Simple sandwich shop opening in Winter Garden

Downtown Winter Garden has a smorgasbord of restaurant choices, and there’s about to be one more. By mid-October, a sandwich shop with quick-bite options will open at 18 N. Boyd St.

Winter Garden resident Dania Lee is making the final renovations and putting the finishing touches on her new restaurant, a casual eatery called The Deli Downtown. Equipment will be installed soon, and arrangements are being made for the outdoor dining area out front, which will have tables, chairs, string lights and umbrellas and seat about 20.

An additional 30 seats are going inside the 1,600-square-foot restaurant. Music, sometimes acoustical, will add to the casual atmosphere.

Lee said her menu won't be complicated.

“Something simple, something easy, like soup, salad and sandwiches,” she said.

She will use Boar's Head meats, as well as breads from Douce France Bakery, located on Story Road in Winter Garden. The bakery closed its retail portion earlier this month to expand its wholesale division and was looking for a way to continue selling to its loyal customers when Lee inquired about using its bread for her sandwiches.

“They had a huge customer following and didn’t want to disappoint their customers, so they asked me, after I called them asking about their bread,” Lee said.

The two parties came to an agreement, and patrons can enjoy Douce croissants, pastries and muffins at The Deli Downtown. Other breakfast offerings will include yogurt and oatmeal with mix-ins, small quiches, coffee and hot tea. Lunch and dinner options will be mostly soup, salad and sandwiches.

During Happy Hour, diners can order charcuterie boards of meats and cheeses. There will be wine by the bottle and glass and beer by the bottle and on tap.There will be a retail component, too, where customers can buy wines, beers, packaged gourmet food and Boar's Head meats by the pound.

Lee is a lifelong West Orange County resident; she grew up in Windermere, graduated from West Orange High School and moved to Winter Garden after college in 2001. She taught at the elementary school level for about 10 years.

After a decade of teaching, Lee was ready for something else. She and her husband, Chris, have two daughters, and they thought it would be a positive lesson for their girls to see a business grow from the beginning.

In downtown Winter Garden, the restaurant possibilities are endless, she said.

“I felt like Winter Garden needed a simple sandwich shop,” Lee said. “I thought that’s what it was lacking down there. I have great interest in food and wine, and between my husband and I, we worked in restaurants, so we just kind of came up with the concept.

“It’s going to be very fresh and healthy,” she said. “It’s a place where I want people to come and have a sandwich, sit, grab a bottle of wine if they want to and enjoy themselves.”

Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].