Annihilate This Weekend

by J Fine | Jan 7, 2011 | Fort Lauderdale

Happy New Year FTL! You have had an entire week to shake the NYE hangover. Here are two ideas for your Saturday itinerary.

Saturday January 8th the New Orleans Saints play the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC wild-card round playoff game. This is an excellent opportunity to try Shuck N Dive – Cajun Cafe. Shuck N Dive is located at 650 N Federal Highway (in the Victoria Park Winn-Dixie plaza). Shuck N Dive is where local New Orleans Saints fans gather to cheer on the football team. It is an experience to watch even part of a game with these loyal Saints fans. Shuck N Dive’s menu is reasonably priced and delish. I recommend the fried green tomatoes. Wear your black and gold, do not use your cell phone inside and get there early to claim a good seat at the bar – games at 4:30pm.

Saturday night check out:Gurty and Steve Whittenberger’s Art Show. The art show is hosted by “The Bubble” IWAN Concept Production Facility located at 810 NE 4th Ave. Gurty (Nichlolas Begley) and Steve Whittenberger both reside in FTL. The artists currently make people a little more colorful at Rock-A-Billy Tattoo (Located in Lauderhill). The show is from 7:30pm to 10:30pm. $5 at the door, $10 21/over +beer. Below are two different flyers for the event.

Enjoy!

FTLC’s Best Of 2010 – Everything Else

by Miguel Bravo | Jan 6, 2011 | Fort Lauderdale

Best Local Joke

Mig: It’s changed its name back to Capones, but I always thought Ultimate Sports Bar was a ridiculous name for a bar that wasn’t open for afternoon football on Saturdays and Sundays.
Fat Hand: Miami Dolphins running game
S Jam: America’s Backyard
J Fine: Although I have never met the M.I.L.F. Hunter and I am somewhat unclear if he literally hunts drunk moms – I think it is safe to assume this guy is a joke.

2010 was the Year Of The _________

FTLC’s Best Of 2010 – Places

by Miguel Bravo | Jan 5, 2011 | Fort Lauderdale

Best People Watching Spot

Mig: The wooden bench between Poorhouse and America’s Backyard. Honestly, I could bring a 12 pack and hang out there all night.
Fat Hand: Table outside Elbo Room.
S Jam: Along the New River
J Fine: Just found this little gem Sunday…Pompano Beach Bru’s Room for Sunday football – wear your half shirts and henna tit tats! enjoy!

Best Spot On The Beach

Mig: FTL Beach’s South Beach, by the volleyball courts. More sand, more options, and occasional beach raves.
Fat Hand: Across from Blondies. Party time.
S Jam: The jetty
J Fine: McSorley’s beach. Free parking, convenience stores, bars & food…

Best Piece Of Old Florida

Mig: No brainer. Dania motherf**king Jai Alai. I love that place!
Fat Hand: 11th Avenue swing bridge. Reminds me of glory days of Calvin Coolidge’s presidency.
S Jam: Hollywood Beach
J Fine: My apartment – built in the 1950s (I need to get out more)

Best Place To Lay Low

Mig: Shark Valley on a full moon. Outside of a few fellow bikers, it’s just you and the alligators.
Fat Hand: I would say a Florida Marlins game. Because nobody else will be there.
S Jam: Sailboat Bend 🙂
J Fine: If I told you it wouldn’t be MY hide out… The Hut Lounge (Its the shady place guys take girls that they are cheating on the actual girlfriend with (& no I have never been taken there!)

Best Place To Unwind

Mig: Block parties. I like anytime they close down Himmarshee and let us hang in the street. There’s something therapeutic about standing in the street with a plastic cup of cheap draft beer.
Fat Hand: Downtowner Saloon
S Jam: Brew
J Fine: Japanese Village & the fabulous & fun Takeshi deserve honorable mention.

