The southwestern sestiere across the Accademia bridge, a student and gallery quarter with Estro, Osteria al Squero across from the gondola yard and Pasticceria Tonolo since 1886.
Estro Vino e Cucina in Venice's Dorsoduro is the Spezzamonte brothers' modern bistro with 700 sustainable wines and a Michelin Guide listing for good cooking.
Signature: Pasta with lagoon fish, Cicchetti modernised, Natural wine flight
Order: The pasta of the day, the cicchetti tasting, a natural-wine flight from the 700-label list.
Tip: Closed Tuesdays.
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.
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.
Bar Foscarini tucks a terrace right under the wooden span of the Ponte dell'Accademia on the Dorsoduro side, a canal level deck that takes in the full Grand.
Tip: Not a rooftop in the literal sense; the deck sits at canal level under the bridge with the same payoff. Prices skew high for the view, so plan a single drink rather than a meal.
Experimental Cocktail Club hides behind a Cristina Celestino designed lobby door inside Il Palazzo Experimental on the Zattere, with the Paris and London.
Tip: Walk ins only, no reservations; the hotel desk can hold a table for guests. The Tuesday and Wednesday close is non negotiable and the room shuts for two weeks in January.
Cantinone già Schiavi, the Bottegon to locals, has been a Schiavi family enoteca on Fondamenta Nani opposite the Squero di San Trovaso since the nineteenth.
Tip: Stand at the bar or take the canal edge; there are no tables. Closes at 20:30 sharp so this is an early late night rather than a true after dark stop.
Pier Dickens has run an English style pub on Campo Santa Margherita since 2001, with the Ca' Foscari student square at the door, a long beer list.
Tip: Campo Santa Margherita is the student bar square; Pier Dickens runs latest of the campo lineup. Pizza by the slice keeps the crowd until close. Cash speeds the bar.
Caffè Rosso has run on Campo Santa Margherita since the late 1800s, the bright red awning a landmark of the student square, with an old percolator still.
Tip: Stand at the inside bar for a three euro spritz; outside seating carries a markup for the square view. Cash and small bills speed the cycle.
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.
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.