Fine Dining in Port Orange?

If you’ve been following along with the news and blogs from Creative Florida Living, you may know that we like to eke out the “hidden treasures” of the Greater Daytona Beach Area. The next big city is Orlando (or Jacksonville), so sometimes we don’t have the variety and availability of big city life here. However, we do have our own gems  – in fact, quite a few. 

 We have explored a lot of on-the-water dining options, and there is certainly no lack of restaurants in our coastal area, but today we will explore some fine dining options!

Peppercorns Café 

Where Food Becomes Art

At this owner-run restaurant you will be served dishes that are not only well-crafted but also beautiful. Using the finest ingredients, Peppercorns offers a menu of high-class food that is very accessible (not the foam and micro-gastronomy cuisine that nobody wants to eat, really). 

Starting with brunch, the restaurant serves up eggs Benedict, frittatas, and omelets. But there are also shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles, and other delicacies.
At lunch you can order traditional sandwiches, panini, wraps, and burgers. For dinner try their exquisite salads, Cajun entrees, steaks, chops, fresh fish, Italian specialties, and chicken dishes.

 

On the first Monday of every month, you can experience a special night with the Iron Skillet Club, which presents a 5-course meal with wine pairings for one price. Reservations for that night is highly recommended due to popularity!

Visit their website!

The restaurant is located on Commonwealth Boulevard, right off of Ridgewood Avenue in Port Orange. They are open Tuesday-Sunday for brunch, lunch, and dinner. Prices are in the $$ range and well worth it. Via TripAdvisor,  Peppercorns Café is #12 on the list of 146 Port Orange Restaurants. Go check it out for yourself and let us know what you think!

Sugar Mill Gardens

A Hidden Treasure!

In the Daytona Beach Area, there are a few true hidden treasures that are not easy to find - lucky for those of us who live here! Tucked away on an obscure little road behind Herbert Street are the beautiful Sugar Mill Gardens. 

Sugar Mill Gardens is a botanical garden featuring a 19th-century sugar mill, which is part of the former Dunlawton Plantation. The property was donated in 1963 to the County of Volusia by J. Saxton Lloyd and operated since April 1988 by the non-profit Botanical Gardens of Volusia Inc.

The gardens provide year-round beauty of 12 acres of flowering trees, holly magnolia, and other native flora, accompanied by informational signs, extensive walkways, the aforementioned sugar mill ruins, a human sundial, the enormous Confederate Oak, gazebos, brooks, ponds with fish, little bridges, hidden benches, and much more.

 Weird Americana

When you are walking through the lush gardens, you wouldn’t necessarily know that from 1948 to 1952 the area was known as Bongoland, until you come upon a stegosaurus and a triceratops! There used to be a theme park with a miniature train, a replica Seminole village, and these strange dinosaur replicas made by M.D. "Manny" Lawrence out of concrete and chicken wire. Bongoland was owned by Perry Sperber, the first dermatologist in Daytona Beach. It was named for "Bongo," a large baboon that lived there.

This is a fun surprise for children and adults - try and find all five of the dinosaur replicas! They are huge, but blend into their surroundings well.

There is no admission fee to the gardens (donations are appreciated) and the gardens are open from dawn to dusk daily. 950 Old Sugar Mill Rd, Port Orange, FL   

Visit the website!

 

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