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N MIAMI CONDO NEWS — All About Condo Living in the Magic City — Edited by Heinz Dinter, PhD |
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Miami’s new vices July 22, 2006 • On a typical Saturday night at Mansion, three things are front and centre: cash, flesh and the restorative effects of a disco nap. The South Beach club gets its groove going around midnight, when crowds in what is best described as an “undress code” — think silky backless tops and micro-minis — surge inside for dancing, bottle service (a $500 minimum) and La Aurora cigars. In other words, just the sort of delirious excess that made it a perfect shooting location for Miami Vice. In theatres this coming Friday, the latest take on the cocaine cowboys of the 1980s stars Colin Farrell as Sonny Crockett and Jamie Foxx as Ricardo Tubbs. This time, though, the bad guys include human traffickers and nuclear-arms dealers. The film also highlights a new brand of Miami cool. It’s less pastel, more street — the locus of the action is not only by the water, but at downtown galleries and gourmet restaurants in Miami’s South Beach neighbourhood. When the TV series first aired in 1984, “cool” was not a word associated with Miami. Because of retirees, South Beach was dubbed “God’s waiting room.” Because of drugs, the city had the highest homicide rate in the U.S. Joan Didion wrote in her 1987 exposé Miami: “As in other parts of the world where the citizens shop for guerrilla discounts and bargains in semi-automatic weapons, there was in Miami an advanced interest in personal security.” Then came that Miami Vice montage of flamingos, jai alai and bikini babes, and that infectious theme song. Suddenly, Miami’s underbelly became its selling point. Like Crockett — scolded for getting “high on the action” in the premiere episode (we hope the film has better dialogue) — 19 million viewers got hooked on the city’s edgy glamour. By the late 1980s, many were booking holidays in South Beach, where art-deco apartments, eateries and hotels such as the Cardozo (now owned by Gloria Estefan) and the Carlyle (featured in The Birdcage) were being renovated. But Miami did pay a price for being “up to its Ray-Bans in espresso,” as the TV show’s creator, Anthony Yerkovitch, put it in a 1989 interview. The millions of visitors who have come to the city in the intervening years — from A-list regulars such as Mischa Barton and Matt Damon to, well, Jane and John Doe of Akron — have watered down the glitz-per-capita ratio of the late eighties. These days, Ocean Drive is thronged with musclemen from New Jersey riding rented Ferrari scooters, and the hotties are mainly hostesses hawking surf and turf. So what’s a discerning traveller to do when edgy gives way to ersatz? Head across the causeway, for one. As Beverly Visitacion, the location scout for Miami Vice, says, “The new Miami is not deco. It’s high-rises, it’s glass, it’s steel.” A new generation of locals — more cosmopolitan, more urbane — are snapping up downtown condos and hobnobbing in the inner city. One hub for culture hounds is Wynwood. Just off Miami Avenue, this Puerto Rican area has been transformed from a manufacturing centre into a not-quite-gentrified-yet gallery district. In between Florida art in action — grillwork gates, mounds of modish junk and bright signs for wholesale purses, fabric and human hair — are renovated warehouses housing avant-garde painting and photography. The granddaddy of the 54 galleries is the Rubell Family Collection. Opened in 1996, it’s located in a former Drug Enforcement Administration warehouse — where Miami Vice shot scenes for the television series. Now, the 45,000-square-foot space shows off the holdings of Don Rubell and his family, funded in part by the estate of his late brother Steve, the co-owner of Studio 54. Rotating exhibits have included work by Keith Haring and Jeff Koons. And, yes, Andy Warhol’s take on Studio 54’s VIP entry tickets, which he used to pay off his bar bill. A few blocks away is The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse. This is a somewhat grittier art bunker that shares the hoardings of real-estate developer Martin Z. Margulies. Exhibits focus on photography and video from 1910 to the present, with work by Walker Evans, Andreas Gursky and Cindy Sherman among the treasures. Though these and other galleries stay open late the second Saturday of every month — and during the boffo Art Basel Miami Beach fair in December — Wynwood generally shuts down come dusk. Those in the know linger over lunch after ogling the art. One hot spot in the making is the four-month-old Lost and Found Saloon. A small lunch counter that manages a tasteful riff on a western theme with rough wood stools, a