By Akers Editorial
The Crown: Six Decades of History in Downtown Clermont
Before big-box stores and heavy traffic, Clermont was known for a restaurant at the corner of Highways 27 and 50 built by Don McCaffrey, an engineer, Navy contractor and entrepreneur who once owned all four corners of the intersection.
Highway 50 was still more dirt road than major corridor at the time, and the nearby Citrus Tower was drawing tourists to Clermont when McCaffrey began construction in 1958.
Many of those tourists flocked to The Crest Restaurant after it opened on Mother’s Day in 1959 in a building built so solidly it even served as a tornado shelter.
It also served a meal no one else offered. According to current owner Stephen Parrish, the restaurant became Central Florida’s first buffet, then called a “gourmet table.”
Operators and concepts changed over the years, and in the early 1970s, one renter wanted a new name.
“Don said he picked the name Crown because it required the least amount of new letters and fit in the same space on the sign,” Stephen says.
The name stuck, and The Crown remained a popular stop through decades of growth around it.
Stephen planned to lease out the building when he purchased it from Don in the early 1990s. Instead, he ended up operating the Crown for nearly 30 years before eventually passing the torch to Stefanie Harding, who had worked for his company for nearly two decades.
Today, The Crown is less white-tablecloth restaurant and more neighborhood lounge known for cold drinks, karaoke, elevated bar food and a loyal crowd of regulars. And yes, smoking is permitted inside.
“We have a very large group of very amazing, dedicated regulars,” Stefanie says. “It’s become more than just a place to eat and drink. It’s people’s social time during their day. It’s their wind down.”
To Stefanie, preserving The Crown means preserving a piece of old Clermont.
“I think if I were to stress something to anybody in this area about the Crown is that it’s more than just a bar. And it’s more than a dive bar,” she says. “It’s a culture, it’s a family. It’s your neighborhood Cheers, but in real life.”
