Mini biscuits & gravy at Cask & Larder

565 W. Fairbanks Ave., Winter Park
321-280-4200
caskandlarder.com

The Ravenous Pig chef-owners Julie and James Petrakis opened sister restaurant Cask & Larder right down the street in Winter Park last year, to rapturous foodie acclaim. We heard tons of positives about the “Southern Public House”: tasty locally sourced plates, diverse house-brewed beer and so on. So it was no surprise when a Sunday-morning brunch order of biscuits and gravy ($9) landed us with a charming plate of fluffy, buttery miniature black-pepper biscuits and a small-yet-satisfying bowl of country gravy – for spoonful pouring, if you have manners. They were almost too cute to eat. Almost.

Berries & Bubbles at Ocean Prime

7339 W. Sand Lake Road
407-781-4880
oceanprimeorlando.com

Restaurant Row’s Ocean Prime specializes in seafood, but the swanky restaurant’s “all-time best selling cocktail,” the Berries & Bubbles ($14), packs a little something not found underwater. The ingredients don’t sound so unusual – Belvedere Citrus vodka, marinated blackberries, house-made sour mix and Domaine Chandon brut champagne –­ but the cube of dry ice plunked in at the end adds over-the-top pizazz. The recipe can be found on Ocean Prime’s website in case you want to try mixing up one at home, but we suggest caution when playing around with dry ice – those fingertips come in handy for other things.

There’s something about the final days of December that tends to bring on the holiday warm-and-fuzzies, along with well-intended visions of maybe, finally, sticking to that New Year’s resolution. I get it, especially being as 2014 sees a lot of change for me personally. After six years, I will soon be leaving Orlando and moving to Miami with hopes of living out sunny daydreams farther south.

Of course, there are many things I’ll miss about the City Beautiful, and after embarking on monthly DIY pub-crawling excursions for nearly a year now in this Another Round column, it just wouldn’t be right to leave O-town without sharing my favorite bar-hopping experiences. Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

I kicked off Another Round last February by cozying up with my husband at a host of valentine-worthy bars in downtown Orlando – one of which, the craft cocktail-centered Courtesy Bar (114 N. Orange Ave.), was an ideal spot to nuzzle in a corner while sipping on New York sours.

The springtime led me through near-downtown neighborhood crawls, with stops at Ivanhoe Village staples such as the furniture store-slash-bar Imperial at Washburn Imports (1800 N. Orange Ave.). In April, we detoured north for a fresh sangria fix at Hannibal Square’s BARcelona (433 W. New England Ave., Winter Park), before facing day-drinking Cinco de Mayo shenanigans in College Park, complete with pickle shots on the patio at Ollie’s Public House (3400 Edgewater Drive).

Our summer drinking excursions began in the diverse Mills 50 district with a “come as you are” ethos – not to mention some heated pinball games at arcade-inspired watering hole BART (1205 N. Mills Ave.). A month later, we landed beachside for margaritas and the infamous Pusser’s Painkiller at New Smyrna Beach’s Toni & Joe’s Patio (309 Buenos Aires Ave., New Smyrna Beach). Note: My liver is still hurting from that crawl.

Nevertheless, we marked the launch of UCF’s fall semester at a few off-campus bars, which involved sipping cheap domestics at Knight Library (11448 University Blvd.), a popular hang that this year topped the Daily Meal’s list of “25 Best College Bars in America.”

We toned it down a bit in September with a sipping-and-strolling afternoon along posh Park Avenue in Winter Park, where we basked in cool(er) fall temps and enjoyed fancy pear martinis at an outdoor table at Matilda’s on Park (358 N. Park Ave., Winter Park).

Ushering in the Halloween season, we were steered toward a round of local downtown Sanford haunts, and we soon learned that no trip to Sanford would be complete without a visit with Moire Wisdom at her eclectic joint, Little Fish Huge Pond (401 S. Sanford Ave., Sanford).

When November rolled around, we drowned our Mall at Millenia holiday-shopping woes in what can only be described as “a beast of a martini” while resting our tired feet at Blue Martini (4200 Conroy Road). Little did I know, my jaunt around the Millenia area would be my final pub crawl for this Another Round column.

Certainly there are many other crawl-worthy neighborhoods in the area that I didn’t have the chance to cover, and although there might not be any immediate plans in the future, undoubtedly, OW will continue to cover Orlando’s thriving nightlife scene – in whatever form that might take.

I can’t say enough how incredibly fortunate I am to have been a part of the exceptional team at Orlando Weekly. And even though I’ll be leaving, there’s no doubt I’ll continue to be a devoted OW reader from afar – even if that means scrolling through stories on orlandoweekly.com while mounted up at a waterfront bar overlooking Biscayne Bay, ice-cold mojito in hand. Hmm, yeah … let’s cheers to that!

Lee & Rick’s Oyster Bar

5621 Old Winter Garden Road
407-293-3587
leeandricksoysterbar.com

Things change. Time rolls on. And there are many vestiges of Florida’s past (hell, and present) we could do without. But there’s one thing, as old and rundown as it is, that we hope never changes: Lee & Rick’s, the absolute best oyster bar in town, and certainly the best throwback to a simpler era. It began in 1950 as a nine-stool BYOB that only served oysters, and while the restaurant and menu have expanded over the last six decades, you should stick to what they do best. Get a cold beer and a bucket or two of raw oysters and go to town. You won’t be disappointed.

Pickle shots at Ollie’s Public House

3400 Edgewater Drive
407-999-8934
olliespublichouse.com

What’s better than taking a shooter of straight tequila or whiskey? Why, chasing said shot with some spicy pickle juice, of course! This College Park watering hole – sister bar to downtown’s Finnhenry’s – is known for its “dirty” pickle-backs: the Dirty Henry (Patrón tequila) and the Dirty Finn (Tullamore Dew whiskey). You might be surprised to find the sour taste of the pickles nicely masks the hard-liquor taste of the, well, liquor.

The Hourglass Brewery

255 S. Ronald Reagan Blvd., Longwood
407-262-0056
thehourglassbrewery.com

Hourglass Brewery is one of the new kids on the Orlando craft-beer block, but thousands of drinkers flocked to the grand opening of the locally owned brewery last year. We’re not sure how all those people fit into the humble tasting room (it’s itty-bitty, with maybe fewer than a dozen bar stools), but the home-brewed goodness flowing out of this space is why fans keep coming back. It doesn’t hurt that they regularly offer beer-flight specials, artwork by local artists hangs on the walls, and food trucks serve up dinner most evenings.