After Dark >>

• Best Strip Joint (for the Guys to See Gals)
  Rachel’s
  Anybody can see a stripper shake her rear for singles any night of the week without having to look too hard, but a great adult-entertainment experience means more than just a tight body on a shiny pole trying to make enough to pay off her student loans. It means fantastic-looking girls with... More >>
• Best Activity While Intoxicated
  Walking Around A1A in Palm Beach County
  The lobby bar at the Ritz Carlton in Manalapan serves a delicious little plate of olives with its dry Sapphire martinis. There's so many of them, and they pair so satisfyingly with the cold gin and the light streaming in from the beach, that you can't help but have another drink. And then you're... More >>
• Best Gay Bar
  Monkey Business
  A gay bar is not to be confused with a gay club. A club is a very different matter — bright lights, hot bodies grinding against each other, cute underage boys shoving ecstasy tablets up their bums in the bathroom. Bars are for something else: for sitting there and drinking your beer and... More >>
• Best Happy Hour
  The Grape
  Too often, happy hour means watery macro-brews and insipid appetizers. It's cheap, but you get what you pay for. The Grape on Las Olas gives this pub standard a sophisticated twist, offering discounts on its stock of over 100 wines, available by the glass for $4 to $7. Between sips, spread... More >>
• Best Hookah Bar
  The Funky Buddha Lounge
  It's not blowing smoke to say the most appealing part of an evening at the Funky Buddha Lounge is the list of microbrews — there are more than 50 and they come from all over the country, brewed from all manner of fruit and vegetation. There are also almost 50 wines and more than 40... More >>
• Best Male Bartender
  Don Singleton
  Whereas many drink-slingers say they're only working the clubs until they land that modeling contract, win the Nobel Prize, or meet a sugar mama across the counter, Don Singleton treats his job like a profession and a craft. Even when he's off duty, he has kind words for his co-workers and gets... More >>
• Best Male Strip Joint
  Boardwalk Bar
  This is not your mother's Chippendales. But it might be your father's kind of testosterone parade. The boys at Boardwalk dance in briefs, for an almost entirely male clientele. And, oh, the variety! Boardwalk employs buff guys, twinks, even bears — all young and tender. Buzz-kill alert for... More >>
• Best Margarita
  Azteca Real
  Hunting for the best margarita is a fun job. Aside from getting drunk in the name of research, you can learn a lot about what goes into making a quality margarita. While on the quest, you'll notice that size does not matter. Some restaurants serve margaritas big enough to dive into while some... More >>
• Best Martini
  Trina
  For martini-drinking ambience, head for the lounge at Fort Lauderdale's St. Regis Hotel, where a jazzy score rolls across a vaulted ceiling of blond wood. But the St. Regis, like so many other upscale joints in South Florida, has an unexotic array of gins, and that's bound to rankle the true... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar — Fort Lauderdale
  Kim's Alley Bar
  In Fort Lauderdale, you'll be hard pressed to find a bar as deeply connected to one neighborhood as Kim's Alley Bar is to Victoria Park. The pub is also a staple for a lot of city residents regardless of neighborhood — there's an allure to Kim's that is stronger than a zip code — but... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar — Broward
  Mickey's 19th Hole
  It's dark, dank, and delightfully drunken. The old-timey wooden bar and chatty bartenders say, "Come in and spill your guts. We won't spill a drop of beer." The shadows and TVs constantly playing sports say, "Just have a beer and relax. Life isn't as bad as you think." And even if it is, what's... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Bar — South Broward
  PRL Euro Café
  You want three things from the perfect bar. 1.) You must be able to smoke inside. 2.) Your fellow drinkers should be fun, interesting, approachable, and represent all neighborhoods and backgrounds. 3.) They've gotta have a lot of beer — like, over 100 varieties. In Hollywood, there's only... More >>
• Best Bar Décor
  Fox and Hound Pub & Grille
  The taxidermy foxes have seen better days. Their fur is matted and thinning in areas, but the artist captured them in that moment of frisky scuttling — just before some Brit shot them both full of lead. You can't help but make up stories like that about these furry scamps while knocking... More >>
• Best Place to Get Drunk in Broward
  Dania Beach Jai-Alai