Best Scenic Location

Mig: Perimeter Road by the airport. Watching low flying planes directly over my head will never get old.
Fat Hand: The Jetty
S Jam: Top of the 17th Street bridge
J Fine: Ramp from 595 to 95 North – beautiful Downtown skyline and only positive thing about driving on 595 (just sayin)

Best Store To Look, Not Buy

Mig: Alex’s Gift Shop. The Swap Shop’s garage sale area is a close second.
Fat Hand: Petsmart on Federal Highway. Because looking at animals is fun, but aren’t we supposed to boycott all stores that sell live animals? Or do I have that wrong?
S Jam: Jezebel, although I usually end up buying something
J Fine: Hahaha, no such thing.

Best Guilty Pleasure

Mig: Off The Hookah or Living Room. I don’t go to either very often, but I think they’re fun places to party if you’re in the right mood.
Fat Hand: Drinking margaritas at an outdoor table at any of the bars/ restaurants along A1A
S Jam: Spending money I don’t have at Radioactive Records
J Fine: Shopping & drinking – Gateway Mall has a lot to offer – Jezebel’s, Heart Rock Sushi, Radio-Active Records. 17th Street area also has great options for an urban hike – Water taxi, 15th Street Fisheries, the Village Well…

FTLC’s Best Of 2010 – Food & Drink

by Miguel Bravo | Jan 4, 2011 | Fort Lauderdale

Best Taco

Mig: Carlos Y Pepe.
Fat Hand: Fish taco at Coconuts.
S Jam: Zona Fresca’s Fish tacos with their authentic corn tortillas, shredded cabbage, and what tastes like lime-infused sour cream, mmmm.
J Fine: Although most of my friends would recommend Zona Fresca – I enjoy Carlos & Pepe’s.

Best Burger/ Sandwich

Mig: Los Perros. They might be more well known for their hot dogs, but I prefer the Colombian-style burgers they serve. Charm City’s Cowboy Burger was a close second. As far as sandwiches, Laspadadas makes the best subs and Mr. Nick’s Sub Shoppe makes the best Cheesesteak.
S Jam: Charm City Burger‘s veggie burger The Hippie
J Fine: Best Veggie Burger! Rosie’s in Wilton Manors! (“Almosta Vegan” personal fav)

Best Coffee

Mig: Unlimited coffee at Lesters.
S Jam: Brew‘s brew of the day
J Fine: Brew at Victoria Park

Best Signature Drink

Mig: I’m not one for fancy drinks. I guess this would be a good time to revert to our post about local signature drinks
Fat Hand: Cubeltini at Trina
J Fine: Siobhan, the Sunday bartender @ McSorley’s , makes a Bloody Mary to die for.

Best Breakfast Joint

Mig: In my opinion, it’s tough to mess up diner food. IHOP, Lesters, Peter Pans….they all taste the same to me. What makes a diner stand out to me is the staff and look. Lester’s takes the cake.
Fat Hand: Bluejays Cafe…multiple breakfast burritos on the menu
S Jam: I have yet to find a breakfast place that can make a better breakfast than mine, if I must say so myself, and isn’t overpriced. Giorgio’s on Hollywood’s intracoastal comes close, but loses due to their lousy coffee. Typically, I hate chains, but I’ll have to go with any of Ft Lauderdale’s finest IHOPs- predictable, tasty, and the best diner/restaurant coffee.
J Fine: Bluejays

Best BBQ

Mig: Not Ernies, that’s for sure. Haven’t eaten enough local BBQ to give a definitive answer. Texas Hold’em is just ok. I’m trying Tom Jenkins this week.
Fat Hand: Texas Hold’em. I would also vote for Texas Hold’em in the category of best Isaac Hayes poster.
S Jam: The cooker outside of Monterey Club in the middle of the night.

