homes in mid-2027. Service at the current location continues uninterrupted in the meantime.
The Edgewater Hotel opened January 26, 1927, and has been a cornerstone of downtown Winter Garden ever since, serving as a high-class getaway for businessmen and celebrities like Clark Gable in the 1920s and later housing soldiers waiting to go overseas during World War II and construction crews building Walt Disney World. The Bond Building they’re moving into predates even that, built in 1912 by civic leaders James L. Dillard and Benjamin T. Boyd as the first brick building in downtown Winter Garden after the 1909 fire.
Kevin and Laurie Tarter founded The Chef’s Table in 2008 and were, as food critic Scott Joseph once wrote, “ahead of the Winter Garden renaissance” when they opened their restaurant inside the hotel. The Chef’s Table was named Best New Restaurant in Orlando in its first year and earned Florida Trend‘s Golden Spoon Award. The Tasting Room followed in 2011 and was voted Best Appetizers in Orlando by Orlando Magazine readers. Together the two concepts grew to nearly 200 seats, all served from that original small kitchen.
The Bond Building plans call for a dramatically larger kitchen, expanded dining rooms for both concepts, multiple private dining and event spaces on the second floor overlooking Plant and Main streets, and expanded covered outdoor dining. General Manager Alicia Havard and the existing management team will remain in place, and new hiring is expected ahead of the 2027 opening.
The restaurants are now operated by Jim Larweth, founder of Anton Hospitality Holdings and Anton Property Investors, whose company has purchased several downtown Winter Garden properties in recent years. “When Kevin and Laurie entrusted us with these restaurants, we made a commitment to honor what they built and protect the people and guest experience that made it special,” Larweth said. “This expansion is that commitment in action.”
We’ve reached out to Larweth’s PR group asking what will be moving into the former restaurant space in Egdewater Hotel but had not heard back at the time of this post.
