November 30, 2011

Old Florida

This past weekend, we ventured to Ponce de Leon Springs near Deland to show Mike's mom a little bit of what my mom likes to call "Old Florida".

Many visitors that come to our state, especially to Orlando,  just think of Florida as only having palm trees and Mickey Mouse ears.  Quite the contrary!  There are so many hidden gems around the Orlando area that are worth exploring! This is one of them.


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DeLeon Springs is a beatiful state park, named after the legendary Spanish explorer, located about an hour north of Orlando.  The restaturant located inside of the park recreation area, The Old Spanish Sugar Mill, is a unique restaurant that serves in a fun and unusaul way. 

Inside of the restaurant, originally constructed to crush sugar came, each of the tables has a griddle inset in the middle.  It is famous for being able to pour and flip your own pancakes right at your table. 

There are two different homemade pancake batters provided - a stone ground mixture of five different flours and an unbleached white.


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Although the restaurant is known for pancakes, breakfast sides, salads and sandwiches are also available. 

We opted for an order of eggs as well to add some protein to our meal and cooked them on the griddle with the pancakes. 


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The pancake batter comes to the table in adorable handmade pitchers that are also available for purchase in their gift shop - so cute!


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They also offer many toppings for the pancakes to fancy them up a bit. 

Toppings available:
applesauce
peanut butter
chocolate chips
blueberries
pecans
cinnamon


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We tried them all. 

I, of course, loved the peanut butter on top, but was very surprised with the applesauce topping.  It was declicious!  It tasted like an apple pie pancake - we will definitely be adding this to our pancake repertoire at home!


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Delicious!


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After we filled up on breakfast we took a look around the park.  There is a huge swimming area right outside of the restaurant that is crystal clear and beautiful. 

The swimming area wasn't too busy this past weekend even though it was warm out, but is definitely packed during the summer months.

There are also canoe and kayak rentals available along with hiking trails to work off those delicious pancakes.


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The water temperature at the spring is always steady at 72 degrees.  Chilly, clear and beautiful!


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All in all, a great day!


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Low on cash? 

Recreate the unique restaurant style at home on a weekend morning. 
  • Make your favorite pancake batter and put in a pitcher, put toppings in cute remekins and place the griddle in the middle of the table. 
  • Add eggs and turkey sausage and make it a family affair.  Take turns pouring pancakes, adding toppings, and flipping. 
  • Cook the eggs and sausage right on the griddle.  Fun memories and quick clean up!
You'll have the same experience without getting out of your pajamas!

1 comment:

  1. Rick and I ate here on one of our trips to the airport. Wish it was closer for us, we really enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete