OCN’s 2025 Community Favorite Things List

Each year, the OCN team compiles a list of well-known and reader-submitted people, places and things in Greater Oviedo and Winter Springs that make this community a unique place to live. The Community Favorite Things List is not comprehensive. If you don’t see one of your favorites on the list, submit it here. 

Aligning with our nonprofit newsroom’s mission to help connect the community through information, we hope readers learn a new thing or two about their community or are reminded of a community gem that they should take time to enjoy. This list is OCN’s gift to its readers in the new year.

Editor’s note: Some readers made their submissions anonymously, which is why you’ll see that some submissions are attributed to a person’s name and others are not. If folks told us why they submitted something to the list, we included that as well.

Do you want to know what one of my favorite spots in the community is? It’s the Cross Seminole Trail bridge that intersects State Road 434 in Winter Springs. It tops my list mostly because it’s fun to find a hill to bike on in flat Florida but also because we can easily take the kids for something to eat in the Town Center along the way. 

Here’s our managing editor Isaac Babcock’s pick: “My favorite place to go in our area is out in the Little Big Econ Jones East Trail with my kids. It’s every kind of Florida geography in one place – Hills, ridges, scrub land, pine forest, old wood bridges and a creek runs through it straight to the Econ River.”

Our reporter Abe Aboraya’s fav: “The Scottish Highland Games at Central Winds Park in Winter Springs. There’s nothing like seeing seeing men and women carry a massive boulder for distance, the sheep dogs working hard and a good caber toss.”  

Reader Sharon Lovell mentioned a residential complex we’ve been invited to ourselves: “Legacy Pointe at UCF….Best place to live,” she wrote. The assisted living facility lies just south of Oviedo’s city border, offering skilled nursing, a pool, and even a butterfly garden that residents help tend. Residents there have invited Oviedo Community News to host a booth at their annual Earth Day event.

Reader Emma R. said her favorite place is Mind Vibes Studio in Oviedo, which touts using sound, light, vibration and aromatherapy to reset the mind, and she said she chooses its owner, Dawn Janowitz, as her favorite person. “Mind Vibes is a comforting place to go and relax my mind from all the chaos and the owner, Dawn, is extremely positive and upbeat to be around. She brightens my day!”

Reader Carmen Dominguez mentioned Oviedo on the Park, which has grown over the past decade to become arguably the cultural center of Oviedo, featuring the most prominent outdoor mural in the city, plus swan boats on the pond, a shaded playground, splash pad, dog park and multi-faceted event venue that has at time seen three musical acts performing simultaneously celebrating the area’s broad-reaching cultural heritage.

Though it was difficult for reader Marcie G. to choose a favorite, she also went with Oviedo on the Park. “It’s got such a small town, community feel, and we know we’ll always run into someone we know!”

Reader and Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek submitted her local favorite thing: the Cross Seminole Trail’s Howell Creek train trestle overpass, where Howell Creek at times splits and flows in multiple ways underneath a real former train bridge that once traveled to Oviedo. The crossing offers a place to stop for trail users with benches overlooking the creek below, plus a covered bridge for protection during rainstorms.

Reader and OCN Community Advisory Board Member Teresa Rahe said she likes the Cops ‘n Cars for Kids event that’s held every winter, usually in the Oviedo Mall parking lot. The event brings hundreds of show cars together in one place, plus food, entertainment, and a worthy cause helping the children’s charity Oviedo Optimist Club.

Teresa was also a big fan of two different Italian markets in Oviedo: the longstanding Cavallari Gourmet at the southwest corner of Mitchell Hammock Road and State Road 426, and D’Amico and Sons Italian Market & Bakery at the Oviedo Mall.

Reader Fran M. loves the “atmosphere and the great food and pastries” at Flakes &Fables in downtown Oviedo.

Reader Beverly E. also chose Flakes & Fables and had a list of other favorites as well that include The Coop Antiques, 2 Smart Cookies, “my beautiful Lake Charm,” and Pharmacy on Park.

Our first educator to be nominated as a local favorite is Pete Gaffney, principal of Winter Springs High School. The longtime Seminole County teacher, coach and administrator worked his way up to the top rung at Winter Springs nearly 10 years ago, promising to himself that he’d “never lose contact with students.”

Reader and OCN Community Advisory Board Member Gary Balanoff said “I love that Oviedo and Winter Springs have amazing parks. For sports and people and dogs.” The neighboring cities’ parks host numerous large festivals throughout the year, including the upcoming Central Florida Scottish Highland Games and the Independence Day Celebration of Freedom in Winter Springs’ Central Winds Park, and Oviedo’s St. Patrick’s Day festival and Oktoberfest, both hosted in Center Lake Park.

Gary also lauded the area’s schools, saying “The schools are terrific. A community with the best schools lowers crime and gives kids a chance to succeed in life whatever their strengths might be.”

“My favorite is the traffic circle. Strange but true,” wrote reader Mary Jo M. We’re guessing she’s talking about the big one that directs traffic near the Oviedo Library, into the old downtown area and northeast toward Geneva.

Reader Tom C. wrote “The Do-It-Yourself pest control store. The people are great and the economy of the place is wonderful. And they stock all the organic pest controls I could’ve ever needed.”

Reader Laura Leigh W. chose Trotwood Park in Winter Springs as her favorite. She said “I just love to walk through Trotwood Park. I remember parties with my children when they were little, events with my clients & now pushing my sweet granddaughter on the swings.”

Reader Katrina C. also said she loves Trotwood Park for the shaded playground, splash pad, and adjacent soccer fields, basketball court, and tennis courts. “The upgraded boardwalk at the pond is also great,” she said. She also picked riding her bike on the Cross Seminole Trail from Oviedo to the Winter Springs Town Center with her family, stopping for lunch in the middle. “Such a fun family activity and great exercise,” she said.

Reader and OCN Finance Committee Member Mark A. said District Eat & Play in the Oviedo Mall is his family’s favorite place to go. “Everyone is so nice there, the food is great and it’s a relaxing and fun place for everyone!”

“I love a peaceful hike to the storied Oviedo waterfall (Boonie Falls). Also I love that Oviedo supports a community news site like OCN.” said reader Beth. K.

Reader Nuresha K. said she and her family really like Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream in Oviedo because the ice cream is “fantastic” and they like enjoying the “cute, little outside area”.

For her favorite place, reader Karen G. chose Little Big Econ State Forest because she said it’s such a beautiful place to explore and because an “outstanding Florida body of water”— the Econlockhatchee River — runs through it. She also selected Natalie Swanson, the education programs coordinator for Seminole County Natural Lands. “She does an incredible job coordinating programs about nature for children and adults in the area. She’s an Oviedo resident and works out of the Ed and Imogene Yarborough Nature Center at the Geneva Wilderness Area.

Reader Joy R. said she picks the Circle Christian School’s theater program at The Foundry in Winter Springs. It’s “excellent pre-professional theater community for elementary through high school”. She also chose CrossLife Church in Oviedo because she said it offers friends, family and community.

Oviedo City Council member and reader Natalie T. chose the way the people in the community support each other. “Oviedo/Winter Springs always shows up, supports those in need, and actively supports and cheers on their neighbors. She also said “watching Sandhill cranes raise their little ones from fluff balls to majestic creatures brings me joy!”