BEST PLACE TO PLAY POOL 2005 | New Wave Billiards | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Miami | Miami New Times
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BEST PLACE TO PLAY POOL

New Wave Billiards

Thirty well-kept professional-size tables, fair drink prices, an excellent jukebox, and low prices -- $10 per hour (for the table, not per person) for two players, $12 per hour for three -- are all good reasons to shoot stick at this FIU-adjacent pool hall. Where most places either have cheap prices and terrible equipment (ripped felt, bent cues) or top-notch equipment accompanied by outrageous prices, New Wave strikes the right balance. Plus you can watch the viejos shoot true billiards on the six pocketless tables in the center of the room.

BEST CLUB DJ

DJ Irie

With the exception of Khaled's frequent cameos in Fat Joe's music videos, Irie may be the only local jock who regularly makes it onto network television, which he does via his gig as the official DJ for the Miami Heat during its home games. A more visceral place to hear Irie is at a club, and there are plenty of opportunities for such an experience. His resident appearances at the Hotel Astor on Tuesdays, at Oxygen Lounge on Wednesdays, and at Opium Garden on Sundays burn ears and get feet smoking. He cuts and scratches records with a dexterity atypical of most club DJs: He doesn't just spin records, he performs with them, creating a vinyl solution for those who demand something above the norm from their turntablists.

Readers´ Choice: Matt Cash

BEST CLUB DJ

DJ Irie

With the exception of Khaled's frequent cameos in Fat Joe's music videos, Irie may be the only local jock who regularly makes it onto network television, which he does via his gig as the official DJ for the Miami Heat during its home games. A more visceral place to hear Irie is at a club, and there are plenty of opportunities for such an experience. His resident appearances at the Hotel Astor on Tuesdays, at Oxygen Lounge on Wednesdays, and at Opium Garden on Sundays burn ears and get feet smoking. He cuts and scratches records with a dexterity atypical of most club DJs: He doesn't just spin records, he performs with them, creating a vinyl solution for those who demand something above the norm from their turntablists.

Readers´ Choice: Matt Cash

BEST PLACE FOR COCKTAILS

V Bar and Lounge

Everyone knows that a hotel party is the hippest recreational activity in Miami. Just check out the pages of People and InStyle and you'll see celebrities lifting cocktails to the camera while sitting on comfy sofas and enjoying the opulence and verve of South Beach's finest hotels. You too can sit among the pulchritudinous stars while sipping mango mojitos, cosmopolitans, or vanilla rum and Cokes in the recently reopened Hotel Victor. Romantic lighting, sexy bartenders, and a mesmerizing illuminated tank filled with live jellyfish make the V Bar and Lounge the swanky place to be.

Readers´ Choice: Fox´s Sherron Inn

BEST PLACE FOR COCKTAILS

V Bar and Lounge

Everyone knows that a hotel party is the hippest recreational activity in Miami. Just check out the pages of People and InStyle and you'll see celebrities lifting cocktails to the camera while sitting on comfy sofas and enjoying the opulence and verve of South Beach's finest hotels. You too can sit among the pulchritudinous stars while sipping mango mojitos, cosmopolitans, or vanilla rum and Cokes in the recently reopened Hotel Victor. Romantic lighting, sexy bartenders, and a mesmerizing illuminated tank filled with live jellyfish make the V Bar and Lounge the swanky place to be.

Readers´ Choice: Fox´s Sherron Inn

BEST JAZZ CLUB

Upstairs at the Van Dyke Café

Under the able musical direction of bassist Don Wilner, Upstairs at the Van Dyke remains Miami's premier jazz club. No other venue comes close in terms of consistency -- 365 days per year. (Check the Website for calendars and newsletters.) And in terms of consistently high quality, nothing can match the club's rotating cast of regulars: Wilner, Mike Orta, Rose Max, Wendy Pedersen, Goetz Kujack, Sammy Figueroa, Turk Mauro, José Negroni. If they're not onstage, you'll likely find a well-known visiting artist. Among those Wilner has brought to the comfortable room above Mark Soyka's landmark café: John Abercrombie, Eric Alexander, Harry Allen, Mose Allison, Freddy Cole, George Coleman, Kenny Drew, Eddie Henderson, John Hicks, Tania Maria, James Moody, Mark Murphy, Houston Person, Norman Simmons, Grady Tate, Toots Thielemans, and Cedar Walton.

BEST JAZZ CLUB

Upstairs at the Van Dyke Café

Under the able musical direction of bassist Don Wilner, Upstairs at the Van Dyke remains Miami's premier jazz club. No other venue comes close in terms of consistency -- 365 days per year. (Check the Website for calendars and newsletters.) And in terms of consistently high quality, nothing can match the club's rotating cast of regulars: Wilner, Mike Orta, Rose Max, Wendy Pedersen, Goetz Kujack, Sammy Figueroa, Turk Mauro, José Negroni. If they're not onstage, you'll likely find a well-known visiting artist. Among those Wilner has brought to the comfortable room above Mark Soyka's landmark café: John Abercrombie, Eric Alexander, Harry Allen, Mose Allison, Freddy Cole, George Coleman, Kenny Drew, Eddie Henderson, John Hicks, Tania Maria, James Moody, Mark Murphy, Houston Person, Norman Simmons, Grady Tate, Toots Thielemans, and Cedar Walton.

BEST GAY BAR

Azucar

Yes, all the fabulous boys go to Twist and other South Beach haunts we've given this award to time and again. But for those looking for a real Miami experience, Azucar is fantastic. It's kind of a down-and-dirty muy Cubano salsa club/gay bar located on a quiet road just south of Coral Way. It reveals its origins as a former disco palace with a wide open dance floor on which everyone in the house jumps the moment the drag shows are finished. The club promotes its "Crazy Fridays" and "Arroz con Mango" Saturdays, as well as a ladies' night Wednesdays. The shows (mostly in Spanish) alone are worth the price of admission, generally five or ten dollars. The Sunday-night cabaret show is pure draggy camp mixed with a few occasional elements such as a couple of ballet dancers performing a pas de deux or a beyond risqué burlesque number performed by a woman in her seventies.

Readers´ Choice: Score

BEST GAY BAR

Azucar

Yes, all the fabulous boys go to Twist and other South Beach haunts we've given this award to time and again. But for those looking for a real Miami experience, Azucar is fantastic. It's kind of a down-and-dirty muy Cubano salsa club/gay bar located on a quiet road just south of Coral Way. It reveals its origins as a former disco palace with a wide open dance floor on which everyone in the house jumps the moment the drag shows are finished. The club promotes its "Crazy Fridays" and "Arroz con Mango" Saturdays, as well as a ladies' night Wednesdays. The shows (mostly in Spanish) alone are worth the price of admission, generally five or ten dollars. The Sunday-night cabaret show is pure draggy camp mixed with a few occasional elements such as a couple of ballet dancers performing a pas de deux or a beyond risqué burlesque number performed by a woman in her seventies.

Readers´ Choice: Score

BEST NIGHTCLUB DISGUISED AS A HOTEL

Biltmore Lounge

Maybe it's the giant photos of movie stars on the walls, the pretty women at the bar, or the Sinatra oozing out of the speakers, but the Biltmore Lounge seems like it would be more at home in Hollywood (California, that is) than Coral Gables. Tucked inside the Biltmore Hotel, it's a quiet, sophisticated place for rat-packish boozers to throw back a few classy cocktails. The service is worthy of the fattest cats, and there's always a room upstairs for those who get lucky or just need to crash after a few too many.

Best Of Miami®

Best Of Miami®

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