Saturday night we headed out to the new Marlins stadium in Miami to check out the visiting LA Dodgers play the Marlins.  It was my first visit to the stadium and the one thing I knew I had to do during my visit was check out the Clevelander Bar they built into the stadium.  I had heard great things and admired the genius of incorporating a longstanding Miami landmark…along with a pool…into this new landmark.   I mean if you have ever visited Miami you have been to the iconic Clevelander on Ocean Drive.  My guess is that you have probably gotten drunk there and if you really had a good time, you may even have drunk pics taken by your so-called friends of you dancing on the stage in a bikini like most drunk tourists tend to do.  It is one of the ultimate party bars on South Beach, so it made perfect sense to take a slice of it and put it in Marlins stadium.

We began our evening sitting in great seats behind the first baseline, taking in all the sights and sounds of the game and the stadium. The Clevelander, way off in the distance on the other side of the field, seemed innocuous from afar. Then I saw a tweet from @Clevelander1200 which read “$5 Three Olives snowball.” Well the tweet said some other stuff too, but none of that is important. Now we knew we had to check out the bar and we had to get a vodka snow cone, so we planned our exploration for middle of the 5th inning and made our way over.

The place was packed and immediately upon entering there is a party feel. There is a lot going on and a lot to take in.  First thing that hits you is that there really is a pool!! Right there in middle of the bar and there are people in it having a damn good time. Because of the Three Olives promotion they had beautiful, naked models being airbrushed live right on stage. The deejay was playing great music and folks don’t seem to be paying much attention to the game. It feels like you are no longer even in the stadium. Let’s see…there are beautiful people, a full bar, cocktail tables and chairs, a pool, a mermaid, cheerleaders, and even a beer pong table outside. Well that’s all on first glance… but all elements that make for a great bar and a lot of debauchery.

                

We figured we better find out the digs on the place before we started drinking, so here are the deets. The bar is open two hours before game time. There is a full bar and food menu. You can buy tickets to “watch” the game in the Clevelander (there are actual field level seats you can reserve) or if you have a ticket to the game you can pay $10 to enter the bar from the stadium. After the game, admission is free. Of course, you must be 21 or older to enter.

We made our way outside to the Three Olives ice shaving stand excited to try a liquored-up snow cone. The lovely Jenese was our bartender. She started rattling off the list of flavors we could choose from, “rainbow, blue crush, skittles, jolly rancher …” all of them sounded fun and yummy. I decided to go with the blue crush made with Berry-flavored Three Olives; my comrade chose the skittles made with Cherry-flavored Three Olives. Jenese shaved the ice right in front of us and then topped the perfect ice balls, served in cute little martini glasses, with syrup and vodka. Now these snowballs do not get a lot of points for complexity, they are basically syrup and vodka, but I do give our Jenese a lot of credit for coming up with the mixes and the creative names. However, what they lacked in depth they definitely made up for in presentation and flavor. And while they might not be quite manly, they sure do pack a lot of bang for the buck (I did say they are just syrup and vodka). They were luscious!! The mix of heavenly sweet syrup and the flavored vodka with the chill of the ice as a perfect accessory was definitely one of the coolest drinks I have ever had.  So we had a few more….and continued to enjoy our time at the Clevelander.

Oh, and did I mention the gorgeous samba dancers that came out and performed? It is Miami after all!