The Lounges

A small, late Washington Avenue club — bottle service, a dress code, hip-hop and Latin into the early morning, open only Monday, Friday and Saturday. Not a lounge so much as a compact club without the SoBe scale. Go with a table and a group.

A small hip-hop room in the Design District — marble, gold, a real door, and a crowd that came to dance rather than be photographed. Bottle service runs steep and Friday has a cover; go for the room and the music, with people.

Forty floors up at EAST Miami: a planted rooftop, an Asian bar menu, and the best sunset in Brickell. Weekends bring a line and a cover — come on a weeknight or right at open and it’s one of the better hours in the city.

A Brickell rooftop twenty-odd floors up — Latin cocktails, skyline on every side, a DJ who pushes it from lounge toward party as the night runs. Day-drinking energy that holds past dark. Table minimums on weekends; work the bar.

A password, a red phone booth for a door, and a room built around bourbon and a walk-in humidor. The theatre is the hook but the drink list and the cigars are serious. Best as a two-to-four stop, not a group night.

The bar beneath Faena, run as a hushed cocktail den — low light, a serious list, live music some nights, a velvet-rope sensibility without the rope out front. A dressed-up drink, not a big night.

A hotel lounge in the classic sense — couches, a DJ kept at talking volume, a drink and a room to actually catch up in. Good for the hour before a night out or the one after dinner.

Miami’s proper listening bar — a custom hi-fi rig, all vinyl, selectors who take it seriously, and a phones-down, no-requests understanding. The cocktails are dialed. Come for the room and the records; sit at the bar if the booths are full.

A Wynwood rooftop built for the golden hour — Mediterranean plates, a long list, a DJ who keeps it just under a party. Book a table, or walk in at the bar. Best before ten.

A wine-and-cheese house with a string-lit backyard and live jazz every night. You pull your own bottle off the shelf, order a board, and lose three hours. No pretense, no cover — one of the easiest good nights in Miami.

A Midtown cocktail bar that takes the drinks seriously and the room lightly — a playful, rotating menu, a DJ some nights, a crowd that skews industry. Go for a real cocktail without a scene attached.

A Wynwood corner that flips at nine — a cafe by day, a vinyl lounge Thursday to Saturday night. Records, low light, a short cocktail list, no pretense. The easy version of a listening bar.