After the Grove’s dinner crowds head home for bed, the neighborhood takes on its hidden persona. The streets come alive with college kids ready to drink off another week of classes, especially on Thirsty Thursdays, the rowdy tradition decades strong.
The evening typically starts with carb-heavy pasta — a smart choice for the night ahead – and a classic frozen drink at Greenstreet Café.
Or maybe it’s cheap tacos and a margarita (or two) at BarTaco, a new hotspot for the college kids who fill the Center Grove on Thursday nights.
By this point, it’s gotten late. The sidewalk cafes have closed up and the Grove’s daytime crowd of dogwalkers, strollers and ice cream seekers have tucked into bed for the night. The Grove’s hidden “after hours” personality is stirring to life.
A constant slew of Ubers pulls to the curb outside Fuller Street, dropping off students by the handful, many from the University of Miami, for a night of drinking.
“Thirsty Thursday” is underway.
“It’s very much like high school on steroids,” said Adriana, a UM student who chose to omit her last name because she’s under 21.
For the next several hours, the Grove is transformed, as students congregate at one of the neighborhood’s handful of bars.
At 9 o’clock, Barracuda Taphouse & Grill (or Cuda’s, as it’s known) begins to prepare for the oncoming onslaught of amped up students.
The barstools are moved to the back and a wooden makeshift stage is dropped, setting the scene for the off-key karaoke to come. The music shifts from rock to rap and rises in volume, drowning out small talk.
Around the corner on Grand Avenue, a line begins to form outside Sandbar Sports Grill, where it’s Ladies Night and women drink for free. On busy nights, the line stretches down the block with upwards of 100 people.
Inside, complimentary pre-made drinks flow out of giant jugs, girls climb onto elevated surfaces – including the infamous lifeguard chair – and a DJ spins live music.
“We like having young adults here,” said bar owner Brett Dusharm, who launched Ladies Night when he took over the business in 2014.
The bar will stay open tonight until 3 a.m. – the legal limit under the law – but the late-night college crowd is not a make-or-break part of his business, Dusharm says – not compared to the sports fans who are game-day regulars at the Sandbar.
Dusharm says he cares more about bringing back the CocoWalk spirit of the 1990s and 2000s. “I want to bring back the Fat Tuesday’s college crowd. I am trying to bring back the old Grove feel,” he said.
The Thursday night outing has become a UM student tradition.
“The Grove is very popular on Thursdays not due to the ‘amazing’ bars, but more due to the consistency and opportunity to run into a bunch of people you know,” said Mylo, a UM sophomore, also underage.
“Bar hopping is basically just running around like kids in the playground again.”
Sandbar has been in operation since 2000, serving as one of the favorite local watering holes alongside Cuda’s – which opened in 1995 – on Fuller Street.
While Cuda’s is known as a spot where you can grab a fish sandwich and a draft during the sunny hours of the day, it would be a challenge to find anyone over the age of 25 after midnight.
Each Thursday night, UM upperclassmen claim Fuller Street outside Cuda’s as their own. Those with legitimate IDs make their way inside, and occasionally funnel pitchers of cheap beer to younger friends waiting at the pink picnic tables outside.
“I feel like you grow into it. You rise in the ranks. The older you get, the better it gets,” said Ashley Sewall, a senior at UM.
Fuller Street ballooned in popularity as a destination after it was closed to cars during the pandemic and picnic tables were placed along the curb.
Bartender Kelsie says the flamingo-pink tables are part of the bar’s selling factor.
“Who doesn’t want a picture there?” she said, between pouring pitchers.
But karaoke by far is the main attraction.
For no charge, anyone can stroll into Cuda’s and listen to barely coherent covers of classic sing-a-longs, including some songs that should never be sung in public by young adults who will one day run the world.
Sewall confessed to singing a few karaoke songs herself over the years, including Rascal Flatt’s “Life is a Highway.”
