You’ll feel like you’re floating as you sit at the bar, quaffing carefully shaken craft cocktails. The walls, ceiling and floor are all dark, and the flickering candles and hanging globes give this bar the most flattering lighting ever. The many hanging plants (and the nifty palm-print wallpaper in the restrooms) give it a fern-bar feel the lighting’s soft glow and the cushion-strewn couch pick up on that pick-up vibe. The Guest HouseĪll vestiges of the old Peacock Room are erased at the Guesthouse, Mills 50’s newest, chillest hangout. Fortunately, the bartender was more than happy to mix us something a little less cloying off-menu. Craft cocktails are the bar’s specialty, but be forewarned: The menu skews toward the sweet. Find the green door on Pine Street and walk up stairs carpeted in fake grass and under “branches” that frame the stairwell, into a cozy wood-paneled room scented like pine needles. The Treehouse is so perfectly twee that it makes you feel like you’re drinking in an elf’s apartment. It’s also a great place for picky beer lovers looking for something new. There’s usually live music on the weekends. The entire bar is furnished with all kinds of art and trinkets. This bar might have more character than any other watering hole in Central Florida. Inside it’s a compact, cozy spot to get a decent beer or three, watch the game, or maybe take in a band on the tiny stage. You hear this a lot, but the Yacht Pub really is like drinking at a friend’s house (well, the big covered porch is, anyway, with its dartboard, air hockey table and random assortment of battered couches). But regardless, here are a few of our favorite hidden bars in the Orlando area that you might not know about, but should. Some of these watering holes are off the beaten path, some of these might be your regular hangouts, and some you may have driven by a thousand times without even knowing it.