Double Play: 12 U.S. restos that also pack in clubs

Finale
Courtesy of Finale
Courtesy of Finale

A busy traveler can’t waste time on mass transit, or a cab, or even a pedicab. To add a little efficiency to your baller, nation-hopping lifestyle, we’ve lined up 12 restaurants in six cities that’ll provide you an excellent meal and an on-premise venue for rocking ‘til the break of as late as they’ll let you stay.

Acme
Courtesy of Acme

ACME & ACME UNDERGROUND

9 Great Jones St
New York, NY 10012

ACME was a Cajun dive before Mads Refslund (head chef at “the world’s best restaurant”, Copenhagen’s Noma) introduced a hunter-gatherer-focused New Nordic menu, and the owners of party-dinner staples Indochine and BONDST introduced glitzy neon sculptures and black leather seats. Marked only by a largish bouncer, the dimly lit ACME Downstairs offers small batch booze, small plates, a DJ spinning retro beats, celeb spottings, and events like Miley Cyrus’ magazine cover party, during which her mouth hung open for reasons having nothing to do with New Nordicism.

Brinkley's & Southside
Image courtesy of Southside

BRINKLEY’S

406 Broome St
New York, NY 10013

SOUTHSIDE

2 Cleveland Pl
New York, NY 10013

Infamous in its Bar Martignetti days for bringing Uptown bankers Downtown, Brinkley’s now offers a more neighborhood pub feel, where you can casually take down gourmet mac & cheese on mahogany church pews. Hang a quick right for the innocuous door with a not-so-innocuous bouncer guarding Southside, a cozy basement danceteria with pretty regulars, a packed floor, a typically solid DJ, and… well, there are still a lot of finance dudes!

The General & The Jazz Room & Finale
Image courtesy of Finale

THE GENERAL & THE JAZZ ROOM/FINALE

199 Bowery
New York, NY 10002

Top Chef’s Hung Huynh’s modern Asian menu at The General looks like cheesecake spring rolls. The spot itself looks like they burgled a Japanese castle from the future. Think that’s opulent? Follow the neon arrow downstairs to Finale (6,000sqft of dance floor encased in LED strip lights and lined with blue velvet); and The Jazz Room, where you’ll find live band karaoke celebrating Beyoncé, and, occasionally, the real life version of LeBron James.

Sumi & Charcoal Bar
Photo courtesy of Sumi

SUMI & CHARCOAL BAR

702 N Wells St
Chicago, IL 60654

After chowing on Chef Gene Kato’s chicken oysters and admiring Sumi Robata Bar’s smoothly appointed bamboo interior, head down the elevator to Charcoal Bar, a hyper-cozy Japanese lounge with just 12 seats. Expect hand-sculpted ice and a freaking exquisite cocktail menu from Michael Simon, who won’t think twice about pairing a 17yr-old whiskey with shochu and naming the result after the hot girl from Game of Thrones. No, the other hot girl.

Paris Club & Studio Paris
Photo courtesy of Studio Paris

PARIS CLUB & STUDIO PARIS

59 W Hubbard St
Chicago, IL 60654

When in Paris, sink into a plush leather booth, then sink into Le Royal: two dozen oysters, shrimp cocktail, whelks, whole Maine lobster, and 1lb of Alaskan king crab. If you don’t sink too far, head next door to Studio Paris Nightclub, Chicago’s top oontz oontz hotspot that’s outfitted with steel girders for pillars and has hosted EDM’s heaviest hitters, including Tiesto, DeadMau5, Avicii, Kaskade, and Calvin Harris, all of whom sound even better paired with an impressive champagne bottle list that includes 15L magnums of Veuve.

