Best Bartender 1999 | Sterling Warren Taurus Restaurant and Bar | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Miami | Miami New Times
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Best Bartender

Sterling Warren Taurus Restaurant and Bar

"My bartending skills? Yeah, sure, everybody gets a glass," quips Warren, known variously as "Butch" or "Beamer." So modest. Twenty years at the Taurus and you figure he's got the fundamentals down. But sitting opposite this drinkslinger is anything but routine. He has turned the skill of bartending into the entertainment of improv theater. Every day he transmutes into a different character of his own imagining. A random stop at the Taurus on a Tuesday evening finds him wearing a sign reading "Happy Infant Safety Week." He's sporting a long-eared Goofy hat, a pacifier dangling from each of the ears. Two pairs of eyeglass frames are perched on his nose. And he has bandages, crossed in a cartoon-style X, on his cheeks. "I found my proper niche in life," the 63-year-old exults. "Where else could I make a living doing what I do and not be locked up?" He's a former actor who found bartending more suited to his tastes. "Here I can be an actor every day." He consults Chase's Calendar of Events to come up with a theme for the day. The week before his infant-safety incarnation included Audubon's birthday. For that Warren wore a bird hat and bird mask. As he scans ahead to the next week, he becomes excited by the prospects, including the Kentucky Derby, Togo Independence Day, and Tourist Day. "After a long day at work, people come in and see me and pretty much leave the seriousness behind them," Warren notes.

Best Club Dj

DJ Sugar

It's been some time since a DJ called Sugar Dick worked the decks in South Beach haunts such as the Whiskey, Sinatra Bar, and Barrio. Rene Lecour has dropped the Dick, kept the Sugar, and continues to expand his reach. Along with his spinning at Bar Room on Wednesdays, the Living Room on Fridays, Liquid on Saturdays and Mondays, and Chaos on Sundays, there's Sugar's Tuesday-night gig, Home Cookin' at Groove Jet, the pièce de résistance of his schedule. On that night Sugar gets out of the booth and puts his turntables in the backroom to cut, scratch, and lay down tracks behind his Afro-Latin ensemble, the South City Funk Mob. Joining Sugar in the Funk Mob are a pair of percussionists, a horn section, and any number of musical guests who stop by and contribute to the freestyle jams. And in these "God is a DJ" days of techno, drum and bass, new rave, rock and rave, house, hard house, progressive house, posthouse, and trance, this turntablist says his favorite stuff to spin is "anything soulful." Sweet.

Best Club Dj

DJ Sugar

It's been some time since a DJ called Sugar Dick worked the decks in South Beach haunts such as the Whiskey, Sinatra Bar, and Barrio. Rene Lecour has dropped the Dick, kept the Sugar, and continues to expand his reach. Along with his spinning at Bar Room on Wednesdays, the Living Room on Fridays, Liquid on Saturdays and Mondays, and Chaos on Sundays, there's Sugar's Tuesday-night gig, Home Cookin' at Groove Jet, the pièce de résistance of his schedule. On that night Sugar gets out of the booth and puts his turntables in the backroom to cut, scratch, and lay down tracks behind his Afro-Latin ensemble, the South City Funk Mob. Joining Sugar in the Funk Mob are a pair of percussionists, a horn section, and any number of musical guests who stop by and contribute to the freestyle jams. And in these "God is a DJ" days of techno, drum and bass, new rave, rock and rave, house, hard house, progressive house, posthouse, and trance, this turntablist says his favorite stuff to spin is "anything soulful." Sweet.

Best Neighborhood Bar/Central

JohnMartin's

The burnished wood interior, the power-suited clientele, and the eight-dollar cheeseburgers might seem to push JohnMartin's out of the realm of the neighborhood dive, but for those who live or work in the Gables and environs, this Emerald Isle-theme joint actually does serve primarily as the local watering hole. The Irish pub, founded ten years ago by John Clarke and Martin Lynch, delivers an abundant beer selection, stick-to-your-ribs food (the secret phrase is meat loaf), Irish music four nights per week, single-malt Scotch nights (mmmm), and the essential convivial atmosphere. It might seem that Gables financiers and attorneys are more welcome than others are, given the throngs of them knocking back a few during happy hour. The truth is that the plebeians of Gabledom enjoy hoisting a pint at JohnMartin's just as much as the next lawyer.

Best Neighborhood Bar/Central

JohnMartin's

Bigtime Design Studio photo
The burnished wood interior, the power-suited clientele, and the eight-dollar cheeseburgers might seem to push JohnMartin's out of the realm of the neighborhood dive, but for those who live or work in the Gables and environs, this Emerald Isle-theme joint actually does serve primarily as the local watering hole. The Irish pub, founded ten years ago by John Clarke and Martin Lynch, delivers an abundant beer selection, stick-to-your-ribs food (the secret phrase is meat loaf), Irish music four nights per week, single-malt Scotch nights (mmmm), and the essential convivial atmosphere. It might seem that Gables financiers and attorneys are more welcome than others are, given the throngs of them knocking back a few during happy hour. The truth is that the plebeians of Gabledom enjoy hoisting a pint at JohnMartin's just as much as the next lawyer.

