Ball & Chain photo
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Little Havana’s Ball & Chain has been named one of Esquire‘s Best Bars in America for 2026, the magazine’s annual roundup of 14 standout drinking spots from coast to coast. The recognition appears on Esquire.com now and in the Summer issue, on newsstands everywhere by June 16.
Ball & Chain is the only Miami bar on this year’s list, which is a major accomplishment in a city filled with acclaimed venues. The list spans from Austin to Seattle and includes stops in New Orleans, Nashville, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C. Each bar gets its own personal essay from a contributing writer rather than a capsule entry, which is the kind of treatment usually reserved for long-form food features.
Ball & Chain photo
Built before the neighborhood had a name
“There are plenty of reasons to visit Ball & Chain,” Esquire writes. “Start with the history. Built in 1935, it predates the names of the street it’s on (Calle Ocho) and the neighborhood it’s in (Little Havana). Then there’s the lore. Bootleggers, gamblers, mobsters, crooked politicians — oh, and Billie Holiday sang here.”
Holiday wasn’t the only one. Legends like Count Basie and Chet Baker also performed at Ball & Chain in its first two decades, with jam sessions running to 5 a.m. The club closed in 1957, sat vacant for years, and was eventually renovated and reopened in 2014. The renovation brought back live music, an outdoor stage, and a cocktail program centered on rum. This all helped to reinvigorate the stretch of Calle Ocho that had grown quiet since the original club closed.
Ball & Chain photo
The “Pineapple Band Shell” still brings it
“Behold the pineapple-shaped band shell outside,” the entry continues; “savor the rum-heavy drinks inside.” The cocktail menu leans Cuban and rum-forward with house mojitos, daiquiris, and rotating specials. The outdoor stage boasts a covered patio that is filled up most nights. It runs “Mambo Mondays” through “Salsero Sundays,” with free salsa lessons on Thursdays.
“Ball & Chain’s mojitos always loosen the joints,” Esquire writes. “A necessity, because the band’s bringing it.” The essay closes on the dance floor itself, the narrator getting pulled into a salsa set: “for a little while we’re carefree college kids again.”
Miami’s last entries on the Esquire list came in 2024, when Medium Cool in South Beach and Kaiju at the Citadel food hall in Little River both made the cut.
Ball & Chain. 1513 SW Eighth St., Little Havana; ballandchainmiami.com.
