The Bar Towel

uno99 wrote:Player 1 - I highly recommend this place!! It's a full retro arcade where every machine is open play (no money needed), and the beer list is great and reasonably priced. They also have console video games at the bar (NES, Xbox one, Playstation 4 etc).

http://player1orlando.com/

Noted! If I ever get sucked into a Disney trip... My girlfriend loves Disney. Ugh. It's not too far from Disney either even pretty close depending on the hotel.

THEY HAVE PINBALL TOO!!!

lister wrote:

uno99 wrote:Player 1 - I highly recommend this place!! It's a full retro arcade where every machine is open play (no money needed), and the beer list is great and reasonably priced. They also have console video games at the bar (NES, Xbox one, Playstation 4 etc).

http://player1orlando.com/

Noted! If I ever get sucked into a Disney trip... My girlfriend loves Disney. Ugh. It's not too far from Disney either even pretty close depending on the hotel.

THEY HAVE PINBALL TOO!!!

Yeah we had a great time there for a good few hours. I'd seriously be there a few times a month if I lived close by.

I was at Café Tu Tu Tango about a year ago. If you get stuck in the convention centre ghetto of big box junk food, this is an oasis, I highly recommend it. A small but excellent taps list, great food, atmosphere and service. Very reasonable too.

Was in Orlando a few weeks ago. I stayed close to downtown, but we ended up not spending much time in Orlando during the day. But, we did make it to our fair share of beer spots in the evening...

Redlight Redlight - The highest rated place on Ratebeer...and the highest beer prices I might have ever seen. Tap list was a mix of locals and imports, but the pours were tiny. Tons of beers were only served at 250ml. The staff were pushing the can/bottle list on me hard, but the prices were too ridiculous. The building itself is really nice, though, and I can see why it's popular. Eastern European food truck out front which was excellent. Worth a stop if you're near downtown, but perhaps one of the more disappointing places I've ever visited given the overwhelming positive reviews.

Oblivion Taproom - I have nothing to say here given that it's now closed. I wish I would have known that before visiting as the place was packed despite only having 4 taps on and a limited food menu. We walked in and out rather quickly.

World of Beer - The biggest surprise of the trip. They had a Bourbon County event earlier in the day which I wish I knew about. Regardless, they had tapped some rather nice stouts (Terrapin, Funky Buddha, and some other local one-offs) shortly after the event for those who didn't get a ticket. Staff was real good and the food was good for pub fare.

Orlando Brewing - Not going to impress anyone on BT (myself included), but an ok stop if you're in the area looking for a beer. The Chocolate Mint Girl Stout was good enough for me.

The Gnarly Barley - Near the airport, which meant it was our first stop. Beer list is primarily local with about 15 taps and 20ish cans/bottles. The buffalo chicken tacos were excellent.

Hourglass Brewery - Their house beers weren't great, but the venue is nice and there's a Mexican restaurant basically built into it that will deliver your food to the bar. 4 or 5 Jolly Pumpkin beers on the guest taps when I was there, and the bottle selection was priced very well. Ordered a Fantome bottle for <$20. Staff was totally clueless, though, which was unfortunate.

The Brass Tap - Lots of taps, lots of interesting beers. I had a Christmas Bomb which was nice. Food was mediocre. Check the menu online if you're in the area, they seem to have decent things here and there.

Ten 10 Brewing - Easy walk from Brass Tap and certainly the best brewery in the area if you ask me. Everything I had was on point from their IPA's to the berliner they had on. Fun spot.

As for bottle shops, Knightly Spirits Orange Blossom was quite good. They seemed to have a ton of imports (Mikkeler, Fantome, etc), but lacked a bit locally. Fair prices and any six packs are fair game for singles. The Total Wine's in the area had a decent enough selection. Cigar City is everywhere and is priced very well. Just check the dates on things. It took me three stops before I found some fresh (two week old) Jai Alai at a Publix. Prairie bottles were absolutely everywhere in the area.

Any new developments down this way? Looks like I'm going to have to do a family Disney land trip. I think we're going to be staying in kissimmee(is this Orlando?). Hoping to score some good local stuff, Cigar city etc.

sofakingdrunk wrote:Any new developments down this way? Looks like I'm going to have to do a family Disney land trip. I think we're going to be staying in kissimmee(is this Orlando?). Hoping to score some good local stuff, Cigar city etc.

