Miami Life: Casinos, Cleveland Orchestra, Hot New Spot, Art Lovers Podcast
Should gambling come to Miami Beach? Fontaineblue’s owner wants to bring a casino to the hotel. The New York Times calls the Cleveland orchestra “America’s finest orchestra, and it’s coming to Miami. We were thrilled when our friends scored a dinner reservation at Chateau ZZ, the newest hot spot in Miami. If you read this newsletter regularly, you know how much I love the art world. So I have started a podcast where you will meet artists, collectors, and gallerists who will tell you how and why they love their creative life.
Fontainebleau Hotel Owner Wants to Bring Casinos to Miami Beach
There is a civil war going on in Miami Beach that most of the nation knows nothing about. There are those who want it, and those who don’t. I am talking about the big effort to bring gambling to Miami Beach. Jeffrey Soffer, the billionaire owner of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, has been making sizable donations to Florida lawmakers in order to help him achieve his longtime goal of opening a casino inside the iconic hotel.
The Miami Herald said campaign finance reports show that Soffer had poured more than $300,000 last year into PACs (political action committees) supporting casinos. The Miami Herald has quoted Dan Gelber, the mayor of Miami Beach for six years until November and a staunch gambling opponent, as saying that gambling in Miami is an “existential threat” to the community. Casinos help exactly two groups: the owners of the casino and the politicians who take their contributions. For everyone else, it’s just crime, intolerable traffic and economic despair.”
Jeffrey Soffer’s family has owned the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach since 2005.
The Cleveland Orchestra in Miami
You would swear you were sitting in Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall. That’s how fabulous it is when the Cleveland Orchestra is playing at the Adrienne Arsht Center. The New York Times calls the Cleveland orchestra “America’s finest orchestra.
The 2023-24 season in Miami features Rachmaninoff’s thrilling Symphonic Dances and music director Franz Welser-Möst conducting Brahms’ beloved
First Symphony. I have friends who never miss a performance when the Cleveland Orchestra is in town. They claim it’s one of the best experiences you can ever have in the world of concert performances.
Secure your seats early for the best available and subscriber discounts. Subscriber benefits include flexible free ticket exchanges and the same great seats for all performances in your series.
Two-concert subscriptions for orchestra-level seating start at just $66. This is a bargain compared to New York City prices.
January 26-27, 2024
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, violin
KNUSSEN Cleveland Pictures
BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1
BRAHMS Symphony No. 1.
February 2-3, 2024
Karina Canellakis, conductor
Seong-Jin Cho, piano
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 2
RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances.
Karina Canellakis leads the Orchestra in a program featuring two composers who are strongly associated with the piano — as both composers and performers. Each also drew on their native country’s rich folk-music heritage, and these works are filled with lively dance steps and nostalgic melodies.
Chateau ZZ
I don’t know how she did it but our good friend Ruth Steinik Greenberg and her husband Dr. Howard Greenberg scored us a reservation at the newest hot spot in Miami, Chateau ZZ. It’s a Mexican concept inside a French-inspired estate from the masters of Italian fine dining. The minute friends heard we dined there we became instantly famous. Everyone wanted to know who we knew to get a reservation and if we belonged to some VIP list. As Miami continues to grow into one of the most desired places to live in the world, big city challenges show their ugly hassles. We just have to deal with it.
Meanwhile, this is Major Food Group’s first foray into fine Mexican dining. MFG created their new restaurant in the Petit Douy in Brickell, one of Miami’s first designated historic landmarks. According to Time Out Magazine, “the structure was built in 1931 as a private residence. It was designed in the style of the Priory of Saint Julian, a monastery in the small village of Douy, France.They kept the bones and partnered with designer Ken Fulk to enshroud it with all the grand interior splendor that MFG is known for: floor to ceiling wallpaper in deep hues and tropical prints; bold pattern on pattern plays and touches of animal print; booths and barstools that urge you to sink in and stay a while; fine art – everywhere, including pieces from Chef Mario Carbone’s private collection. The interior dining room is as cozy as it is grand, and there’s alfresco tables in the garden, but the best seat in the house is actually the greenhouse, with its checkered floors, sky view and hand-blown glass chandelier with blossoming tulips. It’s very Art Nouveau.
“That’s only downstairs. The upper floor is reserved for ZZ’s Club members, giving them another place to gather outside of the Design District. It features vaulted ceilings covered in animal print, a grand yet intimate bar with a wine cellar and an outdoor terrace that looks into the greenhouse.” Thank you, Ruth and Howard.
I Want To Be Your Art Social Advisor
Enter the world of art by meeting artists, collectors, and gallerists who will tell you how and why they love their creative life.
I know that I am taking advantage of my relationship with The Three Tomatoes to promote my new podcast. However, I feel have justification. My podcast is all about how art activities can enhance your mature social life. It certainly enhanced ours. Each episode will give you different ideas and inspiration that will last forever. I want you to get the same joy that we do, Call me for any guidance.
Today I will be speaking to Doug Garr, a friend of mine who has spent 40-plus years as a journalist, editor, author, blogger, ghostwriter and speechwriter. Doug is the guy who helped New York Governor Mario Cuomo sound so good at the mic. If that’s not astonishing enough, Doug is also an active skydiver with an expert license rating of 2,200 jumps.
One day I will interview Doug about his life as a dare devil. Today I want him to tell us all about his connection to art.
He was married for nearly 42 years to the late Meg Perlman, a prominent art curator. Everyone in the art world knew her. Most knew Doug too because he accompanied Meg to art events around the world. Meg was the founding director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton, N.Y. She also worked at the Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Meg was the director of the James Brooks and Charlotte Parks Brooks Foundation. Meg also served as the curator of a number of important private art collections, including those of William A.M. Burden, Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III, Sandra Rockefeller Ferry, Senator and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller IV, and the Pierre Noel Matisse Trust, among others.
Listen to episode 1 of the Art Lovers Forum podcast here – https://www.artloversforum.com/e/episode-1-doug-garr/
The Art Lovers Forum Podcast is also available wherever you listen to podcasts.
As Co-Founder and President of HWH PR, Lois Whitman-Hess has been actively involved in public relations for a vast array of business sectors including technology, Internet-based companies, entertainment, law, publishing, fashion, beauty and art. For the last eight years, Lois has authored a daily blog called “Digidame.” It mostly covers her personal journeys as well as tech innovations, art, travel, and entertainment. In addition, Lois co-hosts a weekly podcast called “Lying on the Beach” with TV personality Steve Greenberg who is a contributor on NBC's Today Show. They interview luminaries who discuss their expertise and views on current events.
