Flamingo Magazine Volume 8 Winter 2017

No.

FLIP PALLOT: TH E G O D FATH E R k F L O R I D A F LY F I S H I N G

8

THE

Outs ide

ISSUE

25 FRESH AIR FROLICS

O N TH E WATE R, I N TH E W O O D S AN D O UT O F B O U N D S

For Floridians. By Floridians.

DIANE ROBERTS

Hurricane hangover cure

THE SECRET LIFE k

SANTA CLAUS (Hint: he has a condo in Margate)

Best-selling

AUTHOR JEFF VANDERMEER FROM BOOKS TO THE BIG SCREEN

Insider’s GUIDE:

AMELIA ISLAND

8 YEARS OF CRAFTSMANSHIP F O R A R E F I N E D TA S T E .

Crafted first in 1862, BACARDĂ? 8 AĂ‘OS is aged under the Caribbean sun for a minimum of 8 years.

The result is a complex and layered rum, with each batch hitting the right notes of oak, apricot, nutmeg and butterscotch. This amber sipping rum is perfect for special occasions. It can be served on its own or as the base for outstanding cocktails such as the Rum Old Fashioned.

LIVE PASSIONATELY. DRINK RESPONSIBLY. ©2017. BACARDÍ, ITS TRADE DRESS, THE BAT DEVICE AND BACARDI UNTAMEABLE ARE TRADEMARKS OF BACARDI & COMPANY LIMITED. BACARDI U.S.A., INC., CORAL GABLES, FL. RUM - 40% ALC. BY VOL.

Uniquely grown in its native forest environment, Guayaki Yerba Mate is cherished as a sacred beverage.

Reach deep into yerba mate culture and you’ll discover people have long gathered to imbibe mate to awaken the mind, perform extraordinary feats and to exchange confidences.

Even Yari, the mythical goddess of mate decrees it the symbol of friendship.

Guayakí’s 2020 mission is to steward and restore 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest and create over 1,000 living wage jobs.

— wi nter 2017 • 20 1 8 —

CONTENTS F E AT U R E S

4

40

50

60

72

HE SO FLY

BY MICHAEL ADNO

10 SECONDS FROM NOW B Y S T E V E D O L LA R

Flip Pallot, Florida’s most famous angler reminisces about the good ol’ days and shares some regrets about not doing more to protect the state’s fisheries.

Tallahassee author Jeff VanderMeer’s best-selling novel Annihilation, a sci-fi take on climate change and other social and environmental issues, hits the big screen this February.

THE SECRET LIFE OF SANTA CLAUS S A R A H C LA R K E STUART

WHEN NORTH MEETS SOUTH

BY DANIELLE NORCROSS

An ongoing portrait series by photographer Mary Beth Koeth reveals the real people behind Florida’s off-season Sandy Clauses.

The sisters behind lifestyle blog Palm Beach Lately head north to Amelia Island for a stylish, outdoor adventure together.

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

D E PA R T M E N TS

10

37

87

WADING IN 12 /// THE SPREAD: A mother-daughter duo carries on a family tradition squeezing Florida’s iconic juice.

COLUMNS 37 /// C APITAL DAME: Diane Roberts on how not to prepare for a hurricane, avoiding Publix rage and worst-named storms that have impacted our great state.

ON THE FLY 90 /// PLUME: A look back at the life and recipes of Ernie Mickler and his cookbook White Trash Cooking.

16 /// FLAMINGLE: Meet a fine crop of Florida’s agriculture heavyweights.

18 /// T HE SLICE: Explore the Sunshine State on a network of trails.

19 /// M ADE IN FLA: Get outside with the products and clothing created by these sporty entrepreneurs.

30 /// F LEDGLINGS: Floridian Kim Paige made her way to Music City with a guitar and a pen.

32 /// J UST HATCHED: Out with the old and in with the new golf courses, music halls, arts spaces and more.

92 /// THE STUDIO: Boca Raton artist Laura Lacambra Shubert explains the inspiration behind her work.

97 /// G ROVE STAND: A master chef elevates the Naples culinary scene.

83 /// PANHANDLING: Author Prissy Elrod’s sunny dispatches from the Panhandle

102 /// BIRD’S-EYE VIEW: Take a trip through Old Miami on the streets of Coral Gables.

94 /// F LORIDA WILD: Photographer Carlton Ward Jr. captures the creatures that run wild in the heart of Florida.

104 /// THE ROOST: These properties showcase Florida-style outdoor living at its finest.

