Once Forbidden, Its Now the Main Ingriedient of a Top-Tier Mills 50 Bar

In one of the most understated developments of the 21st century, Florida’s Republicans have made it next to impossible for Floridians to gather their required number of signatures to try to bring potential laws to their ballots when the midterms and federal elections roll around every few years. After the 2000 election delivered an unexpected win for the presidency, the GOP has invested millions and probably billions in the last quarter century in a grand scheme to transform the Sunshine State into an oasis for Republicans and retirees escaping “Blue Cities,” “Blue States,” and let’s be honest, “Taxes.”

What does this have to do with a bar in Mills 50? Stick around.

Anywho, the DNC started pretty much ignoring Florida after the 2016 election, preferring to toss their money at other swing states who have less of the Citizen’s United poison running through the state’s veins. With no Democrats winning the governorship since the Clinton Era, the DNC has declared Florida a lost state despite the shifting demographics and the conservatives in the Sunshine State being a little more centrist than in other regions. So with that, we’ve seen Republicans take full advantage by politically altering the state’s overall politics to bend to their whim no matter what the voters want. The worst victim was the process of voters trying to bring certain measures to the ballots to be voted on.

Yes, we’re going to talk about marijuana.

Florida voters by a vast majority wants marijuana to be legalized, to be taxed, to be used in a wide variety of ways. Legalizing the plant has done wonders for the economies in California and Colorado, and as a state with many suffering senior citizens, having the plant become fully available across all platforms would allow alternate methods to solving physical and mental problems that cannot be fixed by Big Pharma. Marijuana has been proven to help folks with PTSD, schizophrenia, and other conditions. But of course, Republicans have been given millions and billions by secret and public lobbying groups to ensure that weed, marijuana, never has its opportunity to be normalized and legalized in Florida. Weed’s banishment is to the benefit of other industries. The generations-lasting attack against the reputation of marijuana has led to its still-controversial reputation today, despite the health benefits and the limited setbacks related to smoking or consuming the plant.

But marijuana isn’t the only natural substance to have to battle a century’s worth of bad press, misinformation, and rumors from conservatives and major lobbying groups.

Absinthe is an alcoholic spirit that spent a century being villainized by many powerful groups trying to wreck its popularity. Banned from multiple countries during the 20th century because of the fake stories related to their hallucination effects, the liquor wouldn’t become legalized in the United States until the George W. Bush era.

The three main pillars of absinthe are wormwood, anise, and fennel, and the end result is a spirit that (to me anyways) has a sweeter, almost licorice-like taste. It’s a bit stronger than the average spirit, and also quite flammable so something to keep in mind in case you want to go on your own personal adventure discovering the unique nature of this volatile spirit of European origin. Its liberal, free-spirited connections to bohemian culture is part of why it got banned in the first place.

Death in the Afternoon is a delicious celebration of the spirit’s comeback story.

Located in the Mills 50 district, Death in the Afternoon specializes in absinthe with a variety of options and cocktails related to the anise-flavored spirit. It does offer your usual bar classics and upscale variations with other liquors, but absinthe is where the place enjoys shining the brightest. Likely the only bar in the entire Central Florida region with this distinction, the menu alone sparks enough curiosity to warrant a visit. But I can’t even tell you much about the menu, because it changes constantly, updating the food options, sometimes adding a few new concoctions to keep things fresh and exciting.

The interior is dimly-lit, as if it’s a hidden bar serving secrets. A few tables, maybe a dozen or so seats in front of the bartenders, so the small space adds to the relaxed, more intimate vibes. Small, compact, but nonetheless welcoming. The two times I visited, the bartenders were very knowledgeable about what they were serving and the backstory behind the spirit that suffered such a rough reputation for so long. The drinks they make were also fantastic across the board, even though I fully admit it did take me a little extra time to comprehend the taste of absinthe in the one absinthe-laden cocktail I ordered. Nonetheless, their caipirinhas are some of the best outside of Brazil.

Another secret of Death in the Afternoon: their food is fantastic. The food menu also changes a few times but every bite I’ve ever had was a smash hit. Their chorizo burger and gnocchi in particular are standouts, and good enough to not be considered sharable. The food portion definitely doesn’t have the laundry list of options like on the liquor side of the menu, but I am confident that there is something for everybody.

Every visit here is an adventure, from their unique absinthe cocktails to the everchanging menu to the new concoctions they seem to come up with on a weekly basis. Death in the Afternoon is the happy ending of a wild story involving a spirit that had to overcome a century’s worth of rumors, misinformation, junk science, condemnation, and villainization caused because of the product’s connections to the more progressive societal corners of the world.

And on that note, Florida cannot truly be free until the state can finally legally embrace the mental and physical health benefits of marijuana, a plant that has also battled a century’s worth of misinformation and rumors.

I severely doubt Death in the Afternoon is trying to be political with its existence, and I doubt they want me tying a glowing positive review of their bar to the fight to finally legalize weed in the state of Florida. But my point is, laws in America are currently being written by those whose opinions are shaped by the secret people and organizations that finance them, and you have to remember that just because the law doesn’t want you near the product, it doesn’t mean the product is actually bad. Sometimes, you have to follow the money, you have to follow the history.

Death in the Afternoon is a delightful place that guarantees the stigmatization against absinthe remains a silly footnote in beverage history. The world is better, tastier, and freer with the legalization of a spirit that deserves its place in bars everywhere alongside all the liquors, spirits, wines, and beers that we enjoy.