{"id":388771,"date":"2026-09-03T00:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/388771\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T00:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:02:22","slug":"south-beachs-macs-club-deuce-turns-100-with-block-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/388771\/","title":{"rendered":"South Beach\u2019s Mac\u2019s Club Deuce turns 100 with block party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back when the late chef Anthony Bourdain would drive around South Beach in a cherry red Corvette, he\u2019d get a tattoo and walk down the street to grab a drink at \u201cone of my favorite places on earth.\u201d On one of those trips, he paid a visit to his buddy Mac Klein, the owner of the eponymous Mac\u2019s Club Deuce. Klein had just turned 100 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what the amazing thing about being 100 is?\u201d he told Bourdain about 10 years ago. \u201cA year ago I was 99. Nobody paid attention to me. Didn\u2019t care. I became 100. My God…\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Klein\u2019s iconic dive bar was 99 years old, and nobody cared. Soon, it turns 100 and the whole city is celebrating. On Saturday, starting at 4 p.m., the bar is hosting an all-day block party with raffle prizes, merch, live music and plenty of drinks. Cash only, as always.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to fathom sometimes because I was born and raised on the beach, so I\u2019ve seen it go through a bunch of different transitions,\u201d said manager Christie Ashenoff. \u201cI\u2019m thankful that it\u2019s still there. I\u2019m proud that it\u2019s still there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Manager Manager Christie Ashenoff poses at Mac’s Club Deuce. Miami’s oldest bar, located at 222 14th St, Miami Beach, is celebrating 100 years with a block party taking place on Saturday, September 5, on Friday August 28, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Mac\u2019s Club Deuce stands alone in Miami\u2019s infamous nightlife scene, not just for its age and historic significance but for its vibe. It is one of the few remaining local bars with a strong sense of community and a damn good happy hour. (BOGO drinks from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.!)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou lose track of time in there. It\u2019s like a portal,\u201d said Suanay \u201cSwan\u201d Hernandez, founder of local food magazine Undrbelly and a bar regular.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a devious little place with an angel number address: 222 14th Street. Every day from 8 a.m. to 5 a.m., the neon lights shine bright and the juke box bumps whatever you want. Silly spring breakers sloppily shoot pool with seasoned sharks who bring their own cue sticks. Bartenders chime in on juicy gossip sessions. Locals sip on affordable drinks just a few steps away from the ocean, which means a lot now that Miami is more expensive than New York City.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what you\u2019re getting when you walk in the door. I don\u2019t care if you have $5 in your pocket or $5,000 in your pocket,\u201d Ashenoff said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to treat every person the same. I think people just like being seen and treated as humans and not as a potential payday.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s revered as a pretension-free refuge from overpriced and overstimulating Ocean Drive. It\u2019s a tourist destination that never became a tourist trap. This is no small feat in a city where working class locals are priced out mercilessly to make way for the ultra-wealthy here to work on their winter tans.<\/p>\n

\"Entrance Entrance view at Mac’s Club Deuce. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

\u201cContinuing to go to Mac\u2019s is almost like a protest to what is going on in the rest of the city,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThe locals and people who care about the city at its core yearn for spaces like that. We don\u2019t just want the whole city to turn into Brickell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac\u2019s Club Deuce is a living time capsule, home to some of the best stories in Miami-Dade County. Some things never change. The Deuce is one of them.<\/p>\n

History in a \u2018Mac-ademia\u2019 Nutshell<\/p>\n

While the bar brands itself as \u201cEst. 1926,\u201d nailing down the exact history of the building is a little tricky. According to owner Mary Klein, Mac\u2019s widow, the building was originally built to store seaplane parts. It was a restaurant and bar pre-prohibition and a bar post-prohibition, Ashenoff was told.<\/p>\n

Mac Klein was born in Brooklyn, New York in September 1914, six months before the City of Miami Beach was established. He joined the army and landed in Miami Beach for basic training, according to the bar\u2019s website.<\/a> He was sent to fight in World War II, where he was badly injured. A doctor said warm weather would help him heal, so he returned to Miami Beach in 1945.<\/p>\n

\"Mac Mac Klein, a World War II veteran, bought Club Deuce in Miami Beach in 1964. Half a century later, he had seen his Mac\u2019s Club Deuce turn into a gathering spot for everyone from the neighborhood accountant to Hollywood celebrities. He worked there until his death at age 101. Facebook\/Mac\u2019s Club Deuce <\/p>\n

