Bars & Music >>

• Personal Best
  Terri Weisbert, 39
  A native of New Jersey, Terri Weisbert has spent the past seven years behind the bar (and sometimes helping out on the floor) at Flanigan’s Seafood Bar and Grill in Coconut Grove. In 2005 Terri, who sported a lifetime’s worth of glossy coal-black hair that fell past her waist, had it chopped to... More >>
• Best Weekly Party (1 Comment)
  Aquabooty at Glass
  On a humid Saturday night, the svelte bodies corralled behind velvet ropes on Washington Avenue wait like sheep. For a few hours every weekend, the doorman assumes the position of a god, saving a few wretched souls from the hell of mediocrity by permitting them entrance into Miami's nightlife... More >>
• Best Place for Cocktails
  Magnum Lounge
  Magnum's unadorned concrete exterior walls hug a corner on the 79th Street Causeway and leave the impression of nothing more than a local dive. But like all diamonds in the rough, Magnum's bland façade is a stark contrast to its lush, romantic interior. The décor is red like... More >>
• Best Beach Blanket Bingo Reggae
  Kayak Man
  The reggae-ska trio Kayak Man has been rocking steady this year, opening for the U2 tribute band UV, competing in the Latin Funk Festival's Battle of the Bands, and offering weekly shows at I/O. The band's sound is fresh yet nostalgic, with influences ranging from old-school Bob Marley to Manu... More >>
• Best Biker Bar
  Scully's Tavern
  It's Thursday night, and outside Scully's Tavern a bevy of bearded, leather-clad bikers can be seen smoking cigarettes and knocking back brewskies as they admire the line of motorcycles surrounding the entrance. Some of the hogs sport as much bling as a tricked-out Chevy Monte Carlo, but most of... More >>
• Best Bloody Mary
  Archie's Pizza
  The bloody mary comes in a variety of manifestations, from tepid tomato juice to lava with a celery stick. Any decent bloody mary must meet two criteria: It must be large, and it must be spicy. Archie's excellent concoction ($7.50) comes in a pint glass (garnished with an eight-inch celery... More >>
• Best Club DJ (1 Comment)
  Deejay Smeejay
  Yes, yes, Sasha and John Digweed killed at Winter Music Conference, Ti‘sto's parties are great fun if you can get in, and Desyn Masiello and the guys in Deep Dish are hot. These turntablists and many, many others make Miami a DJ mecca. Yet even though these elite are in Miami frequently, they... More >>
• Best Concert
  Fischerspooner
  Although the Bang! Festival this past November didn't blow up like organizers had hoped, those who did show up, and stuck it out until the end, got their money's worth. Looking like Cirque du Soleil on acid, New York-based electro-pop group Fischerspooner was the antithesis of the stand-and-spin... More >>
• Best Concert Series
  Rock vs. Art
  Punk/indie-rock show promoter extraordinaire New Art School began this series early last year in the hope of giving local bands and local artists alike some face time. While each show boasted a different theme -- a Guided by Voices tribute, for example -- one factor remains constant: These... More >>
• Best Dance Club
  La Covacha
  La Covacha is Spanish for "The Shack," which is fitting, because this Latin dance club in Doral is, well, a big-ass shack. The only difference between this oversize tiki hut and your typical shanty is that this one tends to draw hordes that are willing to stand behind a velvet rope and wait in a... More >>
• Best Dive Bar
  On the Rocks Sports Bar
  Even those blessed with an ironclad constitution will find themselves hacking from the stench of spilled booze and cigarette smoke ripening this dimly lighted joint. And that's while standing on the sidewalk before venturing inside. This seedy storefront establishment may not be much to look at,... More >>
• Best Flamenco Night
  Casa Panza
  Where else in Miami can you strap on your character shoes and castanet the night away with Sevillian flair not once, not twice, but three times per week? For years the quaint Spanish tavern has put on its fabled House of Flamenco nights Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. At 8:30 and... More >>
