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QP Tapas, Mercedes-Benz Places, Lucky Cat, Lilac Tampa, best hotel spas, Casitas at Cheeca Lodge & Spa, MORE

Apr 18, 2024

RESTAURANTS • FOUND Table

Tapas 3.0

I used to get hung up on the idea of pop-ups as restaurants in purgatory, places punished by high operating costs and rents, hoping to someday graduate to a permanent space. But after trying QP Tapas for the first time — at its third location, no less — I’ve finally learned to embrace the pop-up as the product.

QP Tapas launched in 2022 at the now-closed MKT Kitchen in Coral Gables. Ten months later, it moved to The Allocation Room in Coconut Grove. That run ended in January. Now, it’s landed down the street in the Mayfair House Hotel & Garden’s Fountain Lounge, a lush ground-floor bar and restaurant. (Fountain’s bar is inside a former elevator shaft, and worth a peek.)

Working with nothing more than a wood-fired oven, a panini press, and lots of imagination, the kitchen puts out a surprisingly large selection of small plates — Spanish staples like pan con tomate, boquerones, chorizo, and stuffed dates, plus ingredient-driven dishes such as roasted sunchokes with truffle aioli, pickled beets with goat cheese, and Homestead heirloom tomatoes with white anchovy. There’s also a large smoked heritage chicken sourced from Europe that goes through five days of prep.

Nothing about QP points to this being a temporary situation. On the contrary, the team seems nimble, energized. Maybe they’re hiding the wear of constantly popping up. Josh Elliott, half of the married owner/operator team, seemed exhausted when he stopped by our table after service to introduce himself — but also, elated. He and wife Ellie Groden were leaving for an R&D trip/vacation through Spain the following week. He’s looking forward to showing her his favorite restaurants, while she’s eager to research the next thing they plan to test: QPizzas.

The two were tight-lipped about the length of the pop-up's run. Their noncommittal answer sparked a sense of urgency in me. Should I book again? Why’d I wait so long to visit? Then again, maybe that — the looming possibility of being a fleeting thing — is what pop-ups have on permanent restaurants, and QP is certainly using it to its advantage. –Virginia Gil

→ QP Tapas (Coconut Grove) • Mayfair House Hotel & Gardens • 3000 Florida Ave • Wed-Sun 6–10p • Reserve.

MIAMI RESTAURANT LINKS: Lucali vet opens Bar Luca at Miami Beach’s Alden Hotel, serving Italian-American cuisine • Oprah favorite Ice Box Cafe closes in Miami Beach after 25-year run • J&C Oyster opens in Hollywood • Following roof collapse, Fort Lauderdale Tiki haven Mai Kai tracking to reopen this summer • The who’s who of beer cool.

REAL ESTATE • FOUND Development

Buy me a Mercedes-Benz

A handful of listings at the just-announced Mercedes-Benz Places, the auto maker’s first residential project in North America, hit Zillow this week. The six units range from $1.184M (1BR, 830SF) to $2.646M (3BR, 2116SF).

The ambitious 67-story Brickell development (above) is scheduled to be completed in 2027 and features a series of stacked rectangular segments with sumptuous curved corner balconies. NYC-based SHoP Architects designed the building in collaboration with the Mercedes-Benz team, which contributed its house style of “sensual purity,” per design pub Dezeen.

Real estate firm SERHANT is marketing the project, though none of these listings appear to be live on serhant.com yet. The building’s website doesn’t list individual properties either, but it does offer a minute-long, Ryan Serhant-narrated promo video, which promises “a new era of urban living.”

Here, three of those recently landed listings for your Thursday consideration:

→ 1133 SW 2nd Ave #3207 (Brickell) • 1BR/1BA, 830 SF condo • Ask: $1.184M • Days on market: 3.
→ 1133 SW 2nd Ave #6402 (Brickell) • 2BR/3BA, 1332 SF condo • Ask: $2.125M • Days on market: 2.
→ 1133 SW 2nd Ave #3201 (Brickell) • 3BR/4BA, 2116 SF condo • Ask: $2.646M • Days on market: 2.

WORK • Thursday Routine

I’m on a boat

GIOVANNY GUTIERREZ • content curator and storyteller, Chat Chow • ambassador, Havana Club Rum
Neighborhood you live in: Little Havana

It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Every week is different. Today, I’m actually writing from the inaugural @ChefsMakingWaves cruise, which is a food, wine, and spirits festival at sea. I’m on my stateroom balcony, catching up on emails before a full day of events.

What’s on the agenda for today?
I’m recording a podcast with chef Andrew Zimmern for Heritage Radio in front of a live studio audience. Then, leading a 100-person rum cocktail masterclass, where we’ll be diving into the history of several Caribbean cocktails. I’m ending the night as co-host of “Cabana Cubana Party” with Miami chefs Eileen Andrade and Ana Quincoces. In between, I’ll walk around, sampling the daily featured cocktails we created for the cruise. I’m two piña coladas in right now.

Any bar or restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
I’ll be back home Friday, attending a friend’s birthday party at their house for a Ralph Lauren-themed dinner. Saturday, I reserved the eight-seat Chef’s Table at Gordon Ramsay’s Lucky Cat, which just opened in Miami Beach. After dinner, I’m going to Bacardi’s traveling Rum Room, which is currently at La Otra in Wynwood just for the night, for all-vinyl Latin beats and free cocktails.

