Michelin-winning chef Amit Kumar was lying at New Delhi Hospital when the general contractor smashed the Orlando restaurant without getting permission from the city or submitting a construction plan.
Kumar told Growth Spotter, who had just arrived in India for a business trip when he got sick and had to be hospitalized for several days without accessing his work email. There he discovers after the fact that a contractor, an AJ developer, jumped over his gun in demolition and was slapped at an order that stopped him late last week from the city.
Kumar, who owns some of Orlando’s most popular Indian restaurants, including the famous Bombay Street Kitchen, last year bought Shutterburger Kingville, located at Dr. 744 W. Colonial, for $1.1 million. He said he plans to spend around $1.5 million on renovations and convert it into a restaurant with a test kitchen and limited sitting, offering a five-course tasting menu.
He said he received approval for renovations from a third-party plan review company, but these plans were never sent to the city’s construction department. And when workers began inspecting the building, they found extensive water damage from some roof leaks, so they decided to discard the plan and build a new concrete block structure with the same dimensions as the old building.
“The whole building was like rotten from within,” he said. “So, they’re the reason we decided we couldn’t keep it up, otherwise you just have the same problem.” However, the city was not even informed of the change in this direction.
Currently, the general contractors and engineers said the general contractors and engineers are working with the city’s construction department to apply for appropriate permits. They have destroyed the building and must submit a new site plan and then submit a building plan. Site plans must be approved by the city’s planning committee and city council, and new building plans must also receive a certificate of approval from the exterior review board. Kumar said he was unaware of the extra scrutiny needed for the downtown Orlando building.
City spokesman Andrea Otero said Tuesday that the building permit application was submitted as a change, but the city has not yet received a retroactive application for demolition.
“A re-examination of code enforcement is scheduled for 6/18/25. If no demonstration permit has been issued by then, we will present the case to the codeboard on July 9th,” Otero said.
Kumar is scheduled to return to Central Florida in early July. He said he appointed one of his restaurant managers to act as the city’s point manager while he was abroad.
“He said today he would take care of it,” Kumar said Monday. “I said I sent you a confirmation confirmation. Please send me everything from now on. So from today onwards I have all the communications. I’ll get the details in a few days.”
Kumar wants to recover enough to resume his trip in northeastern India. There, you meet street vendors, shop owners and home cooks to better understand the cuisine and ingredients from different regions than those offered in Delhi and Bombay.
This trip is some food tours, some cultural exploration. “We don’t copy recipes. It’s about getting ideas and inspiration. And you do your own take,” he said.
Any tips on developing Central Florida? Please contact me at lkinsler@growthspotter.com or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.
