ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Pine & Oak Tavern sits inside the newly renovated Rio Pinar Golf course, but despite its new look, the walls are covered in history.
“Arnold Palmer’s trophy is on the wall behind us and Lee Trevino is a champion here and Hal Irwin and a lot of the great old golfers. The history is just priceless. That’s one of the reasons why the property is purchased. You can buy a golf club, but you can’t buy the history,” said Greg Allowe, the president of Delaney Hospitality, which owns Pine & Oak.
Allowe partnered with the new owners of Rio Pinar to bring Pine & Oak to life. The golf club had been mothballed for several years before it was purchased, so it was in need of an update by the time Allowe came to it.
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“So we had to start from the beginning and the vision was not to be a stodgy old country club,” Allowe said. “We wanted to modernize it — make it more relevant while keeping some of the traditions in place. So if you look in the main part of the restaurant, you’ll see the artwork is not typical for for a golf club. We wanted to build a restaurant that was a restaurant that just happened to be located at a golf club, not a golf club restaurant.”
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Allowe was not a stranger to restaurant ownership. He also owns Delaney’s Tavern, inside the Delany Hotel, in downtown Orlando. The businessman brought in Anthony Albino, his corporate chef who had helped to develop the menu at Delaney’s Tavern.
“Some of the flavors of (Delaney’s Tavern) are here but we wanted also make this property a little bit more unique so, the menu is tailored a bit more for this market,” Allowe said.
Albino came to the culinary world following a career change. Previously, he worked as a mortgage broker until 2008.
“That’s when I put myself through college,” Albino said. “I went to attend Le Cordon Bleu.”
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Albino said he got his passion for cooking from his family, especially his grandmother.
“I grew up with a single mom. So every year she sent me down to Puerto Rico to live with my grandma,” the chef said. “And my grandma cooked every day, no matter who was coming by, or who was who was in the house. She cooked every day and people just stopped by to eat — so I just got a passion and love for cooking from her.”
On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Allowe shares more of the history behind Rio Pinar and Pine & Oak, while Albino shows off some of the menu.
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