Residents are cheering news that the Orange Blossom Hills Country Club restaurant is expected to re-open in November.
The restaurant, built in the mid-1980s, is a Villages original. Many Villagers have fond memories of seeing Harold Schwartz golfing at Orange Blossom Hills Golf Course, the oldest 18-hole championship golf course in The Villages. He was a regular at the restaurant.
But the restaurant closed a year ago, and many Historic Side residents feared it would not reopen.
Fred Karimipour, who also runs Bonifay and Evans Prairie country club restaurants and will be a partner in the new Belle Glade Country Club, will be running the renovated Orange Blossom Hills restaurant.
Residents were disappointed when the Tiki Bar, the legendary poolside watering hole at the restaurant, was torn down.
Villager Rita Burrows was 82 when she started dating her current boyfriend after meeting him through Sumter Singles.
“The Tiki Bar was one of the first places I took him,” Burrows said. “I was heartbroken when it was torn down.”
