After this blog post I want to go to Miami and experience the rich and vibrant culture of South Beach. Thank you Dalia from Berlin Designs, Inc. for the wonderful recommendations and advice on everything to do and see in Miami. This is a real treat!
For all you readers out there, we are building our East -2- West series. We want to give our readers their personal connection to global design, create a designer-to-designer network, and provide you with the very best in each city. Leave it to the interior design experts and with that lets return to the series with Miami!!!!
1. Best antique find in Miami: Right in Design District
SusaneR when looking for very eclectic pieces, This is the way to go!
2. After you have had a morning to shop what is your favorite place to grab a bite to eat and take a load off your feet in Miami?
While shopping right in the district I would go to Michael’s genuine – for a relaxed leisure meal with clients you can sit outside or inside and always run into someone you know. I highly recommended especially for dinner their heirloom tomato & golden beat salad with green beans, hearts of palm and blue cheese crumbles is my fave! Very refreshing for our Miami heat.
130 Northeast 40th Street
Miami, FL 33137
(305) 573-5550
Now for dinner I would venture down to Brickell and try Dolores but you can call me Lolita – their gazpacho is famous and they even give you the recipe (minus their secret ingredient: creme fraiche but don’t say I told you, it’s sumptous!) You pick from column A and then from column B and then desert all for $18. Now with a great ambiance and situated in the original and restored Miami Firehouse (look for the sliding poles) how can you go wrong?
3. What is artistically unquie about Miami? What is the Miami known for?
Oh wow! In Miami visitors must visit the South Beach District. Take a walk on the boardwalk or better yet a walk on the famous pedestrian street Lincoln Road (between Collins and Alton on 17th Street).
Carl Fisher, the wealthy original developer of Miami Beach, envisioned Lincoln Road to be the Miami Beach counterpart to Fifth Avenue in New York, or Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. And indeed in the boom times of South Beach in the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s, it could match those upscale fashionable shopping districts. Fisher’s concept was that Lincoln Road would be the way to draw together the east and west sides of Miami Beach.
Today, Lincoln Road is a pedestrian mall between Alton Road and Washington Avenue. It is once again thriving as a shopping and dining area. Unique stores offer items not typically found in malls, and restaurants and cafés are common. Most restaurants offer either indoor or outdoor seating, including in the middle of the pedestrian mall area. And without question, the people watching on Lincoln Road can match any place in the world. There seems to be a constant flow of stunningly attractive women and men passing by, and many wear fashionable clothes with a major dose of sexy.
If you are up to it, a fun and educational tour believe it or not, is the South Beach Duck Tours, which describes all the lines of the miami modernism/deco style architecture while on the bus tour and then it transforms into an amphibious boat and takes you through the backyards of the rich a famous, Shak and the like all while enjoying the bay, reserve a must!
4. Describe the current design trends in Miami.
I would emphatically have to say that the interior design industry in our area can be surely called the “delano hotel design.”
Like they say if I had a dollar for every time a client has quoted the interior of the Delano hotel designed by Phillipe Stark I would be well who knows.
The Delano was the first hotel in America which featured a true indoor/outdoor lobby, and a marvelous interpretation of bringing the outdoors in. In South Florida where our focal point is always the Ocean, and Mother Nature, we cannot compete with the beauty that G-d surround us with, so instead we bring all of the outdoors in. This then reflects in the color palettes of our design, the billowing white sheers that reminds us of the ocean breeze, and the casual style of the furniture lines even in the most elegant of interiors.
5. The best art gallery in Miami.
Wow so many… too many to choose from…I love the Wynwood area. Take a great pair of comfy shoes and spend the day gallery hopping. Below is a quick guide to help you get started.
6. The one unique thing you can do in Miami is by far to eat at Joe’s Stone Crabs.
11 Washington Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 673-0365
Reprinted with permission from Eat at Joe’s: The Joe’s Stone Crab Restaurant Cookbook
Joe’s Mustard Sauce
1 tablespoon Colman’s dry mustard, or more to taste
1 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Worcestershire
1 teaspoon A-1 sauce
2 tablespoons light cream
salt
Place the mustard in a mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the mayonnaise and beat for 1 minute. Add the Worcestershire, A-1, cream, and a pinch of salt and beat until the mixture is well blended and creamy. If you’d like a little more mustardy bite, whisk in 1/2 teaspoon more dry mustard until well blended. Chill the sauce, covered, until serving.
For reviews on the sauce click here.
7. Favorite accessory stores are Urban Art and Jalan Jalan both in the Miami design district.
Totally unique each in their own way and a must revisit at least once a month for all their new products.
Jalan Jalan
3921 NE 2nd Ave Miami FL 33137
(305) 572-9998
Modern ehnic and eclectic a collection for every interior space. They have furniture and art too.
8. The coolest hotel to stay in Miami I would say is the Fontainbleu, in Miami Beach.
Many guestrooms and suites have breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the twinkling necklace of lights that reveals Miami Beach at night. Rooms and suites are fully equipped with high definition flat screen TVs, advanced sound systems, 20” iMac® and ultra-luxurious amenities. Modern, sophisticated interior designs create an atmosphere of quiet and calm for effortless relaxation.