• Best Gay Bar
  Twist
  Girrrrrl, don't start spiraling and spilling your cosmo, because Twist won again! Have you checked out the competition recently? Seriously, give us a venue that can out-fab this legendary labyrinth of all things gay and we will happily give her a twirl. But as far as we are concerned, this South... More >>
• Best German Bar
  Fritz and Franz Bierhaus
  It normally strikes around October. But sometimes it happens, unexpectedly, in the summer: "Edelweiss" starts buzzing in your inner ear, an intense yearning for a juicy bratwurst, and a pint of frothy German beer. To cope with such cravings, head to Coral Gables. Okay, the Gables doesn't have... More >>
• Best Happy Hour
  Jam at MAM
  For five dollars (zilch if you're a museum member), you can drink from a well-stocked open bar, pick at tasty hors d'oeuvres (e.g., chicken satay and prosciutto-wrapped melon) proffered by roving waiters, take in live music or a DJ, and chat with artsy people. As if that weren't enough of a... More >>
• Best Jazz Club
  Upstairs at the Van Dyke
  Although you can catch jazz at various locations around the city these days, there's only one place to hear consistently high-caliber jazz every night of the week. Upstairs at the Van Dyke, an institution since its birth along with the Van Dyke Café in 1994, continues to wow crowds with a... More >>
• Best Jazz Radio Program
  88.9 WDNA-FM Jazzumentary
  The great thing about Jazzumentary, which you can hear from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. every weekday on 88.9 FM, is that it changes format, rotating one of five different syndicated shows every day. On Mondays, it's Portraits in Blue, hosted by famed blues producer Bob Porter, who will enlighten you with... More >>
• Best Jukebox
  American Legion Post No. 29
  Half of this CD jukebox's playlist is what you would expect in an American Legion hall, generally a venue occupied by octogenarians. Thus the juke is well stocked with crooners (Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin are here) and country standards (Merle Haggard and Hank Willams make appearances). But... More >>
• Best Karaoke (1 Comment)
  Our Place Lounge & Liquors
  If you are going to get up on a stage and sing Dolly Parton's "Jolene" in front of 250 people, you want it to be the right kind of environment. You want bawdy but not loud. And while a part of you wants the crowd to watch, it's something of a relief to see them distracted in a game of pool. Most... More >>
• Best Latin Club
  Club Típico Dominicano
  In the heart of Allapattah, a rather unglamorous storefront bathed in the Dominican Republic's red-and-blue national colors has long been a gathering place for Miami's true salseros and merengueros. These are people willing to endure the occasional thug brawl or carjacking just so they can grind... More >>
• Best Lesbian Weekend (3 Comments)
  Friday: Cherry Pie at Club O'Zone
  Saturday: Siren at Creme Lounge
  A lesbian bar is difficult to find south of the Broward County line, but fortunately for women who love women, Miami's ongoing parties compensate for the lack. On Fridays, for an $8 cover, Pandora Events joins forces with Ultra Events for Cherry Pie at Club O'Zone, where girls can dance to house... More >>
• Best Acoustic Performer
  Jorges
  Cuban-born Jorge Gonzalez Graupera, a.k.a. Jorges, might just be the hardest-working musician in Miami. After his band the Brand, which was founded in 2002 (and was Jorges's first live music venture), broke up in 2004, solo artistry became a necessity, so Jorges picked up his acoustic guitar and... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/Miami Beach
  Dewey's Tavern
  Despite its location amid million-dollar bayfront condos and a bunch of tanning salons and expensive cafés on South Beach, Dewey's Tavern, which is nestled on the corner of Ninth Street and Alton Road, does not wear the fancy pants. Instead Dewey's is a tight, cozy little... More >>
• Best Album
  ANR So Far
  One of the few local bands that actually has living, breathing groupies -- who aren't friends and/or family -- the duo known as Awesome New Republic (or simply ANR) recently took off to New York City. Fans, however, can keep a little piece of ANR in their hearts and iPods with ANR So Far. With... More >>
