A cocktail bar that once sat thirty people is now built to hold up to two hundred, and the odd part is that The Regent Cocktail Club still reads as intimate. Inside the Gale South Beach on Collins Avenue, the room moved around 2019 into what had been the hotel's Rec Room, gaining floor space without losing the low light and lounge furniture that made the original version feel closed off from the street outside.
Ask Karpo whether tonight's room is running heavier on the twelve barstools or the seventy-five lounge seats before you commit to a plan, since that split changes how the whole evening feels.
A room that outgrew its original footprint
The Regent Cocktail Club opened in 2012 and was covered in early 2013 as a fixture of the Gale South Beach, run under LDV Hospitality, the same company behind Scarpetta and Dolce Italian at the same hotel. In its first form the room was small enough to seat only about thirty people, which is part of why it earned a reputation as a hideout rather than a destination bar.
The 2019 to 2020 move into the former Rec Room space changed the arithmetic considerably. The relaunched room can hold roughly 175 people, or up to 200 standing depending on the night, split between about 75 seated lounge spots and 12 barstools. That is a different bar than the one that opened in 2012, even if the name and the operator stayed the same.
Finding the door inside the Gale
The address is 1690 Collins Avenue, on the corner near James Avenue and 17th Street in Miami Beach's South Beach district. There is no separate street-level entrance for the bar itself; access runs through Dolce Italian, the hotel's Italian restaurant, which does more to preserve the speakeasy feel than any deliberate design choice would.
Valet parking is offered at the property, and street parking also turns up in venue listings for the address, which matters more on Fri/Sat nights when the later closing time pulls a longer crowd. Walking in cold through a restaurant to reach a bar is a small friction that keeps casual foot traffic lower than it would be with a bar-front door on Collins Avenue.
Havana light, without the theme-park version
The room's decor was described at the time of the relaunch as inspired by warm Havana nights, and the materials back that up without leaning into costume: leather seating, bright rugs, tropical wallpaper, and wood paneling, all kept under dim, subdued lighting. It is a warmer palette than the marble-and-glass look common in South Beach hotel bars.
Some of the antiqued furniture from the original, smaller room carried over into the larger space, which is a reasonable way to keep continuity when a bar roughly quintuples its capacity. The result avoids the trap most relaunches fall into, where a bigger room reads as generic simply because everything in it is new.
What ended up on the drink list
The current list mixes classic cocktails with newer Bar Lab cocktails, alongside bar bites and small plates meant to be eaten while sitting rather than as a full dinner. Large-format, sharable cocktails also appear on the list, which suits the lounge-style seating better than the barstool side, where a shared pitcher takes up space two people don't have.
Live music and DJ programming run on top of the drink menu on certain nights, which shifts the room's mood from conversational to something closer to a small club without changing the physical layout. A sharable cocktail and a table for four make more sense on a night with a DJ booked than a pair of stools at the bar.
Seating math for a nine o'clock arrival
With only 12 barstools against 75 lounge seats, the stool side fills first on any night with programming, simply because there are far fewer of them. A few practical points worth keeping in mind before deciding where to land:
- 12 barstools total, the first section to fill on weekend nights
- 75 lounge seats, better suited to groups of three or four
- Wed, Thu and Sun close around 1 a.m.
- Fri and Sat run later, to roughly 3 a.m.
- Entrance is through Dolce Italian, not a separate street door
- Valet parking and nearby street parking are both available
None of this is a booking system so much as a floor plan to read before deciding how the night should go. A couple arriving early for a quiet drink has a real shot at a stool; a group of five arriving at eleven on a Saturday is better served asking for lounge seating from the start.
The hours shift with the night of the week
The documented hours run Wed, Thu and Sun from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., and Fri and Sat from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. That two-hour gap between the quiet nights and the weekend nights is not incidental; it lines up with when the live music and DJ programming tend to run, which pulls in a later, louder crowd.
A 6 p.m. opening on any night gives an early window before the room fills, which suits the room's own math: with only 87 total seats between stools and lounge, arriving at opening is the more reliable way to get a seat without waiting, particularly ahead of a weekend closing time three hours later than the rest of the week.
The bartenders behind the reputation
The bar's standing in Miami's cocktail scene owes a good deal to bartenders Julio Cabrera and John Lermayer, whose work at The Regent helped the room earn recognition tied to the Tales of the Cocktail circuit, the closest thing the American bar industry has to an annual peer review. That reputation predates the 2019 to 2020 relocation and appears to have survived it.
LDV Hospitality's wider footprint at the Gale, running Scarpetta and Dolce Italian alongside The Regent, means the bar sits inside a small hospitality ecosystem rather than standing alone. The venue also turns up in hotel event listings as a private-event space, which suggests it does double duty as both a nightly bar and an occasional booked-out room.
Practical notes
The Regent Cocktail Club sits at 1690 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, near the corner of James Avenue and 17th Street, inside the Gale South Beach hotel. Reach it by walking through Dolce Italian rather than looking for a separate bar entrance on Collins Avenue. Documented hours run Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., and Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. The room holds roughly 175 to 200 people between 75 lounge seats and 12 barstools, so arriving near opening gives the best odds of a seat, especially before weekend live music or DJ sets bring in a later crowd. Valet parking is available at the hotel, and street parking exists nearby as an alternative. The bar also functions as a private-event space on occasion, which can affect walk-in availability on a given night.
Tags: #MiamiBeach #SouthBeach #SpeakeasyNearMe #TheGaleHotel #CollinsAvenue #CocktailBar #HiddenGemsMiami #ClassicCocktails #NightlifeMiami #BarLabCocktails #LDVHospitality #MiamiNightlife #HavanaStyleLounge
Please drink responsibly. Must be of legal drinking age.
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Ask Karpo first
Ask Karpo whether the Gale is running live music or a DJ set on the night you plan to go, since that shifts the room from a quiet lounge to something closer to a late-night club. It is also worth asking whether the private-event calendar affects walk-in access before you make the trip through Dolce Italian.
