PlanetEye

While you'll touch on many riffs and flavors of Latin America throughout Miami, and find the Cuban influence present in many spheres of life throughout the city, you really have to make contact with the center of Little Havana itself by stopping off on Calle Ocho.  Yes, that's Eighth Street, and you'll find it easily enough on any map of the city if you search down south of the river and the area marked as Jose Marti Park. 

 A few highlights to include on even the briefest visits:

Maximo Gomez Park - more casually known as Domino Park, for the obvious reason that you'll usually find it occupied by generatiions of Latino gentlemen, immersed in games of dominoes and the greater intricacies of faraway politics.  801 S.W. 15th Ave., at S.W. Eighth Street.

La Casa de las Guayaberas - ever wonder where and how you could acquire one of those authentic hand-tailored, pleated Caribbean shirts for men?  Or a lady's classic guayabera dresss?  Stop in at the La Casa de Las Guayaberas for the finest and most extensive selection amongst the crowded racks.  Tel: (305) 266-9683

Versailles - a landmark in its own right, this restaurant has the most wide-ranging Cuban menu.  While the choices are all tempting, don't be surprised if you find yourself already full by the time you consume a main entree like the Versailles Famous Garlic Chicken, and a side order of platanos.  The take-out window is especially popular if you have no time for sit-down, take a little piece of Old Havana home to our own table from here. 3665 S.W. Eighth St.; Tel: (305) 444-0240 

Calle Ocho Festival - if you're ever in town in March, this annual event brings it all together in a celebration of Hispanic culture spanning 23 city blocks.  

Sooner or later - and we've found it's usually sooner - everyone gravitates to the News Cafe when they're in Miami.  It could be as a meeting spot, a people watching spot, a breakfast, lunch or dinner spot, a happy hour get together, a chance to catch up on good reading and the news, or any mix of the aforegoing.  Whatever the case, the News Cafe may be licensed as a dining establishment, but it's also something of a local landmark.  A certain part of the ritual of having been to Miami that you really don't want to miss.

Located on the 800 block of Ocean Drive, the place to sit and observe here is usually out on the sidewalk seating.  Lounge here with your coffee or sandwich as some of the most diverse cross-section of international types stroll by at any time of the day and night or month of the year.  The News Cafe was a favorite haunt of designer Gianni Versace when he lived nearby at Casa Casuarina in the Nineties, and it was from here that he returned home to meet his sensational death at the gates of his villa.  On a more pleasant note, past events do not seem to have dimmed the Cafe's popularity, with the doors remaining open 24 hours and making it a favored haunt of city night owls of all stripes.  The menu remains as global as the clientele, with both continental and American style breakfasts; pastas, burgers and paninis; and an assortment of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes.  The bar area is popular for its happy hour, Monday through Thursday, between 4 and 7 p.m., with a nice selection of both American and Euro import wines and frozen cocktails.  But to tell the truth, News Cafe wins our hearts with its ample supply of international and American magazines and newspapers, so we can keep up with the world and our industry while keeping up with the South Beach scene around us.  

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News Cafe - 800 Ocean Drive, MIami Beach; Tel: (305) 538-6397   

Winterhaven is a nice combination of Deco architectural flair and interior touches, along with reasonable rates for the budget-minded seeking to base themselves right along Ocean Drive.  The small front entrance and patio opens up into a long and spacious lobby that features marble inlaid floors, comfortable and stylish retro furnishing, and large potted plants.  The color scheme of dark rust reds, greens, yellows and creams evokes the early Winterhaven ambience.  The wood and chrome circular martini bar transforms into a serving area for continental breakfasts in the morning.  We also liked the small mezzanine level that skirts the front sides of the lobby, with its window views of the shoreline and intimate, secluded seating.

 The rooms:

Our room was up on the sixth floor, a corner location with spectacular views across the beach and out across the Atlantic.  The furnishings had that Forties feel to it with blonde woods, rounded corners to edges, and lighting sconces that deliver muted light.  There's a similar color scheme to the lobby with pale yellow, green and cinammon tones on walls, headboards, carpets and fabrics.  An interesting feature is the black-and-white wood-framed photography crisply evokes some of the more glamorous moments in this particular stretch of South Beach’s original era of grand class travel. While most fixtures and furnishings are just nice enough replicas, the curving walls in the small entrance hall are a real enough structural legacy of the Winterhaven’s past.

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Winterhaven Hotel - 1400 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach; Tel: (800) 395-2322

Just past the northern fringes of Bal Harbor is a relatively recent newcomer to the official beach system of the county.  Haulover Park Beach became a maintained and protected park and beach of the Miami-Dade Parks back in 1991, since then it's also become a favored haunt of all kinds of beach and water sports enthusiasts.  If you're whizzing along the AIA in this area and have time for a beach visit, you could stop off for the entry fee of five dollars and enjoy yourself in relative serenity compared to the often crowded and glitzy atmosphere of the sands along Ocean Drive to the south.

It's a much more local scene here on weekends, when families will arrive to take advantage of the picnic facilities and grills.  On a weekday though, you can find vast amounts of available parking, and all the room you need on the one and a half miles of beaches.  The park sits between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, and so there are activities tailored to both inland and oceanfront, with a full-serivce marina, boat ramp, sport-fishing tour boats, dive shop, restaurant, kite shops, six lighted tennis courts and even a 9-hole family golf course.  If you want to rent chairs or kayaks, there are also concessions for these.  Call ahead in the spring high season if you plan to rent chairs.  Surfers occasionally favor the wave conditions on sections of the beach here.  As a county preserve, the entire beach is guarded by well-trained lifeguards, who will also be your source for existing weather and surf conditions if you need those.  There are restrooms, showers and a restaurant over in the marina area.  Even if you have no intention of doing anything more than a swim, the clean long sands and dunesalong the shoreline is a pleasure to stroll for many locals and vsitors who discover this fine stretch of Miami's coast.  

 Getting there: Take I-95 to exit 13, then head east for six miles to Collins Avenue. Turn left on Collins and go over the bridge to the park. Call 786-336-6990 for the beach safety patrol and beach conditions.

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Haulover Park Beach - 10800 Collins Ave., Miami: Tel: 305-947-3525      

Adding to the local range of European fare around South Beach is Paul, a brilliant recreation of a classic French bakery/cafe that originally made its debut at the end of the nineteenth century in Lille, France.

 There are four other sister stores of Paul around South Florida, but only this recent Lincoln Road location delivers the authentic design of the old country, from the walls of striated Zebrano wood to the elongated metallic lettering to the brick and marble details of the interior.

The fare: be prepared to be swept off your feet by the scrumptious artisan breads, baked from custom-grown, winter wheat and milled flour with natural ingredients.  
If you're like many visitors, you'll be carrying home at least a few samples of brioche and rolls.  For a lunch-time standard that stands out, try the Croque Monsieur sandwich, a brioche-type bread that is filled with Emmental cheese and Black Forest ham.  Another classic to bite into on your inevitable return: the open-faced goat cheese toasty with chopped tomatoes and basil, served on a thin farmhouse bread.  A sweet pastry (anything from a dazzling selection of pains au chocolat, raisin danishes, or apple danishes), accompanied by a cafe au lait, makes for a fine mid-day or mid-morning refill.

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 Paul - 450 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach; Tel: (305) 531-1200