• Best Band Name
  The Dead Hookers' Bridge Club
  Anyone can throw a bunch of random nouns and adjectives together and come up with a pretty amusing band name (in fact there are Websites for that kind of thing), and the number of prostitutes, dead or otherwise, who engage in complicated card games is probably on the low side. But a band is... More >>
• Best Band to Break Up in the Past Year
  Vidavox
  Some bands break up over raging drug habits; others break up over egos or money. But anyone who's heard the audio-sensory treat that is Vidavox probably wouldn't be too surprised to learn the reason for the group's split: Guitarist/keyboardist/bassist Carlos Vega is heading off to Michigan to... More >>
• Best Caribbean Band
  Locos por Juana
  The multimember collective known as Locos por Juana -- which includes Itagui, Guillermo "Chamo" Cabral, Carlos "Negro" Viafara, Marc "JC" Kondrat, Marcos "Matatigre" Delgado, Camilo "Tumbao" Sierra, Jonathan "Boricua" Marrero, Javier "Lakambra" Delgado, Emiliano "CheFunk" Torres, Carlos "C-Bone"... More >>
• Best Electronica Artist
  Otto Von Schirach
  Well, it's like this: "Otto Von Schirach is an IDM and breakcore artist from Miami, Florida, of Cuban/German decent. His style is more sporadic and noisy than other artists in the genre, and his visual aesthetic leans on the heavy-metal side rather than electronic. He has released most of his... More >>
• Best Haitian Band
  Jude Papaloko and Loray Mistik
  Jude Thegenius (a.k.a. Jude Papaloko) draws much of his inspiration as a painter and musician from his youth in Haiti. "In Haiti, if you spoke out against the government, the police could come into your house at night, take you away, and you'd disappear forever," says Thegenius. Despite the high... More >>
• Best Jazz Artist
  LeNard Rutledge
  LeNard Rutledge, born and raised in Miami, where there is only a handful of truly great jazz vocalists, is usually compared, aptly, to the legendary Lou Rawls. Like Rawls, Rutledge's classy elegance is often permeated by the raw passion of his church choir work. In fact Rutledge still sings with... More >>
• Best Latin Band (1 Comment)
  Skampida
  Skampida is as Skampida sounds: a stampede of positive Colombian ska that tramples right over you with energetic horns, rap solos, and pounding punky drums, all salted with traditional Colombian genres like cumbia and champeta. The nine-member band made its grand entrance into Miami last year... More >>
• Best Percussionist
  Sammy Figueroa
  What was it like to work with Miles Davis? "Working with Miles was outrageous, eccentric, and wonderful. He taught me how to play more by playing less. He also taught me to be myself and not a bullshit artist," says Sammy Figueroa, the percussionist whose 2005 debut album, And Sammy Walked In,... More >>
• Best Pop Band
  The Waterford Landing
  The Waterford Landing is a group of four extremely creative musicians -- Alex Caso (synths, vocals), Ed Matus (electric guitars, synth, drum programming, vocals), Richard Rippe (synths, electric Fender bass, vocals), and Neil Rippe (drum set) -- who, with the release of their self-titled debut... More >>
• Best Place to Hear Tango Music
  Miami Tango Fantasy Festival, this year at the Deauville Beach Resort
  Tango music is meant to be seen and heard. The tango fest, an annual nine-day extravaganza, features the best in tango music from Buenos Aires. This year the festival will grace the Deauville Hotel, and the Orquesta Gente de Tango will play live sets every night. The bandmates promise such a... More >>
• Best Rap Artist/Group (1 Comment)
  Trick Daddy
  We can all learn a lot from Trick Daddy. What are dub deuces? How does one get low to the floor? And how does one get that cream? If we pay attention, we could end up like Trick: with six cars, including a green monster truck in front of our mansion. Trick, who put Miami on the mainstream rap... More >>
• Best Rap Release in the Past Twelve Months
  Rewind: Bringing Back the Future by SoulWhat?
