In the club culture of Las Olas Riverfront, among the booze and the miniskirts, you’ll find a wholly different atmosphere at Atmosphere Lounge. The Lounge is best known for its espresso, but the wine, beer, and live entertainment make this a sleeper destination for weekend night dwellers. Coffee shops that double as nightspots sometimes seem artsy-fartsy or deliberately disconnected from reality (and populated by smug hippies in Birkenstocks and hand-knit llama sweaters). But Atmosphere is more East Coast indie than West Coast grunge.
The abstract art on Atmosphere’s sponge-painted yellow walls is for sale. Weekend live shows — alternative, pop, and sometimes comedy — are usually five bucks a head. There are no creaky wooden planks or dusty bookshelves, just laid-back indie pop tunes and the smells of orange-peel incense and freshly brewed coffee. And the bamboo trees are a nice touch. Most customers keep to themselves, talking within groups, inaudible in the spacious lounge over the swish of the espresso machine, or they laze on chaise lounges, tap on their notebooks, and enjoy the comforts of cold beer, hot tea, and free Wi-Fi.
