If you've tried to go to Mangroves lately (and let's be honest, no one has tried to go to Mangroves lately) you may have noticed that the upscale dinner/dance club has gotten a bit of a...reverse makeover. For imagery's sake, humor me as I take you down a metaphoric road. Picture a beauty queen in a sequined gown, her hair is perfectly coiffed and everything about her sparkles and shines in the stage lighting. She's fun to take dancing every once in while, but noone really wants to hangout with this chick on a regular basis. Even though she's beautiful and has excellent taste, she's expensive to hang out with, attracts a snobbish crowd, and will reject any man that doesn't have on a button-up shirt and closed-toe shoes. Now, let's imagine we catch this same beauty queen at the swimsuit portion of the evening. We sneak her out of the competition in her bikini and buy her a shot of tequila at a dive bar. She let's her hair down, starts groovin' to Bob Marley, and ends up winning Miss Congeniality later that night.
Metaphorically speaking, this is what has happened to Mangroves. New ownership and some major renovations have turned the once dimly lit restaurant/lounge scene into an open air, multi-colored, "beach bar" with bad-ass dinner and drink specials and a laid-back, flip-flop wearing kind of vibe. I ran across their nightly specials on 813area.com yesterday, so Trey and I headed over to SoHo to check it out.
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| Photo courtesy of sunovabeachsoho.com |
Trey was happy from the minute we got there, mostly because there were roughly six flat screen televisions mounted over the bar...which is of the utmost importance, because it's (fill in appropriate sport) season right now. We ordered their Thursday night special: 25 cent wings and $2 Sam Adams drafts. We also got some of their "Pomme Frites" for $3, which are just french fries with a variety of dipping sauces to choose from (i.e., siracha ketchup, blue cheese, ranch, horseradish, ect.). Everything was delicious, but what was even better was our bill:
From our arrival at 8:30 p.m. to our departure an hour later, we noticed that the music started to change from laid-back, Jimmy Buffet to Chris Brown around 9. By the time we left the female DJ was doing her thing and Lil' Jon's "Turn Down for What" was blasting through the room. The new owners did manage to keep my favorite thing from Mangroves, the upstairs dance lounge. It appears from their nightly specials list that they still do a bottle service upstairs, salvaging at least a small part of the structure's former lounge-like atmosphere.
I only have one critique for the new addition to Howard Avenue- it's name/branding strategy. Being a native Floridian, I tend to cringe a little when they call themselves a "beach bar". Hogan's can get away with it, because even though Rocky Point is a far cry from a "beach", at least they're still on the water. But a bar that sits on the SoHo strip? I think it's just a little bit cheesy, to be honest, and I'm not sure this branding concept has enough staying power to make it long-term on the strip. They sure have seemed to get everything else right, though. All-in-all, I give the new Sunova Beach "two-very-enthusiastic-thumbs-up." Great food, great prices, great drink specials, casual and fun atmosphere, and most importantly, it is not yet overrun by 21 year olds. With these drink specials though, it will only be a matter of time before the "younger crowd" moves in, puking in the bathroom stalls and stepping all over my flip-flop clad toes.
Enjoy National Flip-Flop Day by making your way out to the new Sunova Beach tonight...you'll be glad you did!
Click here for nightly drink specials.
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