Ocean Drive Magazine

January 2009

press here to read Brett Sokol’s article  on Mac’s Club Deuce.

Miami SunPost 20 November 2008

Photo Feature

concept and design by Michael Menchero

Mac’s Club Deuce

Sometimes regular people need an irregular place to be, a joint that’s so ordinary as to be completely extraordinary – a bar that knows it’s a bar.

It’s not a place to dance, although dance you may. It’s not a pick-up joint but there is no need to go home alone. Granted Mac’s Club Deuce is no “Cheers” as everyone doesn’t know your name; then again, there’s a good chance many of the patrons don’t even remember their own names.

The Deuce defines South Beach style by defying South Beach style So, have a drink with the authors, the homeless, the drag queens, the hookers, the fashionistas, the dealers and the regulars. All you have to do is check your inner judgmental-asshole at the door and enjoy the wild life.

And now bartender Melissa Burley’s self-published 96 page collection of more than 450 photographs spanning 13 years stands to immortalize the place in the only way you can capture the spirit of the immortal Deuce, aside from being there. The limited edition hardcover comes sealed in a bag along with a Deuce sticker, coaster, matchbook, and temporary tattoo for $40 available at the Deuce, 222 14th Street., Miami Beach

Angie Hargot / Miami Sun Post
20 November 2008

Book launch of Mac’s Club Deuce

Date/Time: Wed., November 12, 7:00pm-9:00pm

Cool Kids and Class Clowns

Everyone can be a yearbook hero this Wednesday at The Deuce.

BY PATRICE ELIZABETH GRELL YURSIK / Miami New Times

If the walls of Mac’s Club Deuce could talk, what debauched tales they would tell. Twisted yarns of sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll, and celebrities who come for the nonchalant anonymity and stay to get plastered with locals, hookers, trannies, and one poor iguana that got pitched tail-first across the length of the bar. In case you’ve never experienced The Deuce, be forewarned: This might look like an innocuous Miami Beach dive, but shit gets crazier and crazier as the hour hand ticks closer to morning. If you’ve ever spent an evening at the Deuce and, um, don’t exactly remember it, fret not. There’s probably photographic evidence of your drunk and disorderly behavior, courtesy of veteran bartender (and former New Times “Best of Miami” winner) Melissa Burley. She’s been slinging shots for 13 years, and during that time, she earned the title of Best Bartender by capturing the shenanigans, casual nudity, and spectacular tattoos that make The Deuce, The Deuce. Her photos are featured as an ongoing slide show projected onto a screen behind the bar. Patrons love it. And now she has compiled the finest photos in a beautiful keeper of a book. There isn’t a whole lot to read — the photos speak louder than words.

“The book is a celebration of and attempt to hold onto some great people and times, afternoons, and late nights when we were happy and in love and tipsy and listening to groovy tunes and dancing and talking and just hanging out. It’s 96 pages, 460 images, 40 bucks. Basically it’s like a yearbook where everyone’s the most popular, or the class clown,” she explains. The most popular (and those who aspire to join their ranks) are invited to gather Wednesday evening from 7 to 9 for the book launch of Mac’s Club Deuce. There shall be temporary tattoos and booze aplenty.

Promiscuous Palate on the Deuce

Thursday, October 11, 2007 Miami Herald

Classy bars for old-school guys, gals
BY DINKINISH O’CONNOR

In a city with acrobatic bartenders, hot pink cocktails and 10-foot-tall garnishes, one often wonders where the spirit has gone. How can the genteel Scotch and cognac breathe in a sea of syrupy liqueurs?

From drinks served neat in snifters to the refreshing, clink-clink of cocktails that require ice and a maximum of three ingredients, this week The Palate explores an eclectic mix of bars with drink menus one’s grandfather can appreciate.

Mac’s Club Deuce is a no-nonsense, smoky South Beach refuge for swearing bartenders and blue-collar workers. Sixty-year-old bartender Carol Honigmann has worked at the Deuce for 30 years and recalls making old-school cocktails like the Sidecar — a mix of brandy, lemon and, back in the day, simple syrup instead of the sour mix that is prefered today.

