Island life
Mangrove, Palm Island, Shoma Bay, Montreal, St. Barths, VCs and employee stress, Malliouhana Anguilla, MORE
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
Hearts of palm
Last week’s $40M closing on 40 Palm Ave (above) set a new high-water mark for property sales on Palm & Hibiscus Islands. The 15k square-foot house, designed by tropical modernist Cesar Molina, originally listed in November for $48.5M. Boasting 100 feet of frontage, it’s got cruise ship and skyline views, with cool breeze vibes to match.
A handful of new properties have listed on Palm Island in the last year, including 222 S. Coconut Lane and 277 N. Coconut Lane, each of which has taken a $1 million haircut from their original listing prices. Here are those two listings, plus something further downmarket for your Thursday consideration:
→ 277 Palm Ave (Palm Island) • 4BR/3BA 3301 SF house • Ask: $3.98M • ‘Opportunity awaits’ for reno or rebuilt • Days on market: 24 • Agent: Santiago Ferreira, One Sotheby’s.
→ 277 N Coconut Ln (Palm Island) • 5BR/5.1BA 2608 SF house • Ask: $7.9M • 50’ linear sea wall with deep blue kitchen and views to match • Days on market: 219 • Agent: Lourdes Alatriste, Elliman.
→ 222 S Coconut Ln (Palm Island, above) • 5BR/4.1BA 4507 SF house • Ask: $13.9M • 50’ of frontage, saltwater negative-edge pool, furnished • Days on market: 72 • Agent: Oren Alexander & Isaac Lustgarten, Official Partners.
RESTAURANTS • First Word
Downtown Jamaican
The Skinny: Inside a fast-casual spot called Jrk!, then down a hallway that looks like it leads to a bathroom (it does), find Mangrove, a cool, full-service Jamaican restaurant with a stocked bar and cozy couches which opened its doors in February.
The Vibe: A DJ in the corner playing lo-fi Jamaican music, a handful of tables, and a couple of banquettes, all dimly lit and framed by retro decor. As the evening progresses, the irie vibes creep in, and the dance party begins.
The Food: Much like its sister spot Jrk!, the menu is filled with flavorful Jamaican standards — patties, jerk chicken, curried oxtail — that are all winners. A plate of griot (fried pork chunks) served with plantains and pikliz is among Miami’s best. Mains are large enough to share and/or take home as leftovers.
The Drinks: Tropical cocktails, with cheek. The “Get Up Stand Up!” is an espresso martini variant (caramel whisky, coffee liqueur, and Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee) and the “Is This Love?” is a refreshingly light gin and watermelon drink.
The Verdict: A worthy spot for first dates or catch-ups with a friend or two, though large groups could be tough. Don’t skip the jerk mac and cheese, and if they say there’s a wait for one of their house hot patties, just sit tight. –Amber Love Bond
→ Mangrove (Downtown) • 103 NW 1st Ave • Wed-Thur & Sun 6p-11p, Fri-Sat 6p-3a • Reserve.
MIAMI RESTAURANT LINKS: Queen Miami Beach team opens Lafayette Steakhouse in Brickell • Unconventional 10-seat omakase counter Itamae AO (re)opens in Midtown • Italian Toscana Divino in Mary Brickell Village has closed, owners seeking new home • Cocktail pioneer Death and Co. is everywhere. Is that a good thing?
WORK • Thursday Routine
The Montreal-St. Barths express
STEPHANIE SHOJAEE • president • SHOMA GROUP
Neighborhood you live in: Coral Gables
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
My workplace is filled with dynamic energy. I start the morning with a matcha on my desk and my schedule is fully booked out — I absolutely love it and I hit the ground running the second I get into the office.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Back-to-back Zoom sessions, meetings, calls, and if I’m lucky, time to taste-test food from a potential new vendor. A few of Shoma’s current projects are at the forefront of my mind, and I’m focusing on initiatives geared toward bettering our projects. Shoma Bay, our North Bay Village project, will break ground later this year, and I’m working on furthering the traction towards that groundbreaking. Similarly, I’m analyzing lease renewal conversions for our project in Hialeah, Shoma Village. Two other big project initiatives I’m working on are expansion planning for our food hall, Shoma Bazaar, and selecting commercial tenants for our next mixed-use project, 550 Shoma, in Orlando.
Any bar or restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
My current favorite restaurant is Sospiro in Coral Gables. They have especially good pasta dishes and cheese platters that I love. On any given night, we may decide to fly to Montreal, where we have a second home, for date night. One of my current favorite restaurants there is Le Chien Fumant, a cozy little place with the absolute best food and service. The owners greet you at the door. The best table is the corner one with windows all around, looking out onto the beautiful neighborhood streets of Montreal.
Any weekend getaways?
The best weekend getaway is St. Barths. It is two hours and 20 minutes away from Miami, and a nice compromise for my husband Masoud and me in our battle of what “short flight” means. My go-to hotel in St. Barths is Cheval Blanc. I love its boutique feel, the beach is beautiful, and it’s just the right amount of quiet — but with a good crowd.
What was your last great vacation?
