Otto’s High Dive: A Love Letter to Florida’s Cuban Soul
Rum-soaked reverence, blistered lechón, and a seafood tower that touches the divine.
You don’t stumble into Otto’s High Dive—you’re summoned. Whispered there by a friend who really knows where to eat in Orlando. Tucked inside The Milk District like a secret too good to keep, Otto’s is equal parts coastal Cuban kitchen, rum-soaked altar, and community hangout.
It’s a place where you walk in sweating from the Florida heat and leave somehow baptized by it. Where the playlist hums like a Havana back alley, the lights stay flattering, and the cocktails arrive with the kind of intention usually reserved for religion.
The Spirit of Abundancia
At the heart of Otto’s is the idea of Abundancia—that a full life is one filled with food, family, stories, and joy. It’s not a tagline. It’s a worldview. And it shows up in every bite, every pour, every “how you doin’, honey?” from across the bar.
Otto’s doesn’t perform culture—it preserves it. It stretches out the table, pours a little heavier, and invites you to stay awhile.
Then There’s the Seafood Tower
Let’s just say: if the Tower of Babel had been built with oysters, pink shrimp, and chilled lobster tails stacked in citrus and salt—we might have actually reached heaven.
Otto’s version doesn’t babble. It sings. A vertical triumph of local seafood and kitchen swagger, this tower demands reverence and a camera angle. It’s big enough to share and bold enough to make you forget you were ever planning to.
The Cocktails: Where Things Get Spiritual
Otto’s doesn’t do a “drink list.” It curates liquid experiences—shaken, stirred, clarified, and kissed with enough weird beauty to make you believe in bartenders as alchemists.
Emerald Dream
Start here. A glowing jungle elixir of Bajan coconut rum, pandan, pineapple, and herbal liqueur. All the chartreuse tingles you crave, bottled and blessed. Feels like drinking a myth whispered through palm fronds.
Milk Punches
These aren’t showstoppers. They’re scene-stealers in silk gloves. Clarified, cold, and achingly smooth—Otto’s milk punches are what happens when chemistry falls in love with nostalgia. They don’t just finish clean—they haunt you.
Other Liquid Miracles
Holy Diver – overproof Barbados rum and gardenia mix, like sipping a storm cloud in Havana.
Bustelo Biafra – espresso, apple brandy, macadamia, and cream—your café con leche’s sexier cousin.
Gold Lion – Calvados, Saint Lucian rum, allspice and pineapple—a colonial daydream in a coupe glass.
Melange – mezcal, blue cane rhum, passionfruit, spirulina—smoky, vegetal, and radiant all at once.
Zero-Proof, 100% Soul
And for those abstaining? Otto’s mocktails don’t compromise. They seduce.
This is a buzz without the buzz—layers of citrus, spice, herbs, tea, and texture. From the tobacco-kissed Sans Hattan to the utterly tropical Agua de Pipa, these drinks hold court. Not as alternatives—but as equals.
Best Move? Ask What’s Not Listed.
The real flex at Otto’s is ordering off-script. Ask your bartender what they’re playing with. What’s fresh. What’s weird. What hasn’t hit the menu yet. Odds are you’ll be handed a drink that rewires your idea of what a cocktail can be—and you'll never see it again.
Meet the Maestro: Justin Levaughn
If Otto’s is the soul, Justin is the pulse. Co-founder and cocktail whisperer, he’s built a bar program that doesn’t just pour drinks—it tells stories. The man’s obsession with flavor is legendary. So is his memory. He’ll recall your favorite rum, probably your cousin’s birthday, and could describe the difference between Sabbath’s first four albums with the same nuance he gives to agricole rhum.
A veteran of Orlando’s best bars, Justin’s vision for Otto’s wasn’t to imitate—it was to root deeply in place. This is Florida-Cuban, not Cuban-adjacent. It’s tropical without being tiki. Inventive without being precious.
His bar is a portal, and every cocktail is a small act of reverence. You’ll leave buzzed (Aren’t sure if you’re there yet? Go look at the 3D tiles in the bathroom…that’ll let you know) —but more than that, you’ll leave with something lodged in your memory.
On the Plate: Where Memory Meets Mojo
The food is no background act. This kitchen cooks with the weight of memory and the joy of reinterpretation. It’s all Cuban backbone, Florida swagger.
Lechón: Slow-roasted, blistered, soul-saving.
Pan con Bistec: Tender steak, crisp potatoes, Cuban bread—proof that sandwiches can be sacred.
Black Beans: Smoky, rich, and a quiet flex of culinary heritage.
Camarones al Ajillo: Loud with garlic, lush with oil, built to share but hard to give up.
Daily ceviche: Light, bright, kissed by lime and confidence.
Even the sides show off. There’s no filler here. Only flavor, story, and sweat equity.
The Vibe: Come Hungry, Stay Curious
Otto’s doesn’t rush you. Doesn’t shout at you. Doesn’t post its worth on neon signs.
It trusts you’ll get it.
It’s a space for second drinks and first dates. For solo meals at the bar and seafood towers with your inner circle. The vinyl hums, the light hits just right, and everything—everything—is built to feel like coming home to a version of yourself you forgot you missed.
Quick Hits
Must-Order: Seafood tower, Emerald Dream, Milk Punch of the day, Lechón
Cocktail MVP: Whatever they’re experimenting with behind the bar
Best Seat: At the bar if you want stories. In the back if you want intimacy.
Bring: Appetite, curiosity, someone you like enough to share with
Know Before You Go: They have a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and Justin Levaughn won the Michelin Guide award for Exceptional Cocktails in 2024. You’ll be shaken AND stirred in very good hands.
