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Originally Posted by tophcfa
We stopped missing WOB several years ago. It opened right about when we closed on our villages home in 2015 and we very much enjoyed it the first three or so years. They used to have excellent service, decent food, and an exceptional inventory of beer. The first couple of years, they would bring you a tablet that easily allowed you to search through their extensive beer selection using multiple filters to help focus in on specific beers based on specified criteria. Over time, the place went on a slippery downhill slope until it wasn’t even on our list of places to consider going to. I can’t say I’m surprised at all to learn of the closing. Spanish Springs is definitely in a transition, the two new FMK restaurants and Blondies are definitely positive, while the vacated Margarita Republic and WOB establishments are both large empty prime location buildings. It will be interesting to see what eventually fills these empty locations?
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The two FMK restaurants are definitely great additions, but they're also both very expensive. Remember this is the OLDER part of The Villages, and the entire other side of the road there is still primarily manufactured homes. That means more people on a budget. Coastal del Mar and the new Italian place are treats for us, but not anything we could do even once a month.
Margaritaville's property is being worked on inside, so I'm guessing something is already planned to go in there and in progress.
Blondies is just one of the Developers tiki huts with an actual bar and tables outside, it's not a restaurant at all, of any kind. If anything, you could consider it additional seating for the FMK restaurants since you can pay Ubereats a fee to bring the food from those two places across the street to your table (which seems really silly, why not save the delivery fee and just order your meal "to go," have one member of your party leave the table, walk across the street, and pick up the bag themselves).
Sumter has Panera, Starbucks, and Johnny Rockets for "inexpensive meal" options. Now, Spanish Springs has Panera. Amerikano's interior is like dining in a tomb, and outside is only good if you enjoy incredibly loud karaoke-style music. Gator's Dockside has some of the absolute worst service I've experienced in any restaurant, though their steak and cheese subs are pretty good - when you can get someone to take your order, someone else to make one for you, and someone else to bring it to you from their kitchen.
Spanish Springs really needs a mid-range restaurant other than Gator's. Without any competition, Gator's corners the market and their service can go downhill even more, and the food can even suffer, and people will still go since it's the only place in the area in that budget option.