Since April 1 of this year, Park Avenue has surely been more delicious!
Just as small business people across the country were scrambling to figure out what Covid-19 meant for them as their customers were spending much more time at home, one long-time delighter of Local palates relocated to Brandywine Square in the former home of the beLUVed Brandywine Deli.
George John Paul – his full name – has long embraced a connection to The Beatles. Not because he so LUVed the music, but because the name he inherited from his father – he’s a junior – made him, one man, just a Ringo short. He and Ringo – a ceramic bulldog given to him by a customer several years ago – along with a massive volume of Beatles and bulldog décor, mixed with much else celebrating Florida, moved George’s Cookies & Catering from the Lee Road location he’d operated for a number of years to begin a new chapter on Park Avenue as George’s Cafe.
Actually, there was a short stint in the same space starting in 2013, as he worked for Brandywine Deli’s immediate successor, The Tiffany Deli. But he wasn’t the owner of that effort, came to be associated after much kitchen equipment he owned was purchased for it. This go around, it’s the same location and it’s all him.
Well, it’s sort of about him. But never will be entirely. His Mom & Dad, with menu items named for them, are ever present. The Puddsy is named for a nickname of his father. The Pearl for his mother, as well as the 1933 Salad (and made-from-scratch dressing), his version of the 1905 Salad from the famed Columbia Restaurant in Tampa. His mother was born in 1933. Of course, being a LUVer of bulldogs, The Bella, The Abigail and The Lillie are all named for three of his bulldogs over the years.
George’s family owned a Holiday House Restaurant on Orange Blossom Trail starting back in the late 1960s. George attended Bishop Moore Catholic School, along with his five brothers. On Thanksgiving Day 1977, his father suffered a stroke and his plans to join the Catholic priesthood seemed at least paused, as he went to work to help in the 250 seat restaurant, which also did a considerable catering business.
Those events opened the door to a relationship which may have been the real origins of his LUV and passion for cooking. A black gentleman named Alan Kimbel then worked for their Holiday House Restaurant, after working for 50 years as the head chef for Morrison’s Cafeteria. “He taught me how to cook, George says. “He was one of the only ones who would let me be in the kitchen.” This was entirely where and from whom he learned to cook. “That’s how I learned.” He's proud now to note the soulful influences in his preparation, the delicious rich flavors brought to dishes thought of as simple.
In 1989, the restaurant was sold but the new owner folded operations within a year. The location was rented and became a wide variety of Chinese buffet restaurants over the years. But the catering operations were continued by George and his Mom, moved to Orange Avenue in Winter Park.
A family friend & priest, Pat O’Neil, once told George: “You can serve God in a lot of different ways. You’ve been called in a different direction. You can’t leave your Mom. And I never did.”
George and his Mom worked together side by side until she passed away in 2010. He continued that business a few years more by himself, until liquidating in 2012, selling off equipment, including all that was purchased for The Tiffany Deli.
It was that spring of 2012, even before The Tiffany Deli, when he seriously began thinking a restaurant might be part of future efforts, the opportunity to show off his dishes daily to a new audience, as well as existing fans. He even thought it might be called "The Yellow Submarine."
George was on Park Avenue with Alice, his long-time companion, attending an event I now miss dearly, the annual Doggie Art Fest organized by The Doggie Door. “We were done and Alice said let’s go get lunch.” She suggested Brandywine Deli, a place George had never eaten previously. As so many things in his life, it was fortuitous.
“So we were sitting here and I said to Alice, this is what I’d like to do," said once they were seated at a table. And right after I said that – and this is the honest to God’s truth – there was a lady standing up here at the counter. And she said I’m so sorry, I read in the paper, is today your last day? And the lady said, yeah, we’re closing after all these years. And so I walked up and said, did I just hear that correctly? And she says yes, today we’re closing. And that was so ironic that that was the day I ate in here. The last day. So that was in 2012, because that’s the year I closed the catering company.”
Tiffany Deli was initially to be an Italian Restaurant. But after being asked his opinion, George said he thought that would be a mistake. "I told him because people associate this place with Brandywine’s and that’s what I’d do, maybe pick it up a notch. But he said the guy he was working with wasn’t interested in doing that. So I told him he needed to find someone else. So, he said what are you doing?" And he joined the effort, had it up and running in a month.
Within six months of opening, The Tiffany Deli had been awarded “Best Deli in Orlando” by one publication, but with other challenges, was closed within a year. After that, he established a relationship with a restaurant on Lee Road to begin servicing catering events from their kitchen. About a year later, he opened his own space just a few doors down from them.
That space did well for several years, and his catering operations continued to grow. George, including time with his mother, has catered for both the University Club of Winter Park and two Rotary Clubs for over 30 years. But we Winter Parkers can get a bit demanding when it comes to driving to eating destinations. And I’m pretty certain there are those among us who brag about not having crossed 17-92 for ever-growing durations of time. We prize close proximity. The Lee Road location did well, but the location was no ideal. If George didn’t know that before, he’s begun to understand it since April 1, seeing familiar faces even more regularly, as well as a growing number of first-timers.
“The day Alice and I signed the lease we drove around and we were up front there, and I said to her, I never realized how beautiful this place was, the whole atmosphere, being across from the church. I said It feels like home.” He explains that during the time he was working at The Tiffany Deli, he often came and went, didn’t get out of the kitchen a lot.
Now, he says, “Thank God they came to us. We didn’t go to them. They came to us. He said everybody wants you back there,” he shares of the events which led to the new Park Avenue space. “And I said this is so ironic. (His lease was expiring.) We can make this work. And they’ve been wonderful, the Roberts have been wonderful. This was a win win for everybody. It’s been a blessing from God.”
While you can get all your George's favorite sandwiches, salads and cookies at the new location, effective this weekend, he is offering breakfast for the first time. I ate there on Thursday and can promise his breakfast creations are worthy to accompany the same menu. Truly, it was delicious!
I talk about them bringing new energy to far north Park Avenue. “I think we’ve created some of it and can extend on it,” he says, surely with a sense of pride. “And to think about what we’ve done has been in the midst of one of the worst times.”
"I LUV what I do. Don’t know I’d do anything else. I don’t know anything else."