Credit: Screenshot via Google Maps
Orlando’s most 7-Eleven-adjacent bar is getting a makeover and a new menu.

The new MamaJuana Latin Bistro and Rum Bar, located in the old Vinyl Arts Bar (and briefly Vinyl Rum and Tapas Lounge) location at 75 E. Colonial Drive, will hold a grand opening on Saturday at 6 p.m., with free samples served until 8 p.m. Parking in back is free, and a DJ will spin tunes until 2 a.m.

Wilson Santos, the founder of Vinyl Arts Bar, is launching MamaJuana as a new Latin-themed casual-dining concept. They have been testing out the menu with a soft opening this week that will continue until Friday.

Credit: Photo via MamaJuana Latin Bistro and Rum Bar
The menu will retain some of the guest-favorite tapas from the old concept, but will add new entrees representing different cultural flavors from Latin America and the Caribbean, along with rum cocktails, mojitos, and “the infamous MamaJuana rum elixir” that can only be found in the Dominican Republic. That’s why, says MamaJuana, you can’t find their signature cocktails anywhere else in the city.

The menu will include Chilean mussels, shrimp in garlic sauce, Colombian chorizo in red wine and honey sauce, four different ceviches, churrasco with Argentinian chimichurri sauce, Cuban-style ropa vieja, authentic Dominican rice and black beans, Latin-style flatbreads, and sandwiches.

The atmosphere will stay casual, with Caribbean colors and artwork and Latin American music. The daily happy hour is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays. Specials rotate throughout the week:
  • Tuesdays: $1 tacos
  • Wednesdays: Buy-one-get-one-free wine or sangria
  • Thursdays: Buy-one-get-one-free traditional mojitos
  • Fridays: Buy-one-get-one-free traditional margaritas
  • Saturdays: Choose any well drink and get one free
You can follow the new concept on their website, mamajuanabistro.com, or at the grand-opening event page on Facebook.

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This article appears in Global Peace Film Fest.