On (Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center; Orlando FL) My family attended the Judson's Live Brunch Series on Father's Day Sunday 6/17/24 which featured the Avey Grouws Band. This was supposed to be a 'Blues Brunch' but there was absolutely nothing sad or depressing about this excellent brunch experience!
To put this review into perspective, my wife and I attended with our 2 daughters, who at the time of this writing were 16 and 19 year old girls. The younger one is a bit pickier with what she eats, whereas the older one likes to explore different tastes. My wife typically doesn't eat too much, and is generally about 'the experience' whenever we dine out. I consider the quality of the food, the attitudes of the staff, the overall ambiance, and the value for the money spent.
With this, "Judson's Live" (or more formally the "Joyce &Judson Green Room") is named after former Dr. Phillips Center board member Judson Green, who himself was a jazz musician. The space is the 5th venue to have been opened at Dr. Phillips, has a seating capacity of just around 150 people, and is open Tuesdays - Sundays, closed Mondays, located by the corner of South Street and Rosalind Avenue. The monthly brunch offering started on April 21 2024, with its (2) Sunday experiences taking place at 1030a and 1p.
Although tickets can be purchased at the door on the day of the event, this is subject to availability. We obtained our tickets through www.DrPhillipsCenter.org weeks ago. From there, you select the actual table you'd like to occupy (with most tables having 2-person or 4-person capacities). If you have more people in your party, consider booking the spaces along the back of the room -- the room is intimate with excellent acoustics, so don't worry that you'll miss out on the music experience if you aren't sitting up front. Every seat is a good one.
We arrived this morning at just around 1015a, and saw that others were already inside either lined up at the buffet, or they were already seated with their food. The main host stand recognized us right away, and had one of their hosts walk us directly to our table. We had an excellent server named 'Violet' who quickly greeted us and took our drink orders (orange juice / cranberry juice / pineapple juice, milk, and coffee are covered with your $95 brunch prices, but alcohol and signature drinks are available at an additional cost, with prices spelled out clearly on the menu at the table).
From here, there were essentially 4 stations. In the first room, you had a dessert stand which had some huge cookies and assorted mini-cheesecakes. The cheesecakes were distinctly different in tastes from one another, with the strawberry one being the most pronounced and was our favorite amongst the 3 cheesecake offerings. But the chocolate chip cookies were the winners here: thick and fresh, packed with some very home-cooked flavor.
The 2nd station was also in that main room, and was basically 2 lines of buffet: Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Southern Braised Collard Greens, Whipped Potatoes, Southern Strata with Sausage & Cheddar, Almond & Thyme Rice Pilaf, Crab-Crusted Salmon Medallions with Lemon Mustard Butter, Green Beans, and the carving stations featuring House Dry-Rubbed Beef Brisket. Hands down, the Beef Brisket was the absolute winner here. It was flavorful, tender, and cooked perfectly. The salmon was also very good, so you had a very flavorful pescatarian option if beef wasn't your thing. The Strata paired very nicely with the salmon or beef, and was a wonderfully yummy side item. The fried chicken was juicy and not oily.
To access the 3rd and 4th stations, you needed to walk down the hallway just a little bit. Based on the artwork within, there were drawing renderings of some spaces which seemed to depict some upcoming new spaces for Judson's. More to come on this, I guess! The space as it is already is very cozy, sleek, and clean.
The 3rd food station was the made-to-order omelet station, where 2 cooks were available. You pick from several add-ons, then they made your omelet in just a few minutes.
The 4th food station was the soup and salad section. Another clear winner: the tomato bisque. Additionally within this station: Deconstructed Cobb Salad, Roasted Beet Arugula Salad, and a very yummy Ambrosia Salad.
Now if you had any food allergies, no worries: each of the name cards used to identify whatever food was in front of you, also labeled and detailed 'gluten', 'dairy', 'pork', 'shellfish', and 'nut' ingredients.
When we returned to our table, our water glasses were already filled, a basket of butter and rolls was sitting in the middle of us, and our juices were all waiting for us. My picky 16 year old ended up visiting the omelet station twice today, the 19 year old enjoyed the Ambrosia salad and cookies, and my wife and I made 3 return visits each to grab more brisket, salmon, Strata, and tomato bisque.
