The Passport Pour: Bar Oscar, Covington
Pull up a chair
The first thing you notice is the glass. It's a cold white Belgian wheat, sweating on a woven green table. A lemon wedge hangs off the rim. The early-evening sun turns the whole thing gold.
The Passport Pour is my series about culture, local voices, food and attainable luxury, and most of the time it takes me somewhere new. This episode didn't need a flight. Covington is where I live. Bar Oscar is the kind of place that makes you see your own town like a visitor would.
The place
Bar Oscar sits at 1113 Floyd Street NE, an easy walk from the restaurants around Covington's historic Square. It's an Italian bar, and its window sign tells you so before you reach the door. The sign is a cream oval with a clover on top, a laurel at the bottom and BAR OSCAR in old-fashioned lettering. It looks like it's been there for decades. It hasn't. Bar Oscar is one of the newer places in town, and it's already getting people talking.
The kitchen leans on doing things by hand. Diners online keep mentioning the handmade pasta, the bread and the focaccia. One Yelp reviewer said the focaccia is so good the bar "can get away with charging $3 for 2 slices." Another called it "an awesome spot! Not just for Covington but for anywhere!"
Bar Oscar opened in April 2025, the latest venture from Chris and Ashley Wilkins, formerly of Atlanta’s Root Baking Co.
On the table
The pizza is the star. Mine was pepperoni with a crust charred in spots and blistered at the edge. The pepperoni crisped into little cups that hold their own oil. Soft mozzarella melted into the gaps. It's the kind of pie you photograph first and then forget about the camera.
To drink, I had a white Belgian wheat with a lemon wedge. It's light, soft and a little citrusy, which is exactly right for a warm evening on the patio. It came in a glass from Creature Comforts, the Athens brewery, so even the glassware has a Georgia story.
If beer isn't your drink, look at the back bar. Bottles fill the shelves up to the ceiling, the taps sit in a neat row, and it's a full bar, with cocktails and wine too. Google puts it at about $20–30 a person, which is the attainable side of a night out.
The room and the patio
The room is moody and warm. The walls are deep plum, the booths are sage green, and fringed lamps hang over the tables. It feels like an old European bar someone dropped into small-town Georgia.
If you'd rather eat inside, there's plenty of indoor seating. But I went on a Friday, early in the evening, and it was a warm Georgia night, so I sat outside.
So did everyone else. The patio was full of all kinds of people: families, couples, friends catching up, and folks out on their own. It has white-painted brick, doors trimmed in yellow and lattice metal screens. String lights run overhead and big fans keep the air moving over yellow chairs and woven tables. It felt like the whole town had the same idea, and nobody was in a hurry to leave.
Why Covington
Most people know Covington from a screen, even if they don't know the name. The town calls itself the "Hollywood of the South." Its Square has stood in for other places on TV, most famously Mystic Falls in The Vampire Diaries. Fans still come to take pictures.
But a town is more than its film locations. It's also the places locals bring their friends, and Bar Oscar is becoming one of those. It's about 35 miles east of Atlanta. That's close enough for a day trip and far enough to feel like you got away.
That's the point of The Passport Pour. Culture isn't only in faraway places. Sometimes it's a cold wheat beer, a blistered pizza and a patio down the street. So save this for your next Covington visit, and come hungry.
Address
1113 Floyd St NE, Covington, GA 30014
Hours
Tue 11 a.m.–4 p.m. · Wed–Thu 11 a.m.–9 p.m. · Fri–Sat 11 a.m.–10 p.m. · Closed Sun–Mon
Price
About $20–30 a person
Seating
Patio, indoor dining and a full bar
Follow
@bar.oscar_ on Instagram
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