Three new food and beverage businesses are about to open in two vacant buildings at the corner of South Florida Avenue and East Belmar Street in Dixieland.
One of them – By the Chef Pizza – is ready for a sneak preview, scheduled to start around 1 p.m. today at 1212 S. Florida Ave. That is the building that previously housed Biscuits and Benedicts and other restaurants.
The former flower shop next door will be home to a wine bar and high-end ice cream shop. The Wine Garden plans to open there by the beginning of March. Bright Ice Scoop Shop plans to open there in early 2025, according to its Facebook page.
Pizza
By the Chef Pizza will open for good sometime in January, according to owner Peter Garces, 32, a Brooklyn native who moved to Lakeland last year.
“I wasn’t going to stay. The food scene is different here. But Catapult offered all of the resources I needed to get started,” said Garces.
Garces joined Catapult at the beginning of 2024 and said the non-profit business incubator assisted him with getting his business off the ground.
Garces grew his pop-up business by selling pre-ordered pizzas at Catapult; he also sold pizzas often at BrewHub and to pickleball players at Lone Palm Golf Club.
Moving to Lakeland: Garces said he was living in Brooklyn when his neighbor’s house burned down in 2020, causing his home to also go up in flames. His parents moved to Lakeland in a home they had bought for his grandparents, and he eventually joined them in February 2023. About a year later, he joined Catapult.
Before the house fire, Garces said he was making a name for himself as a pizza chef. After dropping out of culinary school to pursue on-the-job training, Garces said he worked at numerous pizza shops in New York City.
“I’ve been trained by the best pizza places in New York. I worked there,” Garces said.
Offerings: Garces plans to offer two styles of pizza: New York style and a square deep dish focaccia pizza. Pizzas will also be available by the slice.
“I don’t rush fermentation. I don’t take the dough straight out of the fridge and throw it into the oven. The dough has to rise before you start making pizza. Everything we do is with the skill of a chef,” Garces said.
Garces’ customers will not be able to build their own pizzas; they can request pizzas come without cheese; he’s working on a gluten-free focaccia deep-dish option.
Once the restaurant opens in January, it initially will serve customers every day except Mondays and Tuesdays, Garces said; opening time will be noon with closing at 10 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Wines, cheeses and charcuterie
A dream come true: Brophy’s professional life has revolved around wine. She’s worked in fine-dining restaurants in New York, Italy and Charleston. Her most recent position was with Rosenthal Wine Merchant, which imports European wines. She said she ran their California distribution operations, before they sold to a private equity company.
A year ago, a friend who knew her lifelong dream of opening a wine shop told her that this location was available.
“I couldn’t be more excited … This is what I have wanted to do for 25 years and is the culmination of all my experience,” Brophy said. “Upon graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, my mother tried to convince me to open something here in Lakeland. I wasn’t ready and needed to gain more experience, but I used to say to her that Petals building would be the perfect place to do what I envisioned.”
The Wine Garden will offer wines, cheeses and charcuterie – freshly cut to order as well as grab-and-go options. It will include a full-service wine bar, with a selection of wines by the glass that will change daily.
Brophy said gourmet sandwiches will be available during lunch hours.
“There will be a broad selection of wines from around the world, available for retail sales, along with a wine club for serious wine-loving individuals … People will also be invited to buy a bottle from the retail shelves to enjoy on the premises with an added but reasonable corkage fee,” Brophy said.
Brophy also plans to offer non-alcoholic wines.
Ice cream
Bright Ice serves small-batch ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, iced and hot coffee and milkshakes. Peach crisp, alligator tracks, and peppermint park are currently its most requested flavors.
Vacant Space: The property By The Chef Pizza is moving into was previously occupied by Biscuits and Benedicts, which closed on February 20, 2024 after being open for nearly two years.
Before then, the building housed the Latin-fusion restaurant Nineteen61, which has moved to a much larger downtown location. Previous tenants include a vegan restaurant and a sandwich-and-salad bistro.
The building on the corner across the patio where the Wine Garden and Bright Ice is moving into was occupied until 2019 by Petals the Flower Shoppe. According to Polk County property records, New Petals LLC bought the property for $1.37 million in 2023.
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