Entertainment in South Florida
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A
Irish Kevin’s
One of the most popular megabars on Duval, Kevin’s has a pretty good entertainment formula pinned down: nightly live acts that are a cross between a folk singer, radio shock jock and pep-rally cheerleader. The crowd consistently goes ape-poo for acoustic covers of ’80s favorites. Basically, this is a good place to see 50 women from New Jersey do tequila shots, scream ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’ at the top of their lungs and then inexplicably sob into their Michelob. It’s more fun than it sounds.
reviewed
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B
Florida Room at the Delano
‘Wanna buy me an eight-dollar beer?’ asks an out-of-towner, gazing awestruck at the sheer mass of model-types packed into this den of iniquity. The Florida Room is as exclusive as they get, plus a popular dancehall/samba piano lounge for local scenesters who eschew the tourist trap megaclubs further down the beach. Show up before 11pm or be on the list (or be Lenny Kravitz – who helped design this place) to get in.
reviewed
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C
Mango’s Tropical Café
- Miami, USA
- Entertainment › Bar
Cuba meets Coyote Ugly Saloon in this tourist hotspot, where a staff of gorgeous and/or ripped bodies (take your pick) dances, gyrates and puts some serious booty on the floor. Of course, you’re here for anthropological reasons: to study the nuances of Latin dance. Not to watch the bartender do that thing Shakira does with her butt.
reviewed
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D
Space
This multilevel warehouse is Miami’s main megaclub. With 30,000 sq ft to fill, dancers have room to strut, and an around-the-clock liquor license redefines the concept of after-hours. DJs usually pump each floor with a different sound – hip-hop, Latin, heavy trance – while the infamous rooftop lounge is the place to be for sunrise.
reviewed
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E
Premier Muvico Palace 20
Ahhhh, this is how movies were meant to be enjoyed! This elegant and massive film house (sister property to the one in West Palm's CityPlace), offers luxurious seating, a private bar and a wine menu for sipping while you watch your movie. For some, the best detail is that children are not admitted into the theatres.
reviewed
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Gay Bars & Clubs
What Cherry Grove is to its neighbor the Fire Island Pines, Fort Lauderdale is to South Beach - a little more rainbow-flag-oriented and a little less exclusive. And for the hordes of gay boys who flock here, either to party or to settle down, therein lies the charm. You don't need to be A-list to feel at home at any of the many gay bars, clubs or restaurants, and you won't have any trouble finding 'the scene'.
Fort Lauderdale is home to more than 25 gay bars and clubs, about a dozen gay guesthouses, and a couple of way-gay residential hubs including Victoria Park, which is the established gay ghetto, and Wilton Manors, more recently gay-gentrified and boasting endless nig…
reviewed
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F
Lyric Theatre
Hallowed names such as Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald walked across the Lyric stage when it was a major stop on the ‘Chitlin’ Circuit’ – the black live-entertainment trail of pre-integration USA. But as years passed both the theater and the neighborhood it served, Overtown, fell into dysfunctional disuse. Then the Black Archives History & Research Center of South Florida kicked in $1.5 million for renovations and overhauled everything. The phoenix reopened its doors in 1999 to appreciative neighbors, civic leaders and entertainers alike. A 2003 expansion feels a little too modern when juxtaposed with the Lyric’s elegant early-20th-century exterior, but it’s shiny, we …
reviewed
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G
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
This is the largest performing-arts center south of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It hosts major concerts, touring Broadway productions, plays, the Tampa Ballet and special events. The complex has five theaters: Festival Hall (a 2500-seat venue where touring Broadway shows and headliners perform), Ferguson Hall (with 1000 seats), the Jaeb (a three-floor cabaret), the Teco (with 200 seats) and the 100-seat Shimberg Playhouse, a ‘black box’ venue for cutting-edge performances by local and national artists and groups. Free backstage guided tours are offered Wednesday and Saturday at 10am, by reservation.
reviewed
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H
Gusman Center for the Performing Arts
The Olympia Theater at Gusman Center for the Performing Arts is a one-of-a-kind classic. You know how the kids in Hogwarts can see the sky through their dining hall roof? Well the Olympia recreates the whole effect sans Dumbledore, using 246 twinkling stars and clouds cast over an indigo-deep, sensual shade of a ceiling. The theater first opened in 1925; today the lobby serves as the Downtown Miami Welcome Center, doling out helpful visitor information and organizing tours of the historic district; at night you can still catch theater and music performances.
reviewed
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I
Karu & Y
Karu smacks of an Atlanta hip-hop megaclub in ways good and sundry. Basically, it’s a bottle of iced-out Cristal given club form – there’s a Dale Chiluly chandelier in the entrance, waterfall out front and restaurant (Karu; Y is the lounge) that serves foie-gras lollipops. It’s all (literally) smack on the tracks that separate tatty but gentrifying downtown Miami (bling!) from Overtown’s worst projects (bang!). Come here to star in your personal MTV video, and expect to pay for the privilege.
reviewed
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White Room
Miami’s hipsters are so, well, Miami – artsy yet glam compared to their London and NYC counterparts. They flock here, where there’s the requisite weird movies playing on open-air projectors, Lawrence of Arabia tents curving around an exposed-industrial main-stage and, according to promoters, a shared design-aesthetic-lifestyle-blah blah blah. Hot hipsters get drunk and dance with other hot hipsters. You go, White Room. The very popular Poplife party goes off here Saturdays.
