St. Matthew's Tavern and Beer Garden 2

St. Matthews Tavern opened this past weekend for church services and will open this weekend as a bar.

The bar is located at 1300 N Mills Ave [GMap] in the former Paradise bar space.

The bar features a tavern style theme mixed with church pews. The church pews will get their use as they bar will be hosting St. Dorothy Catholic Community (Website) who will be celebrating Mass there every Sunday at 11am and will be having a midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Owner Matt Fassl told Bungalower that it was important to open to god first. The bar will still be open on Sundays just after mass.

The official opening will be this Sunday (after mass) but you can also grab a drink on Saturday as part of the Twelve Nights of Christmas Pub Crawl.

Fassl said he plans to continue working on building out the space to eventually add in the Orlando Beer Garden concept and fix up the exterior but he wants to open the bar area first.

St. Matthew’s Tavern will be open Monday through Friday 4:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.

Here’s a look inside St. Matthew’s Tavern:

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  1. So happy to have Matt and the tavern/congregation join the Mills50 district. As a resident of this area…what I long for with this establishment (And MANY establishments on Mills…including what’s going into Atwilda’s) is to truly INVEST in PROFESSIONAL signage and brand essence work for the building. We suffered a Marker Board nailed to the side of the wall during the last tenants. From the Key Lime shutters to the awkward neon promo signs…please take a moment to figure out your entry statement before doing anything else. We want you to be successful and filled with interest…but you’ve got to fix the arrival and site line experience for all around you first.

  2. It is true. Matt is a parishioner at St. Dorothy Catholic Community a congregation which has been in existence for 16 years in Central Florida started by Fr. Jim Sherlock, CFSC. Its charism is to welcome all who have been screwed by their original faith traditions for a myriad of reasons: Divorce, Abortion, Sexual Orientation, etc. We worship in the Catholic Tradition. We do not deny the reception of the Eucharist to anyone. Our clergy are single/married, straight/gay, men/women. They have all been through background checks as is a necessity today. Our clergy do not take salaries at all but work regular jobs in addition to their church duties. The funds collected are for church supplies, rent and rest go to, in our case, the homeless projects which the church participates and/or has.
    We presently have a partnership: St. Dorothy Catholic Community/St. Matthew’s Tavern/Orange County Public Schools to start a program for homeless families which will be unveiled in January.
    So yeah this is all serious, out of the box………..but wasn’t Jesus in His day?????
    Check out our website and see the first Mass from December 1: http://www.stdorothycatholiccommunity.org

  3. Pro – Confession is super convenient.
    Con – “Sorry, I stuffed a dollar in your sash, Bishop, I thought you were one of the Miss Florida At Large contestants”.

  4. I’ll defintely check in on Facebook, and watch my mom have a heart attack seeing that I’ve gone to church.

  5. Chris Reites, someone jumped on our (my) idea! Nikki Skeen and Jamie Villella-catholic church and a bar? The perfect Villella business.