Drawing a vibrant crowd
City’s growth ushers in new kinds of businesses
MOUNT DORA — The mimosas are sold out of a window here, letting shoppers walk the streets of the lakefront downtown with drinks in hand.
Just a few years ago, the mimosa bar Bubbles + Juice and the marketplace that houses it didn’t exist.
Growth in this Lake County city about 40 minutes northwest of downtown Orlando is drawing more people to both live and play here.
More than 380 businesses have opened in Mount Dora in the past five years, city records show. At the same time, the population spiked from 12,370 in 2010 to 16,340 in 2020, a 32% increase, according to census data.
“Mount Dora’s always been a destination. Even 20 years ago, it was a destination,” said Michell Middleton, property manager for Mount Dora Marketplace. “The difference now mostly is in the demographics of who you see down here and where they spend their hard-earned dollars.”
At the marketplace, which opened in 2019, there are more
than two dozen spaces across two buildings for restaurants and small shops. Most are leased.
There’s craft beer from Wolf Branch Brewing Co., Lebanese food from Beirut Bites, and the mimosas from Bubbles + Juice. Upstairs, there’s the HandleBar cocktail lounge.
“Fifteen, 20 years ago, if you were 30, honestly there was no place to come downtown to come and have an incredible cocktail or a craft beer,” Middleton said. “You were limited to just a few places.”
Middleton, who is also a real estate agent and has been in Mount Dora for 25 years, said the Wekiva Parkway connecting nearby in recent years has allowed people to work in Orlando or Maitland while living in Mount Dora.
“I believe that 15 years ago, if you got out of college and tried to come back to Mount Dora and make a living, it was very difficult to do so,” Middleton said. “Now they’re able to live where they grew up and near their parents and still make a living.”
Still, more than a third of Mount Dora’s population is 65 and older, compared with about 10% in Orlando or 12% in Winter Garden, census data shows.
Tony D’Aurio, 28, moved to Mount Dora in 2018 from California for work as an animator at Steamroller Studios, a video game and film animation company.
The job, based in downtown Mount Dora, allowed him to be a shorter flight from his family in Connecticut compared with California.
D’Aurio was getting a picanha beef sandwich for lunch from Sub Marine Sandwiches in the Mount Dora Marketplace on a recent weekday.
“It’s very quaint, and there’s a lot of diversity and culture and just a lot of vibrancy to this town,” D’Aurio said.
Helping to feed the city’s energy is a 2018 law letting people walk around with their drinks in part of its historic downtown, empowering Bubbles + Juice to open up with to-go beverages.
Ben and Jenny Falcone came up with the idea for their mimosa bar “on the spot” after deciding another location of their Sir Benji’s Donuts wouldn’t fit the space.
Sir Benji’s Donuts has stores in Winter Garden and Clermont. Bubbles + Juice opened in 2019 with the market.
“We fell in love with Mount Dora and the Marketplace,” Jenny Falcone said. “It’s quirky. It’s weird. The people are fun.”
The Winter Garden couple remembers visiting the city as kids.
“I feel like the spirit and the culture hasn’t changed, but there has been like a bit of an infusion of like younger people around here,” Jenny Falcone said.
Mayor Crissy Stile said alcohol to-go wasn’t the only reason for the shift, but it “probably was the catalyst sort of for the younger population starting to move in this direction.”
She said when she arrived in the city 16 years ago stores were more kitschy gift shops and now they have become more unique.
Stile opened downtown’s Barrel of Books and Games in 2011 and saw her best year of sales in 2021. She attributed the success to customers out and about making the most of life following the pandemic keeping them inside their homes.
“We just never dipped down into that summer slump that we typically have,” Stile said.
With the growth, one concern echoing through the streets is a need to improve parking.
“Parking is the major issue in downtown,” said Akhtar Hussain, owner of Village Coffee Pot as well as Mount Dora Confectionary.
The City Council met Monday to discuss parking, including adding as many as 30 to 35 spaces downtown in the short term by using existing city right-ofway and by changing some parallel parking spaces into angled parking, Stile said.
“Wherever we can gain more spots, even if it is only a couple dozen spots, would be a welcome addition to help with our parking solution,” Stile said.
Finding a place to park wasn’t a problem when Hussain, originally from Pakistan, came to then sleepy Mount Dora more than 30 years ago and opened his coffee shop.
Now, the longtime business owner wants to see the city plan for its future.
“What is the vision for this town? Next five years, next 10 years, next 15 years,” Hussain said. “This country, this town, gave me everything. Love, care, business, my living.”