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At Ovation Bistro & Bar, we are unashamedly passionate about the food and drinks we create. As a family owned and operated business, we are always ready to serve! Our mouthwatering ribs and in-house smoked meats have earned us serious street cred among locals and visitors alike, and for good reason. Sit back and relax with a refreshing drink in our warm and casual atmosphere. Our wait staff is not only friendly but inviting as well. Voted the #1 restaurant in Davenport, and the Best Smokehouse in Central Florida, we guarantee Ovation Bistro & Bar will never disappoint you! We look forward to serving you and thank you in advance for giving us the chance.
Our names are Joel & Fernando and we own and operate the Ovation Bistro & Bar Restaurants in Polk County. We do it together with our awesome managers and Ovationers, which work so hard to serve the best meals in Polk County.
We grew up in Polk County and having worked hard all our lives (not complaining). Our family was a migrant family that moved and worked in the fields all across this great country of ours. The season would determine where we would be, up north in the summer months, Indiana or New York. In the Florida orange groves during the rest of the year, we never complained and in fact are still very proud of work that our parents did to provide for us. We have black and white pictures of them working in the fields in every one of our restaurants. To remind us, what hard work looks like and to remind us that in the United States anything is possible.
We were both born and raised in Haines City, FL and both graduated from Haines City High and it was always a dream of ours to have our own business in the area. Always being a have not, we thought, it would be cool to have something one day. After high school, we both joined the military.
We both served in the Army and both are Combat Veterans. We actually both served together in Afghanistan and after returning back home in 2006, we both went back to work as cooks and then managers at a big Australian themed steakhouse. This is where we learned our way and the ins and outs of the restaurant business, eventually running our own locations. Managing a restaurant is hard work and long hours, but also fun. Having a passion for BBQ and steaks and enjoying nice wines and whiskies… we asked ourselves, “why can’t we go somewhere to get real good BBQ and have a nice glass of wine or stiff drink?” So we decided one day, while we were smoking some brisket at home that we were going to open our own restaurant, one that was BBQ based but felt like a steakhouse and not like a quick service restaurant. Our new restaurant would not only have great BBQ, but a comfortable atmosphere, a sizeable wine list, full bar, specialty coffees and desserts, we told ourselves, this was in late 2014.
