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The 8 Best Bars in Orlando

Orlando's cocktail bars sit downtown, along North Mills Avenue and east on Robinson Street, well away from the theme parks. The best bars in Orlando start with Hanson's Shoe Repair, upstairs on East Pine Street, where the door needs the current password, posted in the bar's Instagram stories. Mathers Social Gathering serves vintage drinks on the third floor of the Phoenix Building on South Magnolia Avenue, and Sparrow, a wine bar and lounge on North Orange Avenue, pours its own Sparrow Martini. In Thornton Park, Aku Aku Tiki Bar pays tribute to the 1960s, one of the great eras of tiki, with a Volcano Bowl of five rums for sharing. On North Mills Avenue, D.B.A. is a small sister bar to The Strand, Sunroom opened in 2019 as the more cocktail-driven sibling of The Guesthouse, and The Guesthouse next door is an easy after-work stop. On Robinson Street, Otto's High Dive mixes Cuban-inspired cocktails and keeps a Cuba Libre on tap. Hanson's and D.B.A. take no reservations. These are the eight we would start with.

Browse every Orlando barBest cocktail bars in Orlando
  1. Mathers Social Gathering
    Cocktail Bar

    Mathers Social Gathering

    Mathers Social Gathering fills the third floor of the Phoenix Building, a nineteenth century building on South Magnolia Avenue in downtown Orlando. Guests drink beneath the original exposed wood truss ceiling in a room inspired by a bygone era, with vintage libations and live entertainment from Tuesday to Saturday. The Phoenix Jazz Club, a listening lounge with craft cocktails, sits on the floor below.

    30 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, FL
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  2. Aku Aku Tiki Bar
    Tiki Bar

    Aku Aku Tiki Bar

    Aku Aku is a tiki bar in the Thornton Park district of downtown Orlando, paying tribute to the tiki era of the 1960s and named after the Aku Aku restaurant at the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas. The room is dressed in bamboo and thatch, and the bar takes pride in its tropical drinks alongside a wider list of house cocktails. It is the sister bar of The Dust lounge.

    431 East Central Blvd, Orlando, FL 32801Mon-Sat 4pm-2am, Sun 12pm-2am
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  3. D.B.A.
    Cocktail Bar

    D.B.A.

    D.B.A., short for doing business as, is the sister bar of The Strand restaurant on North Mills Avenue in Orlando. It is a small room for guests 21 and over with its own menu, and it takes no reservations, so larger groups can be hard to seat.

    809 N. Mills Ave., Orlando, FL 32803Tue-Thu 5pm-10pm, Fri-Sat 5pm-11pm
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  4. Hanson's Shoe Repair
    Speakeasy

    Hanson's Shoe Repair

    Hanson's Shoe Repair is a password entry speakeasy in the Hanson Building on East Pine Street in downtown Orlando. The building went up in 1883 and 1884, and Andrew Hanson bought it in 1894 for his shoe repair shop. The daily password comes from the bar's social channels or by calling or texting, and there are no reservations.

    27 East Pine Street, Orlando, Florida 32801Mon-Thu 8pm-2am, Fri-Sun 4pm-2am
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  5. Otto's High Dive
    Cocktail Bar

    Otto's High Dive

    Otto's High Dive calls itself a neighborhood rum bar, on East Robinson Street in Orlando, and blends old Cuba with modern Florida in its menu, design and culture. Two of its owners, Giovanni and Elise, named it for their youngest son, as a tribute to Giovanni's grandfather, whose bar in Cuba was taken by Fidel Castro. The cocktails run from bright, shaken drinks such as the Mariposa, with Puerto Rican rum, gin, passionfruit, orange blossom and almond, to stirred sippers like the Arturo Fuente, built on reposado mezcal, Tuscan amaro, Madeira, coffee and tobacco. A Cuba Libre with house-made kola comes on tap, and a list of five daiquiris runs from the Floridita to a funky agricole version.

    2304 E Robinson St, Orlando, FL 32803Mon-Thu 4pm-10:30pm, Fri-Sat 11am-11:30pm, Sun 11am-9:30pm
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  1. Sparrow Wine Bar
    Wine Bar

    Sparrow Wine Bar

    Sparrow is an intimate, 21-and-over wine bar and lounge on North Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando's North Quarter, pouring curated wines alongside elevated cocktails. A house Sparrow Martini sits on the drinks list next to the Sicilian Sunset of house Narancello, amaretto and bubbles. The kitchen, run by chef partner Wendy Lopez, sends out Southern European small plates made for sharing. Each evening opens with an aperitivo hour of tapas and cocktails, Thursdays bring vinyl nights, and once a month the room hosts a ticketed Saturday afternoon tea. Leather lounge chairs and dark decor set the mood for dates and catching up.

    807 N Orange Ave, Orlando, FL 32801
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  2. Sunroom
    Cocktail Bar

    Sunroom

    Sunroom is a cocktail bar on North Mills Avenue in Orlando, run alongside its sister bar The Guesthouse. The bar works with fresh ingredients and a wide selection of spirits, and its bar team pours from a house cocktail menu and a separate spirits list. Happy hour runs until 8pm from Tuesday to Saturday.

    1315 N. Mills Ave., Orlando, FL 32803Tue-Thu 6pm-12am, Fri-Sat 5pm-2am
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  3. The Guesthouse
    Cocktail Bar

    The Guesthouse

    The Guesthouse is a neighborhood bar on North Mills Avenue in Orlando and the sister bar of the cocktail bar Sunroom. It opens every afternoon for guests 21 and over, runs a daily happy hour from 4pm to 8pm and stays open until 2am.

    1321 N. Mills Ave, Orlando, FL 32803Mon-Fri 4pm-2am, Sat-Sun 1pm-2am
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These 8 are the starting point. The full BarMagazine directory covers every listed bar in Orlando, with a map, filters by bar type, and new openings as we verify them.

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