reviewed
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K
Feelgood’s
Co-owned by Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil, this 8500-sq-ft rock bar/dance club has shiny choppers, rock memorabilia and a mammoth snake slithering into the rafters. Heads up: the place is packed with girls, from bartenders in skimpy outfits, to dancers on the poles, to customers coming to get wild – some visitors will love it and some will loathe it; bypass this place if you are of the latter variety. Not enough big ’80s hair, but it’s still good, cheesy fun.
reviewed
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L
Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
All things to all people - arts-loving people, that is. Comprising a main concert hall, the black-box Rinker Playhouse, a pavilion housing lecture halls and practice rooms, and an outdoor amphitheater, the Center is host to astounding fare. A recent sample includes the World Famous Count Basie Orchestra with Bob Lappin and the Palm Beach Pops, the Russian National Ballet Theatre's production of Swan Lake and a concert by Englebert Humperdinck.
reviewed
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M
Buck 15
Located in a loft above Miss Yip, B15 manages to blend everything we like about going out – kinda edgy but not scary graffiti chic, cast-off action figures, consistently awesome DJs (Did they just mix ‘Your Love’ by the Outfield into ‘Low’ by Flo Rida? Oh yes they did), free entry, a good mix of the hip and the hot and the drunk and the folks who just don’t care but definitely wave their hands in the air – into one shot of nightlife fun.
reviewed
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Cucina Dell’arte
Reminiscent of a Florentine cafe, this high-end eatery overflows with warm colors, art and some of the finest glitterati in Palm Beach. Around 10pm, they shove the tables out of the way and blast the music. Expect to see dancing botox queens, beautiful visiting fashionistas, desperate old guys and totally normal people soaking it all in. Pretentious enough to be fun, if you arrive wearing a serious face, you’ll be sorry.
reviewed
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N
Rose Bar at the Delano
The ultrachic Rose Bar at this elegant Ian Schrager original is a watering hole for beautiful creatures (or at least those with a healthy ego). Get ready to pay up for the privilege – but also prepare to enjoy it. The tiki bar in the back of the Delano is another winner; wait for staff to set out a wrought-iron table in the shallow end of the pool and you’ll start rethinking your definition of opulence.
reviewed
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O
Coconut Grove Playhouse
This lovely state-owned theater, anchoring the Grove since 1956, gained fame via the American premiere of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (which audiences and critics generally rejected out of hand as opaque and confusing). Although it was closed during research due to debt issues, it is set to reopen by the time you read this, and will hopefully continue to showcase some of Miami’s best theater.
reviewed
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P
Miracle Theater
This gorgeous, 80-year-old theater is one of the best bits of deco anywhere off the Beach. Today, the Actors’ Playhouse company puts on productions in the three performance spaces – the 600-seat main-stage auditorium, a smaller children’s theater and a black box for cutting-edge works – although the theater is nice to visit whether you’ve got tickets or not.
reviewed
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Q
Score
Muscle boys with mustaches, glistening six-packs gyrating on stage, and a crowd of men who’ve decided shirts really aren’t their thing: do we need to spell out the orientation of Score’s customer base? It’s still the best dedicated gay bar on the beach, and the addition of the more mature Crème Lounge upstairs will undoubtedly raise the cachet of this perennial favorite.
reviewed
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Bourbon St Pub & 801 Bourbon Bar
Gay nightlife, in many cases, blends into mainstream nightlife, with everybody kind of going everywhere these days. But the backbone of the gay bar scene can be found in a pair of cruisey-type watering holes that sit across the street from one another, Bourbon St Pub and 801 Bourbon Bar (801 Duval St), which can be summed up in five words: drag queen-led karaoke night.
reviewed
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La Covacha
Drive out about halfway to the Everglades (just kidding, but only just) and you’ll find Covacha, the most hidden, most hip Latin scene in Miami. Actually, it’s not hidden; all the young Latinos know about Covacha and love it well, and we do too. It’s an excellent spot to see new bands, upcoming DJs (almost all local), an enormous crowd and pretty much no tourists.
reviewed
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S
Bourbon St Pub
Gay nightlife, in many cases, blends into mainstream nightlife, with everybody kind of going everywhere these days. But the backbone of the gay bar scene can be found in a pair of cruisey-type watering holes that sit across the street from one another, Bourbon St Pub and 801 Bourbon Bar, which can be summed up in five words: drag queen–led karaoke night.
reviewed
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717 South
Young professionals gather after work to mingle and sip martinis (there is a rainbow of flavors) in the posh lounge at one of Tampa’s top spots to see and be seen. If you need something to eat after all the vodka, head to the restaurant dining room for imaginative takes on Italian classics served amid art-deco paintings, high ceilings and an open kitchen.
reviewed
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T
Circa 28
Miami can work its magic on anyone, even Wynwood’s angst-y artists. Like Cinderella touched by a fairy godmother (or a very good DJ), they become glamorous club kids in this two-story hepcat hotspot. Circa is as sexy and gorgeous as Miami gets, but with its modish library and (semi) literati clientele, it’s also intelligent enough to hold a conversation.
reviewed
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U
Hyde Park Café
This downtown late-night indoor-outdoor café, pizza place (pizzas $9 to $15), and VIP club gets really packed on Tuesday nights with eclectic music. Patrons drop by on other nights to check out the DJ spinning tunes. Happy hour (with no cover) dominates from 8pm to 10pm, while silicone implants and South Beach slick attire pick up the slack after 10pm.
reviewed