A perfect storm of pool tables, live “music”, and a wide-open outdoor space have made Cuda’s the center of Thursday nights. It’s the bar’s busiest night according to Kelsie, with more bartenders on this shift than any other.
“You get there all ready to go in and talk to the bouncers like they are a family friend. You tip out the bartenders, buy your friends drinks, get drinks bought for you, dance, listen to music, anything you can think of,” said Mylo.
And with Cuda’s in the mix, the dress code is decidedly casual. Most students keep their outfits simple – a pair of jeans and a “going-out top” for girls or plain tee for guys. Nearly everyone is wearing some form of sneakers or boots.
Heels, button-downs or dresses are rare.
Instead, those in pursuit of a classier night out rise above the crowd — six stories to be exact, at the Level 6 rooftop bar on Main Highway, where the view comes with elaborate cocktails three times the price of a Cuda’s draft beer.
Other popular Thirsty Thursday destinations include the Oasis Lounge and Hookah Bar on McFarlane Road and Bodega Taqueria y Tequila speakeasy on Main Highway, both of which draw large crowds.
The scene is often frenetic, and not entirely legal.
Greenstreet manager Robert Medina said fake IDs and underage drinking have caused problems in the past, forcing the restaurant to temporarily shut down for three hours one evening.
Over at Sandbar, Dusharm enlists the help of nine security guards (yes, nine) to manage the bar’s Thursday night crowd, and Cuda’s automatically adds a gratuity on its bills on Thursdays after noticing that many students don’t tip.
None of this – not the crowds, and certainly not the drinking — is new, of course. The Grove’s late-night bar scene has long been a part of the neighborhood’s appeal.
Grove resident Charlie Flynn has been frequenting the Grove’s nightlife scene since 1972, after enrolling at UM’s School of Law. That was when hippies ruled the neighborhood and you might bump into Jimmy Buffet on the street.
“The Grove was basically the Grove Pub and the Taurus. And everybody could go outside and drink and smoke,” Flynn said.
Back then, the Grove earned a well-deserved “anything goes” reputation, he added.
“The cops didn’t bother,” Flynn recalled. “The Miami Police kind of stayed out of the Grove because they knew they’d get in hippie fights and crap.”
The Grove’s night life dates back at least another half a century, to the days of prohibition. The Taurus, the area’s most historic bar, first opened its doors in 1926.
With each passing generation since, iconic bars have come to life and subsequently sputtered out: Honey for the Bears, Jamestown Club, Club 609, Dan Marino’s American Sports Bar & Grill, Biscayne Baby, Baja Beach Club, Mr. Moe’s, and more.
And while the swarms of young adults today still make for a lively night, the Grove’s inner wild child has been somewhat tamed over the years.
A 2008 City Commission vote pushed Coconut Grove bars to wind back their closing time from 5 a.m. to 3 a.m., in part to ward off drunk driving.
Dusharm, the owner of the Sandbar, said that history has made him all the more committed to continuing his bar’s classic style.
Gideon Horowitz, district manager at BarTaco, shares that sentiment.
Horowitz, who used to run improv comedy clubs at CocoWalk and the Mayfair House Hotel, says BarTaco is honored to be part of the Thursday night mix in the Grove.
BarTaco is primarily a restaurant, but has bars on both levels that tend to get busier and younger as the evening goes on, until closing at 1 a.m.
“As the night gets later, obviously the pace changes. The lights get a little dimmer, but it’s the same environment for everybody to have fun and interact and just kind of have those genuine experiences that are rare nowadays,” Horowitz said.
A couple of hours after BarTaco clears out, the other bars follow suit. Spilt beer is mopped from the floor, the last Ubers are ordered and fake IDs are brought to the back office like trophies.
It’s hard to believe, but in just a few hours the sun will rise over the Grove and there will be no evidence of the events of the night before.
Cuda’s pink tables may be occupied by elementary school students playing chess or morning dog walkers taking a seat. Greenstreet will be serving coffee and french toast, not martinis. The nocturnal personality of the Grove is once again at rest.
Until next Thursday, that is.
