Yes, you heard that correctly…some small businesses are expanding during the pandemic. Aria Rose Boutique in Coral Gables is just one example. Owned and curated by Lauren Patao, this boutique started out in a bedroom, grew to a small store front and, in the middle of a pandemic, expanded to it’s beautiful new location. I think Lauren’s positive attitude, clear vision, friendly disposition, customer service, and the gratitude she exudes in everything she does, as well as her sense of easy, comfortable style, accounts for her success.
From bottom left: Salty Donuts Key Lime, White Chocolate Tres Leches, Guava + Cheese, and Traditional Glazed
From bottom left: Salty Donuts Key Lime, White Chocolate Tres Leches, Guava + Cheese, and Traditional Glazed
Quick Disclaimer: I rarely eat doughnuts and when I do, it is usually only a jelly doughnut. A long time ago, a very non-nutritious friend of mine told me that the jelly doughnut was the most perfectly balanced food because it contained all of the 5 basic food groups. When I asked her how she figured that, she told me with a straight face, “The dough is the bread/grain group, the jelly is the fruit group, and they are made with milk and eggs.” I pointed out that she was missing the vegetable group and she responded that they are fried in vegetable oil! Anyway, I digress and have made this disclaimer longer than I thought.
Remember several of years ago when cupcakes, large and mini, were everywhere? Cupcake wedding cakes, cupcake birthday cakes, bridal showers, you name it, there were cupcakes and little cupcake shops were popping up in neighborhoods everywhere. I rarely eat cupcakes either, but I did enjoy all of the new, creative flavors that popped up when the cupcake craze hit. The craze hasn’t necessarily died down, I am happy to say that both Misha’s Cupcakes and Buttercream Cupcakes in Coral Gables near South Miami are both still around and are very popular. Misha’s are still so popular that you can find them at Miami International Airport.
But we’ve moved on in the carb alphabet from the “c’s” to the “d’s” for the latest food fad. Although they actually started popping up in 2015-2016, stores are opening up second locations and Instagram activists are snapping away. In South Miami, Honeybee Doughnuts has been open since 2016, they are frequently closed when I drive by because they sell out so often, and they are opening a second store in The Falls Shopping Center. Their doughnuts are works of art and extremely Instagrammable.
The Salty Donut has been around since 2015, since it started as pop-up in Wynwood. They recently opened their second store, this one in South Miami. They too have a cult following and I am sure the reason they opened up in South Miami was to satisfy their customers in the southern end of the county who spent countless hours driving to their Wynwood location.
Mojo Donuts, with locations in Hollywood and Miami, are opening up a third location in Coral Gables/South Miami. Mojo Donuts also has fried chicken, so I guess they are the new “chicken and waffles”.
In case you hadn’t noticed, summer in South Florida is in full swing and the dog days of summer, the hottest time of year, starts today!
The rich smells of mangoes, mixed with the briny smell of the ocean, flowering jasmine, and bug spray are held in the humid air that surrounds us. School has been out for a while, the streets are less chaotic at rush hour times, and the beaches are a lot less crowded. Still, the heat and humidity can get the best of us.
Here are some tips to surviving the dog days of summer.
Relax! Miami Spa Month is actually two full months of discounts and special deals at Miami’s top spas.
Chill out – There are so many great ice cream spots to help you cool off. Two not in that link that I like are, for 21 and older only, Aubi & Ramsa, and Wall’s Ice Cream Parlor, which has good old-fashioned ice cream.
Spice it up – Miami Spice Month is also two full months of discounts and fixed-price menus are many of Miami’s award-winning chef restaurants.
Make it easy for consumers to find what they are looking for. In a recent blog Is Veganism Going Mainstream, I discussed how Marshalls was making it easier for vegan shoppers to identify purses that coincide with the shopper’s values. In addition to Marshalls highlighting vegan purses, Whole Foods also makes it easy for consumers following specific dietary guidelines, such as Paleo, Whole 30, Gluten Free etc., to find products that meet their requirements without them having to read every label.
Make it experiential. Whether you own or operate an individual store, a chain of them or a shopping center, the consumer has to experience something beyond the shopping itself. Retailtainment was first used back in 1999 by sociologist and author George Ritzer
Make it interactive. Books and Books, the independently owned local bookstore is amazing at interacting with their customers. In addition to having knowledgeable staff, they have a cafe with great food, spaces for getting together and socializing and they offer book signings and readings by authors. Patrons come early have dinner or a cocktail, socialize, buy the book, and interact with the author. You can’t get that from online shopping and, in spite of technology (or maybe because of it) people want to have places where the can interact.
