A weekend in Miami. Forty-eight hours. That is the challenge. It doesn’t scare us. A good traveler does not measure the days like the rest of humans. In this time it is possible to go to hidden bars, visit new museums, bathe in the sea and swimming pools (in Miami always both) and discover places that we do not want to share with anyone. Because you either love Miami or hate it. It is clear which group we belong to.
DAY 1
17.00 h. The arrival. The heat. Oh. the heat.
We step on Florida soil and, we have a little climatological shock : is this humidity true? We had forgotten. But, then, we look sideways and find a palm tree, the first of the thousands that we are going to see, we think of the beach and it passes us. Of Revelation, nothing, it has been only a moment. Suddenly, what was hot and humid is a sensual feeling. This is Miami, that city that concentrates the best of both worlds, the Latino and the American.
6.30 p.m. Hotel, sweet, hotel.
We belong to that breed that never says “any hotel works: we only go to sleep in it”.Any hotel does not work. In fact, the hotel can be the journey. We look for hotels that engage with the local culture, that can only be there; That they have what they call “sense of place”. The Edition is like that. It has been open for a few months, but, in a city where competition is wild, it has already become desirable even by locals. The Edition is in the building of The Seville, which was an iconic hotel in postwar Miami. It was built by Melvin Grossman in 1955 and its white tower, so austere, broke the silhouette of the city. In it resonates the influence of Le Corbusier and his Unité d’Habitation de Marseille.Ian Schrager, who is responsible for its rebirth, has preserved (because he wants to and because he must) details of the original architecture, such as the clock on the façade, the sign, the trampoline of one of the pools and even a golf hole on the course.
When we arrive dragging our briefcase we see a white lobby, fresh and huge, with columns of golden tiles and plants. That combination shocks us, but it shocks us well. The feeling is that of being in a hotel of the 60s in Miami and at the same time in a place of the day after tomorrow. We went up to the room, unexpectedly serene. Quick dip in the pools, so photogenic them, and shower seasoned with cosmetics from Le Labo and HBO in the background. We are already in the United States of America, the country from which no one is disappointed.
20. 00h. A Saturday dinner.
We also have the classic
post-flight hunger
. Here dinner is ready for dinner. We decided to bet on a part of Miami Beach that is flourishing: it is the north of South Beach, where they are opening hotels and restaurants and allows you to breathe a little of the South area, photogenic but dense. There are hotels such as the W South Beach, S1 and the new Villa Bagatelle. Further north are Thompson, Soho House and the brand new AC Miami Beach Hotel. We want to eat fresh and healthy. We had dinner at Bagatelle, a brand new branch of the restaurant of the same name in New York, Sao Paulo and St Barth. We ordered ceviche and octopus. The cuisine, championed by Matthieu Godard, is a mix between the French with local touches of Europe with America. That is, everything is appetizing. The raw material is fresh and the atmosphere curious: elegant Latin couples making themselves arrumacos and European expats wanting good wine. We wanted to know what a trendy restaurant in Miami is like and we have already done it.
22.00 h. Bars, what places
We need a bar. It’s that clear. Neither a club nor a lounge or anything of that caliber, after dinner we need a bar with its bar and stools. Let’s go to the Broken Shaker. This is a bar that opened being ephemeral but did not let be. The success was such that its owners, Daniel Orta and Elad Zvi, made it permanent. It is part of the Freehand, the hostel that, with its charisma, has stolen the limelight from many of the great hotels.
Both, bar and hostel, have all the Tics which we presuppose of one of the More hipster places (although the term is very 2013 we understand each other) from the United States: Vintage touches, respect for the past, beautiful people who are lazy to be and a thousand and one instagrammable details. But, to the annoyance of cynics, the best thing is that Broken Shaker is very good, its atmosphere is great, the tone is right and the drinks and service impeccable. We would return every day to this place, but then, these “48 hours in Miami” would not be read by anyone. Although, what the heck, we still do it.
DAY 2
10.00 h. Art, palm trees and new museums.
Miami is an artistic capital. It is. And it can be stated with great certainty. It is no coincidence that it has its own Art Basel. It is home to spectacular private collections such as the Margulies Collection, the Cruz Collection or the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection; also very active museums in the community such as the Bass Museum. The last great museum is itPAMM or Pérez Art Museum, which is in the so-called Museum Park; this area will soon receive a new science museum, Patricia Frost Museum of Science and a park and aims to bea new destination within Miami. The PAMM is the evolution of the Miami Art Museum and has a permanent collection of works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Kiki Smith, Dan Flavin or Diego Rivera. The building is by Herzog & deMeuron, but seeing it from the outside does not count as a visit. Walked.
12.00 h. Wynwood, of course.