108 /// T HE TIDE: The best things to do and events to experience around the state this winter.

112 /// FLORIDIANA: A lifetime of memories made on a vintage wooden Chris-Craft

Cover Photography by MARY BETH KOETH On the cover and this spread: Florida native Betty Ann Graham and Leigh Stowe cruise the St. Johns River on Majestic, a 1936 22-foot Chris-Craft triple cockpit runabout owned and operated by Guy Marvin.

Clothing: Two One Four and Beau Outfitters Makeup: Jennifer Comee of The Rosy Cheek Jewelry: Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelery Accessories: Penelope T

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

5

W

hen my family and I returned to Florida five years ago, we took comfort in the fact that nearly 50 years had passed since a hurricane directly hit the Jacksonville area. According to local lore, Jacksonville didn’t really have hurricanes.

Something to do with the shape of the coastline up here. Well, we saw how wrong that wives tale was over the past two hurricane seasons. People in our office lost entire homes to Irma. The month of September was a blur of debris clean-up. Most everyone I knew from Key West to Tallahassee had been displaced, and I think my husband chainsawed half of the trees in our town. The whole state united in fear and then came together again in an effort to recover (and get the kids back in school).

By the time this issue hits newsstands, Irma will be a distant memory for some, but, for many, it will be an ongoing nightmare of insurance claims and rebuilding. We’ve decided to give readers permission to laugh at our collective situation in Diane Roberts’s column “’Cane ’Cane Go Away.” Glimpses of storms past and present pop up throughout this edition.

In our profile of Flip Pallot, Florida’s legendary angler recounts the time Hurricane Andrew ripped off the roof of his home while he and his wife hunkered down inside.

That being said, Flamingo’s Outside Issue is an ode to Florida’s amazing climate, not to our hurricanes. We take stock of how Floridians enjoy the winter months—on the water, at the beach, down a trail, in the backcountry and around new places.

The sisters behind the blog Palm Beach Lately head to Amelia Island to do just that in “When North Meets South.” Then writer Steve Dollar takes us inside the mind of best-selling

sci-fi novelist Jeff VanderMeer, who reveals the Florida wilderness that became his muse in “10 Seconds from Now.” And, in a portrait series by photographer Mary Beth Koeth that has nothing to do with Mother Nature and everything to do with Father Christmas, we meet some of Santa’s sandy helpers. As our gift to readers for the holidays, we also introduce a new column called Panhandling, sunny dispatches by author Prissy Elrod. Expect to laugh—hard.

Volume 8 completes two full years of Flamingo. Along with hurricane preparedness, we’ve learned a lot about our readers in that time. This fall, one woman wrote to say she bought the last issue of Flamingo because she was intrigued by its content. But she hated the vintage image of Gregg Allman on the cover so much that she ripped it off and threw it away.

“How could you choose a photo so unbecoming of Gregg?” she asked. She ended by saying that she might still subscribe. I love this letter, for better or worse, because it represents the passion we want to tap into as an editorial team. To be sure, many reached out to say how much they loved seeing a young Allman with his long hair and shades on our cover. But the ripping reader reminds us that we all see the world through different lenses. And we’re in this business to create content that moves people.

Our current cover, while not a vintage photo, celebrates an heirloom boat. Every component of the image is rooted in the Sunshine State, from the couple and the wooden runabout to the photographer who captured the shot. Inside and out, Flamingo aims to celebrate real Florida.

I hope that you will tear into it.

Editor in Chief & Publisher

let us know what you think. Email me at jamie@flamingomag.com

6

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

PHOTOGR APHY BY INGRID DAMIANI, ST YLING BY ALIX ROBINSON; ADOBE STOCK

hit me like a hurricane

The Sky-Dweller The revolutionary watch for world travelers, blending watchmaking ingenuity with simplicity of use.

It doesn’t just tell time. It tells history.

oyster perpetual SKY-DWELLER

rolex

oyster perpetual and sky-dweller are ÂŽ trademarks.

CONTRIBUTORS

ISSUE

8

For Floridians. By Floridians.

• FOUNDED IN 2016 •

BETH ASCHENBACH AND DANIELLE NORCROSS

— W I N T E R 20 1 7 • 20 1 8 —

Sisters Beth Aschenbach and Danielle Norcross were inspired to create Palm Beach Lately, the area’s first lifestyle blog, by the bonds of sisterhood and classic Palm Beach style. The women share a love of their hometown and a passion for the latest fashion, home and travel trends. In this issue of Flamingo, the blogging duo chronicle their adventure to Florida’s northernmost point, Amelia Island.

Editor in Chief, Publisher, Founder JAMIE RICH jamie@flamingomag.com Consulting Creative Director Holly Keeperman holly@flamingomag.com Photo Editor and Senior Designer Ellen Patch ellen@flamingomag.com Contributing Editor Jeanne Craig

NILA DO SIMON An award-winning journalist and editor, Nila has contributed to Marie Claire, The New York Times, Miami and Venice magazines. She was recognized by the Florida Magazine Association for best feature writing as well as best feature headline writing—five times. When not writing about arts and culture, as she does in this issue of Flamingo, the native Floridian has been known to throw a few elbows on the basketball court and hit a couple of forehand winners.

Cont ributin g Writers Michael Adno, Betty Cortina-Weiss, Steve Dollar, Prissy Elrod, Katie Hendrick, Morgan Jenkins, Danielle Norcross, Laura Reiley, Diane Roberts, Maddy Zollo Rusbosin, Nila Do Simon, Sarah Clarke Stuart, David Walker, Carlton Ward Jr. Contributing Photographers & Illustrators Leslie Chalfont, Ingrid Damiani, Beth Gilbert, Mary Beth Koeth, Stephen Lomazzo, Iris Moore, Jessie Preza, Jack Spellman, Libby Volgyes, Carlton Ward Jr. Copy Editors & Fact Checkers Brett Greene, Katherine Shy

CARLTON WARD JR. The eighth-generation Floridian is devoted to keeping “Florida Wild.” In his column by that name, he shares his work with Flamingo readers. The Tampa-based outdoors activist contributes photography and writing to Audubon, Smithsonian magazine and National Geographic. He has authored three awardwinning pictorial books: The Edge of Africa, Florida Cowboys, and Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition, the last of which earned him a place among the National Geographic Explorers.

Social Strategy Christina Clifford Marketing & Promotions Annie Lee Advertising Sales Debra Ballard debra@flamingomag.com Robert Kohn robert@flamingomag.com General inquiries: ads@flamingomag.com Contact Us Phone: (904) 395-3272 Email: info@flamingomag.com TO GET A YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION (4 issues) go to flamingomag.com or send a $30 check made out to JSR Media LLC to P.O. Box 3253, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32004

Ordinary, she was born and raised in Lake City, Florida, and now lives in Tallahassee with her

All content in this publication, including but not limited to text, photos and graphics, is the sole property of and copyrighted by JSR Media and Flamingo. Reproduction without permission from the publisher is prohibited. We take no responsibility for images or content provided by our advertisers.

husband, Dale. Prissy’s column, “Panhandling,” debuts in this issue of Flamingo. Her second book, Chasing Ordinary, the sequel to Far Outside the Ordinary, will be released in early 2018.

8

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

JSR MEDIA

IRIS MOORE, MAC STONE

PRISSY ELROD A professional speaker, artist, humorist and the author of Far Outside the

— flor idians, far e, f inds —

WADING IN — THE SPREAD —

A b o o z y b r u n c h i n s p i r e d b y w i n t e r ’s c i t r u s s e a s o n

— FLAMINGLE —

To p b a n a n a s i n F l o r i d a a g r i c u l t u r e

— THE SLICE —

Happy trails for bikers, birders and boarders

— MADE IN FLA —

A sporty roundup of Sunshine State makers

— JUST HATCHED —

New places to toast, taste and try

Above: Betty Ann and

Leigh head out on the ultimate picnic.

10

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

PHOTO BY MARY BETH KOETH; MODELS BET T Y ANN GR AHAM AND LEIGH STOWE; CLOTHING BY EMLY BENHAM, T WO ONE FOUR AND BEAU OUTFIT TERS; MAKEUP BY JENNIFER COMEE OF THE ROSY CHEEK; JEWELRY BY CRESTA BLEDSOE FINE JEWELRY; SHOES BY EMLY BENHAM

— FLEDGLINGS —

A Florida singer trades her flip-flops for cowboy boots

Worldwide Cuisine Food Demonstrations Live Entertainment Silent Auction February 18, 2018 | 4 to 8 p.m.

Playa Largo Resort & Spa in Key Largo Join us for the ultimate culinary experience in the Florida Keys!

Guests will judge dishes from fabulous local restaurants and vote for the People’s Choice Award Winner. Feel free to come by car or boat.

