The next installment of Small Town Adventures brought us to the up-and-coming town of Winter Garden. I’ve enjoyed the small downtown area a few times in the past but was able to visit the new-ish Plant Street Market just up the street.

We started our day off in a nearby tiny town called Gotha where we visited the much-talked-about Yellow Dog Eats. The restaurant is housed inside a historic building and dishes out gourmet sandwiches and barbecue. We shared barbecue nachos and The Holy Crap sandwich, which had roasted turkey, avocado, bacon and melty goat cheese on multigrain bread. The place has a great patio and two stories for a dining area.

It’s only about 20 minutes from Orlando but felt very far away. I was so glad I was able to try this place but if you’re looking for an amazing sandwich, I would as soon go to PomPom’s.

We started our Winter Garden day at Axum Coffee, a nonprofit coffee shop that serves up great coffee and top-notch atmosphere. The front of the shop has a comfy couch and chairs with a stack of board games and books on the shelves. I picked up a few cute Winter Garden postcards at the register.

Winter Garden is the site of the Central Florida Railroad Museum, which you can learn more about here. We passed on the museum but explored more of the outdoor historic memorabilia.

The newest addition to Winter Garden is Plant Street Market and defines itself as an “indoor Artisan market.” Axum coffee has its own stand here as well as Collective Kindness candles, the Local Butcher and Market (huge variety of meats, innovative sausages!), David Ramirez Chocolates (macarons!), Our Nations Creations (focusing on items Made in the USA), and Crooked Can Brewing and those are just the places we visited.

The town of Winter Garden itself is surrounded by a huge shopping center (think Super Target, TJ Maxx) and a little bit of Pine Hills. In other words, the downtown area itself is super cute and charming, but the distance from Orlando and the perimeter made it less desirable as a place to relocate. As a day trip, though, it was perfect.