The New Grove

Don't get me wrong, I have a weakness for dive bars and rowdy behavior, but for years the Grove has seemed to be closer to a Horse Country kegger than the nightlife streaming along Washington and North Miami avenues. Sure, there's lots of raucous fraternity fun to be had at Sand Bar and Grill, the Tavern, or Barracuda's. Hell, you can get laid at these joints wearing khaki shorts, flip-flops, and a T-shirt depicting skeleton sex. It's just that after a while the Animal House aesthetic goes down like beer before liquor -- makes you sicker.

Mr. Moe's is a perfect example of too much of a bad thing. On Thursday nights it looks like what happens when you jam coeds into a phone booth. Kids pack this tavern-cum-club despite 40-minute waits and doormen like the ogre with a horrible mullet and his pissy, Napoleonic sidekick.

It would be nice to have a better alternative to the glam-slam-thank-you-ma'am attitude and $12 drinks at South Bitch clubs. And for all its Bohemian vibe, the Design District makes me feel stupid sometimes. Everybody at a DesDis hangout has a thought-provoking opinion on matters of cultural relevancy: basically stuff I don't get after 10:00 p.m. and/or a couple of Ketel Ones with club soda and a lemon (I'm just kidding, I don't drink that).

Now here comes the new Coconut Grove. Here come the clubs, here come the clubs (to the rhythm of "Here Come the Judge" if you hadn't already guessed). One year after Oxygen opened a sushi lounge with a South Beach glaze underneath the Streets of Mayfair Shops, three new clubs have joined the battle to win over partygoers and the money they love to burn: Life (in the old Bar 609 space), Quench (formerly known as Valentino's), and Flavour (formerly Q-Zar).

Anyway, enough about them. I am just happy to see a few things I've grown into appreciating, like clean places to sit and women over 21, seeping back into the place I loved to go to back in the day when I had absolutely nothing else to do.

Life is located at 3342 Virginia St, Coconut Grove. Call 305-445-8366. Quench is located at 2801 Florida Ave, Coconut Grove. Call 305-448-8150. Flavour is located at 2895 McFarlane Rd, Coconut Grove. Call 305-445-6511.