Winter Park considers fast food with waiters

Could a Firehouse Subs franchise become fine dining? The Winter Park City Commission entertained that option among many while trying to decide on the look of the south end of Park Avenue on Monday.

The Commission had grappled with the idea of allowing fast food restaurants on the Avenue before. Last year Commissioners applauded the opening of BurgerFi, a new fast food franchise that promised to adhere to the city’s ordinance requiring table service for restaurants. A year later, the city’s opinion of the restaurant has soured.

“Whether you want to or not, you have to talk about what happened in the past, and that’s BurgerFi,” Winter Park Chamber of Commerce President Patrick Chapin said. “That’s where the heartburn started. No one could argue that the ordinance that BurgerFi came in under … that they’re adhering to that policy.”

But even forcing table service at establishments serving food proved a sticky situation for enforcement, as Development Director Jeff Briggs pointed out that numerous food-serving businesses along Park Avenue don’t offer table service and aren’t being booted.

“There’s coffee shops like Starbucks or Palmano’s, then all the sudden you

can get a sandwich there,” he said.

The intent of the look and feel of Park Avenue should override zero-tolerance regulations, Mayor Ken Bradley said. Even if a restaurant like McDonald’s offered table service, it might not fit in on the Avenue, he said. “If there was a McDonald’s on Lincoln, I think there would be somebody saying Park Avenue is going to hell.”

Bradley cautioned against banning chain restaurants.

“The No. 2 Olive Garden that started in the 1980s, that was in the present [310 Park South location],” Bradley said.

In the end the Commission voted unanimously to table the issue and send it back to the planning and zoning board to clarify some issues before it returns to the Commission. When that time comes, Chapin said, the Commission should be prepared to make hard decisions about the future of the Avenue.

“The struggle with dictating aesthetics is just the reality of your jobs,” he said. “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say ‘this is uncomfortable’ about regulating, because otherwise we’d have a tattoo parlor on every corner.”