The Q1 Edit
I think we tend to say this. all the time, but we really mean it this time around—February really flew by, didn’t it? And somehow, March and April are already over. The start of the year was busy for the food industry in Miami with South Beach Food and Wine Festival and Visit Lauderdale Food & Wine Festival. Sadly, this year I didn’t make it to any of the events or dinners, but clear your calendars now for next year. these events are getting better and better each year!
And since then, we’ve have so many new restaurants pop up in Fort Lauderdale, really giving us a place for every occasion. We got Elba, Timbr, Sixty Vines, Mykonos, Catch & Steak, Earls… I mean that’s a handful! I’m still making my way through all of them. I really enjoyed the food at Elba and outdoors and I love the atmosphere at Timbr, especially the upstairs lounge which is a great grown and sexy vibe with great cocktails!
I won’t bore you with the mundane part of every day life, so let’s get into the juicy parts of these two months!
FAVE eats
TRP Taste
TRP is really a Fort Lauderdale treasure. Especially for anyone who truly values and appreciates the culinary world. These intimate dinners are a love letter to food, bringing in pieces of each chef’s love for the craft to a plate, all while sharing a space together while its being made. I got the chance to enjoy a dinner with special guest, Hell’s Kitchen season 22 winner, Ryan O’Sullivan. What an incredible dinner and wine pairing, 7 courses and a beautiful night. The TRP team puts these meals together for two weeks of the month.
Wine Spirits + Kitchen
This is a great dinner, without fail. Chef Blake has a passion for the food he makes that speaks through the flavors in the dishes he puts out. Between a savory steak, an incredible charcutterie put together by a fromager, great cocktails and wine dispensers, dinner here is an experience!
Sunness Supper Club
This is another one of the new FTL restaurants and I’ve been here twice and neither time has disappointed! This is an intimate space, great design, and the food is wonderful. They also host monthly dinners, I recently went to one hosted by Foursquare Rum Distillery and Chef Allen Susser. They also have GREAT cocktails, shout out to Ally!
MISO
I didn’t get good pictures this night because I just happened to go and wasn’t prepared, but thats the point! Simply enjoying things. I really enjoyed this dinner and am looking forward to going back. I want to try mostly everything on the menu! I always order spicy tuna or crunchy rice and we almost ordered two. The rolls were great, really everything was so fresh.
STAYCATION
I celebrated my birthday in April. Thirty four, I can’t believe EYE am the adult now! The stress of planning something to do made me do the opposite, plan nothing! Go with the vibes. The one thing I wanted is to see Angelo Colina live at Ft. Lauderdale Improv. My family was here from Peru so it was a great opportunity to go see an improv show in spanish. More on that below. I did get a FIREE house to stay at in Miami, and that is where the just vibes started.
Dinner + A Show
This is one of my favorite things to do! Dinner and a comedy show. It’s great! I visit the Ft. Lauderdale Improv often and was excited to go to this show for my birthday. This is a great venue, i love the espresso martinis here! The space is connected to 14 North, so they have a full bar and kitchen. Like most improvs, there is a two drink minimum. Also, the nachos are good and great for a show!
There are a lot of restaurants around the improv and a stand out one for my is Toro Dania Beach. Part of Chef Richard Sandoval’s restaurant group, this one is special for the tequila lovers because the left side of the restaurant is a Tequila Library. Here, all of the tequilas are additive free and the incredible people here can tell you everything about tequila. You don’t need a cocktail menu because they will craft your cocktails to your liking and its a delight. The food was fantastic! The lobster mac and cheese was so good, everyone LOVED the guac, there’s sushi, a HUGE meat platter. Really a SOLID spot for a special dinner. Latin American and Asian influences on all the dishes. The tres leches dessert… YES. Really, this is a great experience, from learning about tequila, tasting and having a great dinner to back it up!
Birthday in Miami
I stayed at Villa Esperanza which was a coin toss away from Downtown Miami, Coral Gables and the whole Miami area. That aside, it was a great place even if you want to stay in, which we did! The outdoor patio is huge so we spent the day soaking the sun. There are four rooms and beds to fit like 10 people! I went to dinner at Eating House in Miami, which is a spot I love every time. There is a Coyo Taco right next door which always have a fun back room if you go at the right time. We ended up at Blue Martini which played music i enjoyed and man, I just love being able to sit LOL. The next day, we had Salty Donut for breakfast and then Grazianos for lunch; two solid spots for me. The next day, we stopped by El Bagel which I’ve been wanting to try for a long time! I don’t know much about bagels but my friend who does said it was great! It was great for me too but what do I know. We weren’t ready to go home so we booked a day pass with Resort Pass to the Savoy. We wanted beach with a guaranteed umbrella. Sadly, they didn’t have the umbrellas open because of the winds, but they let us hang out by the pool instead. Great day, more time by the pool. I’ll likely be doing Resort Pass again!
