Shade Bar & Grill Orlando Sports Bar - Our Story

The Roots of Shade’s Name reflects Windsor Connecticut’s
early history & ability to shrug off a hard days work at the end of the day.

The Roots of Shade’s Name
Reflects Windsor Connecticut’s
early history & ability to shrug off a hard days work at the end of the day.

Sports bar & grill in downtown orlando near UCF downtown - Craft Cocktailes

WHAT’S IN A NAME

HISTORY ABOUT – SHADE-GROWN TOBACCO

As your traveling on Interstate 91 or on local state and town roads north of Hartford, CT one can not help but be captivated with the vast fields engulfed in billowing gauze and dotted with uniquely crafted barns that harbor and care for their treasures until ready for a vast international market.
For 300 years and counting tobacco still makes it’s presence felt there. The Connecticut Valley and tobacco have been synonymous for well over 3 centuries, dating back to before the first settlers.

Sports bar & grill in downtown orlando near UCF downtown - Our Story

CONNECTICUT SHADE GROWN TOBACCO

INDUSTRY WAS LAUNCHED

Native Americans were growing a precursor to broadleaf tobacco for personal use and trade. The use of these leaves for cigar manufacturing in the region dates around 1762, based on cigars brought back from Cuba by General Israel Putnam. Later Havana seed was introduced to the region. These local leaves were used for both filler and wrapper. These leaves were inferior to the Sumatra tobacco leaf, which could not be grown locally and too expensive to import. Depending on which history you read it was around 1900 when Dr. Jenkins, a Windsor resident raised a patch of Sumatra under cloth, or local grower Marcus Floyd under a tent, that the Connecticut Shade Grown tobacco industry was launched. It was not long thereafter that Connecticut’s grown shade tobacco was the industry benchmark for quality in a wrapper tobacco, used by the heralded and renowned brands of Macanudo, Dunhill and Davidoff.

Sports bar & grill in downtown orlando near UCF downtown - Casual Atmosphere

HARD WORK & DEDICATION

ENJOY TIME WITH FRIENDS & LOVED ONES

Though challenged by the economics of competition from manufactured wrappers, waning tobacco demand and industrial need for space, the leaf wrapper and supporting industries still have a major presence and influence on the blue collar culture of this region.

Our first Shade Bar and Grill was developed in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. We wanted to exemplify the creativity, ingenuity and the willingness to persevere that the people of this region demonstrated; the generational culture of hard work, dedication, focus and the ability to shrug it off at the end of the day and enjoy their friends and loved ones. Shade Bar and Grill is your kind of gathering place for just this reason.

MENU FAVORITES    ORLANDO, FLORIDA

BURGERS & SANDWICHES

Great Burgers & Sandwiches at Shade Bar & Grill Orlando
MENU FAVORITES    ORLANDO, FLORIDA

WINGS & MORE

Your Wing Headquarters - Shade Bar & Grill Orlando

Orlando sports bar

Shade Bar and Grill - Restaurant in Downtown Orlando by UCF Downtown

NEAR UCF DOWNTOWN

Time with Friends

Shade Bar and Grill - Restaurant in Downtown Orlando by UCF Downtown

GIRLS NIGHT OUT

Signature Dishes

Shade Bar and Grill - Restaurant in Downtown Orlando by UCF Downtown

PERFECTLY PREPARED

WI-FI Hotspot

Shade Bar and Grill - Restaurant in Downtown Orlando by UCF Downtown

FOR WORK OR FUN

Shade Bar and Grill Orlando - Orlando Sports Bar and Grill