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New York Times: 36 Hours in Orlando
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/01/travel/what-to-do-36-hours-in-orlando-florida.htmlDon’t equate Orlando with mouse ears and thrill rides: The city is a checkerboard of intriguing neighborhoods filled with galleries, shops and restaurants.
Ever since the early 1960s, when Walt Disney chose Central Florida as the location for his most extensive theme park, Walt Disney World, Orlando has been synonymous with mouse ears, thrill rides and daily parades. But most locals readily divulge that fantasy fulfillment has little to do with the real life of urban Orlando. From the downtown region heading north to well-to-do Winter Park, the city is a checkerboard of intriguing neighborhoods filled with historic bungalows, interesting galleries and cafes catering to the creative class. Nature is also a central attraction in the lake-filled city and suburbs that include warm springs preserves and parks with live oak stands. The glass-walled Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, opened in 2014, has given downtown a cultural bump, while homegrown creative endeavors include a new orchestra devoted to modern classics and unstarched performances.
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Make the Orlando Museum of Art (admission, $15) your first stop in erasing theme park stereotypes. It holds an engrossing collection of American art, including paintings by Thomas Moran, Georgia O’Keeffe and John Singer Sargent. But its contemporary galleries, featuring digital artworks by artists like Jennifer Steinkamp are, perhaps, most compelling. The museum annually awards the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art; last year’s finalists dealt with issues from social justice to violence in Syria. A new show, “State of Excellence: Treasures from Florida Private Collections,” runs through April 29, and focuses on European and American art.
snip
Set design does not begin and end with Disney, as the new Mathers Social Gathering lounge testifies. The downtown speakeasy-style bar resides on the third floor of a 19th-century furniture store. Patrons must find the hidden door in the foyer’s bookshelves to gain entry to the cavernous room with exposed brick walls and beams and conversation areas anchored by tufted leather couches and steamer-trunk coffee tables. Go at happy hour before the club-hoppers flood the place to indulge your design appreciation over a gin-and-cucumber Mathers Fizz ($15) and a bowl of roast fava beans ($8) served on silver platters.
Ever since the early 1960s, when Walt Disney chose Central Florida as the location for his most extensive theme park, Walt Disney World, Orlando has been synonymous with mouse ears, thrill rides and daily parades. But most locals readily divulge that fantasy fulfillment has little to do with the real life of urban Orlando. From the downtown region heading north to well-to-do Winter Park, the city is a checkerboard of intriguing neighborhoods filled with historic bungalows, interesting galleries and cafes catering to the creative class. Nature is also a central attraction in the lake-filled city and suburbs that include warm springs preserves and parks with live oak stands. The glass-walled Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, opened in 2014, has given downtown a cultural bump, while homegrown creative endeavors include a new orchestra devoted to modern classics and unstarched performances.
snip
Make the Orlando Museum of Art (admission, $15) your first stop in erasing theme park stereotypes. It holds an engrossing collection of American art, including paintings by Thomas Moran, Georgia O’Keeffe and John Singer Sargent. But its contemporary galleries, featuring digital artworks by artists like Jennifer Steinkamp are, perhaps, most compelling. The museum annually awards the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art; last year’s finalists dealt with issues from social justice to violence in Syria. A new show, “State of Excellence: Treasures from Florida Private Collections,” runs through April 29, and focuses on European and American art.
snip
Set design does not begin and end with Disney, as the new Mathers Social Gathering lounge testifies. The downtown speakeasy-style bar resides on the third floor of a 19th-century furniture store. Patrons must find the hidden door in the foyer’s bookshelves to gain entry to the cavernous room with exposed brick walls and beams and conversation areas anchored by tufted leather couches and steamer-trunk coffee tables. Go at happy hour before the club-hoppers flood the place to indulge your design appreciation over a gin-and-cucumber Mathers Fizz ($15) and a bowl of roast fava beans ($8) served on silver platters.
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