Loews Coral Gables welcomes families and business to its chic Miami neighborhood.
Photo by Harrison Shiels
The breezy, chic Loews Hotel Coral Gables, being nearly new, has a stately-yet-smart design drawing people in across a garden courtyard on one of the Miami enclaves’ key roundabouts. Its’ Mizner-style, sky-high cupola, common in South Florida’s landmark buildings, conveys a sense of significance; while the whimsical KAWS super sculpture of a parent and child – hybrid-human cartoon characters – welcomes the corporate crowd and families past the park’s Parisian pergolas and through the high-arched colonnade columns.
It was in that breezeway I enjoyed eggs benedict at Loews’ brasserie-style Americana Kitchen. I knew better than to miss the morning meal because I heard a couple talking about the time on the treadmills next to me in Loews 7th-floor fitness room. “We should probably go down right from here. Even though we are in gym clothes and all sweaty,” the wife advised.
I beat them to breakfast and when I remarked to the chef my dish – eggs benedict – was served quickly, he responded, “People are hungry in the morning. You have got to get it to them fast. They might get moody! For me, all I need is coffee.”
We laughed and then my server Vanessa, another of the many Cubans who add such vibrancy to the south Florida suburb, looked at my plate. “Let me bring you some Mojo sauce. We make it here. You are going to love it.” She initially sensed, and then advised, I might prefer, instead of the salad that came with the eggs, fried breakfast potato wedges. Was she ever right – especially dipped in the green Mojo sauce: blended parsley, cilantro, garlic, lime, jalapeno, olive oil and vinegar.
The local advice Vanessa gave me was not limited to food. She told me all about the Coral Gables Trolley, which is free and has a stop on its’ loop route just along the roundabout in front of Loews. Being originally from Detroit – the Motor City – I am not savvy with public transportation. But I tried the trolley and it was simple and a useful way to get around the concentration of shops and restaurants in the refined blocks of Coral Gables.
Though it is on the outskirts of Coral Gables – 1.5 miles from the hotel – I walked through town and under the arch of the ornate, landmark, Coral Gables Alhambra Entrance (circa 1922) to Versailles – “The World’s Most Famous Cuban Restaurant” – the throwback eatery near Little Havana. Versailles was a collection of operations including an amazingly affordable formal dining room with casual customers; a bakery; and a coffeehouse with a walk-up window. Even though it was founded two generations before her, young Vanessa knew Versailles well. “It is the place people go when anything happens in Miami to have coffee and talk about it. It’s a Cuban thing. And they drink a special Cuban coffee,” she explained. She agreed with me the flan Versailles serves for desert was amazing. Flan doesn’t usually move me, but my server Felix suggested cheese flavor, and the texture and flavor made me a flan fan.
Loews Hotel hosts business groups, in part, because it is close to Miami Airport. My industrious UBER airport driver, a man named Raul Chavez at the wheel of his Honda Pilot, told me he came from Cuba through Mexico and it then took seven years to get his family to Florida. He was a tourism professor in Varadero and now, even though he is an accountant, he drives UBER one day a week in part to pass out business cards to promote his accounting company: CUSI Consulting.
Abdel, another Cuban UBER driver, bought me back to Loews from Versailles in his Mitsubishi Outlander not much bigger than the boat he managed to get to Key West on during a dangerous, 90-mile, two-day escape from Havana. “It was so scary. And so crazy,” he admitted. “We didn’t see sharks but we did see other boats swamped or flipped.”
Nicole, a Cuban I met working on the Loews rooftop pool deck, also seemed very happy to be employed in Florida. I told her I noticed the detailed care she took in making sure the towels and menus she was placing on each deck chair table were lined-up just perfectly. “It’s not a stressful job,” she humbly admitted from behind her sunglasses and dressed in her blue and white-striped uniform. Just for that I ordered an emergency Cuba Libre.
Lauren Siring and her husband were way ahead of me on the libations. The couple, from Monterey, California, sat at the pool bar enjoying mojitos and the panorama of the Miami skyline and Marlins baseball park. It was their first time in Florida, and Siring, representing the tourism company, See Montey, had been encamped at Loews for five days on business. It was my turn, like Vanessa, to play ambassador: I suggested a ride on the Miami Thriller speedboat and a visit to the exciting Loews Miami Beach Hotel on Ocean Drive at the foot of the Lincoln Road Shopping District.
Loews now presents a replica of the famed New York City classic Rao’s (circa 1896) as its’ flagship restaurant. Hoping to get a table at the legendary Rao’s in East Harlem is like praying the Jets will make the playoffs. Rao’s Miami Beach is bigger – and the Dolphins have much better odds!
Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at MShiels@aol.com His new book: Travel Tattler – Not So Torrid Tales, may be purchased via Amazon.com
