A new dining venue is anchoring Grande Lakes Orlando's 2026 holiday season: Rinkside Brasserie, an à la carte concept launching November 25 adjacent to the resort's open-air ice-skating rink — the only one of its kind in Orlando. The brasserie debuts alongside the returning Fireside Lounge, which serves gourmet s'mores and a subset of the Rinkside menu. Together they extend the resort's food-and-beverage footprint during its most programming-intensive stretch of the year.

The Market's F&B Lineup

The annual Christmas Market, open November 25 through January 2 and accessible to both hotel guests and the public, anchors a layered culinary experience across multiple chalets. The Alpine Chalet serves Alpine Melts and Currywurst Sausage; The Sweet Haus offers European- and American-inspired boozy hot chocolates alongside cookies and s'mores; the Yuletide Spritz Bar pours handcrafted spritzes and seasonal cocktails; and the Pretzel Haus produces freshly made sweet and savory pretzels. The market's food-and-beverage scope signals the growing operator trend of converting seasonal activations into multi-venue culinary destinations — a model gaining traction across luxury hotel dining programs nationwide.

For guests who prefer a poolside setting, the resort's Grande Cocoa Cabanas pair Grand Marnier hot cocoa and gourmet s'mores with heated pools, positioning the outdoor F&B offering as a distinctly Floridian counterpoint to traditional winter fare.

New Year's Eve Menus

The resort's New Year's Eve programming illustrates how luxury properties are tiering celebratory dining to capture multiple spend levels. At Primo — the Mediterranean/Italian restaurant helmed by multiple James Beard Award-winning chef Melissa Kelly — guests can choose between a four-course tasting menu or a lavish six-course celebration, both concluding with a Taittinger Champagne toast and access to the private terrace for the midnight fireworks display. At JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes, EvrBar hosts a New Year's Eve Party with live music and private party booths, while NYE Champagne Cabanas add a poolside tier complete with dining service from Knife Burger. A dedicated NYE Kids Night Out event with a kid-friendly buffet rounds out the offerings, a format that family-focused resort operators increasingly deploy to capture multi-generational bookings.

Golf Course Reopening

Separate from the holiday F&B calendar, the resort's newly renovated 18-hole championship golf course — redesigned by two-time British Open champion Greg Norman with an emphasis on ecosystem preservation — reopens November 1, ahead of the resort's hosting of the 2026 PNC Championship. Enhanced practice facilities, elevated greens, and refined green contours are among the upgrades. The course reopening extends the resort's draw beyond the holiday period and broadens the audience for its food-and-beverage venues during the tournament.

Grande Lakes Orlando encompasses The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes and JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes across 500 acres, with a dozen dining venues that source ingredients from Whisper Creek Farm, an 18,000-square-foot on-property working farm. The combination of farm-to-table sourcing, multi-concept seasonal programming, and event-anchored hospitality reflects the broader direction in upscale resort food and beverage strategy as operators seek year-round revenue from experiential dining.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.