The best hotel bar in the United States is in a lobby on Northeast Fifth Street, and it opens at five.
Miami Guide Take
ViceVersa is an Italian aperitivo bar in the lobby of the Elser Hotel in downtown Miami, opened in 2024 by bartender Valentino Longo. It was named Best U.S. Hotel Bar at the 2026 Spirited Awards. It serves aperitivo-style cocktails — the Negroni and a Mi-To amaro blend are the signatures — alongside crudo, salads, and pizza, daily from 5 p.m. to midnight.
ViceVersa took Best U.S. Hotel Bar at the 2026 Spirited Awards in New Orleans on July 23, the only Miami bar to win at a ceremony judged by more than 250 people who do this for a living. Valentino Longo opened it inside the Elser in 2024 on a premise that shouldn’t work downtown: aperitivo, the Italian habit of drinking something bitter and low-proof before dinner, in a city that treats cocktails as an event rather than a warm-up. Two years later the room is full at six on a Tuesday.
