After Dark >>

• Best Rock Club
  The Billabong Pub
  So there's Fast Eddie, the balding barfly. He always tries to sell his blood for money. He drinks Honey Brown. He has track marks up and down his arms. He has a nervous twitch. He has an itch he just can't scratch. He performs at the open-mic night down the street, and he always sits at the end... More >>
• Best Bar in East Broward (1 Comment)
  The Briny Irish Pub
  A "traditional" Irish bar located smack dab on the corner of Sleazy Street and NE Drunk Avenue in Pompano. Really doesn't sound like it should work, right? But the clientele that packs the Briny every night (especially Saturday night, when Rob Rage, the Briny's own rock 'n' roll cover band,... More >>
• Best Karaoke
  Sushi Toi
  The lights are low. The clinking of silverware and hum of conversation, mixed with anticipation, swirls around the room. Tonight is someone's lucky night -- you can feel it. The large book is passed around the table. They must make the right decision. And then, it's go time. "When I was... More >>
• Best Lesbian Bar
  Martini Cabaret
  Ladies who dig ladies are throwing lipstick across their smackers on Friday nights and heading to Wilton Manor's Five Points to experience the 7-month-old lesbian hot spot, Martini Cabaret. Resident DJ Daddy spins Latin and dance mixes for a crowd that's thick till 3 a.m. The digs are upscale,... More >>
• Best Gay Bar
  Cathode Ray
  Cathode Ray is the standard gay bar in Broward County. Described by co-owners Larry Wald and Scott Belding as an S&M club -- stand and model, that is -- the three-room bar draws a large crowd on the weekends. But if there is pretension at the 20-year-old Cathode, it's overshadowed by the... More >>
• Best Happy Hour
  Cheers
  Don't hold this bar back because its name is as inventive as a Sun-Sentinel headline. Yeah, and ignore the classic rock advertised on Friday and Saturday nights. That's not why you should come to Cheers. This large watering hole, with two fully stocked bars, three pool tables, and a stage,... More >>
• Best Happy Hour Gang
  Happy Hour Headquarters
  Think you're pretty experienced at bending the elbow after a long day's labor? Then maybe it's time you tip one with the boys and girls of HHH. For more than 20 years, Bo Zaza has gathered the Happy Hour Crew on Fridays at 6 p.m. at bars in and around greater Fort Lauderdale. These are not... More >>
• Best Bar to Get Yelled At
  Macabi's Cigar Bar
  I tell them, 'Get the fuck out!'" says Ugandan-born owner Ashok Patel (a.k.a. Pat), demonstrating how he clears his sophisticated cigar shop/bar of rowdy clientele. A sign in front of the toilet in the storage/bathroom reads, "Gentlemen, it may be smaller than you think, so stand closer. --... More >>
• Best Place to Mellow Out, Man
  The Nakamal Kava Bar
  Amsterdam. Just hearing the name of the Netherlands' famed capital city elicits images of people lounging in a marijuana café, happily toking away the hours. But we live in America, where antiquated marijuana laws treat pot-smokers as if they're violent criminals. For the grass-loving... More >>
• Best Dive
  Curly Sue's Hideout
  Like we'd imagine heaven's very own dive bar to be, Curly Sue's Hideout is directly across the street from a McDonald's. Why it's located only feet from a middle school, well, we don't know. Here's what we do know from a recent reconnaissance mission to the Hideout: Ol' Curly Sue herself sees us... More >>
• Best Biker Bar
  Mickey's Bar and Package
  It's early afternoon on a Saturday, and there aren't any posers here. These bikers are the real deal, the long goatees, the black vests, the black halter tops. Twenty-odd men and women with faces as lined as floodplains. The hogs are out back, not far from the barbeque grill made from 50-gallon... More >>
• Best Generation-Spanning Bar
  The Hut Package Liquor and Lounge
  This small, hidden gem off East Sunrise Boulevard sits in the shadow of the newly erected mammoth condos on Seminole Drive. The narrow, dimly lit bar packs in an assortment of interesting characters on a nightly basis. Imagine being at a family reunion, but a really surreal one; the soundtrack... More >>
• Best Bar in West Broward
  King's Head English Pub
  Ex-pats can be the most refreshing people to come across in South Florida's suburbs, reminding us, with the very tones of their saucy accents, that there is a world beyond marathon satellite television consumption in our 60-mile spread of four-bedroom cement blocks. There is no more intimate... More >>
• Best Dance Club
  The Coliseum
  Gary Santis' antiquity-themed, multilevel brainchild, the Coliseum, consistently draws world-class DJs and performers to entertain music-savvy clubgoers. Unlike most local dance clubs who don't give a shit about anything but selling drinks, Coliseum has spent the past three years setting a new... More >>
• Best Bartender
  Robbie Cunningham at the Fox and Hound
  Robbie is like a dad. He has a round, friendly face, a warm, infectious laugh, and a firm handshake. He also loves Tom Jones and pours the most perfect glass of Stella. So, he's really like a dad who gets up on the bar to dance to Tom Jones and likes gettin' sauced with his kids. A decidedly... More >>
• Best Venue for National Acts
  Sound Advice Amphitheatre
