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In most cities, mini-golf almost qualifies as anti-culture, but Miami’s Upper Eastside Garden somehow blended putt-putt with art, movies, and music so well it seemed completely natural. Sadly, though, all good things must come to an end, and Upper Eastside Garden will host a closing party tomorrow night.
The Garden will say farewell from 6 to 10 p.m. The place will go out doing what it does best: showing a new video by artist Natalia Benedetti while handing out complimentary Grolsch and Illy coffee to guests. There’s no cover either.
The Garden featured a nine-hole mini-golf course with each hole designed by a local artist. At night, it would often screen classic and independent movies as well as host bands, including Matt & Kim, Daedalus, and High Places. We named it “Best Place for a First Date” in our 2008 “Best of Miami” issue, and while there are still a lot of local places to take a new romantic interest, there was only one where you could catch a screening of a Criterion Collection flick before discussing the intent of the director’s mis-en-scène choices while trying to hit a hole-in-one.