  Sporting events are a drunkard's paradise in every respect but two: The tickets make a vicious cover charge, and getting a round means either waiting for the beer guy or waiting in a beer line, the last place you want to be when the game's big play goes down. You won't find those obstacles at... More >>
• Best Place to Get Drunk in Palm Beach
  Mr. G's Rock Bar & Grill
  Your boy toy left you. Your momma yelled at you. Or you gave your phone number to a hottie who never called — and you scribbled it on the backside of your winning Powerball ticket. There is only one thing left to do: throw your worries in the fuck-it bucket and get totally schnockered. It... More >>
• Best Place to Gold Dig
  Seasons 52
  Once upon a time, gold digging was an art form. You had to master that "No, I'm not just into you for your money" look and not cringe when grandpa swooped in for a tongue kiss. But nowadays it's part of a mutually convenient, publicly acceptable arrangement. For validation, see Larry King and... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Intelligent Gay Men
  The Naked Grape
  New Times has visited the Naked Grape thrice. The first time, we got into a long conversation with a toned fortysomething stud about the relative virtues of Renata Tebaldi and Maria Callas. The second time, we met a queeny young thing who had very interesting things to say about why Wilton... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Intelligent Lesbians
  The Women's Theatre Project at the Sixth Star Studios
  To be fair, most of the people you'll meet at the Women's Theatre Project are not lesbians. Hell, they might not even be women — though there's usually a chick-dominated crowd, there are some nights when the WTP audience is an even split. But plenty of lesbians do show up, and figure... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Intelligent Men
  Health Professions Division Library at Nova Southeastern University
  Nova Southeastern University boasts colleges of psychological studies, allied health and nursing, dental medicine, medical sciences, optometry, and pharmacy. What NSU decidedly does not offer is anything like a college town and campus. This leaves many very smart people socially frustrated.... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Intelligent Women
  Tate's Comics
  Who's to say that mastering quantum physics or molecular biology is any better a measure of intelligence than slaying D&D monsters or naming all the planets in the Star Wars solar system? At Tate's Comics one scores IQ points for these latter bits of esoteric knowledge, and one can also... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Single Men
  World Adult Kickball Association
  There are dueling theories about the best ways to meet single men. One is to hit a bar with a busy ladies' night; where the bait is, the sharks will follow. The problem that way is that you can run into too much scantily-dressed competition and the boys tend to behave like they're in a... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Single Gay Men
  Stork's
  Stork's is not a bar, and that simple fact is a big part of the reason Stork's is the best place in three counties for chatting up single gay guys. Bars are oppressively loud places where the getting-to-know-you chitchat constitutes gesturing at a stranger in such a way that he knows when to... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Single Lesbians
  Stork's
  Stork's again! Unlike most queer joints, Stork's has a poly-chromosomal clientele, and everybody's better for it. Viva la difference. More >>
• Best Bar Food
  Alligator Alley
  There are two things you cannot school Kilmo on: playing the bass and cooking great bar food. Alligator Alley is Kilmo's joint, and it's his knack for combining freely flowing live music with a southern/Cajun menu that keeps us stopping in for dinner year after year. Ideal bar food must be... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Single Women... If You're Broke
  Volunteer Broward
  So you don't have a girlfriend or a career? Then the one thing you do have is time, so why not put it toward a pursuit with some social value, especially if could help end your loveless streak? Volunteer Broward acts as a broker, connecting its deep pool of active do-gooders with roughly 600... More >>
• Best Female Bartender
  Julie Rockholz at PRL Euro Café
  Men want her; women want to be her. Wait a sec... Women want her, too. We know, ladies, you're not gay; you just have a girl-crush on Julie. And who doesn't? Her bewitching green eyes. Her hair gelled into a little fauxhawk. An armful of ice cold Polish brews nestled in her glistening bosom.... More >>
• Best Dance Club
  Spirits Nightclub