Next Restaurant & The Office
Photo courtesy of Next Restaurant

NEXT RESTAURANT & THE OFFICE

953 W Fulton Market
Chicago, IL 60607

Chef Grant Achatz's spaceship-like restaurant changes up its menu every three months. Like seriously changes -- from full vegan to traditional multi-course Japanese. The ultra-exclusive eatery requires tickets to attend (though every day a lucky fan can nab an open table via Facebook). Not exclusive enough? First of all, who are you? But fine, beneath the ground floor, just past a locked door (text a special number beforehand to get ushered in) there’s the 14-seat Office, a VIP lounge that serves up crazily ingenious cocktails (whiskey with truffles?) for reasonably priced entrée dollars.

Touché & E11even
Photo courtesy of E11even

TOUCHÉ

15 NE 11th St
Miami, FL 33132

E11EVEN

29 NE 11th St
Miami, FL 33130

First, head up to Touché for lamb lollipops courtesy of Top Chef firecracker Carla Pellegrino. It’s a high-end lounge experience in what’s a rapidly developing area… but the hood is still pretty desolate. That is until a special elevator whisks you to E11even, a 24-hour club that promises eats and girls during the day, and dancing and girls at night. While there’s gyrating and often scantily clad club employees, E11even isn’t quite a strip club… more a cabaret, burlesque, has-aerial-performers-and-contortionists hybrid. Disappointed? Don’t be, there’s a daily happy hour.

BÂOLI
Image courtesy of BÂOLI

BÂOLI

1906 Collins Ave
Miami, FL 33139

The resto’s mix of sushi, cooked seafood, and pasta is essential to fortify you for post-midnight outdoor garden action, when some of the prettiest people you’ll ever see dougie under the stars to DJs David Guetta and Avicii. BÂOLI's Cannes pedigree (they have a French location) shines through with a solidly international crowd -- even Pelé partied there -- while Wednesday nights see the infamously popular “My Boyfriend’s Out Of Town” ladies night, when you’ll hopefully bust out your “moves like Pelé”.

The Middle East
Image courtesy of The Middle East

THE MIDDLE EAST

472-480 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139

The Middle East was born as a Lebanese restaurant, and you can still get a great kebab (or Guinness Braised Lamb Shank at ZuZu, another resto in the same complex), but afterwards head to their basement, a former bowling alley that for decades has hosted one of Boston’s most crucial indie clubs, providing a home for everyone from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to possibly the best-named Justin Timberlake tribute in America… The Timberfakes.

Church
Image courtesy of Church

CHURCH

69 Kilmarnock St
Boston, MA 02215

Dip into a low-slung couch in the casually gothic upstairs lounge for a meal of PEI mussels chased by a cocktail off one of two menus: Seven Deadly Sins, or Seven Heavenly Virtues, which weirdly also have alcohol in them. Head into the back room for a cherished concert venue (everyone from hip hop legend Kool Keith to Japanese punks Peelander Z play there) musicians have described as “booming” if you stand up front, yet quiet enough for a conversation about your many virtues if you hang in the back.

Sayers Club
Image courtesy of Sayers Club

SAYERS FRONT ROOM & THE SAYERS CLUB

1645 Wilcox Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Originally, those hoping to catch a brown leather couch in the decadently appointed Sayers Club would creep through the Papaya King through an unmarked door. Now the hot dog stand has been replaced with a rock and roll gastro-lounge, where you can pop gourmet fried dates before heading back for bottle-service, surprise drop-ins (Florence and the Machine, Slash, some guy named “Prince”…), and weekly staples like Thursday’s "sessions" night, when nightlife director Jason Scoppa backs a lucky up-and-comer with the house band.

Foreign Cinma & Laszlo
Image courtesy of Foreign Cinema

FOREIGN CINEMA

2534 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110

LASZLO

2526 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110

Foreign Cinema itself is a Swiss Army knife of experiences, from sitting at the bar tasting Point Reyes Kumamotos, to taking down a Cali-Med feast while watching actual foreign cinema projected on the wall on the open-air back patio. Pop over to the adjacent, admittedly “Euro-friendly” industrial warehouse for DJs, tartare tostadas, and film-themed cocktails like the Body Heat -- a jalapeño-infused vodka number inspired by a young, sexy Richard Gere, as opposed to an old, weirdly sexier Richard Gere.