Best of Orlando® 2014
Best Place to Pray, Then Do a Fireball Shot
St. Dorothy Catholic Community Sunday mass at St. Matthew’s Tavern
1300 N. Mills Ave., orlandobeergarden.com
All jokes aside, the advent of the St. Dorothy Catholic Community Sunday mass in what used to be a neighborhood gay bar, St. Matthews Tavern, was something of a divine intervention. The bar’s new owner, Matthew Fassl, happened to be attending one of the Catholic group’s Winter Park meetings at its previous home in a wedding chapel when he heard that the group was about to be displaced. He offered up his watering hole as a place to hold services, and from there, one of Mills Avenue’s most striking anomalies was born: a church in a bar. The mix works remarkably well, with Holy Communion preceding the opening of the actual liquor bar by an hour; also, the reclaimed church pews add a certain profundity to the interior decor, even after Jesus has left the building.
