Summer Charm in Historic Winter Park, Florida

Posted by Tim Cotroneo
on June 8, 2022

June 8, 2022. Winter Park, Florida – Winter Park is one of Florida’s most treasured historic cities. Founded in 1887 by New Englanders looking for a tranquil winter escape, it preserves the small-town charm with its cobblestone-lined streets cooled by grand Spanish moss trees, a scenic canal system, architecture, elegant shopping and world-class museums. The Alfond Inn at Rollins, the award-winning and dog-friendly boutique hotel, is situated in the heart of town and a short stroll from the downtown district.

The hotel offers gracious service and retains the sense of peace and tranquility that has been drawing visitors to Winter Park for more than 130 years. This summer it’s all about ice cream parlors and cafes on Park Avenue, floating on a cruise through Winter Park’s chain of lakes and canals, enjoying cocktails in the Alfond Inn’s courtyard or dining on Chef Stephen Doyle’s take on Southern cuisine at Hamilton’s Kitchen, which fuses locally sourced ingredients with rustic, open-table charm.

New Art on Display and In-Person Tours Return to the “Museum with Guest Rooms”

Art plays a central role in every stay at The Alfond Inn at Rollins, which has long been celebrated as a groundbreaking and unique art hotel, the only hotel in the United States that exhibits artworks from a museum collection. The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art is part of the permanent collection of Rollins Museum of Art and the hotel exhibits a rotating installation of works in the public spaces.

In July, museum curators will be installing several outstanding new acquisitions at The Alfond Inn, including works by Leidy Churchman, Peter Halley, Byron Kim, Tavares Strachan, and Kay WalkingStick. Churchman, whose work is currently on view in the 2022 Whitney Biennial, paints a diverse range of subjects in his attempt to understand the connections between the everyday and the universal. WalkingStick, a Native American artist who recently had a solo exhibition at Hales Gallery in London, combines representational and graphic elements to explore identity by connecting the present with the historical past. Both Halley and Kim engage with the histories of abstraction centered on color and form, while conceptual artist Strachan’s open-ended practice operates at the intersections of art, science, history, and politics. Works by Jeffrey Gibson, Daniel LaRue Johnson and Sarah Anne Johnson will also be shown for the first time.

For a guided experience of the hotel art on display, there are in-person, curator-led art tours at the hotel on the first Wednesday of each month, including July 6 and August 3 at 6 p.m. For more details, visit the Rollins Museum of Art. Summer exhibitions at the museum will run through September 4, 2022 and include Pathways 2022: The Carlos Malamud Prize, Boundaries & Frontiers; Subject: Artist; and Trauma to Triumphs: Perceptions of The Human Body.

Summer Dining & Drinks

At Hamilton’s Kitchen, Chef Stephen Doyle has created a menu with lighter summer tastes in mind, from his Sea Scallops with Polenta to the Asiago Risotto Primavera, the spicy and refreshing Jerk Jackfruit and the always popular Chesapeake Crab Cakes. There’s alfresco dining at Hamilton’s as well. The hotel offers a creative list of signature cocktails at the Bar, like The Dove, which is made with Patron Silver Tequila, lemon, grapefruit juice and agave. Summer libations are best enjoyed with friends around one of the fire pits for an evening gathering under the stars.

The best way to experience The Alfond Inn is with the new Summer Adventures in the Park package that includes a two-night stay in a Classic Room, a lake cruise on the Winter Park Boat Tour, a pair of tickets to the nearby Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, and two Gourmet Box Lunches.

Summer Adventures in the Park: