By Peter Covino
Lifestyles Editor
If you have been missing Roy Oddo and the gang over at Signature by the Lake, you can still get a touch of that downtown restaurant and its great selection of wines, even if the restaurant isn’t open for business this summer.

The popular dining place is putting together a summer wine order and has a large selection of wines available at “great prices.”
There is a lot of tasting involved in all of this, but Roy has always been known to make that sacrifice for his customers.
Signature is also available to cater for summer parties. The basic package, which includes a wine and beer bar, assorted sandwiches and snacks for 30 guests starts at $500. Call 407-931-1303 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.
Meanwhile, you can see the Signature guys at the next Downtown Kissimmee Food Truck Bazaar Friday. They will be hosting the beer and wine concession in front of the Kissimmee Civic Center.
The event is from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., or something like that. I keep seeing varying starting times. It is better to get to the food truck craziness early in any case, to beat the crowd.
Food Truck Wars II
Kissimmee’s food truck event is not the only popular food truck gathering. Food Truck Wars II, held at Cranes Roost Park in Altamonte Springs earlier this month, featured 40 trucks and thousands of food truck lovers.
This food truck event is somewhat different than Central Florida’s Food Truck Bazaar gatherings.
Truck chefs compete in six food categories with awards going to categories such as top sales, truck appearance, largest single food item and the people’s choice award.
Be on the lookout for the return of Food Truck Wars in the fall.
First Lady of
the Salad Bar
Kissimmee residents knew the difference between a head of lettuce and a carrot before Karen Ford came along, but the long-time manager of the Kissimmee Farmer’s Market certainly helped freshen many a salad during her 25 years at the market.
Ford was honored for her years of service at a July meeting of the Kissimmee City Commission.
Kissimmee Main Street Director Kelly Trace, which oversees the farmer’s market, talked about Ford’s years of work and leadership. She and Mayor Jim Swan presented Ford a plaque for years of work.
“Karen wanted this market to bring people to downtown, have a high economic yield and provide an avenue for growers to sell to their friends and neighbors,” Trace said during the meeting. “She put in the work and effort to make it successful.”
Ford began the market with her late husband Vince, in 1987. She is retiring to another equally important job, being a grandma.
There will be other changes coming to the market as well. Currently, the Kissimmee Farmer’s Market runs every Thursday from 7 a.m. to 1p.m. in downtown Kissimmee at Toho Square.
Starting  Oct. 9, the market  will be moving to the evening on Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
For more information regarding the Kissimmee Farmer’s Market and other downtown events visit www.kissimmeemainstreet.com or call 407-846-4643.
More Naked Sushi
That Naked Sushi event at Vintage Vino (leave the banana leaf, take the sushi) proved to be so popular last week, the wine shop will hold an encore event in August just for the ladies.
The special ladies night for sushi will feature male models with sushi served atop large banana leaves. Last week, a female model clad in a bikini served as the buffet table.
It was practically standing room only for sushi at Vintage Vino (except for the buffet lady).
The open buffet will feature sushi, beer, wine and sake.
RSVP for the Aug. 24 event ( 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.)
Call 917-627-8432 to confirm attendance or for more information.
Saturday (July 28) at the City Centre in downtown Kissimmee, is Cowboy Festival on Dakin from 4 p.m. until midnight as downtown celebrates the National Day of the Cowboy.
There will be live music, street dancing, trick roping, whip popping and other festivities as well as food and drink at the City Centre restaurant and bars.
Mac & Cheese 2
The finals of the Mac and Cheese competition will be Saturday, Aug. 4 from 6 to 8 p.m.  A beer event has been added to the Saturday competition.
The three winners from Round 1 (Amanda Trim, Kelly Trace and Madame Mac) will be back to face off against local chefs in this special event. The first event raised $2,500 for charity.
You can cast your vote for your favorite Mac by purchasing a voting card:
$5 White Score Card - you get a glass of house wine and a bowl of your favorite Mac and Cheese.
$10 Red Score Card - you get a glass of better wine and a bowl of your favorite Mac and Cheese, score is 2 x white
$25 Black VIP Card - you get the best wine, a bowl of your favorite Mac and Cheese, a commemorative t-shirt and your vote is 5 x the value of the white score card.
The best beer competition will be held at the same time.
This is an open call to home brewers to bring out your best beers.  If your not a home brewer but  think you know what the best beer in the world is, purchase it and bring it in and we will enter it into the contest.  Entry fee is $5 per beer.
A portion of all proceeds will benefit the children’s charity The Sunshine Foundation which supports and helps critically ill children live out their dreams with their families here in Central Florida.
Urban Spoon
I have been writing about restaurants in Central Florida in one form or another for a bunch of years, and with the purchase of my new Google Nexus 7 tablet, it looks like it is time to pick up the spoon as in Urban Spoon, the consumer restaurant review guide.
The tablet is the perfect device for those mini on-the-go restaurant reviews. (But you do have to have a Wi-Fi connection.)
Lunch this week was at the Azteca in downtown Kissimmee, a really nice restaurant, just a few blocks the heart of the downtown district.
The place is cheery, warm and the prices for lunch are quite reasonable.
Unfortunately, it got a thumbs down for service. There were four of us for lunch and some 20 minutes into the dining process, i.e., everybody else at the table got their orders, the server asked what it was I ordered again.
Of course, being the last to get served, everyone had to wait on me, which is never a good thing — especially during the lunch hour. The restaurant was not busy either.
At check time, we noticed she didn’t charge for the iced tea, and apologized for the delay, but she never really did acknowledge the screw-up.
Azteca is a good place for lunch and one not so good serving day certainly won’t stop me from going back. But timing is everything, especially during a lunch break.
Winery awards
Lakeridge Winery and Vineyards in Clermont has just some more awards for its Florida wines at the 2012 San Francisco Wine Competition.
The winery won three awards for their wines, including a Double Gold Medal for Southern Red, a Gold Medal for Crescendo, and a Silver Medal for Southern White.
This annual competition has been setting high standards for the judging of fine wines for 32 years and 2012 marked their largest competition in their history, with more than  4,500 wine entries from 1,300 wineries from across the world, including 29 countries and 26 states.
The winery is open for free tours and tastings. For more information go to 

www.lakeridgewinery.com
Healthy workplace
Applications for the 2012 Healthy Workplace Awards are now being accepted by Get Active Orlando (GAO) to honor and recognize Central Florida businesses that inspire employees to stay fit and healthy.

Since 2010, 29 companies, organizations, and agencies have been honored by GAO for their healthy workplace initiatives. Last year’s top honors went to Orlando Health (Gold), Seminole County Government (Silver), and Colonial High School (Bronze). The City of Orlando received a special legacy award for earning the highest overall score for the second consecutive year.
GAO Chair Kelly Rogers, MPH, Program & Policy Analyst for Nemours’ Florida Prevention Initiative, says the Healthy Workplace Awards program is part of the group’s continued effort to promote physical activity in the daily lives of Central Floridians and encourage businesses and community leaders to lead the charge.

“If you encourage your employees to include exercise and a balanced diet in their daily lives, we want to know about it,” says Rogers. “From company-wide exercise programs to monetary incentives, businesses are being creative in keeping our workforce healthy.”

She adds that the GAO awards program is designed to honor businesses dedicated to the health of their employees, as well as to offer insight to those businesses that may want to start similar wellness programs.

There are three levels of recognition in the 2012 Healthy Workplace Awards program, allowing companies of all types and sizes to participate. Applications are due September 28, 2012; there is no entry fee.

For applications, criteria, and submission guidelines to the 2012 Healthy Workplace Awards, visit GetActiveOrlando.com, or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .