by: Mary Jo Almeida-Shore

Seeing the Light:  Bianca the Delano

On Thursday night, the highly anticipated Italian restaurant, Bianca opened at the Delano Hotel to the delight of over a thousand guests who made their way across the eternal lobby into the restaurant and braved the limestone along the pool for the indoor/outdoor celebration.

While celebrities and VIPs dined inside the restaurant and on the terrace, partygoers enjoyed bites, libations and musical performances by Chris Botti and Little Louie Vega, (strange bedfellows indeed) out by the pool.  Vega’s dance tunes were abruptly halted by Botti’s intoxicating trumpet, which was accompanied by a gorgeous violinist who played in the pool, yes, IN the pool.  The music was captivating, especially when Botti played the theme from Cinema Paradiso, one of our favorite movies of all time.  The performance brought on a melancholy mood which was quickly interrupted by the site of a group of drunken models traipsing through the pool- there are just certain elements of this iconic hotel that will never change.  After which, Little Louie Vega took over again and was joined by Michelle Rodriguez for his second live set. Read the rest of this entry »

by: Mary Jo Almeida-Shore

St. Regis Bal Harbour Opens

The posh St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort & Residences officially opened on Thursday, January 19, with markedly less fanfare. In lieu of a splashy party, guests enjoyed a daytime ribbon cutting ceremony and champagne-sabering, a tradition of the St. Regis brand. The ritual dates back to the time of Napoleon – tres cool.

St. Regis Global brand leader, Paul James, CEO of Starwood Vacation Ownership, Sergio Rivera and General Manager, Marco Selva were joined by notables including Bal Harbour Village Mayor, Jean Rosenfield, Christina Getty-Maercks, Susanne Birbragher, Executive Director of Tourism for Bal Harbour, Carolyn Travis, Lea Black and designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, who gathered for the unveiling of the 28th property in the St. Regis portfolio where butlers lined the grand entrance of the resort and residential property that soars above a 1,000 foot stretch of pristine shoreline as Mayor Rosenfield presented Selva with the Key to the Village. Read the rest of this entry »

Athina Marturet, Maestro Marturet, and Christian Meischel

The Adrienne Arsht Center was packed to the rafters on Saturday January 21 for the Miami Symphony Orchestra’s (MISO) annual gala concert, An Evening in Vienna, where more than 3,000 of Miami’s social elite gathered to witness an unprecedented occasion.  On this special evening, the House of Swarovski presented MISO’s Music Director and Conductor Eduardo Marturet, with a one-of-a-kind crystal baton.   Christian Meischel, Swarovski’s project manager, flew in from Austria especially for this momentous occasion, as the baton is the first-ever of its kind.   

Throughout the evening, the charismatic and energetic Marturet, wearing royal blue crystallized Donald Pliner loafers to match the stage lights, encouraged the audience to share in his enthusiasm, which even resulted in a broken baton! Fortunately, said baton was not the Swarovski baton, which had yet to be presented.  The crowd obliged, clapping to the Polka, and dancing to the upbeat tempos, and delighting to the waltzes, and great overtures.  Read the rest of this entry »

We fully expected to be smitten on Saturday night at the YoungArts “An Affair of the Arts” Gala, where one of our favorite actors of all-time, Robert Redford, was honored with the Arison Award.  What we didn’t expect was that we would have the honor of meeting the Sundance Kid and gushing, shamelessly, about the fact that we are lifelong, card-carrying members of the Robert Redford fan club.  The still-gorgeous-as-ever, septuagenarian actor, director, activist and founder of Sundance Institute+ Film Festival humbly listened and even indulged us in a photo- a privilege reserved to very few on that stellar evening.   

Prior to the gala, more than 800 A-list guests, including prominent artists, community leaders, philanthropists and celebrities, gathered for the performance and awards presentation at the historic Gusman Center for the Performing Arts where visual artist and 1986 YoungArts winner Doug Aitken was presented with the Alumni Award; and arts administrator Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, received the YoungArts Leadership Award. Read the rest of this entry »

Dwayne Wade

By:  Mary Jo Almeida-Shore

To ease the pain of entering a new decade, Dwyane Wade’s family and friends (and by “friends” we mean sponsors such as Hublot and The Collection) celebrated the basketball star’s birthday with a weekend filled with festivities, beginning with a surprise brunch hosted at the W Hotel by his mother Jolinda and sister Tragil. The intimate gathering included Wade’s girlfriend, Gabrielle Union and featured a performance by Grammy Award-winning singer Yolanda Adams.

On Sunday night a slew of celebrities including the usual suspects, teammates Lebron James, Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem as well as Pat Riley, DJ Irie and Usher feted Wade at the Setai’s courtyard with free-flowing Hennessy and Belvedere and special surprise performances from Kelly Rowland, T.I., Common and Rick Ross.

The evening began with a special “30 for 30″ dinner at the Setai hosted by Dom Perignon, Belevedere and Hennessy, during which the vintage champagne producer presented Wade with a bottle of 1982 Dom Perignon, in honor of his birth year. After dinner, the party moved to the courtyard where Wade was greeted by over 300 friends and VIP guests. One of the biggest surprises was the all-new 2012 McLaren MP4-12C supercar, customized just for Wade, which was perched on a platform on the pool awaiting Wade’s arrival. Ken Gorin, president and CEO of The Collection had the car airlifted onto the hotel pool earlier in the day. Read the rest of this entry »

Nereyda Gonzalez, Lawrence Binder, Peter Maxymych, Hadley Henriette, Marcella Novela, Mary Jo and Michael Shore, and Matthew Almeida

By:  Mary Jo Almeida-Shore

It’s like we always say:  “Wherever you go, there YOU are.” So it makes perfect sense that on the biggest party night of the year, while out-of-towners flocked to the big clubs and the hottest hotels on South Beach, many seasoned partygoers opted for more intimate private affairs rather than the high-priced, big-ticket parties (not that there’s anything wrong with those), choosing to check out hotspots like the revamped, sizzling, Shelborne; party palace, LIV; and our “home away from home” Soho Beach House on any night BUT New Year’s Eve. This is not to say that we didn’t make a pit-stop at the above on our NYE Party Patrol escapade- to bring you the inside info. But we were fortunate to ring in 2012 among two of our favorite ladies, Iran Issa-Khan and Marcella Novela, who hosted concurrent, exclusive, NYE soirees, filled with guests and surprises as special as the hostesses themselves. Regardless of how you chose to celebrate, one thing’s for sure, we hope you have a terrific year wherever and whoever you are.  It has definitely gotten off to a great start.  Here’s the lowdown on what went down.  Read the rest of this entry »