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Tag: Good Salt Restaurant Group

  • Osteria Ester, from Good Salt Restaurant Group, opens November in Thornton Park

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    When Soco, the contemporary Southern restaurant fronted by chef Greg Richie, closed last May after 11 years in Thornton Park, owner Craig Ustler promised to bring “something exciting to the space this fall.”

    That something is Osteria Ester, an Italian-American concept from Good Salt Restaurant Group founders, and 2025 James Beard Award finalists for Outstanding Restaurateur, Jason and Sue Chin. It’s not the first time that the Chins and Ustler have joined forces — the trio brought Reyes Mezcaleria to the North Quarter and The Monroe to Creative Village.

    Osteria Ester, interior rendering Credit: Good Salt Restaurant Group

    And like those two downtown Orlando stalwarts, Osteria Ester will be a true neighborhood gathering place taking on a casual and communal feel when it opens mid-November. Michael Cooper, executive chef-partner of The Osprey (another Good Salt operation) will oversee kitchen operations at this restaurant named after his grandmother, and he has a very specific vision in mind.

    “My grandmother adopted my mother, who was Italian, so I’ve always had an affection for Italian food,” Cooper says. “But throughout my career, I started out like other young chefs wanting to make lots of tweezered, Michelin-driven dishes. El Bulli was the thing when I was starting out, but now I appreciate a less-is-more, ingredient-driven approach, and Italian cooking speaks to me in that way. I want to do less to ingredients in order to make them shine.”

    Chef Michael Cooper, Jason Chin and Sue Chin inside Osteria Ester Credit: Sue Chin

    But Osteria Ester’s menu will be decidedly more Italian-American than Italian, as Cooper felt he wouldn’t give Italy’s highly regionalized cuisine the respect it deserves.

    “I feel doing pan-Italian is like doing pan-Asian — you’re not doing justice to it correctly. I’d rather take the dishes I know and grew up eating and perfect the wheel, not reinvent it.”

    “The current trend is all these omakase joints and high-end tasting places and Osteria Ester will be counter-culture to that. It’ll be a lot of bread, pasta, comfort and generosity.”

    Chef Michael Cooper

    So don’t expect a lot of super flashy dishes coming out of the kitchen but, rather, riffs on Italian-American comfort fare. Think spaghetti alla vongole, pappardelle bolognese, chicken parm meatballs and, yes, mozzarella sticks.

    Focaccia will also be heavily featured as Cooper plans to implement a pretty serious bread program.

    Chef Michael Cooper and Jason Chin in the kitchen of Osteria Ester Credit: Sue Chin

    On the libationary front, Good Salt’s beverage director, Lorena Castro, will curate a wine list exploring the incredible depth and range of Italian varietals, while the bar program will root itself in Italian cocktail culture. Aperol spritzes and and cicchetti, anyone?

    “I want Osteria Ester to be like Il Giardinello in Toms River, New Jersey,” Cooper says. “That’s where families took you for your birthday or graduation, and I haven’t found a restaurant like that in Orlando. The current trend is all these omakase joints and high-end tasting places and Osteria Ester will be counter-culture to that. It’ll be a lot of bread, pasta, comfort and generosity. I feel it’s a thing that people need.”

    Whatever you do, don’t fuhgeddabout the restaurant. Follow @osteria_ester for all the latest updates.

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    Faiyaz Kara
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  • Sparrow, a wine and tapas bar by Good Salt Restaurant Group’s Jason and Sue Chin, takes flight this fall

    Sparrow, a wine and tapas bar by Good Salt Restaurant Group’s Jason and Sue Chin, takes flight this fall

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    click to enlarge

    via Reyes Mezcaleria / Facebook

    Chef Wendy Lopez

    Jason and Sue Chin all but built Baldwin Park’s restaurant scene into the worthy destination it is today with Seito Sushi and the Osprey. Now they’re doing the same in downtown Orlando’s North Quarter.

    Or is it NoDo?

    No matter. The urban neighborhood’s anchor restaurant, Reyes Mezcaleria, has been a shining outpost of the Chins’ Good Salt Restaurant Group thanks to executive chef/partner Wendy Lopez’s outstanding regional Mexican dishes and, come this fall, Lopez will take charge of the Chins’ latest concept.

    click to enlarge Sparrow design rendering - courtesy Sue Chin

    courtesy Sue Chin

    Sparrow design rendering

    Sparrow, a 1,978-square-foot wine bar and lounge, will be located about 100 feet away from Reyes Mezcaleria at 807 N. Orange Ave and will present a focused menu drawing on Lopez’s heritage (her great grandfather, “Papa Chema,” was Spanish). But flavors and techniques from Portugal, Italy and France will also pepper the bill of fare with continental classics like tortilla Española, patatas bravas, jamón ibérico and traditional conservas served alongside bacalhau croquetas, cacio e pepe and prawn de bourgogne.

    “A Spanish restaurant has always been a plan of ours,” says Lopez, though she readily admits that it was going to be a Spanish steakhouse in a much larger space. But when an opportunity presented itself after La Femme Du Fromage aborted plans to open a cheese shop where the Daily Grind Coffee House and Pearson’s Cafe once stood, the trio felt a Spanish wine bar with an eclectic tapas menu would be an ideal fit for the small space.

    Indeed, the 80-seat restaurant (68 inside, 12 on the patio) designed by Sue Chin will be full of intimate nooks and will incorporate walnut finishes and checkerboard floors.

    “We are also going to lower the ceilings to create an even more intimate feel,” Chin says.

    A lounge area will house a six-person bar where bottles of Old World and New World wines curated by Good Salt Restaurant Group beverage director Lorena Castro will flow. Classic cocktails and fine spirits will also be offered.

    So why the name Sparrow? “It’s cute,” says Chin. “Plus the birds are small and dynamic, just like this wine bar will be.”

    Follow the flight of the Sparrow @sparroworl or on the web at sparroworlando.com.

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    Faiyaz Kara

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