  Three young MCs -- Afterlogic, Newsense, and Parable -- all Miami natives, form the hip-hop trio SoulWhat?, which can be seen making the rounds at live music venues including I/O and Metropolis. But it is from the giant, borderless trunk called the Internet -- using a simple Website and a PayPal... More >>
• Best Record Label (2 Comments)
  Schematic Records
  Romulo del Castillo and Josh Kay, Miami natives who form the electronic duo Phoenecia, started Schematic Records in 1996 in Perrine with friends Push Button Objects and Seven, founder of Chocolate Industries, the label that debuted Prefuse 73. "We are an artist-run label/collective. We have no... More >>
• Best Rock Band (1 Comment)
  Shuttle Lounge
  Calling Shuttle Lounge a band is like calling the online community World of Warcraft a videogame. Like the latter, Shuttle Lounge is an environment, a lifestyle. Stuff happens, some of it bad, most of it thrilling. The members of Shuttle Lounge -- Dik Shuttle, Ca$$iu$ Casio KRS "le juan" Love... More >>
• Best Solo Musician
  Jesse Jackson
  Despite his affinity for street performing, Jesse Jackson is not homeless or down on his luck. But if the slim, scruffy guitar player on Lincoln Road asks if he can play you a song, let him. Don't worry -- despite sharing a name with a famous outspoken reverend -- the soulful folk singer won't... More >>
• Best Songwriter (3 Comments)
  Raffa Jo Harris
  A spacy hippie chick raised in Miami, Raffa Jo Harris is half of folk duo Raffa and Rainer. Her beautifully sensitive ballads are about coincidences, friends, love -- all the sweet things in life -- and they're usually prefaced with a kind of story-behind-the-song. She's often compared to a... More >>
• Best Martini
  Biltmore Bar
  A sexy librarian walks into another bar. She is still looking for the perfect man, but tonight she settles for the companionship of a perfect martini. Over the years her fickle taste has migrated from gin to vodka. (Go ahead and call her a heathen, but James Bond jumped the juniper berry ship... More >>
• Best Mod Rasta Groove
  Fitzroy
  There's no denyin' that hip-hop/reggae artist Fitzroy has sprung like a lion onto Miami's modern multicultural music scene this year. In only a matter of months, the Bajan journalist-turned-singer became a bar-hold name, packing the house at Jazzid, Transit Lounge, and the patio of Stop Miami,... More >>
• Best Latin Rock Band
  Tereso
  There's nothing like a rocking family fan club to renew a band's energy. This year Tereso proved that childlike spunk is as important as looking like hardcore punks, when they let the Teresitos (four-year-old Ella, six-year-old Belen, and thirteen-year-old Luna) jump onstage to shake their butts... More >>
• Best Musical History Lesson
  Matthew Sabatella's Ballad of America Project
  For years Matthew Sabatella has been an important parochial player, first as the bass player and a singer for masterful rock band Broken Spectacles, then as a sideman for a number of groups, a solo artist, producer, Webmaster. Slight and soft-spoken, he has always been a large and loud presence... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/West
  Keg South of Kendall
  Truly a neighborhood bar, Keg South is family-friendly in the afternoons and early evenings, when the place fills with happy-hour revelers as well as parents with kids still uniformed from soccer or T-ball practice. Tucked away on a sidestreet just across 137th Avenue from the Kendall-Tamiami... More >>
• Best New Bar (1 Comment)
  Martini Bar
  South Miami and Kendall are not known for wild nights and hedonistic revelry. By 11:00 p.m. the crickets are louder than the burbs between Kendall Drive and Bird Road. Aside from a handful of bars, there's not much for southern suburbanites to do without driving for 30 minutes. Luckily Martini... More >>
• Best Place to Play Pinball (2 Comments)
  Fun-O-Rama
  There was a time, after the extinction of dinosaurs and the ascension of Homo sapiens, when pinball ruled the Earth. Miami, like most major cities, was dotted with arcades housing dozens and dozens of flippered, belled, whistled, and generally colorful games that required concentration,... More >>
• Best Latin Singer
  Descemer Bueno
  Afro-Cuban fusion singer Descemer Bueno's calls home to Havana are echoing from Miami stages across the Florida Straits to the seawall along Malecón Boulevard in the Cuban capital, and even onto Madrid's music scene. Bueno, a founder of legendary Latin funk band Yerba Buena and current frontman... More >>
• Best Nightclub to Die in the Past Year
  Chamber Lounge
  In the basement of a shuttered hotel at mid-Beach, barflies in the know gathered daily to celebrate the joys of the perfect neighborhood watering hole. Since 1958, Chamber Lounge had served good advice along with impressively stiff drinks (and occasional freebies for those who looked like they... More >>
