Redlight Redlight has been one of the best bars in this city for roughly 20 years. I’ve been saying it, officially anyway, since putting it on my USA Today 10Best List back in 2013. Two years after that, Redlight became a brew pub , adding its own microbrews — to date, it’s crafted myriad award winners — to a mix of rare offerings in cans, bottles and off the tap.
Throughout, owner/brewer Brent Hernandez has wisely brought in all manner of eats from German to Swedish to Sri Lankan , hosting trucks and pop-ups, simultaneously cultivating the Orlando food scene while ensuring his customers stayed for another round. Here’s some Orlando food trivia for ya: Some of our city’s best-known food slingers (including the husband-and-wife team behind the now-Michelin-starred Papa Llama and Pizza Bruno himself, Bruno Zacchini) have counted Redlight’s parking lot among their gigs, offering up what Hernandez knew was a vital feature. After all, nothing says “let’s stay for another” than a big plate of .
.. something.
And the plates that Redlight’s Jes Tantalo’s been serving are something else. Back in November, this fixture in its cool Audubon Park location, entered its third phase: brewpub/restaurant, with the completion of a kitchen where Tantalo’s creative mix of bar bites, brunch plates and more is, in a word, wow. They might be doing what seems expected — Wing & Wine Wednesday, for example — but then you get there, and one of the wines is a gorgeous organic.