Best Slice

Mig: Rocco’s on Hollywood Beach. The nearby live polka music at the bandshell helps too.
Fat Hand: Pizza Fusion…partly because I don’t feel bad about myself for eating pizza when I eat Pizza Fusion pizza.
S Jam: Squiggy’s
J Fine: Primanti Brothers best drunk slice. Need to try Empire Pizza

Best Dessert

Mig: $1.50 vanilla soft serve at one of the many ice cream vendors along Hollywood Beach
J Fine: Coconut Cake at Sublime

Best Restaurant Overall

Mig: Betty’s. By far my favorite restaurant experience of the year. Also, no one beats their side dishes.
Fat Hand: Himmarshee Bar & Grill. Still great.
J Fine: My restaurant knowledge is pretty limited. Being vegetarian in FTL leaves something to be desired in the way of dining. Once I find somewhere that caters to my dietary demands I stick with them. Sublime, Rosie’s and surprisingly Cafe Blue Fish are pretty consistent for palatable veggie dining.

FTLC’s Best of 2010 – Arts & Entertainment

by Miguel Bravo | Jan 3, 2011 | Fort Lauderdale

Thanks to everyone who visited our blog over the past seven months. Even when our posting frequency dipped at the end of the summer, we somehow managed to generate a solid number of page views every week. FTL Collective’s resolution for 2011 is to post more often, without wavering from the 3 F’s (Keep it Fort, Factual, and optionally Funny). In the coming months, we will also be looking for more contributors. Feel free to email me at mig@ftlcollective.com if you have any ideas for potential articles.

To properly sum up the year, we’ve decided to share some of our personal favorites in the area. Over the course of the week, we will continue posting our Best Of’s, as well as a massive list on Friday. Thanks again for reading, commenting, and introducing yourself. Because of this blog and your feedback, we’ve been able to learn and share so much about our local scene and the people that support it.

Here are some of our staff member’ choices for Arts & Entertainment:

Best Local Band

Mig: It’s surprising to me that Alexander hasn’t made it big yet. I love their CD It’s Not Always Signs, It’s Not Always Wonders, specifically the song Cholesterol
Fat Hand: REBEL
S Jam: Alexander
J Fine: Methodaires

Best Performance By A Local Band

Mig: It’s a toss up between Everymen and Viva Le Vox. Also, I really liked REBEL’s performance at our launch party (see photos), numerous pre-Young Circles shows, and Radioboxer‘s under-attended show at Sea Monster.
J Fine: Best performance and all around good time will have to go to any band which Joe Git and/or Chris “Spikey” Goldbach perform with. (if you get this you’re laughing)

Best Local News Story

Mig: Animals on the loose! Who knew South Florida had bears and coyotes. Also, Snow Madness 2010 was fun to follow. Did a snowflake fall in Oakland Park? We’ll never know for sure.
Fat Hand: The on-going arrests/corruption of the Broward County school board.
S Jam: (overheard from others) all the name changes with Stonefox/Blond Fuzz/ Young Circles. Is Fuzzy Cubes next?

Best Event

Mig: This category is really tough, so I’m going to cheat. I choose every warehouse party in 2010 (SWARM, IWAN The Bubble, and Laser Wolf’s party). Here’s to more warehouse parties in 2011!
Fat Hand: The Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl, and their related festivities. Somebody’s got to build that lid on Sunlife Stadium so we get more Super Bowls.
S Jam: For Art’s Sake Typeface– Nice variety of local art and snacks, wheatepasting, Millionyoung, and Alexander.
J Fine: Noemi & BJ’s 4th of July BBQ

Best Place To Check Out Art

Mig: I enjoyed events at Gallery 101 and Art/Heart‘s party at Stage 84, but the Bubble is my favorite place to check out local artists. Unfortunately, I had to miss the Art Scavenger Hunt this year, but that sounded like a blast too.
Fat Hand: The Bubble
J Fine: Art/Heart events

Best Bar

Mig: Poorhouse and Monterey’s are cool, but nothing beats a good indie dance party at 1921. Beachside, I really enjoy playing cornhole at Pirate Bar.
Fat Hand: There are many things I don’t like about Poorhouse (jukebox, the fact I hang out there too often) but overall, it is my #1 bar in the FTL. But I think that says more about me than it does about Poorhouse.
S Jam: I’ll say it loud and proud, love a good cover band. Dicey’s! I will brave crowds and sticky floors any day over Poor House’s selection of bands.
J Fine: Just so many to choose from. Kim’s Alley Bar gets my vote – they have ping-pong. Among beach bars, I choose McSorley’s. Bahia Cabana gets honorable mention.