We go to the district where everyone (entrepreneurs, brands, visitors and locals) wants to go.LVMH had its eye on these industrial streets that ten years ago nobody looked. Now, even Loewe has a shop there. And what a shop: in it there is an authentic Spanish granary; that is a classic madness worthy of this neighborhood. We wandered around a bit and fantasized about buying a lot. Local brands have also settled in Wynwood , such as Panther Coffee, frequented by people who would never order a latte frapuccino and who value ground coffee and worked slowly. But it’s not time for coffee, but for lunch, we change neighborhoods.
1.30 p.m. Pampering MiMo
A five-minute drive away is MIMO (Miami Modern). This neighborhood shares its name with a very specific architectural style that developed in this area of South Florida in the mid-twentieth century. In this area of Midtown are preserved, as is, motels, gas stations and spaces with architecture ranging from the 20s to the 50s, therefore, we see Art-Deco, Mediterranean style and MiMO. It is exciting to see how part of our American imaginary is within reach of our eyes. The neighborhood is beginning a new era, but, by zones, it is still a somewhat conflictive neighborhood. In five years it will be a new Wynwood, but now there are still few who dare to start businesses here. There is acommunity initiative to preserve this architectural style and the aesthetics of the Biscayne Boulevard Historic District, which is where the largest concentration of MiMO motels in Miami is located.
Who is based in MIMO and is a banner of the neighborhood is Vagabond. This is one of those unique motels; it was built in 1953 by Robert Swartburg. Today it also comes to life as a motel, with its corresponding swimming pool and simple, colorful and stylish rooms. In Vagabond stands out its restaurant, which already comes to eat from all corners of Miami. Its chef is Alex Chang, half Chinese, half Mexican, so it’s easy to imagine the delicacies being eaten. And yes, Vagabond is very fashionable. Yes, reservations are required. And yes, the Rat Pack was here too.
We return to the hotel to rest. A dip, a walk through the Limited Edition store, one of the best hotel shops we have come across and come out again. We move inUber, that’s why we move so much. Oops, Uber: that’s slippery ground.
8.30 p.m. Brickell la Nuit.
We leave Miami Beach or “the beach” as the locals call it. It’s a shame to come to Miami and stay alone on that strip of land. We will dine on a Brickell. Before it was a financial and residential district, but everything moves to make it a new great center of the city, where hotels and good shopping have weight. There is La Mar, the restaurant that Gaston Acurio has in the Mandarin Oriental, a classic of the city. Captained by Diego Oka, it has an anticucho bar and a ceviche bar. We like this almost as much as being able to dine on Peruvian food of this level outdoors, with the Caribbean breeze in the background and an overwhelming urban view. We are in the right place, at the right time and with the right pisco sour.
11 p.m. Miami semi-clandestine.
We return to Wynwood, to a restaurant called Coyo. We don’t really want to eat tacos, even if they’re delicious like the ones served here. We seek, literally, to go further. The back door of this place hides a bar, a kind of speakeasy that is not advertised and that you have to know exists to enter. In this place they serve cocktails of scandal like the Paletarita and a lot and good mezcal. Within ten minutes we are already saying “For all bad, mezcal, for all good, too”. We didn’t have this Miami.
DAY 3, THE PLUS
Liquid start.
The day begins with a swim on the beach. Almost all hotels in Miami Beach have a reserved space with their loungers and sunscreens for free, but the beach is public and everyone’s. A swim first thing in the morning, when there are only people walking dogs and many, many, runners is balsamic. After one of salt water, another of fresh water in the ineffable pools of the hotel. The heat, already from the morning, pushes us. After the beach someone raises the possibility of bowling in The Edition itself, which has its bowling alley, but these are not hours and we have a day as long as Collins Avenue, where we are.
These are our last hours in the city and we want to spend them in a bathing suit, as the locals live. We can not entertain ourselves much because before returning to the airport we have one more stop.
Brunch at the 27. We said that the Freehand would come back every day and it was not a phrase made. Back. We cross the street and we are already sitting in the 27, the restaurant of this hostel. Brunch on the 27th is relaxed, colorful and vibrant. In it you can eat dishes from the cultures that the city hosts. We tried the malawach, the bono bread and a Green Mary, which is a Bloody Mary but green. There’s considerable fondness for green in 2015 Miami, but that’s another topic. We would spend hours here, but our flight departs.
We have a long way to go: shopping (Lincoln Road still serves to satisfy anxiety), returning to the Design District, seeing more pools and spending more time on what is happening in Wynwood and Brickell. It has not been possible. Human cloning is not allowed. We need to go back. It is an order we give ourselves.
Source: https://www.traveler.es/viajes/viajes-urbanos/articulos/miami-en-48-horas-moteles-bares-clandestinos-piscinas/7015
