Cress Restaurant: The Care Inside a DeLand Handoff

Cress opened in 2008 under Hari and Jenneffer Pulapaka. As The West Volusia Beacon later documented, Hari also taught mathematics at Stetson, while Jenneffer had her podiatry practice. The restaurant became another substantial expression of their abilities.

I appreciate that combination because it makes the origin feel particular to the people involved. A restaurant can emerge from lives that already contain other disciplines. Curiosity finds another place to work.

In a university town, that seems especially fitting. Knowledge and creativity move through different rooms. Somebody can be known in one setting for one kind of expertise and, a few streets away, be building something quite different.

Cress gave that energy a public address on West Indiana Avenue. Its globally influenced cooking made the dining room part of a larger conversation, while the business itself became a distinctly local presence.

The restaurant’s reputation developed through people choosing to spend meaningful evenings there. That is the part a later owner inherits along with the physical place.

Tom and Suran acquired a majority interest in 2019 and completed the purchase in 2021. The Beacon reported that the Pulapakas stayed involved for a period after the initial sale to help train staff.

That detail gives the transition substance. Knowledge was given time to travel between people. The next chapter had an opportunity to understand the one before it.

I think that kind of handoff deserves more attention in stories about independent businesses. We readily celebrate an opening. Continuing a place that already matters asks for a different kind of confidence.

The new owners have to bring their own commitment to the work while recognizing why people care about the existing name. The earlier owners have to allow a future in which their original idea will be carried by other hands.

Cress’s transition holds both kinds of investment. The connection between them helped make continuity possible.

Tom’s comments in the Beacon’s report emphasized preserving the restaurant’s appeal while welcoming new regulars. That is a hopeful way to understand the next chapter: affection for an established place can make room for people who have just discovered it.

A dining room holds that mixture naturally. One table may bring years of association. Another may be forming its first impression. Both are experiencing the restaurant now.

The current Cress introduction continues its global culinary emphasis. The larger story is one of sustained ambition in a small downtown: giving people a reason to pay attention to an evening here.

I value the fact that a place like Cress can make DeLand part of someone’s culinary map. An independently built restaurant can change what a person associates with a town. The address becomes a destination because of the work inside it.

Keeping that possibility alive is a meaningful undertaking.

When I think about Cress, I want to recognize both the people who gave it its beginning and the people who took on the work of continuing it. Their contributions are connected, but each involves its own decisions and effort.

A successful handoff gives a community something valuable: the chance to keep building memories around a place it already knows. New guests add another layer. The story remains open.

Norwood’s in New Smyrna Beach offers another long view of a restaurant carried forward by different people. Cress has its own version of that human continuity in DeLand.

There is care in creating a place people value. There is also care in helping it have a future. Cress’s story makes room to appreciate both.