Suds Get in Your Eyes

There are few vestiges of the old South Beach that hang on these days. People move away (or die, or sometimes both!), and clubs close. But Laundry Bar has chugged along since the Nineties. The little pub in the alley behind Lincoln Road has been the home of an eclectic crowd, from rockers to drag queens (and sometimes both!), skipping the tacky South Beach glam in favor of a bar that is surprisingly dirty despite the presence of laundry machines and detergent.

Alas, Laundry Bar is closing for renovations and reinventions. It will still be a bar, under the same owners, but the iconic identity will be laid to rest. So a living South Beach relic is holding a farewell soiree: Shelley Novak is alive, still breathing (and sometimes both!), and will host the Laundry Bar Celebrity Roast to bid adieu. Like the Friars Club roasts, the show will feature local personalities telling their favorite stories about the bar, about old South Beach, and about whomever happens to be in the room to ridicule. Expect much drunken mudslinging, beginning at midnight.
Thu., Aug. 28, 2008