• Best One-Nighter You Missed
  DJ Jazzy Jeff at Shine
  Once a month DJ Jazzy Jeff (of "... and the Fresh Prince" fame) spun at Shine at the Shelborne, making for a night of booty-grinding and straight-up drunken fun. In between serving cosmos and cocktails, scantily clad bartenders danced on the bar, much to the pleasure of hollering bystanders of... More >>
• Best Open-Mike Night (1 Comment)
  Luna Star Café
  The what-ifs are haunting. They say you have a beautiful voice. That you can dance. That you're really funny. Are you truly an undiscovered star? Whether it's music, dance, theater, or comedy, get over the stage fright and test your material before a live audience. Miami is not, for sure, New... More >>
• Best Place to Enjoy a Tequila Sunset
  Cantina Beach at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne
  Tucked away inside the posh architecture of the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, you'll spy a thatched hut that's light years away from the kind of prissy sensibility one might expect from such a fancy-pants hotel. Cantina Beach feels like a different key than Biscayne. After a decadent evening of... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/North
  The Billiard Club
  It's almost 7:30 p.m. You've just spent the past two-and-a-half hours stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-95, the Golden Glades Interchange, and the Palmetto Expressway. You're only minutes away from your two-story condo in Miami Lakes. But as you exit at Miami Lakes Drive, you find yourself... More >>
• Best Place to Play Darts (1 Comment)
  Tom's NFL Club
  Darts are not a mere parlor game for you. You have strong opinions about the great steel versus soft tip debate. You worship Bob "The Limestone Cowboy" Anderson and Eric Bristow. And you practice. Hence it pains you to see a bunch of chuckers throwing all over the clock. As a member of the... More >>
• Best Place to Play Pool (1 Comment)
  Inside Billiards
  Glance through the glass door in the Sweetwater strip mall, and you see a couple of videogames and a bar in the background. Nothing to get excited about. But once you enter Inside Billiards, some kind of Narnian transformation occurs: You just keep walking and walking, and the back wall gets... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/Central
  The River Oyster Bar
  You know you have found a true neighborhood spot the second all but one of the people perched on bar stools admit they live less than ten blocks away. Do these River regulars realize how lucky they are? Not just because this cozy gem is located virtually on their doorstep, but because they have... More >>
• Best Poolside Bar
  The Poolside Bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel
  The city skyline, glowing in the late afternoon sun, seems almost within reach. It's just beyond the lip of the elegant little infinity pool here. So sit back in a lounge chair, sip your gin and tonic, and relax. For an upscale hotel, the Mandarin Oriental's poolside bar is refreshingly low-key.... More >>
• Best Radio Station
  WRGP, Radiate 88.1 FM
  WRGP, the Florida International University student radio station, broadcasts out of South Miami-Dade and has a fairly weak signal. But it's worth the extra effort to tune in (or visit it online). Along with great reggae programming, the station has the same element that makes many college... More >>
• Best Resurrected Bar
  Zeke's Roadhouse
  Even as Lincoln Road began to descend into ultrahipness in the late Nineties, Zeke's was one of the places to escape the madness. The comfortable crowd, extensive beer selection, and low prices made it the place to be for those who didn't care about being in the Place To Be. Then -- suddenly --... More >>
• Best Rock Club
  Churchill's Pub
  It's been said there is an inverse correlation between the quality of a rock club and the condition of its bathrooms. The less toilet paper present, the more bands onstage. If this theory proves correct, Churchill's has definitely earned this award. It's one of the few (if not only) venues in... More >>
• Best Rock Radio Program (1 Comment)
  Middays with Naughty Natalia, 93 Rock
  (WHDR, 93.1 FM)
  93 Rock, the radio station that saved the day for South Florida's rock fans when Zeta (WZTA-FM, 94.9) bit the dust, has been around for only a bit more than a year. But one of the station's most popular DJs, "Naughty" Natalia Delacruz, has been announcing the station's call letters for longer... More >>
• Best Sports Bar (1 Comment)
  Duffy's Tavern
  Beer, Buffalo wings, sports on TV, students watching sports on TV. In most American cities, the college sports bar is a common occurrence. Not here in Miami. In fact the chief representative of this genre is a little bar near the University of Miami. The exterior of Duffy's signals safe haven --... More >>
