Brendan O'Connor

The local restaurant scene has a tendency to shift and ebb like sand in the desert, with what was once hot becoming, well, not, in the blink of an eye. Orlando’s fickle foodie preferences can mean lineups out the door to get a cookie one week and throngs of hungry diners trying to fit a $15 hot dog in their...

Orlando news, food and drink, entertainment and more

Rhode Island is a place I had never thought about, let alone really understood prior to a press tour I somehow tripped into this past October. It was somewhere between Narnia and Finland on the made-up ranking of places I knew were real but didn’t ever think I’d get to visit one day. To be frank, I usually got it...

Here is a handy list of some can’t-miss concepts that you’re going to want to carve some time out to visit.

Paranormal investigators Katrina Weidman and Heather Taddy visit the Cassadaga Hotel for their new show “Mysteries on the Map,” which debuts on Very Local this month. Illustration by Michellina Jones. Since I’ve been on this planet, I’ve seen some things, and not all of them are explainable. Mostly because I wasn’t really paying attention when they happened, or I’d taken...

4Roots Farm grows a wide variety of plants such as romaine lettuce headed for SeaWorld, kale, tomatoes, strawberries, carrots and edible flowers. Farming isn’t necessarily about getting your hands dirty anymore, y’all. Some people have even found a way to grow food without dirt. Hydroponic farming is revolutionizing agriculture and dining worldwide by merging technology with sustainability to create a...

Haunted Harvest; courtesy of Universal Orlando Resort Universal Orlando’s hotel bars are getting into the Halloween spirit with a new seasonal program called Fright and Drink Flights, in an effort to capture some of that Horror Nights black magic. Available across select Universal Orlando Resort hotels during this year’s Halloween Horror Nights season, the offerings feature limited-time tasting flights inspired...

Back to the 2025 Dining Awards Photo by ©André Klutz Best Instagrammable Restaurant: BACÁN BRENDAN’S PICKS BACÁN restaurant at the Lake Nona Wave Hotel is arguably one of the hottest spots in Orlando for Instagram-savvy foodies. With its open‑kitchen design, soaring ceilings, jewel‑toned seating, gold lanterns and a bold mural of Pachamama (an Andean Mother Earth goddess) by Amy Rader,...