Ash you like it
The Parliament House’s Rainbow Café has made a recent and well known acquisition.
The locally celebrated chef from Hell’s Kitchen with Gordon Ramsey, Ashley Nickell is their new chef.
Prior to her reality show stint, Ashley was one of the chefs at Funky Monkey Wine Company, owned by her two dads Nick Oliveria and Eddie Nickell. Sometime last year, Nick and Eddie opened Restaurant ASH alongside with Ashley as the chef. No longer at ASH, Ashley really wanted to hone her skills to help the LGBTQ community. She hopes to work with the Parliament House to tweak the menu at the Rainbow Café to make it “more exciting and vibrant, just like the community”.
Ashley tells Watermark her time in Orlando is limited since she plans to move to NYC in August with her fiancé. We asked what she has lined up in NYC, and currently Ashley plans to work at a private chef.
Girlz who rock!
Over a two-week span in late March, Old Town in Kissimmee held their first ever Battle of the Bands hosted by local comedian Rauce and judged by local performer Chris Hampton and Watermark’s own Danny Garcia.
The contestants ranged from a Christian metal band to a solo acoustic guitar singer. After two rounds, four bands played for the audience and their judges. According to the judges, the decision was a difficult one, since there was so much talent on the stage. But the big winners that included a contract for paid gigs at Old Town was the all-female group that brings the “L” in LGBTQ, the Cover Girlz! Congratulations to the ladies, and we hope to hear more from The Cover Girlz.
Bands of Brothers
On the morning of April 2, a member of the Central Florida Softball League’s Orlando Circus Team passed away. His name was Steven Rix, but he was often just called Rix or Rixee by his fellow friends and team members.
As much of a shock as this was for the team, fellow team members and spouses Daniel and Dallas Ziegler came together to help raise money for Steven’s family. They ordered 350 armbands hoping to sell them at $2 apiece, thinking they would raise at least $700; at last count the expected totals are now exceeding over $2500 with more armbands being ordered to accommodate the demand.
According to Daniel, he’s doing this for Steven because he was not only a teammate but a family member; he was a brother. The team’s sponsor Kiwi’s Pub and Grill in Altamonte is also assisting by collecting donations on Friday, April 7.
