Of course the City Beautiful offers so much more than we can confine to just 101 lines. But this small survey of our fair town, it’s Downtown, it’s Theme Parks, it’s ‘Boroughs’ and it’s Campuses, offered up a colorful array of cultural hotspots and cool characters. Feel free to make your own list as you enjoy Otown…
1. Snap Space
2. Lazy Moon
3. Orlando Brewing
4. Heineken’s Orlando City Soccer Tailgate Concerts
5. The view from the patio at World of Beer Downtown
6. Ivanhoe Paddleboarding
7. Crafted Block & Brew
8. War on Wall Street
9. The worldwide viral exposure of the Rethink Homelessness Video for RethinkHomelessness.org
10. The Melrose Center at Orlando Public Library
11. Willow Tree Cafe
12. Beebs and her Moneymakers
13. Rifle Paper Company
14. Gitto’s Pizza
15. Uber
16. Elfrid
17. Brunch @ Hammered Lamb
18. The News Junkie
19. Santiago Bodega’s Brunch
20. 16th Annual Florida Music Festival coming April 21st-23rd, 2016!
21. The Bacon Blue Burger @ Johnny’s Fillin’ Station
22. Scott Maxwell
23. Creative City Project
24. Bungalower
25. College Park Jazzfest
26. Orlando Pub Crawl giving us a monthly excuse to act like it’s Halloween
27. Tacko Fall
28. $1 drinks @ Chillers… a Downtown institution for almost two generations
29. Because missing George O’Leary is a good thing
30. A Mediocre time with Tom and Dan
31. UCF Tailgate Nation
32. Pom Pom’s Thanksgiving Sandwich
33. Cady Way Trail
34. The Abbey
35. Butter Beer
36. Sanford Zoo
37. Headdress Ball
38. Getting juiced at Skyebird @ East End Market
39. Popcorn at Casey’s
40. The epicness of the Dr Phillips Performing Arts Center
41. The Loge at the House Of Blues
42. The Swans at Lake Eola Park
43. The entrepreneurial atmosphere at the new CANVS
44. Fringe Festival
45. Allison Walker
46. View from One80 Grey Goose Lounge
47. Church Street District’s Alive@Five
48. House of Blues music on the porch
49. Orlando Weekly’s Best of Party
50. RumFest @ Wall St Plaza every summer
51. Anytime Tosh mentions UCF on tv
52. ‘Lil Indies
53. Mel’s Bad Girls Club
54. Gay Days Parade
55. The Lennon Room @ Hard Rock Live
56. Andrew Spear
57. West End Trading Co… the northside’s CBGB’s
58. Redlight Redlight
59. Brian mixing it up at The Woods
60. 3rd Thursday Thornton Park
61. Amateur Burlesque @ Stardust
62. UCFree Music Wednesday’s
63. Freshfield Farms on Michigan Ave
64. UCF Cultural Village becoming a reality
65. Orlando Power Yoga
66. Wally’s on Mills Ave still going strong, and pouring even stronger
67. Urban Bike Trail
68. Brighthouse Stadium
69. Blue Man Group
70. Dirty Bingo with Korndogg
71. A Comic Shop
72. Breakfast at Christos
73. Mills50 Dumpster Project
74. UCF Ladies Volleyball
75. Eden Bar @ Enzian Theatre
76. Dog Day Afternoon
77. The GeekEasy
78. The Porch in Winter Park
79. Uncle Tony’s Donut Shoppe
80. 4 Rivers Downtown
81. The Creative City Project, which brings together an impressive lineup of the best Orlando art,
82. Merging arts, tech, food, and culture in downtown Orlando with Third Thursday,
83. The Main Street Districts and all the great community programs that have come out of them,
84. The revitalization of the Exchange building, a community landmark,
Necole Pynn
85. The trend toward better beer. I’m a happy camper now that I can even get Bell’s Two-Hearted at the local sports bar,.
86. Orlando’s ongoing literary renaissance. Thanks to shaker-uppers like Burrow Press and events like There Will Be Words, people with a literature degree may one day stand a chance at getting laid.
87. The hangover-busting, consistently incredible tea at Pom Pom’s Teahouse and Sandwicheria.
Todd Caviness
88. My dog Sookie for just being Sookie
89. Krispy Kreme Millenia because it’s only 4 miles away from my house
Johnny Magic
90. Cool entertainment venues like The Abbey
91. Thornton Park’s beautiful greenery and brick-lined streets
92. Our visionary Mayor… Buddy Dyer
Wendy Connor
93. I’m thankful that city leadership supports experiments like the Distance Music at Lake Eola that put train horns in Swan boarts for a unique composition.
94. I’m thankful that we have a tourist development tax that invests money into the arts every year.
95. I’m thankful that so many artists are collaborating on the Creative City Project.
Terry Olson
96. Grateful for the social entrepreneurial growth happening in our community! Orlando does care.
97. Thankful for the future of great professional sports in Orlando.
Jennifer Quigley
98. Paddleboarding at Lake Ivanhoe
99. Public art on traffic control boxes
100. The Orlando Urban Trail
Patty Sheehan
101. aXis Magazine is thankful for all the progressive, creative and generous residents of the art, music, theatre, hospitality, social services and various other businesses that help to develop the identity of Central Florida and the City of Orlando.
Thanks to the following for contributing…
Patty Sheehan, Amy Lynch, Jennifer Quigley, Carson Ingle, Terry Olsen, Nicole Cozzocrea, Paul Emery, Russ Rollins, Brian Grimes, Johnny Magic, Wendy Connor, Laura Diaz, Rae, C-Lane, Necole Pynn, Tod Caviness and many others.