”We served Stingers,” Honigmann explains in a raspy voice, “a mix of brandy and crème de menthe and Russian Roulettes, back in those days, but now I can appreciate the flavored vodkas, too.”

This South Beach relic serves the top-shelf Manhattan for $9 and Brandy Alexanders (a blend of brandy, crème de cocoa, and cream or milk) for $7. Happy hour starts at 8 a.m. (really) and ends at 7 p.m., and the bar has charming touches like a vintage cigarette vending machine and an old, tattered menu behind the bar that showcases a Monte Cristo sandwich for 75 cents.

Esquire Mag on Mac’s Club Deuce Oct 07 Mac’s Club Deuce 222 14th Street, Miami Beach, Florida 305-531-6200 By Benjamin Alsup Presumably, you are in Miami because you are looking for trouble. At the Deuce, you will have a very good time finding it. If you’ve ever wanted to really feel the pulp, if you’ve ever wanted to get noir, like all night long, then you’re going to want to get yourself Deuced. There is, of course, a pool table. It turns from friendly to sharkish depending on who and how you play. There’s a jukebox, too. It’s filled with all the up-to-no-good classics. Finally, though, there is the bar itself, a striking horseshoe design that allows you to keep one eye on your drink and one eye on everybody in the joint. That’ll come in handy when Cameron Diaz comes in for a little late-night slumming. Or when trouble comes looking for you.

Miami NewTimes – Miami’s Best Bartender Saturday, June 02, 2007 Best Bartender Melissa Burley Mac’s Club Deuce, 222 14th Street, Miami Beach 33139 305-531-6200 / www.myspace.com/deucebar Twelve years ago Melissa Burley was an overworked and underpaid teacher in Miami-Dade’s public school system. She supplemented that income with a job at late-night taco institution San Loco, located within stumbling distance of Mac’s Club Deuce, Miami Beach’s most venerably liquor-soaked bar. Within no time Ms. Burley found a new hangout and a family of fun regulars. She spent a lot of time on the customer side of the bar. “I used to always ask Mac, ‘When are you gonna hire me?”" she recalls. “One day it was raining and I asked him again. And he replied, ‘What’re you doing tomorrow?” As they say, the rest is history. Burley’s friends, the regulars, helped her learn the ropes — “because the customers know the bar better than the new bartenders,” she laughs. In the decade that Melissa has been tending the Deuce, Miami Beach has been through bouts of popularity with Eurotrash, model types, ravers, and the hip-hop glitterati, and she’s been slinging cocktails through it all. She may not be the most instantly chummy bartender you’ve ever had, and to hell with all of that Tom Cruise Cocktail bottle-flipping bullshit. She’s a no-nonsense blond who serves her drinks strong and fast. Along the way she’s adopted some basic bar rules for both tender and customer. Rule number one: “The bartender should never be drunker than the customers.” Rule number two: “You always want to befriend your bartender. Cause we know a lot of things about a lot of people.” Melissa is also keeper of the Deuce’s legacy. She created the bar’s MySpace page (www.myspace.com/deucebar) and updates the Deuce Screen of Fame, a photographic retrospective of debauchery and nudity that takes place in the darkened, historic establishment. If you’re lucky (or acting the fool enough), you’ll get your picture snapped as well. The scrolling images feature regulars and newbies, and it’s heavy on locals and light on famous faces. “We only put famous people in it if they’re into it,” she says. “We’ve got Johnny Knoxville in there, I think. Often we just leave them alone. The slide show is funny whether you know the people or not. It’s about the crazy people and the stories that take place. Like when Tara threw the iguana.” Normally an evening in which a live iguana is flung across the bar would be one of those you-just-had-to-be-there stories. Thanks to Melissa’s quickness with the camera, the moment was captured for posterity. And she needs to be quick, because who knows what can happen next.