  Spirits features a wide variety of music from DJs that all know their stuff. That means you aren't just getting Top 40 diversity a la Rihanna and Sean Paul. Expect to hear some of the hottest jams in pop music, period — including hip-hop, Latin, R&B, dance, and electro. With distinct... More >>
• Best Club DJ
  Haviken Hayes (is Like Havok for Days)
  Not all DJs feel compelled to overwhelm their audience. And as an audience, we usually prefer they not try. Be content with more muted feedback: a foot tapping to a subtle beat or hips swaying in time with a record's mellow groove. That's the jazzy mood that comes from a Haviken Hayes set. HH... More >>
• Best Place To Meet Single Women... If You're Rich
  Riley McDermott's
  They begin to appear around nightfall at Riley McDermott's Las Olas entrance, a long line of unescorted knockouts, streaming through the door and across the restaurant's glossy floor in high heels and low necklines, like models in a runway show. Soon their curving figures will line the glowing... More >>
• Best Beer Selection
  Big Bear Brewing Company
  There are a handful of places in Broward and Palm Beach counties that offer 100 or more different brews. And there's nothing wrong with that. We'd give them all commendations for bravery in the service of beer if we could. However, one small, independent brewery that's sat in suburbia unnoticed... More >>
• Best Bar to Take Out-of-towners
  The Pirate Republic
  A room full of beer-swilling pirates swaying to loud AC/DC near the beach would be the best place to take the cool guests you're hosting — that is, folks you want to get drunk with, and set to reminiscing, not people you need to impress. This would be true even if the Pirate Republic were... More >>
• Best Bar for Smokers
  Anglesea Pub
  Some smokers like to sit in a dense fog while they imbibe cocktails, absorbing just as much second-hand smoke as they do first-hand. But others, the more enlightened smokers, prefer to toke outdoors. And in the warm South Florida clime, that should spell out lots of options. Except that a... More >>
• Best Yacht Crowd Bar
  Waxy O'Connor's
  This Irish pub has lots going for it, with full-bodied beers like Guinness on tap and a full menu with comfort food like shepherd's pie. Drink enough pints while sitting in one of its dark corners and you might actually feel like you're visiting the Emerald Isle. But the real action is outside,... More >>
• Best Place to Play Pool
  Corner Pocket Billiards
  Tired of scratching in your quest for a spot to play some serious pool? Chalk that cue and head to Corner Pocket Billiards on Oakland Park Boulevard. The place boasts 10 pool tables and three billiards tables, beer, wine, and cheap rates and specials. It' s spacious, clean, and well-lit, and the... More >>
• Best Sports Bar (1 Comment)
  Connolly's
  A sports bar cannot be built on plasma TV screens alone, and the weight of its success cannot be shouldered by girls in orange short-shorts. Merely serving wings won't ensure success any more than kegs of Bud will. To be the best sports bar you need added value, maybe by mixing the sports with a... More >>
• Best Poolside Bar
  Cascades
  The poolside bar might be one of the greatest inventions ever — what better place to imbibe than with the dripping wet and scantily clad? And there's something sexy, seductive, and sneaky about invading high-class resorts for an afternoon of luxury. As poolside bars go, Cascades is all... More >>
• Best Poured Guinness
  Maguire's Hill 16
  A pint of Guinness should be a little shorter and a little thicker than your forearm. If you're in England, it should be a little cooler than room temperature. In America it should be much colder, but still a little warmer than the other beers at the table. The beer should not appear creamy... More >>
• Best Rock Club
  Culture Room
  It's hot, loud, and way too crowded. But would you expect anything less from a rock club? The Culture Room books an eclectic mix of bands. On any given week they might have David Allan Coe, the Misfits, Johnny Winter, a local group of hardcore rockers, and northern Europe's meanest-sounding... More >>
• Best Salsa (Non-condiment)
  Coco Locos
  Hotels near the freeway aren't normally hot spots for salsa. But Coco Locos, on the second floor of the Ramada Inn on Marina Mile Boulevard, makes short work of skeptics. The Caribbean sounds that blare from the DJ booth can turn the shy footloose, and by midnight, everyone's on the hardwood... More >>
• Personal Best
  Marina the Mermaid
  On Friday evenings starting at 5:30, the portholes at Wreck Bar in the Sheraton Yankee Clipper (91140 Seabreeze Blvd., Fort Lauderdale), become inhabited by a half-woman, half-fish named Marina. For 30 minutes at a time, she glides through the pool, eyes open, with perfect grace, a marvelous... More >>