 We recently had the opportunity to enjoy one of Disney's newer Character breakfasts, the Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno at the Boardwalk resort. This breakfast is a fixed price meal approximately $34 for adults and $20 for children or 1 table service credit if on the dining plan. The breakfast starts with your choice of fresh fruit salad or mixed berry parfait along with a frying pan full of assorted pastries and then you get your choice of an entree. The Character meet and greets included Disney characters including Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, Ariel and Prince Eric. We had a lot of fun with each character who stopped by our table. They each took time with us and made sure we were having a good time. I personally enjoy this type of character meal. I don't feel rushed at a buffet, afraid I might miss a character making their rounds. We just sit back, relax, enjoy the food and atmosphere.  Trattoria al Forno can be found on the Boardwalk.   Right inside the lobby they had a selection of Princess and Prince merchandise to purchase.   Fresh fruit salad  In case you missed it.. look how cute this crown is!  Mixed berries yogurt parfait. I think this was supposed to have a Sebastian cookie on top but they must have been out.  Assorted pastries in a frying pan. I love how they were themed to match the characters. Including Rapunzel's Sun cookie and a clam shaped pastry for Ariel.  Rapunzel's Sun Cookie. This was flaky, buttery, a little almond tasting and delicious.  Clam shell pastry. This had a wonderful raspberry filling.  Your meal comes with an option of beverages including coffee, juice, milk. I chose to pay the extra for the Little Mermaid punch because it included your choice of a light up Ariel or Pascal and I couldn't pass that up.   For my entree I picked the King Triton’s Shipwreck al Forno, a calzone stuffed with soppressata (an Italian salami), bacon, sausage, and cheeses served atop an Italian Sunday Gravy. This was so delicious and was a lot of food. Pizza for breakfast? Yes please!  Chris got the Royale Breakfast, Oak-Grilled Steak, Cheesy Egg Torte, Asparagus, Crispy Onions and Roasted Potatoes. He enjoyed this a lot.     All of the character interactions were very fun. Each character is announced individually as they enter the dinning room. Once all the characters were in the restaurant they did a fun parade around the room in which children were invited to join in and everyone is encouraged to wave their napkins in the air. Following the parade the characters come around one by one stopping at each table . Speaking of tables on each table there is a map you can take with you to fill out on your Disney World adventures as well as an autograph card for all the characters at breakfast. I thought this was such a fun souvenir.   Overall we absolutely loved this newest character breakfast. The food was fantastic, we loved the character interaction and we had a lot of fun! 
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 Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight...Tonight ends an era as we say goodbye to Magic Kingdom's Wishes Fireworks. I remember seeing Wishes 13 years ago, the year it first started. I cried from the all emotions I felt and I have cried every time since then. This last weekend I cried for one final time as we attended the Wishes Fireworks Dessert Party at Tomorrowland Terrance. I look forward to seeing the new show, Happily Ever After, but Wishes will always hold a special place in my heart. So make a wish, and do as dreamers do, and all our wishes, will come true.               As you can see there were lots of delicious choices. Besides the main dessert station, they also had a sundae station, cookie station with a decorate your own cookie options, cheese & fruit station and drinks. When we were finished eating a cast member escorted us out to a special viewing area in front of the castle. I thought this was the perfect way to view the show. I didn't need to stake out a spot early only to be pushed or have someone squeeze in front of us. It felt relaxing being able to sit on the hub grass and enjoy Wishes fireworks once last time.         Thought I better pick up a souvenir to remember Wishes always, not that I would forget.  Today was the grand opening of the Polite Pig at Disney Springs. We've been looking forward to this opening since owners/Chefs James and Julie Petrakis also own/operate the very popular Orlando restaurants The Ravenous Pig and Swine & Sons. The Polite Pig is a quick-casual eatery. You order, pay, are given a pager and select your seat. Your food is brought out shortly and servers refill your drinks, clear your table and get you anything you may need, even that is to order a dessert you might have left room for. Our server Sara was very friendly, offered lots of fun information about the restaurant and answered any questions we had. She was great!  The outside of the restaurant  Outside patio seating   Outside bar area and additional patio seating  While they have wide variety of drinks and beers on tap what was most impressive was their 52 selections of bourbon!  Even their door handles made me happy. How can you go wrong with a pig in a top hat and monocle?    Line queue and order counter  If you look closely on the floor you will find some pig prints!  I loved how the inside was decorated and had room for about 200 guests.    