Registered Playa Largo Resort Guests: $60 Advance Purchase: $60 After February 1: $75

For more information, call 305.852.7887 x321 or visit www.vnahospicekeys.org and click on special events.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

HOSTED BY

XXXXXX

BENEFITING

Hospice of the Florida Keys, Inc. and its division, Visiting Nurse Association,is a tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation 501 (c)(3). EIN: 59-2386289. Hospice License: HPC50310951. VNA License:HHA21245096. HCS License: 232500 & 232517. Charitable organization registration number: CH87. Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services: www.800helpfla.com/1-800-435-7352.

WADING IN :THE SPREAD FLO R RIDA-F IDA-F R ESH BITES & BEVS B y K a t i e H en d ri ck

GOLDEN GIRLS THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER STORY BEHIND NATALIE’S ORCHID ISLAND JUICE AND SOME SWEET INSPIRATIONS FOR A BOOZY BRUNCH

W

hen winter arrives in Florida, so does the harvest season of the state’s iconic round orbs—navel oranges, tangerines, grapefruits and more.

For most of history, only a select population— Floridians with access to a grove or roadside stand—got to savor the pulpy treats in their unadulterated glory.

Robert Sexton, a fourthgeneration citrus grower

NATALIE’S ORCHID ISLAND JUICE CO. — SOLD AT —

SELECT RETAILERS THROUGHOUT THE STATE orchidislandjuice.com

in Vero Beach, grew up guzzling the good stuff and pitied the masses stuck with concentrate. When consumer demand for fresh-cut lettuce in the ’80s led to a rise in refrigerated trucking, Sexton envisioned sharing the joy of freshly squeezed Florida orange juice with the rest

12

of the country. But his duties running the family packing house kept him from pursuing the idea.

Enter his wife, Marygrace, who proclaimed, “Enough dreaming, let’s just do it!” On a crisp autumn morning in 1990, she marched into the grove, plucked some fruit and started juicing. She asked a local butcher if she could borrow his truck to keep her bottled bounty chilled and then drove through the night to Carnival Fruit in Miami, where she made her first sale. Nearly 30 years later, Marygrace has a 66,000-squarefoot production plant in Fort Pierce, 100-plus employees, a line of juices sold at retail shops in more than 33 states and 41 countries, and a gleaming brand named after her daughter, Natalie.

Although divine on their own, Natalie’s juices work wonderfully in cocktails, casseroles, smoothies, salad dressings and more. Here are a few of the Sexton family’s favorite recipes.

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

This page:

Orange blueberry sweet rolls

Orange Blueberry Sweet Rolls SERVES 6–8

ROLLS

cup warm water 1/4 ounce active dry yeast 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 cup butter, melted 3/4 cup warm milk 3/4 cup sugar 1 egg, whisked 1 teaspoon salt 4 1/2 cups flour 1/2

FILLING

cup butter, softened 1 cup sugar Zest of 1 orange 4 tablespoons Natalie’s Orange Juice 1–2 cups blueberries 1/2

GLAZE

NATALIE’S ORCHID ISL AND JUICE CO.

1/4 cup Natalie’s Orange Juice 1/2 teaspoon orange extract (or vanilla extract) 2 cups powdered sugar 4 tablespoons milk 2 teaspoons orange zest PREPARATION: In a small bowl, mix warm water, yeast and sugar. Set aside for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, milk, sugar, egg and salt. Add yeast mixture and slowly combine. Add 3 cups of flour and stir to combine. Add the remaining flour, then attach bread hook. Mix for 5 minutes. (Add more flour if needed. Dough should be soft, not sticky.) Cover dough with plastic wrap and wait approximately 90 minutes for dough to double in size.

Once dough has doubled, punch it down and roll it out on a floured surface.

Combine filling ingredients and spread onto the dough with a baker’s brush. Top with blueberries and roll up. Cut dough into 12 to 15 equal pieces. Place dough onto a greased baking dish with rolls about 1 inch apart.

Allow the rolls to sit for an hour, then bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Mix together the glaze ingredients and pour over the rolls as soon as they come out of the oven. Serve promptly.

Above: Pumpkin pear hot cider Below: Carrot cake smoothie bowl

Carrot Cake Smoothie Bowl SERVES 1 1 bottle Natalie’s Carrot Ginger Juice 1/2 cup coconut milk 1 banana 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 2 tablespoons maple syrup Pineapple, chopped into bite-sized pieces Whole pecans Pumpkin seeds Toasted coconut

PREPARATION: In advance, place peeled banana in a freezer bag and freeze. Pour coconut milk into ice cube trays and freeze. Place first six ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth.