ACTIVITIES
I’ve had family in town from Peru for most of these last couple of months. There are a couple of activities my family have done almost as tradition when people come into town. I’ve done a couple of these on my own, sharing some of these below! These are fun to do even if you’re a local, in my opinion, but its a great way to spend some time outdoors.
Airboat Tour: I think i’ve done an airboat tour twice this year already and both days the weather was PERFECT. I usually go to Sawgrass Recreation Center. You can find tickets on Groupon usually at a good price or even through them directly. The airboat tour takes about an hour and there is an animal sanctuary in the back. It’s not huge but its cute, you can pet a baby alligator.
Jungle Queen: No pictures of this this time around but I’m including this because my family, mom in particular, LOVES her a Jungle Queen night. We’ve taken everyone who comes into town and it really is a good way to show FTL in a different way, on the water. You know where they take you isn’t really an island? Sure feels like it though! Food, entertainment and a killer Fort Lauderdale Sunset? Perfect.
Fairchild Gardens: I came here during their Orchid Festival and we had such a great time. It was a beautiful day and the gardens are huge! There is so much to see. Something great that surprised me is that the food was GREAT! They had a lot of different vendors to chose from. I had a churrasco sandwich and the best arnold palmer EVER. We loved it, it was so nice and we bought some nice plants home! We also started this day at Ludlow Coffee in Brickell, from New York!
Miami Tour: This is a quick tour I do often with my family and 10/10 recommend. Start at Calle 8, walk the strip, take pics, go to Sanguich de miami and get a cuban and steak sandwich to go, drive to south beach, park your car, and rent a city bike, drive up and down the beach side, park your bike, go to the beach, and then, go home before traffic. PERFECT miami day!
book club
OK so, like I said before, ya girl was busy. I made it to the public library and got a physcial library card! Something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I’ve been using Libby, which if you don’t know, is your public library in an app that allows you to rent digital books and audio books for free (love that). But, I did want a physcial copy and I did want to experience visiting an actual library and renting a book, which I did. These few months were big for me on Audiobook. Between flights and driving, I was able to catch up on books via Audible, which I truly love!! ALSO!!!! It was a good quarter for new books, because I, of course, got my hands on Sunrise on the Reaping. Very excited. Next up is Kennedy Ryan’s new book from the Skyland Series, Can’t Get Enough which I can not wait to read/listen to!
Remarkably Bright Creatures (Audiobook): I finished Remarkably Bright Creatures! I liked it a lot more than I expected. I do think that I was able to enjoy this book as much as I did becuase I listened to the audiobook. I think had I read the physcial book, I wouldn’t have gotten through it as easily as I did. I really enjoyed the narration of the book. Over all, it was a nice book. I enjoy when stories have destinies that align and this did that well, alibiet a bit predictably in the end, but enjoyable nonetheless. It’s also one of those books that reinforces my desire to live in a small town near water where everyone knows everyone (I’d prob actually hate this).
Tower of Dawn (Physical Copy): Sigh. What can I say I’m still not done with TOD. I will say I did make some progress in February on this book and it IS getting interesting! I’ve just been busy. What I will say for now is that I did start listening to A Court of Faeries and Fangirls Podcast recaps starting at the beginning of Throne of Glass because I do want a refresher as I get closer to Kingdom of Ash. I really love a book recap podcast and I enjoyed this one for ACOTAR. (OMG UPDATE but since I wrote this they’ve announced a hiatus, so HELP don’t start at TOG) Not completely related but I also recommend the Fantasy Fangirls podcast too, I started that one with Fourth Wing and they made that book better than the actual book was! The Iron Flame season was great too!
Before I Let Go + This Could Be Us (Skyland Series): I’d seen these books all over #BookTok and just generally online and had them on my TBR. I used my credits to start Before I Let Go and I was hooked. For one, the narration was great. Two, I love series where we get different points of view in friend groups, and this friend group? I’d love to be a part of. I really liked how emotionally raw and real these characters felt, how vulnerable they were and also how imperfect they are in their absolute real human-ness. This book touches on pain and loss and repair. The next book had my jaw on the floor several times. The romance was not my favorite like in the first book, but the twists and turns kept me engaged. I’m really excited for the third book because it follows one of my favorite characters in the series. I’d recommend this series!