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Best Place to Gamble

Seminole Casino Coconut Creek

Christina Mendenhall

There's poker and slots, just like at every other casino in our current golden age of gambling in South Florida. But the Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek also has the so-called "Vegas-style" games available only to the Seminoles — thanks to a table full of cash and a special pact with Charlie Crist. That means blackjack and Pai Gow and roulette and all the other sucker bets that seem incomprehensible yet irresistible. And unlike all the other casinos in town, Coconut Creek offers something more, the two sweetest words a degenerate gambler can hear: free drinks. Not all the time, but it happens. And when they aren't free, there are three different bars willing to sauce you right up and several different places to snack. Here's a secret: One of the snack bars offers deep-fried Oreos that are so damned good, you might even forget about all the money you just dropped at the tables.

Best Drag Show

Lips

Christina Mendenhall

Only at Lips will a six-foot-tall Marilyn Monroe bring you a dirty joke along with your RuPaul Rum Punch. The stage flashes, and the music blasts; the performers ("dolls with balls") are dressed to the nines and prettified with hours' worth of makeup application. They're rude, crude, and utterly hilarious; they lip-synch and dance in tower-tall stilettos and make sure you know from the get-go that anything does, and in fact will, go. Hips will swivel. Pelvises will thrust. Lines will be crossed. Wigs will be thrown across the room. Dollar bills will be wedged into bustiers. You will go home with glitter in your hair, frozen cosmo churning in your blood, and a smile on your face.

Best Place for the Sleepless

Peter Pan Diner

At 4 a.m., the world's a hard place for a hot mess. You're drunk; bouncers removed you from the bar over an hour ago, and all you've done since is send hysterical text messages to your ex. In the miasma of your alcohol-fueled mind, there's a fine line between "sleeping" and "passing out," and you're inclined to neither. Fortunately, a little inebriation won't prohibit you from leafing through a massive menu full of sandwiches, Greek food, breakfast wraps, diner fare, desserts, and basically anything edible you can imagine. Peter Pan's hearty late-night food will sober you up enough to people-watch: Give yourself one point for every young woman you see passed out at a booth, five points for any potential Mafioso, and ten points for anyone doing anything illegal in the bathroom (and 25 if it's at a table).

Best Free Movies

Little Munich

After a long day at work, sometimes the only things you have enough energy to do are crack open a cold beer and watch a movie. But considering they don't serve beer at most movie theaters, head down to Little Munich. Not only does it boast authentic German cuisine, a huge selection of draft "bier," and a friendly atmosphere but Little Munich also shows the best free movies starting at 10 every Wednesday night. Whether it's a guilty-pleasure flick like Rush Hour or something even more politically incorrect like Repo Man, this is the one place you won't be made fun of for your taste in movies (or wiener schnitzel).

Best Bar for Northerners to Feel at Home

The Lodge

Unless you've got a few Midwestern winters under your belt — with those five months of frigid, all-consuming solitude that push you just to your breaking point and then a hair more — you're probably missing out on at least a fraction of the appeal of the Lodge. Sure, it's an affable place no matter your geographic heritage, but for ex-pats from well above the Mason-Dixon line, the Lodge is like a little piece of the motherland. Though the varnish on the "log cabin" walls is a bit shiny and the beer selection far superior to what you'll find in the average deer camp, there's comfort in the familiarity of a steel pail nailed to a picnic table and filled with peanuts in the shell. And while you wax nostalgic with your "hunting" buddies about that time you ran your four-by-four off the two-track, a visit from a perfectly tanned waitress in short-shorts and a knotted flannel top reminds you that paradise is only a few safe steps away.

Best Place to Game

Dirty Blondes

So what if the air-hockey table is so sticky that it works better if you dump a beer on it? If you're at Dirty Blondes beach bar, you're probably not sober enough to care. And that's fine, because the games double as side tables to lean against and rest your cheap drink on. But if you are inclined to game, the deceptively big space is a playground of pool tables, air hockey, arcade games, shuffleboard, and darts. "Blondies," as it's affectionately called, is like Chuck E. Cheese for the 20- to 30-something set. Competitive beach dudes can prove their manhood in a round of pool while using the games as a convenient excuse to hit on bikini-clad women. Self-serious folk are better off staying out of this place. It's packed on weekend afternoons and becomes more of a low-key sports bar at night.

Best Bar for Smokers

Greenbrier Restaurant

Thanks to researchers across the globe finally making good use of government-issued grants, we now have sound arguments for ogling boobs and smoking cigarettes. Yep, some scientists have claimed that gazing upon breasts can extend a man's life, and others have said that breaking up the 9-to-5 drudgery actually makes smokers less stressed than nonsmokers. Stogie-grasping patrons who want to live a longer and more stress-free existence can seek solace with like-minded individuals at Greenbrier Smoking Lounge in Pompano Beach. A sea of cleavage, thick puffs of tobacco smoke, and a menu listing inexpensive noshings has us asking: Is Greenbrier a restaurant, bar, or a strip club? Whatever the answer, it doesn't really matter, because the therapeutic effects of frequenting here are obvious. So belly up to the bar to enjoy Buffalo-style chicken tenders and a frosty beer. Don't forget a pack (or two) of your favorite butts while you eyeball some bouncing twin peaks and add years to your life.

Best Hole in the Wall

Bimini Bay Bar

Bimini Bay is a drinking den for wayfarers who likely missed their flight at FLL — back in 1968. Both blue and white collars find leisure at this neighborhood bar, which isn't properly portrayed by simple descriptions like "dive" or "hole in the wall." No establishment from Belle Glade to Miramar holds a lit cigarette to Bimini — a place that embodies skankiness more than the skivvies dangling from the rafters. Slumped over the bar top, ashtray distance apart, buddies slur out conversations. But there is more to do than share nonsensical thoughts. If you're bored with playing darts, try your luck at a raunchy game of Cooter Ball. Is the game on TV not capturing your interest? Turn your attention to the adult film in the other corner of the smoky room. There is something for every tasteless customer brazen enough to graze a flat surface at Bimini. Here, everyone knows your name. It's like Cheers but with porno.

Best Yacht Crowd Bar

Bimini Boatyard Bar & Grill

CandaceWest.com

Palm-frond-shaped fan blades stir a slight breeze over the hordes of Red Stripe-drinking, khaki-wearing yachties who make up the usual crowd of this nautical-themed bar. If you get sloshed enough and squint, it even feels like you're aboard a huge, decadent vessel, without the potential seasickness. And if you can't get an actual boat owner to take you back to the (bed of the) yacht, you should at least be able to bed a member of the crew.

Best Radio Personality

John Spano

Votes: 115
Runners-up: OMG Mike, 81; Dan LeBatard, 8

Best Of Broward-Palm Beach®

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