{"id":424387,"date":"2026-10-10T19:29:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T19:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424387\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T19:29:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T19:29:38","slug":"whats-old-is-nueva-again-at-the-grove-bar-kitchen-in-winter-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/424387\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s old is nueva again at The Grove Bar + Kitchen in Winter Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheCredit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing the pandemic taught the restaurant industry, it\u2019s that to pivot is to survive. In the post-COVID era, we\u2019ve witnessed prominent restaurants alter course for reasons ranging from strategic and economic to creative and philosophical \u2014 Eleven Madison Park\u2019s 2021 transition to a plant-based operation, and 2025 transition back to serving some animal products in 2025, being a prime example. Point is, there\u2019s no shame in reinventing one\u2019s business, or oneself. It takes a lot of courage, in fact. In the case of Chayote Barrio Kitchen<\/a> in Winter Park Village, the striking restaurant was the pride of chef Mario Pagan, a place where he showcased his \u201cNueva Mesa Latina,\u201d or \u201cNew Latin Table,\u201d with dishes celebrating the foodways of all Hispanic cultures. \u201cChayote was very, very special to me,\u201d the Puerto Rico-born chef says.<\/p>\n

But numerous factors \u2014 namely, a competitive market<\/a>, the rising cost of procuring ingredients from Latin America and the Caribbean, and the need for a more familiar menu for the Winter Park gentry \u2014 forced his lech\u00f3n-slicked hand and, thus, The Grove Bar + Kitchen was born. For Pagan, shifting to a Florida-centric restaurant not only allowed him to spotlight the bounty of the state, but presented a full-circle moment as well. The Grove\u2019s dishes are an interpretation of the fare he cooked while living in South Florida in the \u201990s, so, yes, tropical flavors are still very much present, but they\u2019re now applied in dishes that are, to use a term simultaneously loathed and respected by many a classically trained chef, \u201capproachable.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s a good thing that \u201cirresistible\u201d and \u201capproachable\u201d aren\u2019t mutually exclusive, because we couldn\u2019t get enough of beautifully deconstructed crab cakes ($26) with a potato croquette-latke base on which lay Pensacola blue crab with a spread of dry mustard aioli and a mango-papaya-mint salsa garnish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheBrisket lasagna Credit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n

\"TheCarpaccio Credit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n

Pagan was an architecture student prior to pivoting and becoming a chef, so no surprise that caviar-dressed Gulf yellowfin tartare ($27) layered on a disc of avocado-wasabi and puffed jasmine rice was so meticulously assembled, as if he and executive chef Monica Ortiz were channeling Bertrand Goldberg. The 12-layer brisket lasagna ($27) is a brutalist superstructure of shredded beef, with domes of ricotta and cherry tomato and spires fashioned from fried basil; the carpaccio ($23), a Roman mosaic floor of translucent Angus beef centered around a hillock of artichokes.<\/p>\n

\"TheHoney biscuits Credit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing overly engineered about The Grove\u2019s honey biscuits ($12). When I first tried them, they were a bit too dense. On my next visit, the fluffy rounds served with a pimento cheese spread, in addition to a Winter Park Honey butter because of an allergy at our table, made short work of dining protocol and etiquette. \u201cPlease, you have the last biscuit.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t mind if I do!\u201d That honey butter, BTW, needs to be bottled and sent away into space for future societies to study and enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"ThePork chop Credit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n

Indeed, an emphasis has been placed on comfort, and the deeply caramelized, luxuriously marbled Kurobuta double pork chop ($39), with a sensible side of local greens, oozes with it. A tropical smoked hibiscus barbecue glaze only enhanced the chop\u2019s porcine decadence. Pink trout ($27), butterflied, panko-breaded and seared in brown butter, is served with a grain mustard emulsion which we opted to have on the side. Pouring it over the fish would\u2019ve compromised its texture and mild flavor, a suggestion offered by our refined and experienced server.<\/p>\n

\"TheButterflied trout Credit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n

There\u2019s pizza as well (see: \u201capproachable\u201d), made with a sourdough crust, like the margherita ($19). It\u2019s a weighty pie, and if that\u2019s your thing, go for it. For us, it sat kinda heavy and, besides, we had all begun preparing our bellies for pastry chef Janelle Rodriguez\u2019s pancreas-pushing creations. If you\u2019re asking me to choose between her Key lime Basque cheesecake ($14) with warm blueberry marmalade, or the warm chocolate cake ($15) with Gianduja ganache, hazelnut ice cream and butterscotch crunch, you\u2019d be asking someone whose stomach demonstrates a reckless disregard for load-bearing walls. I will say that I nearly toppled over after a bite of the warm croissant pudding ($14) with dulce de leche ice cream.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019s the best way to think about The Grove: not as a demolition of Chayote, but a renovation. Pagan hasn\u2019t abandoned his Latin roots so much as opened things up to let Florida\u2019s ingredients shine through. The restaurant\u2019s name may have changed, but its foundation remains the same.<\/p>\n

The Grove Bar + Kitchen, 480 N. Orlando Ave., Winter Park, 321-343-3003, thegrovebarandkitchen.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Stay<\/p>\n

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This article appears in Oct. 7-13, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Matt Keller Lehman If there\u2019s one thing the pandemic taught the restaurant industry, it\u2019s that to pivot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[167186,116086,139,141,140,116088,116091],"class_list":["post-424387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-chayote-barrio-kitchen","tag-mario-pagan","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-the-grove-bar-kitchen","tag-winter-park-village"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}