As first reported by Ryan “More-Scoops-Than-An-Ice-Cream-Shop” Lynch for Orlando Business Journal, Foxtail Coffee Co. is expanding its original location in Winter Park and taking over three other retail storefronts in the same building to create a new compound similar in style to its multi-brand tenant concept south of downtown Orlando, the Hourglass Social House.
According to Foxtail co-owner Alex Tchekmeian, the ever-growing coffee company (they currently have 36 locations with an expected 60-65 by the end of the year according to Lynch’s original article) has taken over three leases in the former auto shop development to create a new umbrella concept that he’s calling the “Winter Park Social House.”
The former home of the Bear and Peacock is already undergoing extensive renovations to prep it to house the new home base for popular downtown craft cocktail bar, The Courtesy (Instagram), and Winter Park cool kid, Swine and Sons (Instagram). Both of these brands will be closing their current locations and sub-leasing their new homes at the new Winter Park Social House compound. Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream will be opening a new storefront in the building as well, where the Bear and Peacock’s former distillery room/liquor sales space was located. Each business will be operating independently and have its own, individual entranceways and operating hours – this is not a food hall.
Tchekmeian also shared that current building tenants Create Your Nature and Dolce Vita Salon will remain where they are for the foreseeable future.
Swine and Sons will be serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner from a revamped Foxtail’s Farmhouse counter and will be collaborating with The Courtesy on a special menu that they’re currently calling “BarSwine,” which will offer Southern-inspired small plates with aged cheeses and cured meats.
“I’m really looking forward to going back to doing breakfast again, which never really worked in our current space. The pandemic really forced us to limit our menu to chicken and burgers so this is letting us go back to our roots and go back to real plates and real forks.”
– ALEXIA GAWLAK, SWINE AND SONS
Swine and Sons are expecting to remain in its current location right up until the new space opens, with potentially one or two weeks off in between for training on new systems and workflow. They’ll also be adding a new 12-tap system to the Farmhouse bar that will feature a curated selection of local beers.
The Courtesy’s co-owner, Diana Zimmerman, told Bungalower that she was very excited to be a tenant in the building, saying, “We’re looking forward to elevating our wine program now that we’ll be in a space that offers food, but we’re really looking to keep our Courtesy feel and craft cocktail offerings that everyone’s come to know and love.” Their new home is larger than the current one on Orange Avenue with at least ten more seats and they are looking to collaborate with all of the neighboring businesses to take full advantage of the shared outdoor courtyard space with special events and pop-up programming.
The Courtesy’s last day in its downtown location is currently Sunday, May 15th. When asked about why they had made the decision to leave downtown after 10 years of business, Zimmerman shared, “While we’re so grateful to downtown and our amazing guests who supported us through the early days and the pandemic, it’s not the same downtown as when we opened. A lot of our core guests tell us they’re not comfortable coming downtown anymore. So we hope they’ll follow us to Winter Park instead.”
The new Winter Park Social House, which is located at 1282 N. Orange Avenue [GMap], is expected to open by late summer, just seconds away from Winter Park’s upcoming $3.1 million Progress Point urban park development, which will feature more public parking and outdoor community event programming.