Last year, I planned a surprise trip for Masoud and myself to Milan, and we had so much fun. We ate, shopped, walked, got stuck in the rain and had way too much gelato. Then I rented us a car and we drove to Portofino, though the drive was a bit stressful (I’m a very nervous passenger-seat driver and the roads were narrow). But it was the unexpected twists and turns of this venture that made it memorable. We stopped at little restaurants, got stuck at a toll because we didn’t know we had to keep the ticket, got held up in traffic, and laughed until our stomachs hurt.
WORK • Office Life
Stress test
This bit from Andreessen Horowitz general partner David Ulevitch in Feed Me last week has been taking up some space in my head:
My observation as a board member in a lot of companies is that the entirely-remote teams always seem way more stressed out. Commitment to work tends to also fall off when the only work dynamic is toiling away alone and then being on zoom for meetings — no laughing at jokes during lunch, or taking a walk around the office with coworkers to brainstorm. Offsites help, but aren’t everything.
Mostly, I’ve decided that companies that have raised venture capital from Andreessen Horowitz are probably not the best sample set for measuring employee stress. And that the presence of board members from Andreessen Horowitz may be tipping the scales.
Secondarily, office jokes are overrated (and often better on Slack). Though at my last company, also fully remote, we did end the weekly all-hands with a joke. Everybody laughed (maybe performatively!).
That said, I do worry about the unseen, slow-burn risk of a single door separating my work from my life. So far, the studies seem mixed, which makes sense, given how early in this experiment we are and how complicated the re-imagining of the workplace is. But I’ve been fully remote for almost a decade, with less stress (I think), but also, probably less connection outside these work-home walls.
For FOUND, now publishing in four markets five times a week, the results of our efforts are mostly on the page, easier to track maybe than a software business building toward a big product release. Those four markets (FOUND Miami, NY, LA, SF) also make remote infrastructure more central to the mission than a forced, physical HQ.
It also looks good in the budget and saves us those painful early discussions of whether we can commit to a 10-year lease or splurge on the good desk chairs. Maybe we’d feel differently if we had that sweet A16Z cash. –Josh Albertson
MIAMI WORK AND PLAY LINKS: Two new towers: 60-story Clear Residences in Downtown, and 48-story Midtown 1 in Midtown • Biscayne Bay nature sanctuary Bird Key hits the market for $31.5M • Hefty assessments at older buildings roiling Florida condo market • In Miami’s luxury rental market, supply is currently outpacing demand • What happens when one spouse retires? • Should you use Slack to manage your personal life?
CULTURE & LEISURE • In Harmony
Kenny Chesney, Hard Rock Live (Davie), tonight @ 8p, section 115, $483 per
En Vogue, Miramar Cultural Center (Miramar), Fri @ 8p, balcony, $104 per
Marlon Wayons, Improv Comedy Theatre (Doral), Fri @ 1030p, VIP reserved, $65 per
GETAWAYS • Anguilla
From bluff to sea
There’s a Spanish proverb, “How wonderful to do nothing, and then rest.” It’s a sentiment easy to settle into on Anguilla. Mostly unblemished by cruise ships and long favored by celebrities as an under-the-radar retreat, Anguilla has never been easier to access since American Airlines launched its first nonstop (roughly three hour) flights from Miami in 2021.
There’s no better place to do nothing than Malliouhana, a historic resort balancing on a bluff between Meads Bay and Turtle Cove Beach on the island’s northwestern edge.
Lounging by the tiered infinity pool beneath a frilly yellow umbrella perched precariously atop a craggy cliff overlooking the sea, time passes slowly. The pressing questions of the day: Beach or pool? Rosé or rum punch? Lunch on your lounge chair or down at the beachside café?
For the ambitious, beyond the resort lie the pink sand beaches of Sandy Island, for snorkeling, lobster BBQ, and the legendary Bankie Banx’s Dune Preserve, a delightfully ramshackle beach bar on Rendezvous Bay, for an evening of reggae.
Back at Malliouhana, the open-air lobby is worth a pause, with its mosaic of mirrored tile floors, a cerulean wall lined with vintage dive helmets, paintings by Haitian artist Jasmin Joseph, and views straight out to the pale blue sea. With only about 60 guest rooms and suites spanning the 25-acre property, the grounds are uncrowded and profoundly serene. For dinner, there’s the cliffside al fresco Celeste overlooking Bobbing Cove Beach, serving elevated Caribbean fare.
Rooms are dreamy confections anchored by sculptural four-poster beds and outfitted with sorbet yellow and robin’s egg blue accents, coral and Venetian glass lamps, and sea green marble bathrooms. With spacious balconies, the sea is never far from sight. –Shayne Benowitz
→ Malliouhana (Anguilla) • Meads Bay • (844) 815-9207.
GETAWAYS LINKS: New St. Regis Longboat Key now accepting reservations for October opening • Residential-style resort South Bank set to open in Turks and Caicos in November • Grenada’s Calabash hotel names new executive chef • Current Soho House waitlist: 102K people • Ruth Reichl’s recent Paris restaurant recommendations • New hotels in Greece for summer.
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