{"id":402295,"date":"2026-09-17T07:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/402295\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T07:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:36:19","slug":"lesbian-dive-bar-pop-up-mommy-knows-best-debuts-in-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/402295\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesbian dive bar pop-up Mommy Knows Best debuts in Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MommyMommy Knows Best Credit: Courtesy<\/p>\n

Two things that are thin on the ground in Orlando nightlife \u2014 a city that seemingly never met a craft cocktail it didn\u2019t go gaga over \u2014 are no-frills dive bars and lesbian bars. A new pop-up concept taking over Conduit this week, Mommy Knows Best, is attempting to fill both of these voids.<\/p>\n

T Madan-Felten, a member of the Orlando chapter of the Dyke Nite events collective and a bartender at LGBTQ+ spot Outpost in Thornton Park, is the brains behind this quirky monthly pop-up, intended partly as a tribute to a long-gone Orlando bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love dive bars. When I first moved to Orlando, my absolute favorite bar was St. Matt\u2019s. I just loved it there. Rest in peace for real,\u201d Madan-Felten tells Orlando Weekly. \u201cObviously, there\u2019s a lot of really cool queer events, and I love them. I help organize them. I go to them. But there\u2019s just something about going somewhere and having just a jukebox and the connections that you make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s because our own brains are pickled from watching endless episodes of Cheers growing up, but they are really onto something here. Beyond just cheap, strong pours vs. elegant prepared cocktails debate, the dive bar at its best can be a multigenerational, working-class neighborhood gathering spot. Orlando still has a few true-blue dive bars like Spatz, Whiskey Lou\u2019s, Burton\u2019s and Nora\u2019s Sugar Shack and they\u2019re great. But there\u2019s a definite need being addressed here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDive bars are working class. They\u2019re for the outcast-y people. They\u2019re intergenerational, which is something I don\u2019t always see at the club, queer intergenerational spaces. We\u2019re literally losing history and the ability to make connections with people different from ourselves because we\u2019re going to such hyper-curated things,\u201d says Madan-Felten. \u201cWhich again, I love a hyper-curated event. Dyke Nite obviously has a specific audience, but there\u2019s something about a mixed bag that I think teaches a person about so many things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conduit, always a venue up for taking a chance (tell us another space that has hosted both ultra culty Satanic metal legends Profanatica and trans-focused drag showcase Gala of Ghouls \u2026 within just over a week of one another), seemed a natural home. Added points if you remember its previous incarnation as dive bar (which happened to have a live stage) the Haven Lounge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought of Conduit because it\u2019s cool as hell. The owner\u2019s cool. I like the people there, and it gives divey, which is what I want. I wanted things to be like grimy and cool, random fliers and all that type of shit,\u201d Madan-Felten says. \u201cThe first few will just be me bartending along with Amber Teicher, who\u2019s the lead of their bar program. \u2026 Eventually the hope is to have guest bartenders, different dykes around town who bartend in restaurants or other clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mommy Knows Best is a satisfyingly simple concept: Come hang out. Grab a drink. Socialize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You will probably end up talking at least briefly to someone you wouldn\u2019t necessarily otherwise. There will be an ad hoc jukebox\/Touchtunes situation for music (for better or for worse), and there should be darts on offer. Madan-Felten sees it potentially as one of the increasingly rare and coveted \u201cthird spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

In true DIY fashion, Madan-Felten is scouting Facebook Marketplace to find a couch or a couple of cozy pieces to give the pop-up proper divey ambience beyond Conduit\u2019s flyer bedecked walls. Past that, they just want things to happen organically, visually and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite spaces are the ones that just feel like some crazy cat lady\u2019s garage. Just tchotchkes, random \u2018where is that from?\u2019 I love that aesthetic and it takes time to build that up,\u201d says Madan-Felten. \u201cThe thing about a dive bar is it\u2019s cool because it becomes co-created over time by who goes there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Madan-Felten illustrates that point by enthusing about the colorful paper fish hanging aquarium-like from the ceiling of Stardust Video, spontaneously created by Orlando artist and Stardust fixture Doug Rhodehamel as a tribute to the memory of his friend Dave Plotkin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I would have done my job if people start to feel a sense of ownership in it,\u201d Madan-Felten adds.<\/p>\n

There will be a drink special that\u2019s highly conceptual \u2014 and yet not.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing an experience drink, if you will. It\u2019s gonna be called \u2018Mommy Thinks You\u2019re Doing a Good Job.\u2019 It\u2019ll be like $15, and you\u2019ll get whatever domestic or can you want,\u201d says Madan-Felten. \u201cI will hold the beer for you and feed it to you as I\u2019m giving you affirmations about what a good job you\u2019re doing. And optionally a kiss on the forehead at the end. I just wanted to have something very campy and kind of hot, but also kind of stupid, but also kind of nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the in-jokes and nostalgia for times that will perhaps never return, there\u2019s community-building at work here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be clear that it\u2019s dyke-centered, for all the people who come under \u2018dyke,\u2019 right? So like lesbians, trans-masc people, trans-femme people, bisexual, all these people fall under \u2018dyke\u2019 if that\u2019s how they identify, so they are the center. But also, there are people who love dykes and feel comfortable in those places because dyke spaces tend to be very accepting of trans people in a way that not all mainstream places are,\u201d says Madan-Felten. \u201cI think that with lesbian spaces, the reason people love them so much is because they tend to be more accepting and open. Whatever the reason that you\u2019re here, I\u2019m not going to question it as long as you\u2019re not being an asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mommy Knows Best takes place the second Monday of every month at Conduit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, Conduit, 6700 Aloma Ave., Winter Park, conduitfl.com<\/a>, free.<\/p>\n

\"Stay<\/p>\n

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