Hot Krust Panini kitchen is, hands down, my  new favorite lunch place. I don’t give five stars very easily, but this place definitely deserves it. When I walked in, I thought that it was so clean, so professional looking, so well run, and the employees so nice and well trained, that it must be a new chain concept that I hadn’t heard of yet here in Orlando. But no, in a pleasant surprise,  I found out that it’s a Mom and Pop place. In fact, the owners have been there every time I’ve been in. One of them, Evan, was the subject of my live caricature I did the other day while I was in for lunch. You can see that drawing above. ( Drawn completely on my new Toshiba Encore Write 2, btw, for all of you techies and artists out there ).

Now about the food. All the meats at Hot Krust are fresh and natural ( Hello, “Catch of the Day”! My last visit here, the catch was… SHARK. Delicious!). The sheer variety of sandwiches is amazing. And plus… they have GLUTEN FREE bread available! Wow. Being GF, I haven’t had a sandwich in years outside my home, and made by someone other than myself. You really don’t realize  what a treat that is to a GF person.

Give HOT KRUST a try, and tell Evan I sent you! You won’t be sorry!

My family and I hardly ever eat at home. We have a kitchen because it came with the house, my wife likes to say. So I experience a lot of restaurants, good and bad. Dives and Fine Dining, we go to them all.

Often, I have my sketchbook with me. So I thought I’d begin to share here some of the things I draw when I’m out and about. “Live Sketches” I’ll call them for now. ( By the way, yes, that is my wife and I in the foreground. I always stick myself in the drawings somehow. It’s a “Where’s Waldo” kind of thing. ). If I have any thoughts about where I was when I did the drawing, I’ll share those as well.

For this first installment, I’m going to share my review of a favorite restaurant of mine here in Orlando, Fresco Cucina Italiana. I shared it on Yelp! ( I’m a big Yelper… newly crowned “Elite” status, btw ), and now here it is for you:

Fresco Cucina Italiana-

My brother and sister in law lived in Italy for several years, and visiting them is when my wife and I fell in love with real Italian food and Italian wines. Fresco is owned by an Italian family, and the food is the best Italian I’ve had in the U.S. It tastes JUST like “real” Italian. Also, the wine selection is amazing ( and very reasonably priced). Our family’s favorites include the Carpaccio, the Antipasto Plate ( amazing proscuitto), warm goat cheese salad, angelhair pomodoro, and the tiramisu ( the owner’s grandmother’s recipe).   Oh, and for all of you Gluten Free foodies like myself, they have GF pasta and GF Pizza! Yep, PIZZA. And it tastes GREAT!

Don’t go for the myriad of chain Italian restaurants here in Orlando when an authentic, “mom and pop” place like this is SO good.

Mork, Popeye, Peter Pan, Mrs. Doubtfire, the Genie, so many great roles, by such a comic genius. Rest in the Peace you never seemed to be able to find while you were in this realm….