Around nine on a Tuesday, George Harlem is already at his usual spot near the back of The Geek Easy, a board game bar tucked above Will’s Pub on Mills Avenue. He’s got a pint of something local, a dog-eared copy of a game rulebook, and the particular expression of a man who has explained Twilight Imperium to strangers more times than he can count and has made peace with that fact.
George has been coming here since The Geek Easy opened — he’s the kind of regular who doesn’t need to ask what’s on tap and who the staff greet by name before he reaches the stairs. He’s not an employee. He’s just a fixture, the way certain neighborhoods produce certain people who become inseparable from a place. Ask him about the bar and he’ll talk for twenty minutes. Ask him to recommend a game and he’ll spend forty minutes making sure you get it right.
The Geek Easy sits upstairs from Will’s Pub, which is itself a Mills 50 institution — a scrappy, genuinely independent music venue that has somehow survived decades of Orlando’s expansion. The bar above it is smaller than you’d expect: low ceilings, string lights, mismatched furniture, shelves of board games covering every available wall. The library runs to over 400 titles. Staff will help you pick something if you stand in front of the shelves long enough with a glazed expression, which most people do.
There’s a two-dollar game rental fee per visit, which is essentially nothing. Drinks are priced like a neighborhood bar rather than a tourist corridor — you’re looking at eight to twelve dollars for most craft beers. The full Will’s Pub menu is available, and the kitchen does honest bar food without pretension: wings, nachos, a burger that earns its place. George usually gets the nachos. He says they’re consistent, which is his highest compliment.
The crowd on a weeknight skews toward people in their late twenties and thirties who take their games seriously without taking themselves too seriously — a distinction George considers important. Weekends get louder and younger. If you want a quieter game of Catan or Pandemic without the social pressure of a packed house, Tuesday or Wednesday is your window.
What George appreciates most, he’ll tell you, is that nobody at The Geek Easy performs enthusiasm. There’s no forced theme night branding, no mandatory fun. You show up, you pick a game, you drink reasonably priced beer, and you either win or you learn something. He has done both here, many times, in that chair.
The Geek Easy is on the second floor of Will’s Pub at 1042 N. Mills Ave. in Mills 50. It opens around six on weekdays and earlier on weekends. Street parking is available, though Mills Avenue on a weekend requires patience. George will be there. He always is.