Make it Instagram and Pinterest worthy: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and the rest of social media has made it essential that whether it is food, clothing, real estate, spaces and places, whatever it is you are selling has to be Instagram and Pinterest worthy. Two places in Miami do that extremely well. Miami Design District and Wynwood. Don’t believe me? Go into Instagram and #miamidesigndistrict to view 158,000 posts or #wynwood to view over 2.4 million posts.
Make it about community. Several of the places already discussed such as Books and Books, the Miami Design District, and Wynwood are great examples. FootWorks in South Miami has running clubs and helps train you for half and full marathons, Dharma Studio in Coconut Grove offers free yoga classes three times a week in the Grove, and Aventura Mall has all sorts of events scheduled throughout the year. If you are in an area that has one, check with your local Business Improvement District and see how you can get involved to bring more traffic to your store.
A couple of days ago a wrote about what South Florida will look like in 2070 if we continue developing the way we are. The state of Florida is growing by 1,000 people per day, making traffic unbearable and threatening our quality of life. Luckily, there are many projects going on in South Florida that will improve our community and increase property values around them. Three of them include:
Some newspaper headlines and news stations have been asking if Miami is getting ready to experience another housing downturn, due largely to the rapid increase in prices and the return of building cranes to the Miami skyline. While there has been an increase in inventory in the Brickell corridor, there are still many areas in Miami where inventory is tight. This leads to headlines such as RIS Media’s, “Existing Home Sales Increase but Overall Market Continues to Underperform“.
If you were a buyer just cruising through headlines, it could give you pause thinking that after years of headlines talking about how sales are increasing, in the double digits in many areas, that it is now slowing. The truth is that if you continue reading, the reason the sales are increasing at a slow rate is because in many areas there is still a lack of inventory. Some of the reasons given by economists in the article:
Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Economist “Insufficient supply seems to be hampering prospective buyers…”
Mark Fleming, First American Chief Economist “Existing-home sales are currently below expectations because existing homeowners lack sufficient equity or remain under water”
Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan, “We continue to expect the economy to drag housing upward”
Another economist, Ted C. Jones, Chief Economist Stewart Title Guaranty Company said that one of the reasons the overall South Florida housing inventory is tight is that “The Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Palm Beach MSA added 91,000 net new jobs and only 17,000 new housing units”.
If you are currently in the market to purchase a home, know what the inventory is in your area and your price range so that you will be prepared to make an offer when the right house comes on the market. Chances are if you are looking in an area with tight supply, you won’t have much time to decide whether or not to make an offer. In many areas in Miami-Dade county, we are back to multi-offer situation.
Coral Gables had a phenomenal 2014 for real estate sales. There were 520 closed sales from January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2014 and 218 of those were cash sales. The highest priced sale for the year was for a 21,000 square foot, waterfront home in Tahiti Beach, listed by One Sotheby’s Saddy Delgado and sold by Irina Artemova of Luxe Living Realty for $18,000,000. Both the number of closed sales and the number of cash sales were down from 2013, which reported 607 closed sales, 224 of which were cash, but the percentage of cash sales was higher in 2014 at almost 42% of all transactions.
Looking for a new happy hour? Last Thursday, thanks to an overcrowded bar at Tarpon Bend, some friends and I discovered the charming Uvaggio restaurant and wine bar. Although they don’t have a full bar, they have a wonderful selection of wine and beer at very reasonable prices. We had a cheese plate, which featured some great American artisanal cheese, my favorite was Humboldt Fog, and stone crab with our bottle of wine. The place is tiny, but the bar is comfortable and friendly. I am looking forward to going back and having dinner.
Vintage bathroom
In early January, I posted Interior Design Color Trends For 2014. This adorable bathroom in a 1928 Old Spanish in Coral Gables is purple with white accents. Other accents, such as a chandelier and Cuban tile, also contained the trendy purple color.
Today during our open house tour, I was pleasantly surprised with a series of new single family homes for sale in North Coral Gables. With the exception of 1220 Capri, which is beautifully updated, these are all Old Spanish homes that have been modernized without losing the character that buyers of Old Spanish homes look for.