Mac became a regular at Club Deuce and added his name to the business after he took it over in 1964. His bar rules were simple: no fighting, no betting, no loud cursing, no drugs. He worked at the bar up until his death in 2016 at 101.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ashenoff has fond memories of Mac, also known as Macademia Nut. He was stern but sweet. Her mom met Mac in the \u201880s when she worked as a meter maid. South Beach was pretty rough, but she never had issues on 14th Street because Mac and Lou, the owner of Tattoos by Lou, kept an eye out for her.<\/p>\n

In the late \u201880s, \u201cMiami Vice\u201d filmed at The Deuce and held its wrap party there, cementing the bar in pop culture history. The TV producers installed the now-iconic pink and green neon lights in the bar, on the condition that they let Mac\u2019s keep them permanently.<\/a><\/p>\n

Then came Bourdain, whose devotion to The Deuce held no bounds. The first time he came to Miami, Mac\u2019s was the first place his friends brought him to, he said in an episode of \u201cThe Layover.\u201d He featured the bar in three TV shows, promoting it to a new generation of tourists who appreciate Mac\u2019s for the same reasons Bourdain did.<\/p>\n

\"Patrons Patrons enjoy Mac’s Club Deuce. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

While there have been some minimal interior changes over the decades (there\u2019s no longer a payphone or cigarette machine), the eclectic nature of Mac\u2019s clientele has remained the same. On a Thursday afternoon in the summer of 1989, Miami Herald reporter David Zeman walked into the bar and met \u201ca poet, an accountant, a cremation urn salesman, a carpenter, a nuclear physicist, a janitor, a yacht captain, and a bus driver.\u201d Not to mention the newlywed couple smooching in the back. They met at Mac\u2019s the week before and were married five days later.<\/p>\n

The prices have also remained relatively low. Today, a beer is $7. In 1989, it was $2.<\/p>\n

The bar\u2019s cult following and \u201camazing\u201d landlord explain how The Deuce survive everything from the Cocaine Cowboys era to the pandemic, all while keeping prices reasonable, Ashenoff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not a big corporation. We have one owner, and we\u2019ve had the same bartenders for many years,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are loyal to our employees and our locals and our regulars, and they\u2019re loyal to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katie Katie Wardenski, 24, tends bar at Club Deuce. Left is regular Joe Onda, 55, who has been coming to the bar for 26 years. Bazemore Miami Herald Love, music and iguanas<\/p>\n

Retired University of Miami professor Melissa Burley sat at the B-shaped bar on a recent Friday. It was 4 p.m., and Mac\u2019s was busy with chain smokers, day drinkers and pool players. Dolly Parton played on the speakers as Burley flipped through her photos.<\/p>\n

She worked at The Deuce as a bartender from 1995 to 2009, and took a series of photos she later published as a book: drag queens, birthday parties, backbends on the pool table, raunchy Halloween costumes, dudes climbing on construction equipment outside.<\/p>\n

Burley paused at one of her favorite photos from the early 2000s: A blonde women swinging an iguana by its tail.<\/p>\n

\"A A woman named Tara swings the pet iguana that belonged to a man she had a disagreement with at Mac\u2019s Club Deuce in the early 2000s. Former bartender Melissa Burley witnessed the drama go down. Courtesy of Melissa Burley <\/p>\n

Two people at the bar had beef: a woman named Tara and a guy with a pet iguana, Burley recalled. \u201cYou owe me $25,\u201d Tara said. \u201cI don\u2019t owe you s—,\u201d the guy responded. She snatched the iguana off his shoulder, demanding her money back. He didn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n

She swung the iguana round and round like a lasso. \u201cTara, put the iguana down!\u201d a bartender yelled. She threw the poor lizard through the air, and it smacked against the cigarette machine. The whole bar gasped. The man grabbed his iguana (which survived the flight) and left. Tara flashed the bar and left, too, Burley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the witness to all these amazing stories,\u201d Burley said.<\/p>\n

\"Former Former bartender Melissa Burley poses at Mac’s Club Deuce. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Across the bar, Aaron Ryder was losing a game of pool. A regular of 20 years, Ryder said he loves to come to Mac\u2019s to play against great pool players. That afternoon, he found one.<\/p>\n

