Get Hooked

The Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival – a bacchanalia I attended pretty much every winter when I lived in Miami Beach – is now in full swing, with more than 100 events on schedule for its 18th annual edition as one of the Magic City’s premier fundraising efforts benefiting the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at my alma mater, Florida International University.

Tonight is the festival’s sold-out Cigars & Spirits to-do hosted by Cigar Aficionado at the recently revamped Angler’s Hotel, a 1930 Henry Maloney-designed property now known as the Kimpton Angler’s South Beach. The evening will unfold atop the Washington Avenue hotel’s new tower, a modern structure of clean lines designed by – whaddya know – the San Francisco-based NICOLEHOLLIS studio.

Funny how that worked. I set out to write about one thing so intrinsically tied to my past and discovered the possibility of another more closely related to my today.

Curiosity: It’s a good thing.

I remembered the Angler’s as this small, yet warm boutique hotel that wore everything that first made us pay attention to South Beach on its proverbial sleeve, its entrance surrounded by lush greenery. A Mediterranean Revival moment among the SoBe Deco. I can still see its porous entryway, and recall attending a party at the bar, as well as a PR dinner seven years ago, at 660, the hotel’s old restaurant. We tried the conch, we had lots of laughs.

In its 2019 iteration, which I briefly admired during Miami Art Week 2018, the Angler’s now features this new wing, complete with 85 rooms, conference areas, a rooftop pool and sundeck with fairly 360 views of the South Beach island and plenty of space for assorted outdoor wellness activities, an art-friendly courtyard, and the breezy cool Minnow Bar off the living-room lobby. When the next phase of its $61 million reno is done, the hotel’s existing lofts, villas, and bungalows will be ready for their Insta-close-ups, and the Seawell Fish N’ Oyster restaurant will begin taking reservations.

And now you know.

The Kimpton Angler’s South Beach is located at 660 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. Make your reservation now. It’s always summer over there.