- December 24, 2025
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When Laurie Tarter discovered the first reservation book from the Chef’s Table, tears flashed through her eyes, seeing names of Winter Garden residents who first stepped foot inside the nine-table restaurant.
Two names, John and Linda Rees, quickly caught her attention. The current mayor of Winter Garden and his wife loved the restaurant and became its biggest supporters in 2008.
When Chef’s Table won the Florida Trend Golden Spoon award, the Reeses rented a limousine to take the Tarters and the restaurant’s small staff of eight to the award ceremony. At the ceremony, there were scattered stacks of the Florida Trend magazine with the Tarters’ accomplishment.
“I remember John and Linda running around, just (grabbing) big stacks of magazines with us in it to give it out and put around town because they were just so proud; they wanted us to succeed,” Kevin Tarter said.
And that they did.
Now, 17 years after the Chef’s Table’s birth, Laurie and Kevin Tarter have closed that chapter in their lives and begin anew in retirement. But its memories and lasting impact on the couple and Winter Garden never will be forgotten.
When they opened Chef’s Table with nine tables and 30 seats, they never envisioned it would become anything more than that.
Kevin Tarter came down to Florida in 1988 to open the Grand Floridian at Disney. He drove 20 miles to get to work every day and never developed an intimate connection with the community. When the Tarters opened the restaurant, everything flipped. Suddenly, their work was with their neighbors.
“We started a whole new life,” Laurie Tarter said.
In 2008 — during the Great Recession — launching a fine-dining restaurant featuring a three-course, fixed-price menu seemed like a crazy idea to many. But the Tarters were tired of commuting to Winter Park or Disney for a nice dinner. They wanted a place in Winter Garden, so they did just that.
An opening became available at the bottom of the Edgewater Hotel. Kevin Tarter described Laurie as a “go-getter,” and she pounced on the opportunity while he began cooking up plans for a menu. They took the chance, maxed out their credit cards and went for it.
Laurie Tarter said they were confident that if they built the restaurant into an experience, the community would be overjoyed. When they first opened the doors, they discovered people were happy to have the owners actually taking care of them and Kevin Tarter preparing the food.
It was an instant success.
They remembered their first write-up of many being done in the West Orange Times. Scott Joseph, the Orlando Sentinel’s food critic for two decades, was being let go because of print budget cuts, and he chose to dedicate his final review to the Chef’s Table, knowing it would be a positive piece.
Then, they were awarded the Best New Restaurant, a form of publicity they couldn’t buy, Kevin Tarter said. As positive reviews piled up, they started to become a destination spot.
“We were the first destination restaurant in Winter Garden and that makes us proud,” Laurie Tarter said.
As the restaurant became more popular, they realized the nine-table setup no longer would work, and they began expanding. In 2009, they took over the deli space next door, doubling their capacity to 18 tables and 60 seats.
“We were sure that we were at the end of our growth period,” Laurie Tarter said. “We were happy with that. We were so excited, and we thought it was all done.”
In 2011, she received a call from the landlord saying Shaw’s Flowers wouldn’t be continuing the lease and she took the offer to take over the space. Kevin Tarter questioned what they would do with the added space, and soon enough, the Tasting Room was born. Crafting small plates fit perfectly in the tiny kitchen that is smaller than the one in the Tarters’ home.
And just like that, a new place for the Winter Garden community emerged.
The Tasting Room became the space for the neighborhood, while the Chef’s Table stuck as a destination spot for people all across Central Florida.
They had offers to start franchising, but that was never the goal.
“This is our home,” Kevin Tarter said. “We didn’t want to build a restaurant in some place that we didn’t have any kind of footing in already. Neither of us need a helicopter or a yacht. We’re happy doing what we do, we’re comfortable, and that’s all we really wanted out of life.”
When they opened, they didn’t have “a guy” to do anything; they were “the guy.” The Tarters spent months painting, cleaning, fixing and purchasing all of the equipment.
“That restaurant was painted with friends and stuff like that, it’s (walls) saves memories,” Laurie Tarter said.
At some point, they had to hire full-time executive chefs and full-time general managers so they could run what they needed to from home. They started a home office, and their hours spent in the restaurant became when the doors weren’t even open.
They also took ownership of The Attic Door in 2019 when it became available for sale. It had been one of their favorite spots at which to dine, and they were determined to keep its roots, while slightly transforming the food vision.
Now, the couple plans to put The Attic Door up for sale, hoping to find a buyer who shares their initial vision: preserve its core character while introducing their unique style. They already have received interest from future buyers, but they are prioritizing a careful and thoughtful process to ensure the property goes to the most suitable new owner rather than rushing the sale.
It took a lot of soul-searching to decide they were ready for retirement. The Tarters loved being the ones who served families and creating lifelong memories, but they missed out on their own. Every holiday, every weekend, they were working and taking care of the restaurant as its parents.
“We’ve sacrificed for the better part of two decades doing this, and we’ve got some catching up to do,” Kevin Tarter said.
When Laurie Tarter turned 60 in November, that was when they decided it was time to retire, sell their businesses and minimize their footprint to start focusing on their own family.
The restaurateurs said goodbye to the Chef’s Table Monday, Dec. 1. Days later, they went to Plant Street to enjoy a bite of food during Light Up Winter Garden, and a procession came by them. Kevin Tarter said people passed by to thank them. People shared how the restaurant was the place they took their wives on their first date, celebrated anniversaries and enjoyed a before-prom meal.
Hearing residents’ gratitude resonated with the Tarters, they never truly realized their impact on others’ lives. The comments online hit hard for Laurie Tarter.
“You realize how much our vision of the restaurant and what we wanted to give for people as a fine-dining experience, what they walked away from, which was everything we could have dreamt of doing,” she said.
In their retirement, the Tarters have an extensive bucket list of trips they want to check off. They’ve never been to Europe; Laurie Tarter has dreams of seeing the aurora borealis or sleeping in a castle.
But the first step in retirement is checking off the local to-do lists.
In 2020, the Tarters purchased a home in the mountains of North Carolina and since have been living out their snow-bird life. As they begin the next chapter of their lives, they will prioritize fixing up their Lake Apopka and North Carolina homes.
“We have a beautiful view of the lake but we haven’t been able to do the things there we want to do because the restaurant always calls,” Kevin Tarter said of their Lake Apopka home.
Laurie Tarter can only focus on one thing at a time. She’s slowly learning not to hyperfixate on the restaurants but rather focus on their lives.
Her first steps are beginning projects that need to be done around the home — cleaning out closets, hiring people to do bigger tasks — but the biggest thing she’s looking forward to is relaxing and writing.
She has started five different books about their lives. There’s a book detailing the Chef’s Table’s journey as well as some fictional pieces.
Kevin Tarter hopes to pick reading back up. He loves devouring a book, getting captivated and sucked into it, but with the consuming restaurant business, he hasn’t been able to do so. He intends to put on his brewers hat and craft some homemade beer, a hobby he had before the restaurant.
“The world is our oyster right now,” Laurie Tarter said.
