Brickell is Miami’s banking district and it drinks like one. The crowd skews after work, the towers are dense enough that most of the good rooms are within walking distance of each other, and the bars tend to be either high up with a view or tucked at street level underneath them. What follows is a guide to the ones that actually programme music, whether that is a resident DJ, a Latin night or a stage with a band on it. Every venue links to its full profile in our venue directory, and the recurring nights appear in the gig calendar.
Sugar at EAST Miami
Sugar is the one most people mean when they say rooftop in Brickell. It sits on the fortieth floor of the EAST hotel at Brickell City Centre, a planted garden terrace with the bay on one side and the skyline on the other, and it runs live DJ sets from local and international selectors. It is smart casual during the day and shifts into proper nightlife mode after six, with a stricter dress code and a 21 and over door. Open until 3am Thursday through Saturday. Book if you want a table at the weekend.
Rosa Sky Rooftop
Rosa Sky Rooftop is the other rooftop worth your time, twenty two floors up with views on every side and resident DJs playing open format and house across the week. It is a little less formal than Sugar and a little easier to get into on short notice, which makes it the better bet if you have not planned ahead.
BARU Urbano
BARU Urbano in Mary Brickell Village is the Latin room, a supper club from the team behind the South Beach venues Macondo and Zoe, with DJs running from dinner straight through to close. The licence runs late at the weekend, to five in the morning on Friday and Saturday, so it tends to be where a Brickell night ends rather than starts.
Blackbird Ordinary
Blackbird Ordinary is the antidote to the rooftops. A ground level indoor and outdoor bar on SW 1st Avenue with a weekly live music night and DJ sets at the weekend, craft cocktails, and a room that feels nothing like the towers around it. If you want to hear an actual band in Brickell rather than a booth, this is the first place to look.
Blue Martini Brickell
Blue Martini at Mary Brickell Village has something on every night of the week, which is unusual. Martini Monday is karaoke, Wednesday is Casa Reparto for Latin, Sunday is Riddim and Flow for Caribbean and hip hop, and the weekend runs Latin and house with live entertainment. It is a lounge rather than a music venue, but the programming is genuinely varied.
Batch Gastropub
Batch Gastropub is a two storey bar on SW 12th Street with karaoke on Thursday and Friday, rotating local acts, a long craft beer list and one of the busier happy hours in the district. It is the most straightforward after work option here.
Sweet Caroline
Sweet Caroline on South Miami Avenue is the karaoke specialist, with private rooms if you would rather not sing to the whole bar. Worth knowing about for a group, and a useful fallback when the rooftops are at capacity.
A short walk north
Brickell runs into Downtown, and three of Miami’s most serious music rooms are a few minutes away. Club Space is the techno and house institution whose sets run into daylight on the open air Terrace. Floyd Miami, in the same building, is the smaller and more considered room, jazz club in feel with a house, techno and reggaeton lineup. Jolene Sound Room on Flagler is a basement built into what is said to be Al Capone’s old liquor tunnel, running local DJs and the international dance circuit Thursday to Sunday until 4am.
Planning a night in Brickell
Most of this sits between SW 8th Street and the river, either side of South Miami Avenue, and it is walkable. The Metromover is free and connects Brickell to Downtown, which is the sensible way to reach Club Space or Jolene without driving. Parking in Mary Brickell Village and Brickell City Centre is paid and fills from about eight on a Friday.
Dress codes are real here in a way they are not in Wynwood. The rooftops enforce them after six, and trainers and shorts will cause problems at Sugar in particular. The street level rooms are relaxed about it. A reasonable night runs drinks on a rooftop at sunset, dinner and a DJ at BARU, and Downtown afterwards if you want to stay out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Brickell bar has live bands?
Blackbird Ordinary is the main one, with a weekly live music night and rotating local acts. Batch Gastropub also books local acts. Most other Brickell rooms are DJ led rather than band led.
What is the best rooftop bar in Brickell?
Sugar at EAST Miami on the fortieth floor has the biggest view and live DJ sets, and Rosa Sky Rooftop twenty two floors up is the easier one to get into without booking.
Where is karaoke in Brickell?
Sweet Caroline has private karaoke rooms, Batch Gastropub runs karaoke on Thursday and Friday, and Blue Martini runs Martini Monday karaoke.
Is there salsa or Latin music in Brickell?
BARU Urbano is the main Latin room, and Blue Martini runs Casa Reparto on Wednesdays for Latin and Riddim and Flow on Sundays for Caribbean and hip hop.
What is open latest?
BARU Urbano runs to 5am on Friday and Saturday and Sugar to 3am Thursday through Saturday. In neighbouring Downtown, Club Space runs into the following day.
