Florida’s easy-going lifestyle helps to ensure an abundance of bars and cafés. The term café often denotes an informal, bistro-style restaurant but can also refer to a coffee house or, indeed, a bar. Sports bars are very popular and usually have several television sets, each tuned to a different station – but often the sound is turned off while loud music plays in the background.
Many bars and cafés have a happy hour, generally from 4 to 7pm, when drinks are less expensive and snacks are served free of charge; those included here are good for just a drink as well as a meal, or a coffee and a snack.
MIAMI
Miami Beach: News Café
800 Ocean Drive.
Tel (305) 538-6397.
With ample sidewalk tables, this laid-back café is the top meeting place in South Beach and is open 24 hours a day. People gather to drink, eat, and take in the Ocean Drive scene. The eclectic menu features good breakfasts and huge bowls of pasta as well as light, healthy meals. There are a dozen kinds of coffee, and the pastry list is equally long.
Miami Beach: Van Dyke Café
846 Lincoln Rd.
Tel (305) 534-3600.
This popular SoBe hangout, with tables inside and out, occupies a lovely restored Mediterranean-style building. House specialties are bread pudding and zabaglione
with fresh berries. There is a good choice of coffees and herbal teas, and a jazz trio performs in the evenings.
Downtown: Hard Rock Café
401 Biscayne Blvd.
Tel (305) 377-3110.
Tourists and locals alike fill the Hard Rock Café, which is festooned with rock memorabilia and throbs with loud music. There’s a bar for those intent on drinking and soaking up the atmosphere, but reserve ahead if you want to eat. The food is American, from juicy burgers
to hot, tasty apple pie, and the portions are generous.
Coral Gables: Café Books & Books
265 Aragon Ave.
Tel (305) 448-9599.
Located in the courtyard of Books & Books, this European-style deli serves soup and sandwiches and fantastic desserts, all made from scratch by Lyon & Lyon Caterers.
There’s a full coffee bar, and it’s open 7 days, from 9am to 11pm.
Coconut Grove: Monty’s in the Grove
3059 Grand Ave.
Tel (305) 461-2228.
With stunning water views, island music, and a wide variety of seasonal seafood, Monty’s is a popular weekend spot. It’s kid-friendly on weekends.
Coconut Grove: Fat
Tuesday’s Coco Walk, 3015 Grand Ave.
Tel (305) 441-2992.
This former sports bar has three satellite dishes, 51 TVs, and five pool tables. It is now one of the Fat Tuesday’s chain bar/cafés, which serves as a meeting place for the young at heart. US and imported beer are available, and the menu offers light meals and snacks, such as buffalo wings, veggie pizza, fajita burgers, giant burgers, and Mississippi mud pie.
THE GOLD AND TREASURE COASTS
Boca Raton: GiGi’s Tavern
346 Plaza Real.
Tel (561) 368-4488.
GiGi’s Tavern can offer something to just about everyone. It is part tavern, part oyster bar, part tasty dessert and coffee shop, and also part casually elegant restaurant.There are tables outside where you can watch the people go by over a cappuccino or while enjoying a delicious three-course meal.
Fort Lauderdale: Brio
Mediterranean Bistro
720 E Las Olas Blvd.
Tel (954) 760-4186.
Enjoy homemade sangria and pizza from the wood-burning oven, or a full service meal at this renovated bistro in Fort Lauderdale’s most coveted shopping, dining, and entertainment district. There’s a selection of northern Mediterranean dishes from Greece, Spain, Italy, and Turkey. The lively bar serves wine and beer as well as Brio’s signature sangria.
Fort Lauderdale: Shooters
3033 NE 32nd Ave.
Tel (954) 566-2855.
This waterfront bar and restaurant is a people-watcher’s paradise. It is always packed with a casual crowd eating, drinking, and watching the boats sail by. The menu is quite extensive and reasonably priced. You can nibble on dishes such as shrimp and crab cakes, or tuck into more substantial food like seared tuna salad or a Florida grouper sandwich.
Palm Beach: The Leopard Lounge
363 Cocoanut Row.
Road map F4.
Tel (561) 659-5800.
Located in the Chesterfield Hotel, the Leopard Lounge is strikingly decorated with scarlet and black drapes, and the leopard theme is picked out in the plush carpeting and tablecloths. On weekends the place is jammed with locals who dance to the sounds of the
“big band” era, performed live. A full menu is served.
ORLANDO AND THE SPACE COAST
Orlando: Bongos Cuban Café
1498 E Buena Vista Drive.
Tel (407) 828-0999.
This hip café is owned by Gloria Estefan and husband Emilio, and features outstanding Cuban cuisine and hot dance music. Try the arroz con pollo and black bean soup. There are two floors of indoor and outdoor tables – the upstairs balcony is a great place to people watch.
Orlando: NASCAR Café
Universal Orlando City Walk.
Tel (407) 224-7223.
If you love racing cars then this place is for you. Several authentic race cars are on display and there is a huge variety of racing memorabilia. If that is not enough, there are also 40 televisions showing racing highlights, a shop, and racing simulators. The food is typical American fare, with steaks, chops, and burgers.
THE NORTHEAST
Jacksonville: River City
Brewing Company
835 Museum Circle.
Tel (904) 399-1923.
