5. Truck Stop
(@Cafe 27, 4690 US Highway 27, Weston)
Photo: Daison Osbourne
Located about as far as you can get from South Beach without leaving the Miami metro area, Cafe 27 (a/k/a Chickee Hut, or Tiki Hut) at the Seminole Travel Center on the edge of the Everglades Weston, Fla. turns three nights a week into one of Florida’s best Caribbean parties. Besides for the music and unusual location, the appeal of Truck Stop, as the parties are known, lies in its food—jerk chicken, jerk pork, escoveitch, sometimes even mannish water. And you can’t come all the way out to Weston without snacking on a few festival.
Their annual blowout Carnival kickoff party already went down on Wednesday, but stop in tonight or tomorrow for your jerk chicken fix. Most nights— Truck Stop only keeps on Wednesdays, Friday and Saturdays; the other nights it’s a biker hangout— the food starts cooking around 5, with DJs on at 8 or 9 and the party over at 2 on the dot. Read more about the phenomenon that is Truck Stop here.