Club Deuce in Miami NewTimes 8.23.06 Miami’s Vice Drink it up at Macs Club Deuce BY PATRICE ELIZABETH GRELL YURSIK Mac Klein knows how to run a bar, and how to treat a lady, apparently. I bought the place in 1964. For 40 years Ive treated it like a beautiful woman. Ive never touched a hair on her head, he says, beaming with pride. Macs Club Deuce opened in 1926 as a restaurant/nightclub, and he has the antique menu to prove it. Back then a Cuba Libre would set you back 35 cents. Through the tinted windows of this Miami Beach mainstay, Mac has watched South Beach evolve into SoBe, yet the Deuce remains unchanged: casual and dark; aglow with comforting neon; crowded with a mishmash of funny, fascinating regulars; and, if youre into that sort of thing, boasting an impressive array of celebrity tipplers. You never know who might wind up sitting next to you at the pink linoleum bar a well-preserved beach bum or, recently, Kate Moss, drinking withJackasss Johnny Knoxville. Mac attributes the famous faces to the Miami Vice effect. The cast of the iconic Eighties show hosted their final wrap party here in 1989. Besides being one of South Beachs historical and social landmarks, the place is the only bar that offers an eleven-hour happy hour. Drinks come two-for-one from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day. Newcomers are welcome to belly up to the venerable bar, but Mac has a note of caution for lightweights: I always say: If you dont know where the Club Deuce is, dont bother to come here. Macs Club Deuce is located at 222 Fourteenth St., Miami Beach. Now you know. Call 305-531-6200, or visit www.myspace.com/deucebar.Another place that’s command central for cocktail cliques of all persuasions is the legendary Mac’s Club Deuce, which will be hosting the photo-book launch party for Melissa Burley’s colorful collection of some of the Deuce’s biggest aces. Party is from 7-9 p.m. Nov. 12. Says Burley, the book is ”a celebration of all those fun, wasted times.” You know, those times when you need photos to remind you of what, exactly, happened. Luckily for some, there are no photo captions. We understand if you’d just rather forget, which makes the book — and the always lively Deuce — that much more fodder for lively cocktail conversation.

Miami Herald BY LESLEY ABRAVANEL / LANK@AOL.COM – 11/7/08

Another place that’s command central for cocktail cliques of all persuasions is the legendary Mac’s Club Deuce, which will be hosting the photo-book launch party for Melissa Burley’s colorful collection of some of the Deuce’s biggest aces. Party is from 7-9 p.m. Nov. 12. Says Burley, the book is ”a celebration of all those fun, wasted times.” You know, those times when you need photos to remind you of what, exactly, happened. Luckily for some, there are no photo captions.

We understand if you’d just rather forget, which makes the book — and the always lively Deuce — that much more fodder for lively cocktail conversation.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 – Grid Skippper

Bourdain the train to Miami

The O.G. of bad boy celebrity chefs, Anthony Bourdain, shakes his tailfeather down to South Florida tonight on his Travel Channel show No Reservations. Chef Bourdain of New York’s Les Halles visits South Beach’s Loco Taqueria and the O.G. of Miami coke-and-gun dive bars, Club Deuce. Watch gape-mouthed as Bourdain tossed bon mots like amuses bouches at the unsuspecting yet accomodating waitstaff. Oh, Anthony, you No-Limit soldier.

Posted by Lesley Abravanel on October 30, 2007 in Rock Stars | Permalink |

Like a Rolling Stone?

A very reliable and somewhat sober source alerted us to the possible presence of Keith Richards at Club Deuce on Friday night. We have seen a cell phone picture and can’t exactly tell if it’s him or that Richards imposter who goes around town pretending to be the Rolling Stone-r. If anyone has actually seen the real Keith Richards around town over the weekend, please let us know. If not, we must stop the imposter from exploiting the myopic. Or at least get him booked on that celeb lookalike show. This just in: We spoke to the Mac of Mac’s Club Deuce and he tells us it was, indeed Richards. “A friend and neighbor of mine is from England and he’s friends with Keith Richards. He brought him in.” It was him, indeed!