They had an impressive sauce bar. Our favorite was the Lil John's Black Pepper BBQ. I also really enjoyed the Alabama white sauce. It was a BBQ flavor I have never had before and the creamy, vinegar taste really appealed to my taste buds.  After ordering you are given a pager to place on your table. They bring your food right to your table.  Without further ado... the food!  Smoked Chicken wings. One of my dinning companions ordered these and enjoyed them. He let me have one of the carrots..how kind.  The Hop Salt Pretzel with IPA mustard and beer cheese fondue. This thing was bigger than my head and was very delicious. I loved the beer cheese fondue. The IPA mustard wasn't to my personal liking but I am not a fan of IPA but if you love mustard this was full of flavor.  Polite Wedge. I am a big fan of wedge salads and this one was no exception. Topped with bacon jam, pickled onions, tomatoes and smoked blue cheese dressing this is definitely something I would order again and again.  Salmon BLT with bacon jam, marinated tomato, romaine and aioli. I did not get a chance to try this but heard it had a great flavor.  I selected the tomato and watermelon salad for my side. It was topped with feta, basil and pickled onions. I enjoyed these flavor combinations and felt like something I would really enjoy on a summer day or any day.  The Brisket Melt with caramelized onions, pickled peppers and beer cheese fondue. I was expecting this to be a slab of brisket and was pleasantly surprised it was shredded. I love the portion size of the sandwiches. There was a lot of meat and packed a lot of flavor. This was yummy!  Pork Shoulder from the smoker served with texas toast, slaw and one side. Chris picked the baked beans for his side. The pork was really flavorful and tender. The beans we both agreed were not something we would choose as a side again. They were more a little more bland than we were expecting.  Last and certainly not least the dessert. We shared the Orange blossom honey cake. Oh my! This was dense cake was delicious. If I could put Florida into a dessert this would be it! Over all we loved the Polite Pig and welcome it to Disney Springs with open arms and satisfied tummies. We can not wait to bring our friends and family back to try even more off the menu!   We have eaten at Art Smith's Homecomin' (formally called Homecoming) a couple of times now and have had a enjoyable experience both times. We have always had excellent, friendly service and the food reminds me of going to grandma's house for a wonderful home cooked meal but turned up a notch. Nothing fancy or ingredients I have not heard of just delicious food. My only complaint, if there is one, is our 2nd time there the food took a little longer to come out. This is not a big deal to me at a sit down restaurant especially when the food is worth the wait (which it is) but it was something to keep in mind if you are on a time limit and have some place to be. 
The interior of the restaurant is open and bright with high vaulted ceilings. From the potato sack chandeliers, the sunny mural, and the antique bottles I love the southern comfort look.  I love that their chandeliers are made from potato bags!   The Bar. While you'll find plenty of familiar drink options here they specialize in moonshine offering a variety of signature moonshine craft cocktails. As I said above the food we have tried as been excellent. Homecomin' specialty is their fried chicken. I have a confession... I am not big on fried chicken so I did not order it but two of my dining companions ordered it and said while it was not the best fried chicken they have ever had it was definitely delicious and worth ordering.  With moonshine drinks being a specialty I decided to try one. I picked the Moonshine Mash: Watermelon-infused moonshine, fresh watermelon, lime juice and simple syrup. Oh my! This was so refreshing I could see myself drinking this all summer.  We started with the Church Lady Deviled Eggs. I loved how they did not add any fancy ingredients (except the bacon and no complaints about bacon here!) These were so good.  This is the Fried Chicken Sandwich: fried chicken, dressed with hot sauce, aioli, iceberg lettuce, tomato and house-made barbecue chips drizzled with icebox dressing. This sandwich was very tasty. I loved the flavor of the chips but the bbq powder on them fell on my white shorts and left little streaks when I wiped them away..just a warning to not be a messy eater like me!  Fried chicken and doughnuts. It took us awhile trying to figure out what the syrup was and turns out it was a molasses base. Very unique but tasty.  Art Smith's famous fried chicken. Both people in our dining group said they thought this tasted very good. It was moist on the inside, crispy on the outside and was delicious. The description on the menu says served with creamy mashed potatoes, cheddar drop biscuits, and love. Can we just stop and appreciate that it says "and love".  Chopped Pork Barbecue Plate. Dressed with HFK sweet and spicy barbecue sauce served with Momma's mac and cheese and cheddar drop biscuits. The person in our party who ordered this said it was delicious but noted that the sweet and spicy BBQ wasn't very spicy.  Kitchen Plate which was a trio of your choice of sides. Everyone in our party agreed the mac n' cheese was phenomenal. The garlic mashed potatoes and cucumber salad were yummy!  Save room for dessert!  The hummingbird cake. This is one of Art Smith's most requested desserts in his restaurants and it is easy to see why. This was very delicious!  How about that? Chef Art Smith himself came and greeted us at our table. It was an honor to meet him and he seemed like a genuinely nice and caring gentlemen!  I love how instead of after dinner mints they have after dinner taffy! |
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