Pour into bowl and top with pineapple, pecans, pumpkin seeds and toasted coconut.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

13

WADING IN :THE SPREAD B y K a t i e H en d ri ck

Cold-Pressed COCKTAILS ELEVATE YOUR DRINKING GAME WITH HOMEGROWN FLORIDA FRESH JUICES.

S

ince pressing its first batch of golden nectar in the ’90s, Natalie’s has diversified beyond citrus, offering more than 14 flavors such as Carrot Ginger and Pumpkin Apple Spice, “but our principles remain the same,” says Director of Marketing Natalie Sexton, the company’s namesake.

Produce is squeezed in small batches and pasteurized at the minimum temperature, for the minimum amount of time required by the FDA, killing harmful bacteria while keeping nutrients and enzymes intact. Each juice contains five ingredients or fewer, none of which include preservatives, concentrates, flavor packs or added sugars.

“It’s the same pure product my family’s enjoyed at home for years,” says Natalie.

This winter, ditch the carbonated beverages and sugary mixers (common culprits for hangovers) and create a clean, refreshing cocktail made with Florida’s good stuff.

Left: Orange cranberry rosemary mimosa (Find this recipe at flamingomag.com.)

This page: Frozen

NATALIE’S ORCHID ISL AND JUICE CO.

lemon mint sweet tea with a splash of bourbon

14

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Frozen Lemon Mint Sweet Tea (with a Splash of Bourbon) SERVES 6 2 16-ounce bottles of Natalie’s Lemonade Tea 1 cup sugar 1 cup water 3 tablespoons mint, coarsely chopped 1–2 ounces bourbon Lemon slices and fresh mint PREPARATION: Boil the water, sugar and mint for 1 minute. Allow the syrup to cool completely.

Pour through a strainer to remove the mint leaves. In a large bowl, combine the syrup with the Lemonade Tea. Chill for at least 1 hour.

Freeze according to instructions of ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for a few more hours before serving.

Top with bourbon, if you please.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

15

WADING IN :FLAMINGLE A FLO C K OF FASCINATING F LOR IDIANS

ALL NATURALS Agricultural roots run deep for these natural-born leaders who found purpose in the fertile Florida soil.

Strawberry Whisperer

Charles “Chip” Hinton knows strawberries, so much so that he is credited with increasing statewide sales of the juicy, red fruit by 500 percent in the late 1980s. He saw an opportunity to expand the strawberry market by breeding new varieties, each with its own nuanced taste. It was this innovation, as well as his program to distribute surplus produce to the hungry, that earned him induction into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2016. Hinton has served as chair of Hillsborough’s Agricultural Economic Development Council, Extension Overall Advisory Committee, and County Farm Bureau.

16

RACHEL SMITH

Citrus Sweetheart

The Miss Florida Citrus Pageant (originally the Florida Citrus Queen Pageant) began crowning a woman each year to represent the Florida citrus industry in 1924. Since then, the Winter Haven–based pageant has evolved and is now a qualifying round for the Miss America Pageant.

This past March, the crown went to Paige Todd, but this summer Todd stepped down from her position to study for her LSAT. She turned the scepter over to Rachel Smith, a University of Florida graduate who will spend the next few months representing Florida’s famous fruit at trade shows and agriculture events around the nation.

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

ADAM PUTNAM Top Carrot

For Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam, farming is in the blood. The politician, recognizable by his boyish looks and red hair, was born into one of Bartow’s most established cattleranching and citrusproducing families. Now in his second term as commissioner, he gained national attention for work on issues spanning from water conservation to access to fresh produce for all Floridians.

Putnam also served as congressman for Florida’s 12th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2018, he’ll run for the governor’s seat.

ALFONSO FANJUL JR. Sugar Baron

After fleeing Castrocontrolled Cuba in the mid20th century, the wealthy Fanjul family relocated to South Florida, where Alfonso Fanjul Sr. worked to re-establish their vast sugarcane dynasty stateside.

Now, with subsidiaries including Domino Sugar and Florida Crystals, Fanjul Corp. dominates the nation’s refined sugar industry, producing a sweet seven million tons annually. A lightning rod for environmentalists opposed to the impacts of “Big Shug,” Alfonso “Alfy” Fanjul Jr. now runs the $8.2 billion empire, with more than 180,000 acres of farmland dedicated to sugarcane, Florida’s third largest agricultural export.

