Just when you thought the city couldn’t possibly get any more sexy/sleek/bronzed, so passes another year of tropical triumphs. From a paradigm shift in fast food... to nights spent drinking wine under lantern-lit trees... to pasties... it’s been a glorious 12 months. Join us as we count the ways.
Miami’s never been a center of Asian cooking, but thanks to the influx of sexy dim sum parlors like Chow Down, Gigi and American Noodle Bar, it’s now easier than ever to find cheap, tasty ramen and pork buns made by top chefs. Paving the way for the noodle wars of 2011.
Sometime around June, South Beach vixens and Wynwood hipsters started flocking to the sleepy ’hood in Normandy Isle en masse for absinthe-fueled, midnight-until-dawn carousing. The reason: this scarlet-colored bordello, packed with the city’s most extensive selection of the green elixir.
The popular party-promotion outfit Poplife welcomed you into its latest live music playground with shows that featured electronic rock bands from Europe, local celebrity DJs and the occasional artsy film screening. Partying south of 14th Street never sounded so good.
Getting a haircut went from being a monthly grooming chore to an excuse to settle into plush leather chairs, sip scotch and get your nails buffed—all taking place in South Beach’s version of a British gentlemen’s club. With monthly membership starting at $56, you could make this a weekly habit.
The ground-beef mavens of New York blessed the city with a patty parlor on Lincoln Road, and no post-movie burger date has been the same since. The lines move quicker here than at the Manhattan original, and they even incorporated key lime and coconut into a signature “concrete” shake. Key lime makes everything better.
Food went mobile, big-time. The streets became clogged with food wagons from the likes of Jefe’s Tacos, Wing Commander, Sakaya Kitchen and newbies like Ms. Cheezious and Dolci Peccati. It all culminated in a hot, sweaty Food Truck Summit this fall, which then birthed several mobile food courts around the city.
This alfresco stunner opened just in time for the Basel rush, which meant you got to feast on tableside tuna tartare and Goat Cheese and Black Truffle Pizza while British accents, Marc Jacobs and leggy gallerinas swirled around you. It probably didn’t hurt that the tiramisu is like eating a pillow.
