Otto's High Dive

Otto's High Dive opened in Orlando's Milk District on December 6, 2022, founded by Giovanni Fernandez, Justin Levaughn, Sean Pagan, and Chris Munro. The concept traces back to Fernandez's grandfather Otto, who ran a neighborhood bar in Manzanillo, Cuba, during the 1950s height of the country's cocktail renaissance -- the inspiration behind a Cuban-Floridian rum program built around cantinero (bar director) Justin Levaughn: Cuba Libre on tap, daiquiris by the pitcher, and a build-your-own Ti Punch kit made with a choice of Rhum JM Volcanique or Clement Canne Bleue.

The bar earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2023 for its food menu of oysters, chicken mojo, and short rib ropa vieja, a rating it has retained every year since, and USA Today named it one of the '10 Best New Restaurants in the US' in January 2024. That same year, Levaughn personally received the Michelin Guide Florida award for Exceptional Cocktails. As of the bar's spring 2026 printed menu, the kitchen is led by head chef Justice Placeres.

That same craft extends to the bar's seven-drink Mocktails section, priced at $12 each (the same as the cocktails and daiquiris) and printed right alongside them on the current menu: Coqui (pandan leaf, Granny Smith apple, citrus, coconut, pineapple), Coco Loso (coconut milk, maduro cordial, pineapple, coconut balsamic, cinnamon), Pajarito (red tea, orange blossom, rose hip, verjus, coconut balsamic), Sans Hattan (orange blossom tea, angostura, tobacco), Gold Doubloon (Florida tea, lúcuma, verjus, glycerin, lactic acid), Y Que Fue (passionfruit, red miso, aloe, mango sangrita, coconut), and Agua de Pipa (fresh coconut water).

'Otto's mocktails don't compromise. They seduce,' one write-up of the bar's program noted, and the zero-proof drinks are built with the same lacto-fermented, verjus-driven techniques as the rum cocktails around them rather than treated as an afterthought.