Bringing Hip To Suburbia as Rock & Brews Opens in Oviedo!

“Bringing Hip to Suburbia” was how Dell Furano and fellow partners KISS band members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley described their new Rock & Brews venture that had its Grand Opening in Central Florida today.

The Grand Opening of the new location at 7131 Red Bug Lake Road in Oviedo was enjoyed by approximately 100 wounded warriors, veterans and active military personnel who attended a midday luncheon hosted by the new restaurant. The restaurant marks the first Rock & Brews on the East Coast but there are plans to open other locations in Central Florida before long. A new restaurant will open close to Orlando International Airport in the next few months and there are plans to open four or five other locations including one or two in the Tampa area.

As you enter the restaurant, it rather feels like you have gone backstage at a rock concert. As Simmons (pictured above left) says: “We wanted a place where local people can serve local people and to give them the time of their lives with great music, great food and a great experience.”  The restaurant is surrounded with rock memorabilia as well as having several flat screen TV’s on the wall for sporting events as well as concerts.

Rock & Brews’ manager Sherman Harper (pictured above) remarked “When you walk in, you will feel like you are walking into a party, but at the same time it’s a restaurant.”

The restaurant came about as Michael Zislis, a visionary entrepreneur, restaurateur, hotelier and philanthropist joined forces with the Furano brothers, Dave and Dell. The brothers are widely recognized as being the pioneers of concert merchandising and founded legendary Winterland Productions with legendary concert impresario Bill Graham back in the late 70’s. Completing the founding partner mix are rock icons Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.

Rock & Brews formula is to welcome everyone. It has a playground for kids on the patio, a great and varied menu to pick from, some great local beers for seasoned campaigners including some local craft varieties, and it even has a dog menu for pets who are welcomed into the venue. Customers are able to choose to have their meals in booths or they can enjoy the community picnic table style seating.

The food itself is very good. Media was invited to sample a variety of the restaurants offerings and we can vouch for the Hawaiian Street Tacos, the Harvest Moon Farmer’s salad, the Carolina style BBQ Baby Back Ribs and the R&B special pizza.  I should also add that the Stawberry Fields salad with salmon was excellent…thanks Gene for letting me help myself to some of your lunch!

The company opened its first location near Los Angeles International Airport in 2012 and now has other restaurants in Albuquerque – New Mexico, El Segundo – California, Overland Park – Kansas, Paia – Hawaii and Rodondo Beach in California and when asked why the partners had chosen Oviedo for their first venture in Florida, Paul Stanley (pictured above) remarked “The attitude that only big cities should have great, cool places to go is a fallacy…nobody chooses where they’re born and every city is a great city. Its what you make it.”

It seems that the message is that great food using great local fresh produce can also be served by great people in great local locations.  Its a message we agree with and hopefully this will set a new trend!

More photos from the event at www.FloridaLeisurePhotography.com

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