How to win friends and influence people? Bring them to The Drake | Review
“You don’t win friends with salad,” the saying goes.
But the salads at The Drake are likely to win chef/owners Heberto and Rona Segura as many friends as their hand-cut frites, about which I have waxed poetic — arguably to the point of prosaic — for years. And so, back to the greens. For now.
Most of what you’ll find in these gorgeous seasonal bowls was grown in and around the city. 4Roots Farm. Everoak. Others. And they’ve been a nice departure for this 2021 Best Food Truck winner in the Sentinel’s Foodie Awards, which finally has the room to play in a space that the tiny Duck & Drake Kitchen trailer, even with the supernaturally skilled chefs in its kitchen, couldn’t manage.
Duck & Drake Kitchen is killing it in College Park
The truck is still cozy, by the way, serving the best-ever wine bar mop-up food from its permanent parking spot outside of Digress Wine in College Park. Balancing time between that and The Drake (a concept Segura told me they’d been planning for back in 2021) has been challenging — like so many other operators, they’ve struggled with staffing — but rewarding.
“It’s going fantastic over here!” he told me of their new downtown enclave with its winding shape and warm, contemporary feel. “Everyone’s loving the space, the menu options have been well received. People in this neighborhood have told us they’ve been looking for something unique, and we feel like we’ve been filling the niche.”
And expanding the culinary footprint.
Longtime Duck & Drake fans will recognize plenty — terrines, charcuterie, Wagyu sliders, those fries — but here, the repertoire expands.
Comforting Prime Beef meatballs ($15) steeped in earthy mushroom confit and a rich foie gras emulsion, heady with spices — cardamom, anise. It’s a Segura-level departure from the expected red-sauce offering, served with lightly grilled slices of the spectacular house-baked sourdough you’ll find elsewhere on the menu.
On the other end of the app spectrum, bright Gulf Coast cobia ($19), simply cured with citrus-scented salt, rests in a light and lovely mignonette that’s a tomato-y take on leche de tigre. Locally grown rainbow radishes and fennel round out the fresh catch, while Segura’s Caribbean roots show up in the form of thin, crisp plantain chips.
Shareable is the order of the house, though my lunch companion would have kept the Broken Egg to himself if given the choice. This one’s on both lunch and dinner menus ($18) and if I have to give you a don’t miss, this one’s it.
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Get your pics when the thing hits the table — a composed plate featuring crisp, hot papas bravas in a gorgeous pool of Calabrian chili brava sauce and a pile of thin-sliced Lady Edison ham from North Carolina. Topped with a beautifully fried duck egg, it’s a composition that begs to be destroyed. Mix it!
“That’s exactly what we want you to do,” says Segura. “Stir it up!”
Get some of each element, the ham, the yolk the sauce. The aioli will communicate on spiritual levels with your garlic-loving soul, I promise.
These are heavier offerings, admittedly, which is why those salads are so thrilling.
Available now, the Spring Fling salad (a steal for $12, if you ask me) sits on a foundation of pea-studded quinoa that’s piled high with beautiful greens and bits of broccolini, baby heirloom tomatoes and thin-sliced radish. Pickled cherries amid the grains are borderline hedonistic in this mix, a luscious kiss of sweet acidity to counter the richness of a chickpea-based green goddess dressing. It’s got balance. Texture. Everything.
The downtown location, says Segura, sees the lunch crowd looking for lighter options before they head back to work, “but we’re definitely going to push the envelope.”
I won’t talk up the winter salad too much, but it brought the same game. Caramelized pepitas were a standout feature. And while my lunch pal absconded with 95 percent of our leftovers, I packed the last bit of the Spring salad into a box. Unbelievably, it was as good, maybe better, the next day.
You won’t have the same option with the chocolate budino ($12). This decadent, double chocolate cream is among the new gems from Rona Segura’s mighty treasure chest of pastry prowess.
Lightly spiced, accented with a dollop of buttery-perfect hot coffee caramel, it’s a spoonable mocha. Sumptuous. Sexy.
“Rona has her ways,” her husband tells me. “She’s very passionate about what she does.”
It shows up in the bread, too, also Rona’s realm. Pizza crust. Bruschetta-like slices. The ciabattino on which the toasted mortadella panino ($18), a lunchtime goodie, is served. Alongside the rich meat and mozz combo, another tiny salad, lemony and bright, cuts the fat like an assassin’s stiletto.
Soon, says Segura, Sunday suppers will allow diners to enjoy four courses of comfortable, cozy, family-style dining for one price (“between $50-65 per person, depending on ingredients and dishes,” he tells me). I’d opt in for sure. Be on the lookout for a killer Industry Night, as well.
“We’re kicking around ideas, but we’re really excited,” he tells me. “Our goal has always been to do something a little different, and we feel like with how great Orlando’s culinary scene is going, it deserves a hospitality night that’s on that level, too.”
I’d be interested to see what can top the $6 Happy Hour pricing on the city’s best frites (usually $10). Enduringly crisp with a creamy center, these double-fried delights are, in a word, perfect.
If the salad here wins friends, the fries are powerful enough to influence people. Mostly to eat more fries — but amid the decadent and beautifully executed options here, it’s a potent statement.
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
If you go
The Drake Kitchen + Bar: 361 N. Rosalind Ave. in Orlando, 407-776-3333; thedrakeorl.com
