Carol Sizer Holladay of The Pinery: Women Who Move The City

Meet Carol Sizer Holladay, Founder and Co-Owner of The Pinery!

May 31, 2022

Orlando Magazine Staff,

CAROL SIZER HOLLADAY

Founder and Co-Owner | The Pinery

The Pinery in Ivanhoe Village comfortably dwells among dual worlds. It is intensely personal yet welcoming to one and all. It is brand new yet as old as the pineapple fields that predate this urban landscape. It is upscale yet relaxed and community focused.

Orlando native Carol Holladay built The Pinery within the Lake House apartments, a luxury address on the shores of Lake Ivanhoe, to be a place of refuge in which to explore the state’s endless bounty.

Every plank of wood and piece of art, every morsel of food and craft cocktail has a story that enriches the dining experience. “The Pinery is a celebration of Florida,” Holladay says of the 150-seat dining spot that opened in June 2021.

The Pinery was born amid a pandemic that knocked the world of its axis and, even more extraordinarily, a breast cancer battle that threatened to derail all of Holladay’s dreams.

Just weeks after leaving her job as a manager of the Tap Room at Dubsdread, and before she had a restaurant to open, she found a lump in her left breast and was eventually diagnosed with cancer. She is a wife, a mother, a cancer survivor, and now an entrepreneur. She is an unshakable best friend to a lucky circle of people that includes her interior designer Janel Dagon, beverage director Nicole Barney and social media director Lindsy Hardin-Deal. She has handpicked this mostly female team, alongside her irreplaceable business partner, developer Robert Finfrock- one of the few men in the inner circle- to create a space where guests feel welcome and employees feel valued.

The Pinery owes its future to Florida’s past. Guests step inside to see a stunning Southern design element called pecky cypress. The wood comes by its texture naturally and The Pinery’s pecky cypress comes from the home of Orlando business trailblazer Lisa Hawley, who opened the Orange Blossom Playhouse in 1961. Another artifact of Orlando history is a bronze barrier that began life as a mezzanine railing in the First National Bank of Orlando in 1928.

The pineapple-heavy art was carefully curated by Holladay and her team and opens a window on Central Florida’s past as an agricultural giant. Yes, there really was a pineapple farm on Lake Ivanhoe.

“Every detail of The Pinery is a wonderful mix of Florida; from our menu and decorative details to the warm hospitality that will greet you at the front door,” Holladay says.