  By any other name -- say Coral Sky, MARS, the Snuggles Fabric Softener Bear Arena -- this gigantic outdoor shed now called the Sound Advice Amphitheatre would still sound as sweet. However, unlike the big, open-air venues on the nation's northern tier, ours is available year-round. Music seems... More >>
• Best Venue for Local Acts
  Red Lion British Pub
  What makes a good local show? Is it the bands? The crowd? Or how about the bartenders? Or the beer? While those are all necessary ingredients, a good local show is more than just the sum of its parts. There has to be that special vibe -- that shared feeling between the band and the audience,... More >>
• Best Club Owner
  Kilmo, Alligator Alley
  The self-described "owner/manager/resident bass player/bottle washer/toilet cleaner/you-name-it" of Alligator Alley keeps his doors open not because he makes any money but because he is an otherworldly creature from Planet Rock Star, sent here to deliver us some serious tuneage and keep the... More >>
• Best Local DJ
  Popscene
  Until recently, seeing the name of a DJ on a club flier invariably meant you were in for a night of house, hip-hop, trip-hop, techno, or pretty much any non-rock-related dance music. The past few years, however, have seen a resurgence in guitar-driven music at local nightclubs. Though just a... More >>
• Best Sports Bar in Disguise
  Gatsby's
  It's not just anywhere that you can walk into the restroom and see an extinguished, five-inch cigar resting in the urinal. What Freud would determine about Gatsby's based on this image is open for speculation... and snickering. At the very least, it's a peek into the restaurant/cigar bar/pool... More >>
• Best Place for a Drink After 7 a.m.
  Tipperary Pub
  Have you ever craved a brew at 7 in the morning? Haven't we all? It sounds so inviting, especially because you're drunk. If you're not quite ready to go home, you've been kicked out of the last beach bar at 4, and you're hungry, look for the bright, sparkling lights (the sign out front is in... More >>
• Best Place to Meet the Girl Next Door
  Joe Picasso's Interactive Studio & Cafe
  Let's face it: You're not going to meet the girl of your dreams -- the articulate, sweet, rub-your-shoulders-after-a-hard-day woman you'd take home to Mom -- slumped over a bar on Himmarshee, three empty shot glasses in front of her. That chick ain't gonna help your momma with the Thanksgiving... More >>
• Best Place to Meet the Girl Next Door
  Jiggles II
  Strip club rookie mistake number one: You pick the most gorgeous honey in the joint, the woman with the magazine-model face and porn-star curves, and slap down $20 on a lap dance. She straddles you, parting her lips in a smile as fake as her breasts, and provides you with one of those famous... More >>
• Personal Best
  Kilmo
  Given name: Carlo Pacilla Age: 48 Hometown: Hollywood Claim to fame: Runs Alligator Alley, a homey Oakland Park blues and jazz bar. What he's done for us lately: Kilmo's no-crapola dedication to warmth and spontaneity attracts the likes of legendary rap progenitor Blowfly,... More >>
• Best Strip Joint
  Pure Platinum Solid Gold
  On the south side of the main dance stage at Solid Gold, one of the few strip joints with a world-renowned reputation, is a pole that stretches skyward from the middle of a gleaming white piano. On any given night in this gentlemen's club, visitors can see a buxom woman, her breasts exposed and... More >>
• Best Leather
  Leather University
  A skinny young man stands chained to the wall. Tight leather covers his torso and upper legs like a second skin. A large rubber ball gags him, allowing the man to breathe but restricting his speech. This ain't everyone's fantasy, but for thousands of gay men and women throughout the United... More >>
• Best Bar on the Water
  Bahia Cabana
  Bahia Cabana has that Hotel California feel to it. This makes sense, because Bahia Cabana is the hotel bar for the Days Inn Bahia Cabana Resort, which overlooks Bahia Mar Marina. But once you walk through the lobby into the tiki-fied confines of the bar, something happens. Though technically... More >>
• Best Example of Old Hollywood
  Stratford's Bar
  Hollywood just ain't Hollywood anymore. The old mom-and-pops that catered to retirees along Hollywood Boulevard have been displaced by hip new restaurants with -- gasp! -- valet. The old slumlords who rented 300 square feet with a wall-unit air conditioner for $500 have competition in towering... More >>
• Best Reason to Put on Your Dancing Shoes
  The Blowtorch DJs
  The idea seemed simple enough: Get a few guys together who had varied tastes in music, find a good bar, and put on a monthly dance party for the kids. And what started out as a simple Wednesday-night party at the Fox and Hound in Fort Lauderdale (4812 N. Dixie Hwy., 954-491-8869) last May turned... More >>
• Best Martini
  Dakotah 624
  i>New Times sent an operative to Dakotah 624, but reports that followed were clouded in a hangover. Apparently, the night began at this hipster bar, which seems plucked from the shores of South Beach, with a "Dakotah's bonsai pineapple" martini. It's one of those trendy cocktails made with... More >>
• Best Margarita
  Tequila Cancun
  Nibbling on nachos, watching muchachos, 20 kinds of tequila behind the bar, Marg's by the bucket, stick a straw in and suck it, No bartender will tell what the ingredients are. Wastin' away again in Margaritaville, Searching for South Florida's finest saloon, Some people... More >>
• Best Beer Selection
  Big Bear Brewing Co.