• Best Strip Club (2 Comments)
  Tootsie's Cabaret
  Not too long ago Tootsie operated her business in a strip mall off State Road 441 (NE Second Avenue) and 199th Street, reeling in party-rocking dudes and chicks into her raunchy cabaret with two-for-one specials and a gorgeous crew of exotic dancers. A naturally pretty and adventuresome girl,... More >>
• Best Bar Food
  Kingdom
  Open from 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., this open-air sports bar serves up typical bar fare -- burgers, fries, onion rings -- made with uncommonly high-quality ingredients and cooked with surprising delicacy. The king-size cheese-steak sandwich costs $9, but it is an enormous portion, and it's... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar/South (8 Comments)
  Rodbenders Rawbar and Grill
  A raw bar is the best kind of bar, and Rodbenders is the best kind of raw bar: a friendly joint with verve, a happy vibe, and ambiance swimming with things nautical. "This is a home," says owner Kathy McMillan. "It's comfortable. It's a real neighborhood bar, especially for guys who like to... More >>
• Best Sunday Afternoon Watering Hole
  Alabama Jack's
  Whether you're concluding a trip to the Keys or attempting a serene re-entry into the weekday grind, Alabama Jack's is the perfect place to toast your weekend goodbye. A big outdoor bar-restaurant set in the middle of mangroves just north of the Card Sound Bridge, the 58-year-old Jack's is a... More >>
• Best Three Beers for Five Bucks
  On the Rocks
  Do you like to drink cheap beer in the company of serious drinkers who don't give two shits about ambiance, South Beach glitz, cleanliness, or really anything except drinking? On the Rocks is your bar. Three beers, five bucks, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. daily. Enough said. More >>
• Best Event/Corporate DJ
  Jody McDonald, Quest Music Incorporated
  All it takes is one song. One single song can make or break a mood, pack or empty a dance floor, ignite or extinguish a vibe. Just one tune can send a middle-age mother of two heading straight to the stripper pole, fool a white girl into thinking she be backing it up like Beyoncé do,... More >>
• Best VIP Room
  Red Room at Skybar
  It's difficult to believe this posh spot is still jumping with glitterati after notorious hip-hop producer Marion "Suge" Knight was shot in the leg while chilling at the Red Room during last year's Video Music Awards revelry. After all, who wants to get capped when you're dropping $500 on a... More >>
• Best Bar to Model-Watch
  Ted's Hideaway
  When the precocious, self-absorbed, ridiculously good-looking boys and girls who earn their living posing for catalogues and strutting the catwalk want a place where they can get down and dirty, they scamper to Ted's Hideaway, the institutional dive bar between Collins and Washington. After all,... More >>
• Best Wine Bar
  Stop Miami
  In Miami's small but burgeoning wine bar scene, newcomer Stop Miami is a cut above. While other vino joints may have more selection or sex appeal, Stop Miami is the most eclectic, laid-back, and friendly spot to sip a Pinot Grigio and nibble on Serrano ham. Cozily ensconced in a former gas... More >>
• Best Old-School Latin Club
  The new Café Nostalgia
  Café Nostalgia's return to Miami Beach this year brought Havana and Calle Ocho a bit closer to the land of sea and sand. The club turned a much-loved back-door Spanish tavern into a cozy cabaret with a Latin speakeasy flair. Decorated with old music photographs and a modern video screen,... More >>
• Best Nightlife Trend
  Not Smoking
  It took people in Miami a long time to figure out what people in California caught a clue about (courtesy of a strict state law) a decade ago: You can dance, talk, and generally party longer and harder in smoke-free environments. Also you don't have to leave your glam nighttime wear outside on... More >>
• Best Reggae Club
  Madhouse at Bayside Hut
  Let's make something clear right off the bat, people. "Madhouse is a party, not a place," says event organizer Marlon Whiteman, one of the members of the Trini South Boyz party syndicate. The confusion arose back when the Key Biscayne establishment Bayside Hut was known as Madfish House. At... More >>
• Best Reggae Radio Program (1 Comment)
  Throwback Thursdays with Walshy Killa, MIXX-FM, 96.1
  Fret not thyselves, reggae fanatics. Even though Mixx 96 has been down recently, the station is destined to make a return to the airwaves soon. You haven't heard his familiar voice recently, but Leighton P. Walsh, the DJ better known as Walshy Killa, is still on the air, and Throwback Thursdays... More >>