Midnight Glimpse: Coconut Grove

The bars and streets of Coconut Grove looked like a poor man's Abercrombie & Fitch ad one recent Saturday night. Hoards of fresh-faced college students in backward baseball caps and Birkenstocks posed with beer bottles in their hands and an inebriated glaze in their eyes. The revelers, the majority of them University of Miami students, had come out to celebrate St. Patricks Day, and what better place to ring in a holiday known for extreme drinking than at UM's off-campus frat house, Barracuda Raw Bar and Grill (3035 Fuller St, Coconut Grove; 305-448-1144)?

At Barracuda, the air was saturated with the smell of cigarettes, spilled beer, and fried chicken fingers. Guys in "Kiss Me, Im Wasted" shirts played beer pong. Others added their own backup vocals to the jukebox's songs with enthusiastic shouts of "Dude!" or "Bro!" The large choir of jocks and their well-primped girlfriends left little room for a game of pool, and those standing near the table were occasionally poked by cue sticks.

The scene was pretty much the same one block over at Mr. Moe's (3131 Commodore Plaza, Coconut Grove; 305-442-1114): an even more crowded bar full of people with poking on their mind. When the live band played "Johnny B. Goode," one woman jumped on the crotch of her male companion and grinded, while another lady cast flirtatious glances at the bass player right before nabbing his hat. There seemed to be more women at Mr. Moe's than at Barracuda, perhaps because Mr. Moe's serves liquor (Barracuda only sells beer) and an assortment of fruity cocktails. As a result the line for the bathroom was painfully long. Nevertheless imbibers all over the Grove were having a good time celebrating in the name of St. Patrick, known today primarily as the patron saint of drunk people everywhere.