ORLANDO, Fla. – For one of Orlando’s barbecue kings, a lunch spot in a downtown tower next to City Hall was an easy sell: the smokey aromas lured crowds of hungry office workers every day from their cubicles to the 4 Rivers’ outpost on the south end of Orange Avenue.When the pandemic hit in March, those office workers disappeared.
And the restaurant is gone, too, just one in a string of casualties that signal the shift to working from home will leave a lasting, if not permanent, imprint on the downtown that Orlando has long tried to establish as a business and cultural hub.“When the pandemic hit and the use of office space was compromised … then the business itself is compromised,” said 4 Rivers founder John Rivers.