Ryder\u2019s favorite bar story was from this year\u2019s FIFA World Cup when the bar was full of regulars and football fans from around the world. For three hours, he controlled the music, playing songs everyone inside sang along to. It was the most fun he and his friends had at the bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had this place rocking, everybody singing and dancing,\u201d said Ryder, 50. \u201cWe turned The Deuce into a dance club and a karaoke bar at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Long Long time patron, photographer Aaron Ryder, plays pool at Mac’s Club Deuce. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

As author Lynn Wadell wrote in 2014<\/a>, \u201cThe bar\u2019s real treasure is the spell of friendship it casts.\u201d That same Friday afternoon, Christie said hi to a few regulars who she knows by name. Some hugged her and promised to come to the block party.<\/p>\n

Love also blossoms at The Deuce. Mary, now 85, bartended at there for many years before she and Mac started dating and eventually got married.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Ashenoff also fell in love at the bar. She was working at Tattoos By Lou and came into Mac\u2019s for a drink when she met her future husband Argelio \u201cAngel\u201d Diaz, who eventually became the bar\u2019s manager. The couple got engaged at the bar and had two sons together.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Diaz died at 60.<\/a> The Mac\u2019s Club Deuce community lifted Ashenoff up. A GoFundMe campaign<\/a> for his funeral expenses and their sons\u2019 education had a goal of $22,200. It raised over $43,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really changed how I was able to handle his passing. You hear people talk about \u2018your community,\u2019 but to see your community at work and to see how much people genuinely love and care for you, just seeing the good in people,\u201d Ashenoff said. \u201cSome people wouldn\u2019t think that you would see that in a bar of all places, but the way they rallied around me, the boys, the staff, Mary, it\u2019s really special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Window Window view at Mac’s Club Deuce. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com Coming together<\/p>\n

Originally, Mac\u2019s Club Deuce was going to celebrate its 100th birthday with something small inside the bar, Ashenoff said. But Troy Wright, the executive director of the Washington Avenue Business Improvement District, convinced her to do a block party, a big celebration for a big milestone.<\/p>\n

From Washington Avenue to Collins Avenue, 14th Street will be closed to cars and open to the public. There will be special 100th anniversary merchandise, an outdoor bar and a stage for DJs and live music on the east side of 14th Street. The bar accumulated over 50 donations from dozens of local businesses for raffle prizes, which will go on throughout the day. Proceeds from the raffle will go to Heart Heroes, a nonprofit that supports children and families affected by congenital heart disease, and the Florida chapter of the Human Trafficking Foundation.<\/p>\n

Former staff and bartenders will return to help out during the block party, including Burley. The bar\u2019s centennial is a testament to Mac and Mary\u2019s leadership as owners, she said.<\/p>\n

\"Mary Mary and Mac Klein, the owners of dive bar Mac\u2019s Club Deuce, in an undated photo. Mac, who died in 2016, bought the bar in 1964, and Mary used to work there as a bartender. Mary is the current bar owner. Courtesy of Christie Ashenoff <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve done everything they can to keep the essence of this place and the fun of this place,\u201d Burley said. \u201cPeople who get it get it, and people who don\u2019t, they\u2019ll come in, they\u2019ll look around, they\u2019ll be like, \u2018Oh no!\u2019 And they\u2019ll run right out the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s nightlife has always been weird, seedy and a bit of a facade. Some might say the city is in a crisis of cool, in desperate need of a wake-up call. Now more than ever, highfalutin clubs selling $30 cocktails pander to manosphere influencers, finance bros and the worst people you know from high school.<\/p>\n

But not The Deuce, where dress codes be damned. Just wear shoes and be cool, man.<\/p>\n

By the end of the night \u2014 or beginning of the day \u2014 everyone leaves the bar smelling like cigarettes. All are equal. All are welcome. At least until someone gets kicked out for fighting.<\/p>\n

\"Street Street view as patrons enjoy Mac’s Club Deuce. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com If you go<\/p>\n

What: Mac\u2019s Club Deuce 100th Anniversary Block Party<\/p>\n

When: Sep. 5, 4 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Where: 222 14th Street, Miami Beach<\/p>\n

Info: Free entry. Cash only for drinks. Credit cards accepted for merchandise.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published September 2, 2026 at 6:00 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back when the late chef Anthony Bourdain would drive around South Beach in a cherry red Corvette, he\u2019d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-388771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}