The Mills 50 Experience
Orlando's vibrant Vietnamese-American cultural district
About This Tour
In the 1980s, Vietnamese refugees began settling along a stretch of Colonial Drive that most Orlandoans avoided. They opened restaurants, markets, and businesses — and quietly built one of the most vibrant cultural districts in the American South. Today, Mills 50 (named for the intersection of Mills Avenue and Highway 50) is where Orlando eats, creates, and comes alive. This walk takes you through pho kitchens that have been simmering for 30 years, past murals that tell community stories, and into the creative spaces where Orlando's next chapter is being written.
Route Overview
A cultural walk through the Mills 50 district starting on Colonial Drive, moving through the Vietnamese food corridor, art galleries, and community spaces.
The steam rising from the pho pot at Anh Hong has been rising since 1992. The recipe hasn't changed. The neighborhood around it has — three times over. But the broth doesn't care about gentrification, and neither does the woman who's been ladling it into bowls since before most of her current customers were born...
Your 6 Stops
Colonial Drive Corridor
The gateway to Mills 50 — where Vietnamese signage, specialty markets, and the smell of lemongrass announce you've entered a different Orlando.
"The signs change first. English gives way to Vietnamese, then to a mix of both. The grocery stores have durian out front and fish sauce stacked to the ceiling. You're in the corridor that Orlando's food scene was built on."
Anh Hong Restaurant
Three decades of pho — this family restaurant is a living timeline of Orlando's Vietnamese community.
"Anh Hong doesn't have a Michelin star. It has something better: a line out the door every Saturday at 11am, made up of people who've been coming here since before Yelp existed."
The Mills Gallery District
Street art meets fine art — the murals and galleries that transformed empty storefronts into Orlando's creative heartbeat.
"The mural on the side of the building depicts a Vietnamese dragon wrapped around a Florida orange tree. It was painted by a local artist whose parents fled Saigon in 1975. This is what Mills 50 does — it layers stories on top of stories."
Pom Pom's Teahouse & Sandwicheria
Where East meets South — a beloved local spot that puts Vietnamese ingredients into Southern comfort food, and somehow it works perfectly.
"Banh mi on Texas toast. Vietnamese iced coffee with a Southern drawl. Pom Pom's doesn't just sit at the intersection of cultures — it throws them a party."
East End Market
Orlando's artisan food hall — a curated collection of local vendors under one roof that has become the anchor of the neighborhood's creative economy.
"East End Market started as a crazy idea: fill an old building with the best independent food vendors in Orlando and let them create magic. Ten years later, it's the proving ground for every ambitious cook in the city."
Sts. Peter & Paul Vietnamese Catholic Church
The spiritual anchor of Orlando's Vietnamese community — a church that tells the story of migration, faith, and building a home far from home.
"This church was built by people who arrived in Orlando with nothing. Many were boat people — refugees who survived the South China Sea to build a new community in Central Florida. The stained glass tells their story."