Cain & Abel

Brother’s Keeper (South Beach)

BARS • First Round

Beyond decorative ice block windows on Alton Road, Brother’s Keeper is a stylish neighborhood bar opened last summer by local hospitality group Lost Boy & Co. The façade is your first indication that it trades heavily on Miami Vice-era nostalgia. When I popped in on a recent Saturday night, the bar was filled with men dressed in some version of a tropical button-down shirt and slim jeans — a fashion statement I’d never noticed before in South Beach.

Tropical fish tanks are set behind a purple neon-lit bar, above which wicker jai alai baskets serve as decor, both reflected back on the opposite mirror-paneled wall. High top banquettes line one wall, making for cozy places to post up with friends. There are also plenty of diversions, with TVs playing sports, a pool table, and a dartboard.

The menu places equal emphasis on martinis and beer (Rolling Rock is the house swill). The rest of the cocktails are boozy and creative, with frozen mai tais and piña coladas on tap. I opted for the Bread Service martini, the bar’s take on the always dangerous Vesper, served with a croissant. There’s also a Pepperoncini Gibson — made with the namesake pickled pepper, plus onion and olive brine — that one member of our party thought tasted a little too much like Italian vinaigrette, but I liked. The menu consists of playful bar food, like mozzarella sticks with spicy vodka sauce and tuna poke nachos. And you can even get steak frites au poivre. We decided the occasion called for one of their pan pizzas made on a thick focaccia-like crust.

Just a block south of Dade Boulevard, it’s an ideal stop for the Sunset Harbour post-dinner crowd, the kind of locals’ bar where you’re bound to run into someone you know, and equally appropriate for one last drink or an auspicious start to a big night out. –Shayne Benowitz

→ Brother’s Keeper (South Beach) • 1710 Alton Rd • Daily 5p–2a.