So, with Boston encased in 6 inches of snow…followed by 2 inches of rain…followed by a hard freeze, the Parsnipitys decamped to Miami. The tale of our 3 night trip is what follows…read along if you dare!
With $69 plane tickets procured on Spirit, and a super cheap hotel room in a partially-abandoned art deco hotel 2 blocks from the beach and around 10th street, we had a budget few days with our spring onions in mind. We’re usually more of a surfing-horseback riding-outdoorsy family, but this trip was all about strolling around viewing the people and cars, and searching out some tasty eats. (Well, except for the snorkeling adventure. But we probably shouldn’t go there in polite company as half of us got sea sick and conditions were dreadful, bordering on dangerous.)
We arrived mid-morning, and as our front door code wouldn’t work for several hours, and our budget lodging had no discernible staff, we headed a block away to Shepherd Artisan Coffee, which makes a fabulous cup of coffee. Assorted food items were purchased over our few days as this was our daily breakfast spot. Food was mostly good, and I was pleased by the option of GF toast, and even some house-made GF cookies (sort of an energy bar/bite thingie). However, prices for food were through the roof. This is the case in most of South Beach, so caveat emptor. The move here is to get a cup of coffee, specifying in a glass mug (say this like 6 different ways- “I want to stay here.” “Please no plastic” “I’m at this table and will drink it here”, then point at the mug you want, and maybe half the time this will avoid being given a disposable cup.), and then a $1 refill. Assuming you want more than one cup of their super-turbo-strong coffee. Kiddos had smoothies for breakfast until we told them the $12 smoothies were breaking our budget.
Lunch was at the Sandwicherie- loved this place & thanks for the rec @ieatalotoficecream . It was both a meal and entertainment sitting at the counter watching them sling the sandwiches, and it was all very reasonably priced. One note is that there is no GF bread or wrap, but they made me a turkey sub salad bowl.
Dinner was meeting up with old friends at the (deserted) pool area of our hotel, and we ordered the party pack and a kid’s party pack from nearby Naked Taco which was an assortment of tacos, quesadillas, chips and dips that let us focus on visiting. It was completely forgettable, but served the purpose.
Breakfast Day 2 was Shepherd Coffee again, and lunch landed us at our first real tourist-fail. We had rented bikes and done about 10 miles up and down, including a stop at Muscle Beach to pump some iron (well, small amounts of iron, and lots of people watching and using of the gymnastics equipment and bars by SO. Seriously, free public outdoor gym equipment, being used by tons of people of various shapes, sizes, colors and genders was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. I wish our climate would permit such things!) and we were seriously hungry. We got suckered into a touristy taco restaurant because our first choice location had some broken kitchen equipment and they told us “go around the corner to our sister restaurant, it will be great!”. Anyways, forgettable expensive birria and fish tacos and a burger later…
A nice afternoon coffee stop at Crema (yes, we had to stop as it reminded us of one of our favorite coffee shops of yore in Harvard Square) recharged us.
As a side note, sometimes Miami feels like a different country. At Crema, I asked for my iced latte with low-fat milk, and was told they only had skim or whole. “Can you make it with half of each?” resulted in being given a full 16 ounce pour of… you guessed it… half and half.
For dinner, this was our only jaunt off Miami Beach. We ubered it up to Wynwood, viewed some street art, then had my belated birthday dinner at Mignonette which I can highly recommend. We loved the vibe of this seafood-focused restaurant, and I finally got the red snapper I’d been craving.
There is a bit of a gelato fiasco (well, maybe just a feud, but I wanted to throw in the name of our favorite Portland Maine gelateria) and we tried Mamma Maria, which seems to have quite a few locations in the area as well as some internationally. Gelato was good, nothing special, and comes in extremely large portions with a commensurately large price tag. The following night, we went to Tri Gelato (owned and operated by a charming set of triplets) which we preferred.
Our final full day involved a second breakfast stop at both Shepherd for the coffee, and Bettant Bakery for some top notch French pastries. We loved this place, with its francophile vibe and truly excellent almond croissant. Sadly, I did not get a picture so I’ll throw them a hyperlink as recompense.
Our snorkeling debacle ensued, and left us feeling a bit waterlogged and taken advantage of. Luckily, Sweet Liberty came to the rescue! I might have been hesitant to go to such a cocktail-focused establishment (one alcoholic beverage consumed in total among our family of 4), if not for the recommendations of both fellow onions and Eater. However, the food here was outstanding. As noted by Eater, the cauliflower nachos as envisioned by Michelle Bernstein were fabulous. My enthusiastic SO proclaimed the burger one of the two top burgers of her entire life (the other one is at 18 Central Oyster in Rockport, Maine, for those tracking the peregrinations of the Parsnipity family). The happy hour scene here is fabulous for early birds like us- it goes til 8pm, which meant I got a $9 oyster po’boy and a $10 cocktail from the happy hour menu. The fried chicken sandwich and a Caesar salad for the other SO, as well as a slew of mocktails, also received rave reviews. Mood revived & evening saved!
Somewhere along the way, we stumbled into this amazing little Turkish pastry shop Osmanlizadeler Baklava, which if you are anywhere nearby you must promise to go out of your way for as they’ve apparently been perfecting their craft since 1879. I’ve never seen anything like the Turkish Delight lokum rolls. They are Turkish Delight in a thin sheet, then rolled around various fillings or creams, and topped or rolled in nuts. We particularly liked the halvah and toasted almond which had a marshmallow-type cream.
Lunch on the way to the airport was at Pura Vida, which although a chain was quite tasty and efficient, plus checked a couple of healthy boxes for us and left us recharged for a luxurious Spirit airlines flight back to the Frozen Tundra. Miami, we hope to see you again someday!
