It was 95 and humid today. It was 95 and humid yesterday. It will be 95 and humid tomorrow. So who's ready to go ice skating? While eating gourmet food at a fancy hotel with exclusive access to the beach?
Soon, you can actually do this! A new South Beach property, the Miami Beach Edition, plans on opening (actually "premiering", according to the hotel's website) at 29th and Collins in November. And because tourists apparently want to ice skate in Miami, they will be building an indoor rink.
The property was conceived by architects George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg and will be "a game-changer," featuring 294 rooms, suites, and bungalows and penthouse residences, the hotel -- which is part of the Marriott chain -- claims.
If ice skating isn't your thing, the hotel will also have a restaurant by Michelin-winning chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a lobby bar, two outdoor pools, a nightclub, a gourmet marketplace, an outdoor movie theatre, fitness center, spa and bowling alley.
"There will be an entertainment area with an ice rink and a bowling alley for both locals and hotel guests," a spokeswoman for the project tells Riptide.
The days of tourists showing up because you have a beach and the Atlantic Ocean right outside your hotel's doors are apparently long gone.
Marriott has already opened two Edition hotels, high-end properties uniquely designed to fit individual cities and meant to "reflect the best of its location and of the time," in London and Istanbul; the Miami Beach version will be the first in the U.S, although properties are also slated to open in New York and L.A. within the next few years.
As far as Riptide can tell, the Miami Beach Edition will be the first area hotel to feature an ice rink. But it's definitely not the first rink in hockey-crazy South Florida, with several already scattered around greater Miami. (Including that one the Panthers play in in Sunrise, but you probably haven't been there.)
Actually, the new hotel rink won't even be the first in the neighborhood: The Scott Rakow Youth Center has a rink at 27th and Pine Tree Drive. The poor kids there probably can't hit a Michelin-starred restaurant down the hallway afterward, though.
Update: There is actually a notable history of Miami Beach hotels with ice rinks inside -- including none other than the Fontainebleau. There's actually a scene in the James Bond classic "Goldfinger," which was filmed on location at the iconic hotel, where the villain walks past the Fontainebleau's rink:
According to a 1982 piece in the Miami Herald, the Deauville Hotel once had its own rink as well.
(H/T to Alfred Spellman for the history lesson.)
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