How about a little leisure or culture?
I love driving down Little Havana and seeing the vibrant Latino community. If a parking spot opens up, I’ll always pull in and walk a block or two to any of the neighborhood institutions for either a croqueta, cafecito, or mojito — and sometimes all three, especially if I am en route to a Miami Heat game.

Any weekend getaways?
I’m excited every time I get a chance to visit Tampa. From cigar factories and roosters crowing to the famous Columbia Restaurant, a lot of Cuban history connects with me in Ybor City. As a food-focused traveler, I like The Tampa EDITION for its Michelin-starred restaurant, Lilac, and North America’s first Punch Room. Then you have the institution that is Bern’s Steak House, opened in 1956, with its flocked wallpaper and huge wine list.

What was your last great vacation?
Speaking of wine… A few weeks ago, our group of 12 best friends traveled together to Sonoma to enjoy the region’s beautiful wine. This is our 14th or 15th time visiting Wine Road (hard to keep track), but the ritual is a great time of the year for us besties to catch up, stock up on some of our favorite vinos for the upcoming year, and be thankful that we survived another trip around the sun.

MIAMI WORK AND PLAY LINKS: Navigating the spring housing market as interest rates remain high • Miami office market continues to lead US • Sales launch at rebranded Viceroy Brickell tower • 67-story JEM Private Residences break ground at Miami Worldcenter • Barry Diller pays record price for Miami Beach empty lot • Office furniture trend report: ‘We’ve reached peak couch’.

GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines

Spas, hotel

Surfside Spa at Four Seasons Hotel at the Surf Club (Surfside), posh services, marble hammam access
Spa at The Standard Miami Beach (Venetian Islands), bayfront pool, stadium-style marble hammam, indoor-outdoor hydrotherapy access; day passes available
Valmont for the Spa at The Setai (South Beach), plush digs and best in class therapists, surprisingly sparse amenities
Tierra Santa Healing House at Faena (Mid Beach, above), one-hour complimentary wet spa pre-treatment ritual, beach chair access with some services
Lapis, the Spa at Fontainebleau (Mid Beach), 75’ mineral bath and water journey access, also day pass to resort pools, beach, gym
The Spa at Carillon Miami Wellness Resort (North Beach), former Canyon Ranch, retains temple of wellness approach
Acqualina Spa (Sunny Isles Beach), indoor thermal experience, outdoor spa pool terrace, exclusive spa lunch menu
The Spa at Mandarin Oriental (Brickell Key), indoor steam room, sauna, and experience showers; outdoor pool access
Âme Spa & Wellness Collective at JW Marriott Turnberry (Aventura), steam and Himalayan salt rooms, bookable infrared sauna

Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundmiami.com.

CULTURE & LEISURE • Ballets

Swan Lake, Arsht Center (Downtown), “A feat and feast,” Sat @ 7p, front orchestra, $260 per
Nashville SC vs Inter Miami CF, Chase Stadium (Fort Lauderdale), Sat @ 730p, section 101, $375 per
Don Omar, Kaseya Center (Downtown), Sun @ 8p, section 107 (VIP pass), $283 per

GETAWAYS • The Keys

Change in latitude

There’s something about the angle of the spindly palm trees on the beach at the Casitas at Cheeca Lodge & Spa, each bending towards the sea as if caught in a persistent breeze. On this private expanse of white sand beach in Islamorada, about a two-hour drive from Miami, 11 cottages dot a property where meandering paths lead to a lap swimming pool and tennis court, and hammocks dangle lazily between those palms.

If it sounds slightly familiar, it’s because this addendum to Cheeca Lodge — the modern resort that evolved from a storied 1940s-era fishing lodge — was formerly a part of next door neighbor The Moorings Village, Islamorada’s longtime treasured cottage retreat. (To complicate matters, The Moorings still operates today with eight cottages on the property it held onto south of Beach Road.) The acquisition by Cheeca Lodge, which took place in 2020, came with two restaurants across the Overseas Highway: Pierre’s, for a French fine dining spin on Keys cuisine, and the laidback Morada Bay Beach Café — both with sunset views.

At the Casitas, barefoot luxury charm is on order. Guests have exclusive domain over the annex, plus access to all the amenities at Cheeca proper, especially useful when it comes to dining. Up the beach and through a private gate, find three restaurants and two tiki bars. (Butlers also ferry orders to cushioned lounge chairs on the beach.)

On a recent stay in an oceanfront casita, we walked outside onto our patio every morning to the aquamarine water, spreading out to eternity, with no one else in sight. While South Florida does not lack for spectacular waterfront resorts, few offer that kind of vantage. –Shayne Benowitz

→ Casitas at Cheeca Lodge & Spa (Islamorada) • 81801 Overseas Hwy.

GETAWAYS LINKS: Expanded Delta Sky Club at MIA now open, adds 100 seats of capacity • Three Waters Resort & Marina preps to open in Islamorada this fall, merging former Postcard Inn Beach Resort and Pelican Cove Resort • Inside look at just-opened Six Senses Grenada • Can a fancy hotel room have a Murphy bed?

ASK FOUND

First, a quick primer on how this works: You send us the pressing questions of the day (on dining, services, living in Miami and surrounds). We all put our heads together (us, FOUND, + you, FOUND subscribers, who are also FOUND) in search of truth and beauty.

Three FOUND subscriber PROMPTS for which we are seeking intel:

What Miami hotel do you always recommend for out-of-town guests?
My friends and I are searching for a new (non-hotel) day spa for a weekend drop-in. What are the latest FOUND options?
What’s your favorite restaurant in Miami (if you haven’t told us already)?

Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or email found@itsfoundmiami.com.