Disney Springs expansion loaded with dining options
New restaurants and a “Star Wars” slice of virtual reality are part of the incoming wave of expansion at Disney Springs.
“Just in the next six months, there will be eight different locations opening. That’s not insignificant,” said Keith Bradford, vice president of Disney Springs.
Included are establishments such as Maria & Enzo’s, an Italian eatery with aviation-themed design; Enzo’s Hideaway, a tuckedaway spot with tunnels; Wine Bar George, a venture by Master Sommelier George Millotes; and the Edison, a long-awaited spot that basically stands where Pleasure Island’s BET Club and Adventurers Club were.
“We tend to want to find something unique and different that maybe the guests haven’t seen anywhere else,” Bradford said.
New offerings are important in
the food business, said Nick Valenti, CEO of Patina Restaurant Group, which is partnered with Disney on Edison, Maria & Enzo’s and Enzo’s Hideaway, in addition to the existing Morimoto Asia restaurant in Disney Springs.
“The restaurant business is tough. You need to have something exciting, something new. You need to continue to stay fresh,” Valenti said.
“We have some incredible architecture that we’re working with, and we’ve created our story that fits into the overall storyline of Disney Springs,” he said. Edison represents a power plant built in 1901. In the Maria & Enzo’s story, Maria learned to cook from nuns, and Enzo was a pilot, which dovetails nicely with the main dining space that represents an art deco air terminal from the 1930s, Valenti said.
The structures feature high ceilings, murals and, in Edison, a tall clock tower. Enzo’s Hideaway has a door with a little trapdoor, foyers, a tunnel area formed by arches and a graffiti wall.
“We expect this to become a local favorite in Orlando,” Valenti said. “It’s a little hidden. You have to know where to find it.”
Further into the future, two new restaurants at Disney Springs will have new concepts from star chefs. Look for Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill in the Town Center. Puck’s previous location on the western end of the complex closed, and that location will be taken by the underconstruction Jaleo from Chef Jose Andres. This maneuver began with talk with Puck about his new ideas, Bradford said.
“He was really excited about a new restaurant. We were also trying to make room for, obviously, Jaleo, which we’ve now announced,” Bradford said. “Literally, it just worked out as we had conversations with different chefs and different restaurant operators.”
In December, a virtual-reality experience with a “Star Wars” theme will open in the Marketplace side of Disney Springs. In the Void’s “Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire,” customers go undercover as stormtroopers in search of Imperial intelligence.
“We just think it’s a perfect blend of their creativity and our creativity and assets together,” Bradford said.
The facility is built to be flexible, he said.
“If you wanted to put a different overlay into that, a different Disney experience into that, that can be done almost instantly,” Bradford said.
Corporate partnerships run throughout Disney Springs, which added its Town Center section in spring 2016. For instance, the Vera Bradley outlet is allowed to interpret its designs in a Disney-fied way.
“We actually hide things in the pattern sometimes, so the flower might become a Mickey head. It’s a partnership between our organizations,” said Harry Cunningham, vice president of creative service.
Bradford said he is happy with occupancy at Disney Springs, which appears to have few vacancies. Any empty spot that “is not occupied is purposefully not occupied. I’ll just say it that way,” he said.
“We have plans for every one of them, and it’s just all about timing.”