Feather and Quill floats into The Grove Orlando

The owners of RusTeak in Ocoee are expanding their restaurant reach with a new dining concept.

Feather and Quill is the latest culinary institution under the restaurant repertoire of Brian Buttner and Jonathan Canonaco. The eatery will be located at The Grove in the Windermere area off of Conroy Windermere Road. The space, 4757 The Grove Drive, No. 100, once housed Dexter’s. Feather and Quill will begin a soft opening within the next month and will have a grand opening some time during the spring. In addition to owning RusTeak Restaurant and Wine Bar in Ocoee, the two restaurateurs own RusTeak in College Park, as well as The Stubborn Mule and the Menagerie Eatery & Bar in downtown Orlando.

“Feather and Quill is the latest in our empire,” Buttner said. “The direction of this restaurant is just to keep propelling Orlando’s culinary scene and to keep pushing it to be more hyperlocal.”

The cuisine of Feather and Quill can be described as modern American fusion with Asian and Italian influences. The restaurant will offer a full dining menu in addition to a wide selection of small plates and will even offer pizza made with dough made in-house. Happy hour and brunch also will be offered at the restaurant, Buttner said.

“Bar presence is massive in this restaurant,” he said. “The menu is going to be a little more indicative of a bar, so you’re going to have a lot more small bites — you’ll have a lot more shareables and things of that nature. It’ll still have a full menu too, of course, because we’re a restaurant, but it’ll be definitely more geared toward that bar scene.”  

One of the key aspects that will set Feather and Quill apart from Buttner and Canonaco’s other restaurants will be its extensive charcuterie offerings. Because of the ample space of Feather and Quill, the chefs will be able to create much of the charcuterie dishes in-house. From house-cured bacon, sausage and other meats to house-made sauces, the process of creating the charcuterie plates will be handled onsite.

“This (restaurant) is kind of combining a little bit of the unknown between Jon and I … with what we know and what we enjoy making, which is fresh (food) as hyperlocal as possible,” Buttner said. “We’re taking that, and then we’re going to combine it with something that’s a little bit different (than) the stuff that we haven’t done under the RusTeak brand — i.e. charcuterie.” 

Feather and Quill will have a private dining room, as well as the indoor bar and outdoor patio seating common at many other restaurants, but it will also offer a dining and drinking experience that will be a little more exclusive. Tucked away in the back of the restaurant and accessible through a password-protected door outside will be a speakeasy, which will offer a separate menu for food and drinks. 

Although they’re still working out the details for the speakeasy, the method of getting the password to access it could involve a phone number that diners would need to text before coming in. The speakeasy will open about a month or so after the restaurant opens, Buttner said.

“That’s going to be something that we’re very proud of and we’re going to hold true to the speakeasy form,” Buttner said. 

“I want to make it exclusive,” he said. “I want to make it desirable to go to for just that purpose. … If you really want to try something super unique and cool, you’ll have to wait to get into the speakeasy. It’s only going to seat about 30 people.”