Enjoying a nice tempo of return check-ins from our server, the staff was very good to stop by to clear away any finished plates / glasses, and Violet was super good about keeping our juice refills coming.
The Avey Grouws Band took to the stage at 1130, where they performed just about 55 minutes. The group hailed from Iowa and Illinois, and has toured in Kansas City, 2 stints within Florida, Vegas, and along the East Coast most recently. The 4-piece group featured an amazing lead vocalist in the way of Jeni Grouws, whose vibrato and upper range were well-controlled, soulful, and genuine. She was highly engaging, and did well with working the crowd. Cris Avey is a very big guy, but his fingers were nimble enough to help him fly effortlessly up and down the fretboard with some pretty intricate solos, while allowing him to serve as the band's 2nd lead vocalists on a few songs. Bryan West (drummer) is the other band member from the group, and he did well to keep the pace and energy. The group's regular Bass player wasn't able to join them for this day, but Calvin Johnston (Nashville) had performed with them previously and did a great job matching up with Avey.
The band was the perfect complement to the dining experience for this brunch. If the musical selection is in any way indicative of future bands, brunch patrons will be in for a wonderful treat. On July 21, Judson's will feature its R&B Soul Brunch; Latin Brunch on August 18; and we look forward to what lies ahead beyond that!
The brunch is well worth the cost paid. The food was of great quality, and each item was uniquely different in taste from the other items, so it definitely wasn't a cheap mass-produced buffet line that one might find elsewhere on the weekend. The food was presented well, and the staff was omni-present: assistive, without being overwhelming or annoying. We felt catered to, in an upscale-environment, and for a couple of hours we felt like we were having one of the best dining / entertainment experiences this day in the City Beautiful (mind you, it was Father's Day, so there were tons of other establishments looking to compete with this one). Although there were 150 others in the room with us, I almost didn't even notice them somehow. It felt like the Blues band was playing just to our family, and only for our family. It was a very cool vibe, and Judson's intentionally created that via the deliberate size restrictions on the room coupled with the perfect selection of live music performers.
8 thumbs up from this family of four!! This was a wonderful Sunday brunch offering, and we're hoping you have the chance to check this one out! Great experience!!
Bailey Guinigundo
To put this review into perspective, my wife and I attended with our 2 daughters, who at the time of this writing were 16 and 19 year old girls. The younger one is a bit pickier with what she eats, whereas the older one likes to explore different tastes. My wife typically doesn't eat too much, and is generally about 'the experience' whenever we dine out. I consider the quality of the food, the attitudes of the staff, the overall ambiance, and the value for the money spent.
With this, "Judson's Live" (or more formally the "Joyce &Judson Green Room") is named after former Dr. Phillips Center board member Judson Green, who himself was a jazz musician. The space is the 5th venue to have been opened at Dr. Phillips, has a seating capacity of just around 150 people, and is open Tuesdays - Sundays, closed Mondays, located by the corner of South Street and Rosalind Avenue. The monthly brunch offering started on April 21 2024, with its (2) Sunday experiences taking place at 1030a and 1p.
Although tickets can be purchased at the door on the day of the event, this is subject to availability. We obtained our tickets through www.DrPhillipsCenter.org weeks ago. From there, you select the actual table you'd like to occupy (with most tables having 2-person or 4-person capacities). If you have more people in your party, consider booking the spaces along the back of the room -- the room is intimate with excellent acoustics, so don't worry that you'll miss out on the music experience if you aren't sitting up front. Every seat is a good one.
We arrived this morning at just around 1015a, and saw that others were already inside either lined up at the buffet, or they were already seated with their food. The main host stand recognized us right away, and had one of their hosts walk us directly to our table. We had an excellent server named 'Violet' who quickly greeted us and took our drink orders (orange juice / cranberry juice / pineapple juice, milk, and coffee are covered with your $95 brunch prices, but alcohol and signature drinks are available at an additional cost, with prices spelled out clearly on the menu at the table).
From here, there were essentially 4 stations. In the first room, you had a dessert stand which had some huge cookies and assorted mini-cheesecakes. The cheesecakes were distinctly different in tastes from one another, with the strawberry one being the most pronounced and was our favorite amongst the 3 cheesecake offerings. But the chocolate chip cookies were the winners here: thick and fresh, packed with some very home-cooked flavor.
