I’ve been watching the development of this new Tijuana Flats location–directly across from Target near the Fashion Square Mall–for months now. I wouldn’t necessarily say Tijuana’s has the best food around, and certainly doesn’t satisfy my craving for Mexican Food, but it definitely has a place and time! So this particular location is ideally located in the heart of some Orlando shopping. (I’m sure, too, the nearby Chipotle wasn’t too thrilled about this!)

Location deets:

Tijuana Flats
2914 East Colonial Drive
Orlando FL 32803
407.897.7121

What do you think? Good location?

For a complete listing of Tijuana Flats locations in Central Florida check-out TijuanaFlats.com.

Woop, woop!

Our friends over at The Daily City recently ran a contest on their site, recognizing some of the “best of the best” and fan favorites of all things Central Florida. Our little site, PulseofCentralFlorida.com, is honored to have been nominated and included in the “Best Events Blog” sub-category under “Media.” While we don’t necessarily consider ourselves wholly an events blog and more of a “cultural” blog (from a unique perspective), we’re thrilled to have ultimately been voted runner-up!

Huge shout-out to The Daily City for facilitating this fun contest, and to all those who have and continue to support our site. We love doing what we do, and are happy to know people read our blog. Love you, Central Florida!

You can view all of the categories and the finalists on The Daily City website.

The downtown Orlando location of Eola Wine Company recently moved and has a brand new location: across the street from the old location! That’s right, this longtime staple of the downtown scene just moved into a larger space, directly across the street from Post Parkside Apartments management office. I haven’t been yet–except just a drive/walk by–but I’m eager to get over and see what all the changes are about.

Here’s a look:

New Location (Occupying Both Spaces on Bottom)

Old Location

Have you been to the new location of Eola Wine Company? What are the differences you’ve noticed?

This isn’t a College Park blog, but we’ve sure had some news to share this week about one of our favorite neighborhoods.

Sadly, this time the news isn’t all that fun.  Both Quiznos and neighboring Delish Frogen Yozurt are closing this week.  I can only speculate about the reason for the closings, but hopefully the spots won’t stay empty for long.

So long, subs & fro yo!

About six months ago I shared with you all about my personal vet clinic, located in College Park. This coming Saturday (12/3) from 10am-2pm (the clinic isn’t normally open on the weekends) is holding an open house to the community, so if you’re interested I’d recommend checking it out.

At the open house attendees will have the opportunity to meet with the primary doctor, have a chance to win raffle prizes, among other things. Here are some additional deets:

If you end up going to the open house this weekend, or have been taking one (or more) of your pets here, I’d love to get your thoughts on the place. Share them here in the comments section of this post.

Struggling restaurant here in Central Florida needing a little pick-me-up? (Man, I can think of a few!) You might want to listen up then, because this could be a big break for you.

The Food Network has a reality show called “Restaurant: Impossible” and they’re currently casting for the third season. And they’re opening up the casting to restaurants here in our very own Central Florida. Obviously it’s a television show so ya gotta have some personality, as well as some very specific qualifications to be considered. This includes:

• Full-service
• At least 50 seats
• No more than 250 seats

Full information on the casting can be found at RestaurantImpossible.com.

Special thanks to a post on Heather McPherson’s “The Dish” blog on OrlandoSentinel.com for bringing this to our attention.

I have a fairly decent commute on my drive to work. Maybe 30 minutes, on a good day? It gives me plenty of time to think. Listen to music. Ponder life. And realize how completely terrible the drivers in Central Florida are! Do you agree?

Seriously, most people are speeding, not paying attention, switching lanes without signaling to other drivers, and all the while these people are talking on their cell phones. Now, I’m not saying I haven’t been guilty of a quick chat or a super-fast text to say “I’m on my way!” (sorry, Oprah – it happens), but noticing just how many folks are on their phones and barely paying attention to the road, led me to ask the fine people of Central Florida:

We’re HUGE fans of Yelp over here at Pulse and I thought it’d be fun to share why.   Here are our Top 10 Reasons:

1. Their spectacular app is the perfect way to discover new places when you’re out and about exploring a new part of Central Florida.
2. Yelp is community.  Instead of just marketing their brand, Yelp gets involved in the community it serves.
3. Coopetition.  OK, so it’s kind of a made up word, but it’s what happens when competitors cooperate instead of compete.   Yelp is amazing at this.  Case in point:  they support us.
4. Yelp Elite Squad.   Yelp rewards their most passionate members by regularly hosting some killer events.
5. They’re everywhere online and off.  Yelp.com?  Check.   Facebook?  Check.  Twitter?  Check.
6. Swag!  No question, Yelp has some fabulous swag!
7. Yelp Events!   Events aren’t just for the elite—Yelp Orlando has hosted some spectacular events for all to enjoy.
8. Yelp Orlando loves … Orlando.  Maybe this is a no-brainer, but they don’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk.
9. Yelp is good for small business.
10. Yelp Orlando = Colleen Burns.  Duh.   This role was custom-made for her and she kills it.  Orlando is lucky to have such a visible supporter.  Thanks for all you do to make Orlando great, Colleen!

A few months ago we talked about the new Dave & Buster’s coming to Central Florida, in the heart of crazy-tourist-town I-Drive. I’d personally never been to one, I love games (that’s the kid-at-heart busting through), and despite making an ill-decided attempt to go on a weekend night (I would not recommend, by the way, but I’m happy the place is so dang popular and feeding our local economy) I finally made it over this past weekend. Was it worth it? Hmmm…yeah, I’d say so. But my expectations were a tad underwhelmed.

FOOD!

Of course I’m there, so might as well eat, right? There are a ton of options on the menu, but if you’re planning on sticking around for the games you’re best bet is to take advantage of one of the combo deals. These are a select menu of dishes coupled with a game card.

I ordered chicken tacos, which was part of the deal that came with a $10 game card. I believe that equates to something like 40+ in tokens. A pretty good deal for the combo considering it was around $16.

Now, I won’t necessarily title the food I had as bad, but it was definitely mediocre at best, and certainly not anything I’d be running back to experience anytime soon. Not the dish I ordered, anyway. My dining partner’s fried shrimp looked pretty good, but the sentiment on that side pretty much mirrored mine. Oh well…onto the games!

GAMES!

Now this is the part I was really looking forward to. The games–maybe the arcade?–is huge, and there are alot of really fun ones. Nothing really innovative or groundbreaking. Skee ball. Racing games. Anything, really, where guests can accumulate tickets to exchange for prizes. I can’t even remember how many tickets I ended-up wracking-up – I gave mine to a coupla kids who looked like they’d enjoy the prizes much more than I.

So, have you been to Dave & Buster’s on International Drive yet? Or have you been to any Dave & Buster’s ever? What are your thoughts?

You can keep up with all things Dave & Buster’s on @daveandbusters and on Facebook.

Ahem….

Are you the ultimate shopper?
Do you obsess over bargains?
Are you hiding your purchases from friends and family?
Is your shopping ruining relationships?

We may actually know a few folks who can say yes to these questions. Well…except for the last one, maybe. And if you do, too, you should tell them about a new reality show that’s looking for contestants:

If you apply–or know someone who does–we’d love to hear about it!