Best Broward Blog (Other Than Ours)

Mig: Overall, no one covers the Broward music scene better than County Grind. As far as independently run blogs go, I haven’t havent fallen head over heels with any Broward focused local blog. I’d choose Mood Vane, but lately the posts have been scarce. I kind of wish Radioactive Records posted more often on their blog. Then again, I wish we could post more often.
Fat Hand: The Pulp. Bob Norman’s blog that started a few years ago and was intended to comment on local media has morphed into the most important news outlet in Broward County.
J Fine: Who Cares What I think

FTLC sponsors an EPIC NYE Party at 1921

by Miguel Bravo | Dec 28, 2010 | Fort Lauderdale

It’s easy to call a party EPIC. It’s another thing to actually back it up with colossal over-the-top antics, a quality lineup of local musicians, and a quartet of dance crazy DJs. Want the scoop on FTL Collective’s end-of-the-year spectacular at underground club 1921?

• 3 local bands, playing on a roof (yes, outside on the roof!).

• 4 DJ’s inside the club, spinning the best in indie, electro, and the classics.

• 1 custom-made live ball drop. Plus, the official Times Square drop projected on a giant wall.

• 1 Xbox Kinect projected on that same giant wall, plus multiple fire pits strategically placed throughout the outside area to keep everyone toasty.

Now that I have your undivided attention, here’s the rest of the gritty details:

The trio of local acts gracing the rooftop will be punk rock enthusiasts Mute Issue, the always entertaining supergroup Travalonia, and experimental rockers Manifest Test Subject (you might remember them from our launch party). Spinning the greatest in indie, electro, new wave, and classic tracks will be JAM’s very own Esoteric and Damask, Stereo Synth’s Andie Sweetswirl, and future Fort Lauderdale mayoral candidate Mig (me).

The club is located 1921 S. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316 . Here’s a link to the official Facebook event page. $10 cover charge at the door. Throw in another Hamilton if you like, and you’re well on your way to drunken bliss — unlimited beer till midnight. Not too keen on carbs? The CASH ONLY bar will be fully stocked.The party starts at 9 ‘o clock.

Anyone who came out to the last FTLC sanctioned event in June knows that we don’t joke around when we insert “FTL Collective” on a flyer. The party’s other sponsors, JAMS and The Malcriado, feel the same way. Tell your friend to cancel his lame house party and migrate over to 1921 this Friday night for what’s sure to be an event of epic proportions.

It can be a little tricky trying to find the club (it is an underground club after all). Check out a helpful YouTube video and makeshift parking map after the jump.

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Light It Up This Christmas

by Strawberry Jam | Dec 24, 2010 | Fort Lauderdale

By Strawberry Jam

Coral Springs North Pole from sunsentinel.com

When I was young, just a couple years ago, one of the biggest highlights of my Christmases was to drive around and scope out all the awesomely decorated houses and Christmas lights.  Anyone remember the entire BLOCK of houses near the turnpike overpass and Taft Street in Hollywood in the 80’s or 90’s?  Every single house on this street would get together to create one elaborate Christmas display- they even had postcards!  Sadly, it seems each year it becomes harder and harder to find such holiday enthusiasm.  Thankfully, Sun-Sentinel put together this little gem which maps out all the houses in your area for your viewing pleasure.  It even includes pics and descriptions.  Here are a few addresses to get you started.  Happy hunting and Merry Christmas.

• Davie– 9904 W Tree Tops Court- Thousands of lights, Santas, Frostys, trains, elves
• Ft Lauderdale– 1131 SW 9th Ave- 200,000 lights, helicopter on roof
• Hollywood– 5200 Thomas St- A show every half hour, lights synchronized to music
• Hollywood– 5424 Cleveland St- 25,000 lights, 35 hand-made, hand-painted displays
• Plantation– 11480 NW 26th St- 250,000 LED lights synchronized to music, 85 inflatable displays

Sun-Sentinel Holiday Lights:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/holiday/decorations/