  The Big Bear Brewing Co. is an oasis of tasty microbrewed goodness in a wasteland of Anheuser-Busch and Coors saturation. Their Kodiac Belgium Dubbel won a gold medal at the 2002 American Beer Fest, and the brewery has also earned a half dozen other national awards for fermented excellence since... More >>
• Best Night Out with the Boys
  Sunday at Voodoo Lounge
  So it's the Lord's day and your only chance to be free from waiting tables for those obnoxious out-of-town jerks who always want more salt, pepper, and a chance to abuse your fragile sense of dignity. So you want to get drunk and get weird. Well, there's really only one place to do it, and... More >>
• Best Bar Location
  The Original Fat Cat's
  Let's face it. Fort Lauderdale is a suburb no more. Thousands of condos are on the cusp of opening downtown, which means that driving will be impossible. That's good, because piloting while potted can land you either in the pokey or the morgue. Fat Cat's, which has picked up the Best Hamburger... More >>
• Best Bar in Palm Beach
  O'Shea's Irish Pub
  There's an easy way to spot an authentic Irish pub. It's by the beer-to-donuts ratio. Back in June of 2002, during the World Cup of Soccer, the pints at O'Shea's Irish Pub regularly got sticky from Dunkin' Donuts. Soccer fans and regulars packed the place for early-morning football, just as they... More >>
• Best Clean, Well-Lighted Place
  Rush Street Martini Bar
  It is early, and the crowds have not yet gathered. It is what they call happy hour, but the old man sees little obvious happiness here. He raises his drink to his lips. For a happy hour, it is very quiet. Quietness is good. You do not want loudness. You want the place to be clean and pleasant.... More >>
• Best Club
  Club Sonar
  Just when you were about to pour your partying days down the drain like a half-empty can of warm beer, Sonar emerges like the black-leather-clad temptress from your dreams and hands you a glass of dark red wine. You have been initiated into the next level of partying. The 5-month-old club is... More >>
• Best Country & Western Bar
  Round Up Country Western Club
  Two hundred folks, 20 cowboy hats. That's a ratio of ten-to-one, which is just about as country as Broward County gets. From the corralled-in dance floor packed with couples spinning together gracefully, circling the line dancers kicking their boots up together in time, to the tight-jean-clad... More >>
• Best Sports Bar
  Porter's Place
  Owned by Daryl Porter, local Catholic school boy gone pro NFL football player, this huge bar and restaurant has a lived-in, community feeling about it. At least a dozen television screens accommodate every seating angle in the bar, making it the perfect place to watch a game while downing a... More >>
• Best Bar Band
  Crisis
  It takes ten minutes to squeeze through the dense crowd around the massive bar in Briny's Irish Pub (Pompano Beach) on a Friday night, when Crisis plays its regular gig. When you finally do get to the dance floor in the back, you find partiers bouncing to a pop cover of U2's "I Will Follow" and... More >>
• Best Bar for Claustrophobics
  Flossie's Bar and Grill
  Most bars fall into the tomb category. Black walls. Few windows, if any at all. Darkened booths. Low ceilings. Flossie's, however, is a paean to the open road -- and sky. First, it's tiki style, with additional benches and tables under a nearby oak tree where you can enjoy your $2.50 bottle of... More >>