wagon-wheel chandelier and deep orange and rust walls, the menu includes pulled-pork sandwiches and mahi-mahi with chipotle sauce. Then there’s Enriqueta’s Sandwich Shop. On the edge of Wynwood in “hard hat alley” — though this moniker could apply to the whole of downtown, which is under massive construction — this tiny Latin diner is packed with locals midday. Favourites include classic Cuban sandwiches and huge platters of chicken steak. Come dinner hour, drive to the nearby Upper East Side. The up-and-coming neighbourhood off Biscayne Bay has been tapped by some Miamians (perhaps optimistically) as the next South Beach. Right now, it’s a mixed bag of $750,000 homes, wonderfully defunct motels that evoke old Miami and — most important for foodies — bistros such as Michy’s. Opened last February in a seemingly ho-hum strip mall, this intimate restaurant is the latest offering from Michelle Bernstein. The former Iron Chef competitor (she actually defeated host Bobby Flay) has been ranked one of the top chefs in the region by Bon Appetit and Food and Wine magazines — which means that reservations are a must, even on a Sunday night. Those who do snag a table in the retro-tropical dining room can start off with a raw bar of oysters, clams and Iranian caviar. Or, give in from the get-go to either full or half portions of what Bernstein calls “plates of resistance” — Turks and Caicos conch in butter and garlic, blue cheese and jamon croquetas, and melt-on-your-tongue short ribs. There is hope for both hipsters and chowhounds back in South Beach too. Resourceful gourmands can increasingly find more than overpriced steaks at restaurants such as 8½ at the Hotel Clinton. Launched in May by chef Jason McClain, this eatery serves up ceviche with tender chunks of raw tuna, sea bass with a shiitake mushroom kimchi, and veal wrapped in Serrano ham. Meanwhile, Afterglow peddles “beauty cuisine.” Dishes have a low glycemic index rating, anti-inflammatory properties and a high syntropy value (apparently, an “order enhancing energy force stored in food”). This is apropos for the hometown of the South Beach Diet — and some extremely successful plastic surgeons (even the mannequins here have inordinately huge busts). And the theme continues at shops such as Chroma, a boutique on Lincoln Road that sells feather-light deconstructed tank tops by Miami label Krelwear and caftans with plunging necklines by local designer Uli Herzner. For Crockett and Tubbs wannabes, there’s Base, across the road. The self-styled “lifestyle store” carries lines such as Fred Perry, house-designed tees and Luis Morais’s diamond-studded skulls and crosses — favourites of the Rolling Stones and Madonna, and priced accordingly. And, of course, there are Prada, D&G and Versace boutiques in Bal Harbour. Though the scene at this Rodeo-style area north along Collins Avenue is more “bubbies with cash” than Foxx and Farrell chic, according to one local fashionista. Still, Collins Avenue is the best place to spot celebs of the moment. The street’s swank hotel lounges continue to attract both well-heeled Miamians and notable visitors: Foxx is fond of the Delano; Beyoncé has been eyeballed at the ultra-luxe Setai; Uma Thurman hangs out at the newly restored Raleigh (owned by her — current? former? does anyone have a copy of InTouch? — beau André Balazs). Giving Mansion a run for its money are a number of other A-list immoderation stations off Collins Avenue. Toronto’s The Fifth opened a branch plant in Miami last March, complete with a VIP penthouse overlooking the dance floor (with binoculars provided). Paris’s Buddha Bar is set to open this month. By next year’s Super Bowl — which Miami is hosting on Feb. 4 — Maxim magazine is expected to launch a lounge with a vibe the developer describes as “Kid Rock meets Gucci.” Despite hosting the National Football League’s all-American celebration of the mainstream, Miami is still maintaining its heady mix of hedonism and high design. It is, after all, a city in transition, where the fast life is fast stretching beyond Ocean Drive. Then again, it’s always worth keeping an eye on the beach: Just before dusk one evening, a ring of police cars are parked on South Beach’s sand. They form a wide, protective circle around Shawnna — a rapper who performs with Ludacris and Missy Elliott — as she sits in a low-cut bathing suit, singing into a camera. Hovering just out of the frame are video producers checking shot lists, a girl holding a pink poodle and an entourage of guys in baggy pants and expensive watches. Nearby, a few bold tourists have wandered up to the action — they aren’t quite sure what’s going on, they just know it’s something worth watching. Source: www.theglobeandmail.com
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