Craig Ustler’s Bar Room is a love letter to cities and Orlando

PHOTO BY COLIN FORWARD

Editor’s Note: This is a rare opinion piece from us. We apologize for straying from our regular formula, but we felt the need to inform you of this interesting addition to Orlando’s growing third place scene. 

The tiny, back room adjacent to the North Quarter Tavern is easy to overlook. It’s unassuming exterior would make passerby think it’s simply another strip mall-ish watering hole, but we happened to step into it last week for a private event, and kind of fell in love.

Bar Room (Website) itself is fun and simple. It’s open Tuesday to Saturday at  7 p.m., and has a late night happy hour from 9 p.m. to close. The full menu from sister restaurant North Quarter Tavern is available here as well. Poutine.

The walls are adorned with historic photos, nods to Orlando’s neon sign collection at the Morse Museum, and even a wall with giant letters spelling out MCO.

The star of the bar, to us, was the book collection at the back. The mini library, selected from developer Craig Ustler’s private collection, features an abundance of Orlando-focused coffee table books, urban planning manuals, and various hard cover tributes City Planning.

We asked our friend, photographer and health-tech guru Colin Forward (Instagram), who was also in attendance, to snap some photos for us and he humbly obliged.