As many times as I’ve explored downtown Winter Park, I can’t believe there are still areas I’ve never been to!
Tonight I discovered another one of them. 
Isn’t this area the cutest? My dream house would be just around the corner. 
Earlier this week I found a restaurant.com deal for Hot Olives – a chic and modern restaurant in downtown Winter Park – and decided to purchase it on a whim. The restaurant had a great menu and an inviting website (I’m a sucker for websites). Plus, it gave me an excuse to invite my sister and Megan along to help me spend it.
Ok, so we weren’t going out just to use the gift certificate; we also had a graduation to celebrate! Megan officially graduates from UCF on Saturday. I’m so proud of my little engineer.
Hot Olives more than lived up to it’s website. The inside was low lit and romantic, while the outside had a modern, southern flair to it.
We chose to sit outside. Luckily, a late afternoon thunderstorm had brought slightly cooler temps to the area.
Our meal began with hot white rolls and a delicious salty olive tapenade.
The olive tapenade was a welcome change from the traditional olive oil and spices usually served at restaurants. The three of us gobbled it up with out a problem.
Once the bread was gone we licked the plate clean.
Hot Olives had an amazing salad menu. There were over a dozen choices and it took me three rounds of the server coming to our table before I made up my mind. I ended up ordering the Tuna Nicoise simply because it had the most toppings. When it was placed in front of me I instantly fell in love with all of the of colors, textures, and flavors.
Yum!
However, it was HUGE and I could only eat half.
Left overs!
After dinner we took a stroll through the downtown area and stopped for FroYo at a place down the street.
I had a mix of flavors with lots of fruit, chocolate, and some crunch.
Snacks of the day included:
Lunch was actually a pretty inspired creation if I do say so myself.
You know those ideas you get when you’re terribly hungry and everything sounds good? Well, this is one of them and it was freaking fantastic – starving or now.
A baked sweet potato topped with honey peanut butter and dried fruit.
Don’t think about it. Just try it. You can thank me later.
On the side some fresh green beans and peanut butter pretzels.
I ended up giving half of the pb pretzels to Maddie. Having the pretzels on top of the peanut butter topped sweet potato was a little PB overload.
Tomorrow is Friday and I am so ready for it.
Good Night!
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
That sweet potato concoction looks AMAZING–I literally want to go make it tomorrow! I usually end up ordering tuna nicoise salads for the same reason (most toppings!)! Enjoy your evening!
I would have never thought to top a sweet potato with honey peanut butter….sounds so good! Will have to try that sometime soon:)
Haha I remember seeing you tweet about this place!
That sweet potato with pb and raisins looks so good I want to take a bite…even though I’m allergic to pb. Now THAT’S saying something!
PB topped sweet potato sounds amazing. I love sweet potatoes topped with cinnamon and candied walnuts – so good and simple!
What fun! I love that ‘paparazi’ shot of your sis!
I was intrigued by Hot Olives. I may just have to stop by next time I’m in WP!
The bread and salads look awesome. What a cute little restaurant.
I am prolly the only person in earth who has never had a sweet potato!!! I want to see pics of your dream house
One week till HLS can’t waittt!
hot olives just sounds like a cute place to dine at. and those rolls look amazing.
delicious rolls are always a key way to start a meal!
Aw, Winter Park! This is making me crave Florida like no other. My favorite restaurant there is bospherous (sp?) They have the most amazing salads there… ever. ever. Next time I go I definitely stopping at Hot Olives to celebrate my newfound love for the supersavory little things.
hope you’re having a beautiful day!!
xox
I like the name of the restaurant, that would be enough to convince me to try it out.
Seriously you Florida bloggers are killing me — I had never heard of self serve froyo before reading them and now I want it so badly!
That sweet potato combination sounds unreal! I have to try that next time.
Interesting combo, I will have to try it sometime
just seeing the a corner of Park Ave. makes me REALLY miss Orlando… Thanks for sharing!
I LOVE sweet potato with peanut butter. I like to add cinnamon as well. You should try it with almond butter too.
I’ve been to Winter Park a few times (my Mom lives in Port Orange) and I think it’s such a fantastic town. There is also a wine bar where you put money on a plastic card and go around the entire space and do your own tasting. It’s such fun!