Fluid Bar & Lounge   

With its clean, modern South Beach look, Fluid Ultra Lounge is a beautifully lit space. The corridor from entrance to dance floor glows with undulating colored lights and runs right alongside the glowing bar. An attractive, young crowd dresses mostly in black, the contrast against all those glowing surfaces making them all the easier to ogle. While the music is good for dancing -- usually a blend of Latin jazzy house, hip-hop, or dance -- with such a small dance floor, the priorities seem to lie elsewhere. After all, the four-sided bar seems custom-made for meeting new friends. Cocktails here run more than $10, but they offer a twist on the usual, such as the Napa Meets Moscow Metropolitan with Charbay blood orange vodka, lemon juice, and chambord. While it gets much more crowded past 11PM, it's cool to drop by at Fluid early, as the club cultivates a second identity as a cocktail lounge. But Fluid's creds as a lounge might be overstated. Unless you pay for the privilege, a seat is hard to find, and it's hard not to stumble into a velvet rope at every turn. The 300-pound earpiece-donning bouncers keep a close watch over the admittedly stunning VIP sections, particularly the bright nooks alongside the black-painted dance section in back.