A sports bar with pool tables in the back and a liquor store on the side. (must be seated for dinner to watch the show).Įlmer's Sports Cafe, 2003 E Seventh Ave., 248-5855. Flamenco show in the main dining room nightly, and a cigar bar in the old cafe on the restaurant's east side. The red lounge with the doll hutches is a prodigy of cool-weird decor and a great place to whisper into someone's ear.
In Ybor since 1905, the Columbia is a palace of Spanish tile and old-world ambience. The Columbia Restaurant, 2117 E Seventh Ave., 248-4961. Live music every night except Sunday, when a deejay spins Latin sounds. A family operation run by husband-and-wife team Sonia and Laz, it's friendly even if it is too loud.
Girls wear whatever they feel like to dance to techno, acid house, and old wave. Still the same space with a big, wooden dance floor and several bars, but the new theme is "upscale dance club." No shorts or ballcaps for guys, who must also wear collared shirts. A late-night Ybor diner that happens to have a bar. The elegant atmosphere includes a balcony overlooking a fountain in a courtyard below. A historic, high-ceilinged space with throbbing '80s club music and lots of vests on the dance floor. The most beautiful club in Ybor caters to women of all persuasions (but sympathetic men can get in, too). Usually, the youngish, fashionable Castle crowd is too cool to dance, but languid twisting sometimes breaks out during "The Deep Lounge Experience" on Wednesday nights.
A gothic-inspired space with iron candelabra, bare-brick walls and a moat running through the stone-topped bar. Like going to a junior high dance, only the people leaning against the back wall are clutching bottles of beer instead of sweaty paper cups of Check Cola. A Spanish-Cuban cafeteria that books live acts on the weekend. Line your stomach with a Cuban sandwich and garbanzo soup before filling it with beer.
GAY BAR IN MIAMI FOR OLDER CROWD FULL
The old standby of Seventh Avenue for Spanish and Cuban food is open late with a full menu. Call for show times.Ĭarmine's, 1802 E Seventh Ave., 248-3834. Not for you if you're over 25 and don't know who Liam Gallagher is.
It's a record store most of the time, but occasional live shows turn the southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 16th Street into the vortex of Orthodox Cool. I peeked in every club and watering hole I passed for this Ybor Guide, and am solely responsible for any smart remarks contained within.īlue Chair Music, 1625 E Seventh Ave., 247-1300. It's not the same Ybor it was, and some would say it's a change for the worse, what with the chain bars, the parking problems, and the occasional drunken melee on the sidewalk.īut in the interest of solid entertainment journalism and trying to put a few drinks on expense account, I recently took another walk through the Latin Quarter. More than 30 clubs now line the streets of the Latin Quarter, and thousands throng onto the carless main drag every Friday and Saturday night. We'd look down the deserted street of mostly boarded-up buildings and wonder: Why doesn't somebody do something with this place? But night after night, we sat on the concrete planters, overdressed and sweating in our vintage get-ups.