Try this delicious combination of brown sugar, ice cream mix, Smirnoff, vanilla, Godiva chocolate, Bailey's rum cream and white chocolate for the rim. - Contributed

Formerly "a strict jazz and martini bar", Blue Beat, the bar with the backdoor beach on the MoBay Hip Strip now offers the kind of all-round entertainment variety many miss out on in Kingston. In 2004, this little blue bar won a niche of the MoBay bar-hopping market for itself, open seven days a week from 6 p.m. until you say, developing to fit customer tastes, with its lounge, Martini Mondays and Tuesdays, Live Jazz Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9 p.m., and Copacabana Fridays, with South American music, two-for-one rum and coke and Red Stripe specials. Saturday nights is The Guest List - if you're on The List you get in - a South Beach vibe - on the actual beach! - with a shots bar that draws the big crowds.

Bar manager Scott Robbins enthuses, "When we open it up to the outside by the sea, it really opens up everything. Once a month, we have a Wine Out, where we have a wine company that comes in during happy hour, and pours a variety of (complimentary) wines, and we serve a variety of tapas hors d' oeuvres. People come out and really enjoy themselves. There's no cover charge for that."

Intimate crowd

They also have an Unplugged Series that has featured the likes of Tessanne Chin and Tami Chynn and Tanya Stephens. Every other month they feature a Comedy Series (upcoming acts for September are Christopher Daley and Ragashanti). "It's a real intimate crowd, all in the outdoor area, sitting on couches lounging and just connecting with the artiste. They chat with the audience and they sing and it's a really great evening."