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Travel

Art amid Eden

Tucked into the glitz and glitter that make Miami famous are some wonderful finds for the lovers of art and books.

By JOHN BANCROFT
Published March 18, 2007

Bright puffs of glass bob on the surface of Glade Lake in Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables. The installation of Dale Chihuly glass, “Chihuly at Fairchild,” is open through May 31.
	[Times photo: Bob Croslin]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Bob Croslin] Part of the fun of “Chihuly at Fairchild” is discovering the art, which seems to have sprouted among the plantings. [Sagamore Hotel] Social Miami, inside the Sagamore on South Beach, is part gallery, part “culinary lounge.”

MIAMI - If you find yourself seated on a mosaic glass swing lit from within as you admire Massimo Vitali's Pic Nic Poker, a massive photo assembly of a crowd packed into a public garden, you can be nowhere but in the lobby of South Beach's "art hotel," the Sagamore.

And while many trendy boutique hotels boast art collections, the beachfront Sagamore, under the direction of co-owner Christine "Cricket" Taplin, has assembled a collection worth seeking out. Do so as a guest, budget permitting, or come, as Miami's many beautiful ones regularly do, to have a bite and to be seen at Social Miami, a gallery doing flawless double duty as "a culinary lounge."

Social, which takes up most of the hotel's ground floor and a fine terrace overlooking a manicured garden, is itself as much a work of art as anything hanging on the walls. Its decor is as cool as cucumber sorbet, elegant and witty, friendly and inviting despite the deliberate intimidation factor: This is no place for squares.

Happily, the food suffers not a whit by comparison with the surroundings. The drill here is to share small bites and good wines, many available by the glass, mixing and matching as the moment and your appetite dictate. My traveling companion and I dined on five intensely flavored tapas-sized dishes, ranging from a fresher-than-fresh tuna watermelon ceviche to "millionaire's" deviled eggs (kissed with truffle oil and dolloped with caviar) to a peerless take on that French staple, steak frites.

After soaking up the evening hipness at Social, you'll wake the next morning hungry for more gorgeousness. Luckily, "Chihuly at Fairchild" runs through May 31 at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables.

The show and the gardens combine seamlessly to delight the senses. Dale Chihuly's seductive glass art seems to have sprouted spontaneously among the extensive plantings or to have bobbed up like friendly pods in the lakes that dot the grounds.

It's hard to pick favorites, but here are three installations I especially recommend:

On Glade Lake near Bailey Palm Glade floats a flock (school? fleet?) of shimmering blue, green and yellow glass turbans, swirls and candy kisses, each a little bigger than a beach ball. Park yourself on a nearby bench and watch as sun and wind play with these pretty toys.

Among the tree ferns, orchids and exotic palms of the Windows to the Tropics Conservatory sprout glass relatives of Audrey II, the big plant with a big appetite in Little Shop of Horrors. Many of these curious creatures are cleverly hidden in the greenery and can be delightfully startling.

The prickly denizens of the developing Lin Lougheed Spiny Forest of Madagascar planting are beautifully accented by a forest of tall, slim spikes the artist aptly has named Red and Amber Reeds. The hot, translucent colors evoke the world's dry places as effectively as the plants do.

You'll be in no hurry to leave this magical landscape, but it's time for lunch and maybe for a few handsome art books to carry home. There's no better place for that than legendary bookman Mitchell Kaplan's Books & Books in downtown Coral Gables (or the South Beach location on Lincoln Road, if you're headed back to the sand and the nightlife).

In a rambling historic building enclosing a sunny courtyard, Kaplan, co-founder of the annual literary love-in known as Miami Book Fair International, has crafted an environment that pleases the eye, the brain and the belly.

The cafe serves an assortment of sandwiches, salads (we liked a Moroccan chicken salad with couscous), desserts (just try to resist the cream-cheese-laced cupcakes) and cooling soft beverages, as well as more potent fare at the wine bar.

Sit inside in a long room lined with photos of many, many writers or sit outside in the courtyard. I prefer the indoor option for its quick and easy access to all those wonderful books and books, shelved from floor to ceiling and piled invitingly on tables.

Kaplan estimates that on any given day his stock of art and photography books alone is more than 5,000 titles. If you can't find it, you've probably wandered into one of those one-size-fits-all chain stores by mistake.

John Bancroft is a freelance writer based in Bradenton.

IF YOU GO

An artful getaway

- Sagamore Hotel, 1671 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; toll-free 1-877-242-6673 and www.sagamorehotel.com. Rates start at about $500 a night in season but drop to $275 in the summer.

Social Miami restaurant at the Sagamore is open for breakfast 7 to 11 a.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. to noon on weekends; lunch noon to 5 p.m. daily; and dinner 7 to 11 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturday. Reservations are strongly recommended; call (786) 594-3344

- Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, 10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables; (305) 667-1651 and www.fairchildgarden.org/. Open 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day but Christmas.

Admissions is adults, $20; seniors (65 and older), $15; and children 6 to 17, $10. Separate admission for "Tropical Chihuly Nights" 6 to 9 p.m. Thursdays, when the glass sculptures are illuminated: $20 for members, $30 for nonmembers. The exhibit runs through May 31.

- Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, (305) 442-4408; and 933 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, (305) 532-3222; or www.booksandbooks.com.

[Last modified March 15, 2007, 10:10:09]