The Montreal-St. Barths express

STEPHANIE SHOJAEE, SHOMA GROUP

WORK • Thursday Routine

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.