When
it’s a matter of Florida's legend of
tourism growth and foodservice growth, the
Universal Studios Escape resort and its main
restaurant partners began opening the doors
last week to a host of dining concepts at its
new Universal Studios City Walk shopping-entertainment
path here.
The debut of the 30-acre harbor
side complex, approximately 45 days before
the presentation of Universal's new Islands
of Adventure fantasy-theme park, brings to
life in the Orlando market 15 new eatery concepts,
several of them by well-known chefs and operator.
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City Walk also creates a new retail-oriented gateway
through which some 20,000 daily guests now enter
the 9year-old Universal Studios Florida theme park
and another 25,000 visitors will reach Island of
Fantasy.
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One
of City Walk's most significant attractions
will be Emeril's, part of the restaurant group
run by small screen pop idol Emeril Lagasse,
whose cooking career began at Commander's Palace
in New Orleans and sustained with the chefs
original Emeril's and Nola restaurants there
and, more of late, a second Emeril's in Las
Vegas.
Patterned in part after the hugely
successful CityWalk mall at Universal City
in Los Angeles, Orlando's new CityWalk boasts
a total of 4,000 dining seats in such places
as a 650-seat Hard Rock Cafe, the largest ever
built, as well as Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville,
NASCAR Cafe, NBA Restaurant, Pat O'Brien's,
Bob Marley's.
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A Tribute to America, Motown Cafe and 7 other concepts
keyed to the theme of "originators" in
music, amusement and dining.
"We're the new kid on the block with City Walk,
and we're going to tear things up here in Orlando,"
said Universal Studios Escape's executive chef and
foodservice vice president, Steven Jayson, the 10year
veteran of Universal who started the Universal Studios
Florida Park in 1990.
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