Best Neighborhood Bar/North

Bamboo Inn

It's almost a cliché but nonetheless true that a worth-its-salt neighborhood tavern should feel like a second home. For most people that means slightly messy, a bit worn, with items reflecting the dweller's personality affixed to the walls. The Bamboo Inn has been around for about 60 years and it has all of the above in spades. The walls are cluttered with platitudes along the lines of the one proclaiming, "Beer, so much more than just a breakfast drink." Off in the corner sits a battered piano, relegated to service as a shelf for a row of paperback romance novels. A pool table (of course there's a pool table) is the centerpiece of the room. Some of the aged bar's regulars double as an informal country band that performs when the mood strikes. If the mood doesn't strike, turn to the Bamboo Inn's stellar jukebox, which, at ten cents per play, evokes a grand sense of nostalgia regardless of the music selected. A rarely used spare room completes the picture of a gathering place that feels like home.

Best Neighborhood Bar/North

Bamboo Inn

It's almost a cliché but nonetheless true that a worth-its-salt neighborhood tavern should feel like a second home. For most people that means slightly messy, a bit worn, with items reflecting the dweller's personality affixed to the walls. The Bamboo Inn has been around for about 60 years and it has all of the above in spades. The walls are cluttered with platitudes along the lines of the one proclaiming, "Beer, so much more than just a breakfast drink." Off in the corner sits a battered piano, relegated to service as a shelf for a row of paperback romance novels. A pool table (of course there's a pool table) is the centerpiece of the room. Some of the aged bar's regulars double as an informal country band that performs when the mood strikes. If the mood doesn't strike, turn to the Bamboo Inn's stellar jukebox, which, at ten cents per play, evokes a grand sense of nostalgia regardless of the music selected. A rarely used spare room completes the picture of a gathering place that feels like home.

Best Neighborhood Bar/West

Sports Grill

Sports Grill is as relaxed as a bettor on the upside of a fourth-quarter blowout. For seventeen years this casual bar -- with décor heavy on little plastic Bud dirigibles and Miami Heat logos -- has provided Kendall with a place to drink, eat, and watch televised sports (not necessarily in that order). There are eight television sets placed around the room and an electronic ticker that announces upcoming games. A couple of rows of picnic tables on raised platforms seat diners who can accompany pitchers of frosty suds with the standard bar fare of burgers, chili, conch fritters.... Foodwise Sports Grill scores most of its points for its chicken wings, which come in five varieties, including Miami Heats and Bar-B-Q Braves. The windows and doors are tinted so that the only time that matters inside the bar is when the next game begins.

Best Neighborhood Bar/West

Sports Grill

Sports Grill is as relaxed as a bettor on the upside of a fourth-quarter blowout. For seventeen years this casual bar -- with décor heavy on little plastic Bud dirigibles and Miami Heat logos -- has provided Kendall with a place to drink, eat, and watch televised sports (not necessarily in that order). There are eight television sets placed around the room and an electronic ticker that announces upcoming games. A couple of rows of picnic tables on raised platforms seat diners who can accompany pitchers of frosty suds with the standard bar fare of burgers, chili, conch fritters.... Foodwise Sports Grill scores most of its points for its chicken wings, which come in five varieties, including Miami Heats and Bar-B-Q Braves. The windows and doors are tinted so that the only time that matters inside the bar is when the next game begins.

Best Female Strip Joint

The Trap

The Trap lives! God save the Trap! County commissioners (puritanical and hypocritical alike) mounted heated efforts to subdue adult entertainment throughout most of unincorporated Miami-Dade County, creating criminality based on certain geographical proximities. Miami's top topless joint has avoided this no-bare trap since it took effect in January. Owner Jim Robinson filed suit against the county, blocking enforcement of the ordinance, which would have shut the Trap (and other nudie bars in the county's domain). Thank the higher powers a man stands among us willing to fight for the fundamental right to see naked honeys strut around a pole in high heels for money. The Trap is a venerable and upright institution where there's never a cover (charge, that is) and beer comes at reasonable prices. The eclectic gang of bartenders -- Sky, Patty, Amanda, and Dolly among them -- provide bonus entertainment with their sarcastic wisecracking, while the club's dancers reveal themselves to be as friendly as they are sexy. They arouse the interest of customers that include cops and bikers, lawyers and lobbyists, and, of course, a few political candidates. The bottom line: The Trap is the kind of place that helps Miami stand firmly among the top party towns on the continent. Long may she writhe.

Best Of Miami®

Best Of Miami®

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