Imagina Caffè runs out of a former Ponte dei Pugni art gallery a step off Campo Santa Margherita, with rotating exhibitions on the walls, a long aperitivo list and a Friday and Saturday close at 01:00 that pulls the student campo crowd next door.
Tip: The Friday and Saturday late close is the catch; midweek the cafe shuts at 21:00 with the rest of the square. Spritz and tramezzini run cheap.
Address: Dorsoduro 3126, Ponte dei Pugni, 30123 Venezia, Venice
The Venice Jazz Club is the city's lone dedicated jazz room, a small Dorsoduro space near Ponte dei Pugni that programmes two live sets a night Monday through Friday, with the resident VJC Jazz Quartet rotating with touring acts.
Tip: Tickets include a welcome drink; arrive by 20:30 for the 21:00 set to claim a table near the band. The room is closed Wednesday and Sunday and through most of August.
Molocinque sits in a converted 1930s warehouse on Via dell'Elettricità in Porto Marghera and runs as the Venice metro area's biggest commercial dance room, with multiple floors swinging between house, hip hop and electro pop.
Tip: Historic Venice itself has no real clubs; Molocinque is the cab ride on the mainland past the causeway. The Wed midweek slot is calmer than the Friday and Saturday peaks.
Tag Club is a small underground room on Via Giustizia in Mestre, running electronic and techno line ups alongside the occasional live jazz set and themed nights for a young Veneto crowd that fills the room on weekends.
Tip: The room is intimate by club standards; the line ups skew toward visiting DJs over commercial sets. Mestre station is a short walk so the last train is sometimes catchable.
The Venice Jazz Club is the city's lone dedicated jazz room, a small Dorsoduro space near Ponte dei Pugni that programmes two live sets a night Monday through Friday, with the resident VJC Jazz Quartet rotating with touring acts.
Tip: Tickets include a welcome drink; arrive by 20:30 for the 21:00 set to claim a table near the band. The room is closed Wednesday and Sunday and through most of August.
Bacaro Jazz has run on Salizada del Fontego dei Tedeschi a hundred metres from the Rialto Bridge since 1997, with recorded and occasional live jazz, a ceiling thick with bras left by guests and a kitchen that holds through the late hours.
Tip: The bar runs straight through service so you can drop in for a cicchetto at 18:00 or a cocktail at 01:00. Cocktails sit around twelve euros and the room fills past midnight on weekends.
Bar Dandolo sits among marble columns and Murano chandeliers on the ground floor of the fourteenth century Palazzo Dandolo at the Hotel Danieli, with classic cocktails, a Gambero Rosso Bar d'Italia history and live piano most evenings.
Tip: Cocktails run around twenty euros; the early aperitivo slot from 18:00 is the calmest window. Afternoon tea service runs 15:00 to 18:00 if you want the room without the bar tab.
Skyline crowns the Hilton Molino Stucky on Giudecca, a former flour mill turned hotel that hosts the city's highest rooftop bar, with a signature cocktail list built around the in house Stucky 1975 Venice Gardens gin and a panorama that runs across the lagoon to St Mark's.
Tip: The hotel runs a free shuttle boat from San Marco Giardinetti; book a sunset slot for the strongest light on the dome of the Salute. Cocktails sit around twenty five euros.