Home-brewed beer and a varied selection of food at reasonable prices make this a popular spot with the locals. On Friday there’s a live band, and Saturday nights offers a local DJ. There is no cover charge.
Augustine: A1A Ale Works
1 King St.
Tel (904) 829-2977.
Situated at the foot of the Bridge of Lions, this friendly pub and restaurant has a microbrewery on site. Ale aficionados come for the seven varieties of home-brewed ale that are available. Live bands play at weekends.
St. Augustine: OC White’s
Seafood and Spirits
118 Avenida Menendez.
Road map E1. Tel (904) 824-0808. In an 18th-century building found across the street from St. Augustine’s marina, OC White’s offers a great view and live entertainment nightly.
The interior is decorated with wax figures of pirates, and a full menu of seafood, steaks, and burgers is served.
Daytona Beach: Oyster Pub
555 Seabreeze Blvd.
Tel (386) 255-6348.
Just one block from the beach, this pub has a raw bar serving fresh oysters, shrimp, and other seafood. During happy hour, prices are cut for both drinks and seafood. There
is sports coverage on 27 TVs, a pool room, and a disc jockey on weekends.
Gainesville: 2 Bits Lounge
1714 SW 34th Street.
D2. Tel (352) 371-3600.
Located in the Hilton Hotel near the University of Florida campus, this popular bar is dedicated to sports and shows all the favorite games on TVs ranged around the
place. Snacks are also available.
THE PANHANDLE
Panama City Beach: Shuckum’s Oyster Pub
15614 Front Beach Rd.
Tel (850) 235-3214.
The bar at this unpretentious and popular watering hole is covered with signed dollar bills left by satisfied customers. Shuckum’s is best known for its local oysters, which are served raw, baked, steamed, or fried in a sandwich.
Other seafood dishes are also available.
Pensacola Beach: Sidelines
Sports Bar and Restaurant
2 Via de Luna Drive.
Tel (850) 934-3660.
This informal meeting place in Pensacola Beach has a different special for each night of the week; on “Cajun Night,” for example, they serve up Cajun Bloody Marys.
There’s seating in booths, and the ubiquitous sports memorabilia and giant-screen televisions adorn the walls.
Tallahassee: Banjo’s
Smokehouse
2335 Apalachee Pkwy.
Tel (850) 877-8111.
Just a few miles from the center of Tallahassee on US 27 is this casual
steakhouse and bar. Banjo’s is famous for its barbecued ribs, steaks, and chicken, and the salad bar is enough for a meal by itself. There’s a kid’s menu too; this is the place for good, old-fashioned BBQ.
THE GULF COAST
Lee Island Coast: The Mucky
Duck 11546 Andy Rosse Lane, Captiva Island.
Tel (239) 472-3434.
This British-style pub occupies a charming 1930s building in Captiva town. Its creator, a former British policeman, named it after his favorite pub back home. You can play darts, enjoy a beer, and watch the sunset. The eclectic menu has English meals such as fish and chips and vegetarian platters.
Tampa: Elmer’s Sports Café
2003 E 7th Ave, Ybor City.
Tel (813) 248-5855.
Ybor City’s original sports bar is renowned for its thick and chewy pizzas, great wings, and good beers. Elmer’s has giant-screen TVs scattered all around the café, and there’s also a pool table. This place is far from fancy, but the homemade food is tasty and the atmosphere pleasant.
St. Petersburg: Ferg’s Sports
Bar & Grill
1320 Central Ave.
Tel (727) 822-4562.
This former gas station, located across the street from Tropicana Stadium, has been converted into a two-story bar with a large covered patio and sidewalk café seating. The menu features chicken wings, burgers, sandwiches, and steaks. There are over 40 televisions, and big games draw throngs of locals and visitors.
THE EVERGLADES AND THE KEYS
Naples: HB’s On The Gulf 851 Gulf Shore Blvd N.
Tel (239) 435-4347.
Sophisticated HB’s On The Gulf, opened in 1946, is located in the Naples Beach Hotel on Naples Pier. It is a fine place for watching the sun go down, although you need to arrive early to get a seat.
After sunset, the huge outside bar is packed with people, and a live band provides musical entertainment. HB’s serves a full menu, but the food is not the highlight here.
Key West: Hog’s Breath Saloon
400 Front St.
Tel (305) 296-4222.
The original Hog’s Breath Saloon was established by an Alabama expatriate in Fort Walton Beach in 1976, but it moved down to Key West in 1988. It is now a local favorite, offering a raw bar, local seafood dishes, and tasty desserts (including a fine version of the famous key lime pie). There is live music every day from 1pm until 2am.
Key West: Jimmy Buffet’s
Margaritaville Café
500 Duval St.
Tel (305) 292-1435.
There are plenty of Jimmy Buffet trinkets here, both on display and for sale (see p299), though the local singer-songwriter is rarely seen. Frosty Margaritas are the house specialty, and light meals, sandwiches, burgers, and local seafood such as conch fritters are also available.
Key West: Sloppy Joe’s
201 Duval St.
Tel (305) 294-5717.
Formerly Ernest Hemingway’s favorite drinking place, Sloppy Joe’s is more commercial than in the novelist’s day, attracting mainly tourists. However, it retains its Key West character, and when bands play it can be hard to get a seat. The menu includes typical bar fare, with jalapeño or conch fritters, chicken fingers and fries, and the renowned “original Sloppy Joe” burger.
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