I've been down there early December for the past 5 years. I usually have a fairly targeted game plan for beer buying so I am not wasting my trip driving around looking for beer. I hit whole foods on day one to grab usually fresh jai alai and other local ipas and grab whatever special release they may have sitting there (i've grabbed bcbw and last snow there before). If it sounds like funky buddha recently released something cool that recently hit distro or if I just feel like checking out random special releases I'll hit knightly spirits on orange blossom trail (closer to where you are). they have a great selection, but with western new york's increasingly awesome distro I don't see a tonne more there than in Buffalo, so it's become less of a must hit destination for me. I would also check out random ABC's for BCBS as they had a tonne of it this year and it may still be hanging around depending on when you are heading there.

if you have the time, I highly recommend a day trip to tampa. The last couple of years I've done this so that we can have a fun 4 hours or so at the beach, although this year we just ended up staying there for an extra two nights. but it's an easy day trip as well. get up really early and drive the easy 1:45 to the coast and hang out at the beach until just after lunch. head to downtown st pete for lunch and any of their great restaraunts and then swing by cycle and/or cigar city depending on who has nice bottles to go. it's an easy day trip as long as you time it with traffic.

last, there's a promising new brewery in orlando right near the airport called Ellipsis Brewing. from what i've read and heard they are doing a good job on most beer styles and producing some upper teir ipas to boot. I'll be checking them out next year for sure.

ckoop wrote:

sofakingdrunk wrote:Any new developments down this way? Looks like I'm going to have to do a family Disney land trip. I think we're going to be staying in kissimmee(is this Orlando?). Hoping to score some good local stuff, Cigar city etc.

I've been down there early December for the past 5 years. I usually have a fairly targeted game plan for beer buying so I am not wasting my trip driving around looking for beer. I hit whole foods on day one to grab usually fresh jai alai and other local ipas and grab whatever special release they may have sitting there (i've grabbed bcbw and last snow there before). If it sounds like funky buddha recently released something cool that recently hit distro or if I just feel like checking out random special releases I'll hit knightly spirits on orange blossom trail (closer to where you are). they have a great selection, but with western new york's increasingly awesome distro I don't see a tonne more there than in Buffalo, so it's become less of a must hit destination for me. I would also check out random ABC's for BCBS as they had a tonne of it this year and it may still be hanging around depending on when you are heading there.

if you have the time, I highly recommend a day trip to tampa. The last couple of years I've done this so that we can have a fun 4 hours or so at the beach, although this year we just ended up staying there for an extra two nights. but it's an easy day trip as well. get up really early and drive the easy 1:45 to the coast and hang out at the beach until just after lunch. head to downtown st pete for lunch and any of their great restaraunts and then swing by cycle and/or cigar city depending on who has nice bottles to go. it's an easy day trip as long as you time it with traffic.

last, there's a promising new brewery in orlando right near the airport called Ellipsis Brewing. from what i've read and heard they are doing a good job on most beer styles and producing some upper teir ipas to boot. I'll be checking them out next year for sure.

Thx for the info. Great tips.

Hey all! Long time reader, first time poster. I'll be making my way over to the other threads on this board soon.
In the meantime, I'm heading down to Orlando this week, and am very glad to have found this thread. Knightly Spirits here I come! I'll try to post back with what I find, once I get back.
If anyone else has any good tips, I'm all ears.

Welcome to BT beer friend!

El Pinguino wrote:Welcome to BT beer friend!

Thanks!

As promised, here is a photo of what I grabbed... Multiples of the small cans and of the Hop Gun. I was running late for something and only had about 5-10 minutes to run in and out of the store to grab a few things. Could have spent a LOT more time in there.

I was just here for a day yesterday and headed out this morning to Nashville. I'll add a spot that is worthy of a visit:

Ravenous Pig. Brew pub/restaurant. Really good, to style brews. I had their Guavamente (Gose with Guava). Very nice and not over the top Gose but definitely to style. They had a cask on of a pale ale dry hopped with Centennial and Mosaic. It was good but not crazy good. Their Red Drum hoppy red ale was really good. Had a sip of their IPA and it was solid as well.

Food is excellent and worth the trip. I had a steak and frites that was delicious with the finest cut frites ever! They were so thin it was almost comical but they were delicious, drizzled with truffle oil.