The 2nd station was also in that main room, and was basically 2 lines of buffet: Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Southern Braised Collard Greens, Whipped Potatoes, Southern Strata with Sausage & Cheddar, Almond & Thyme Rice Pilaf, Crab-Crusted Salmon Medallions with Lemon Mustard Butter, Green Beans, and the carving stations featuring House Dry-Rubbed Beef Brisket. Hands down, the Beef Brisket was the absolute winner here. It was flavorful, tender, and cooked perfectly. The salmon was also very good, so you had a very flavorful pescatarian option if beef wasn't your thing. The Strata paired very nicely with the salmon or beef, and was a wonderfully yummy side item. The fried chicken was juicy and not oily.
To access the 3rd and 4th stations, you needed to walk down the hallway just a little bit. Based on the artwork within, there were drawing renderings of some spaces which seemed to depict some upcoming new spaces for Judson's. More to come on this, I guess! The space as it is already is very cozy, sleek, and clean.
The 3rd food station was the made-to-order omelet station, where 2 cooks were available. You pick from several add-ons, then they made your omelet in just a few minutes.
The 4th food station was the soup and salad section. Another clear winner: the tomato bisque. Additionally within this station: Deconstructed Cobb Salad, Roasted Beet Arugula Salad, and a very yummy Ambrosia Salad.
Now if you had any food allergies, no worries: each of the name cards used to identify whatever food was in front of you, also labeled and detailed 'gluten', 'dairy', 'pork', 'shellfish', and 'nut' ingredients.
When we returned to our table, our water glasses were already filled, a basket of butter and rolls was sitting in the middle of us, and our juices were all waiting for us. My picky 16 year old ended up visiting the omelet station twice today, the 19 year old enjoyed the Ambrosia salad and cookies, and my wife and I made 3 return visits each to grab more brisket, salmon, Strata, and tomato bisque.
Enjoying a nice tempo of return check-ins from our server, the staff was very good to stop by to clear away any finished plates / glasses, and Violet was super good about keeping our juice refills coming.
The Avey Grouws Band took to the stage at 1130, where they performed just about 55 minutes. The group hailed from Iowa and Illinois, and has toured in Kansas City, 2 stints within Florida, Vegas, and along the East Coast most recently. The 4-piece group featured an amazing lead vocalist in the way of Jeni Grouws, whose vibrato and upper range were well-controlled, soulful, and genuine. She was highly engaging, and did well with working the crowd. Cris Avey is a very big guy, but his fingers were nimble enough to help him fly effortlessly up and down the fretboard with some pretty intricate solos, while allowing him to serve as the band's 2nd lead vocalists on a few songs. Bryan West (drummer) is the other band member from the group, and he did well to keep the pace and energy. The group's regular Bass player wasn't able to join them for this day, but Calvin Johnston (Nashville) had performed with them previously and did a great job matching up with Avey.
The band was the perfect complement to the dining experience for this brunch. If the musical selection is in any way indicative of future bands, brunch patrons will be in for a wonderful treat. On July 21, Judson's will feature its R&B Soul Brunch; Latin Brunch on August 18; and we look forward to what lies ahead beyond that!
The brunch is well worth the cost paid. The food was of great quality, and each item was uniquely different in taste from the other items, so it definitely wasn't a cheap mass-produced buffet line that one might find elsewhere on the weekend. The food was presented well, and the staff was omni-present: assistive, without being overwhelming or annoying. We felt catered to, in an upscale-environment, and for a couple of hours we felt like we were having one of the best dining / entertainment experiences this day in the City Beautiful (mind you, it was Father's Day, so there were tons of other establishments looking to compete with this one). Although there were 150 others in the room with us, I almost didn't even notice them somehow. It felt like the Blues band was playing just to our family, and only for our family. It was a very cool vibe, and Judson's intentionally created that via the deliberate size restrictions on the room coupled with the perfect selection of live music performers.
8 thumbs up from this family of four!! This was a wonderful Sunday brunch offering, and we're hoping you have the chance to check this one out! Great experience!!
Bailey Guinigundo
RSS Feed