KIM RIVERS

Cannabis Crusader

Because of her background in real estate acquisition and law, one might not expect Kim Rivers to be a pioneer of Florida’s medical marijuana industry. But then again, she’s all about defying expectations.

As the CEO of Trulieve, the first dispensary in the state, Rivers has made it her mission to destigmatize the medical role of cannabis as a means to treat a variety of conditions, from seizures to chronic pain. With 10 locations across the state, Trulieve works directly with Hackney Nursery in Quincy to cultivate new strains of marijuana to treat a variety of ailments.

ILLUSTR ATION BY STEPHEN LOMAZZO

DR. CHARLES F. HINTON

F L O R I D A ’ S O N LY S T A T E W I D E F E A T U R E M A G A Z I N E

For Floridians. By Floridians.

Don’t miss out!

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

For an annual subscription (4 issues) visit flamingomag.com for details or send a $30 check to JSR Media LLC, P.O. Box 3253 Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32004 Questions? Call or email us: (904) 395-3272, admin@flamingomag.com.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

17

WADING IN :THE SLICE

A N OTE WO RTHY NUMER ICAL TAKE ON OUR STATE By xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

TRail Mix

18

GREAT FLORIDA BIRDING AND WILDLIFE TRAIL

CIRCUMNAVIGATIONAL SALTWATER PADDLING TRAIL

FLORIDA HISTORIC GOLF TRAIL

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE TRAIL

FLORIDA NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL

Florida is home to some of the most diverse fauna in the world, including more than 300 bird species and 200 butterfly species, which make their home along the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail. With 510 viewing sites throughout the state, it’s a great way to see mallards, American flamingos and red-tailed hawks in their natural habitats. Serious butterfly enthusiast and birdwatchers can earn beautiful certificates through the Wings Over Florida program, which officially recognizes sightings of native species. floridabirdingtrail.com

Any coastal Floridian knows that the best way to see the state is by water. Known as Florida’s longest and most ambitious sea kayaking course, the paddling trail runs along 1,515 miles of coastline, tracing the entire state.

Explore untouched barrier islands, weave through mangroves and soak in the shore from a canoe, kayak or paddleboard. Beginning at Pensacola’s Big Lagoon State Park, the trail is made up of 26 segments and winds all the way around the southern tip of the peninsula andn back up the east coast to Amelia Island. floridadep.gov/parks/ogt

If baseball is America’s favorite pastime, then golf is certainly Florida’s.

Some of the nation’s oldest courses were designed by architects like Donald Ross and Seth Raynor and built alongside Florida’s historic railroads and hotels. Many of these old-school courses, located across the state from the Keys to Tampa Bay and up to Pensacola, are still open to the public.

While some of the courses have been revamped through the years, others have retained their original splendor. For golf lovers, this collection of trails simply cannot be missed. floridahistoricgolftrail.com

Most Floridians associate Native American culture with college football teams or hard-to-pronounce names, such as Withlacoochee, Micanopy and Thonotosassa, on signs along the highways.

Few recognize the role that these tribes played in the cultural development of our Sunshine State. Seventy historical and archaeological sites on the trail, including caverns, burial mounds and museums, show how tribes like the Apalachee and Calusa lived, hunted and thrived in pre-colonial Florida, shaping the state we love today. trailoffloridasindian heritage.org

The Florida National Scenic Trail, commonly called the Florida Trail, is revered as one of the most environmentally diverse hiking trails in the state. Spanning across 1,300 miles, it crawls from the pristine white sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle all the way to the estuaries of the Everglades and hits most major natural landmarks—including Lake Okeechobee—in between.

Its sheer scale makes it only about an hour’s drive from most major Florida cities.

It’s ideal for people of all experience levels, from families to the most seasoned hikers. floridatrail.org

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

ADOBESTOCK .COM

The best way to see the state is along one of these vista-rich byways.

WADING IN :MADE IN FLA SIZZ LE

Get Hooked

A chance meeting in the Keys soon after Ted Juracsik immigrated to the States led to the creation of one of the industry’s finest fly-fishing reels.

COURTESY OF TIBOR REEL

TIBOR “TED” JURACSIK

always loved fishing, but an unexpected meeting turned his hobby into a full-fledged career. Juracsik’s interest in the sport began when he was a child living in Budapest.

After immigrating to the States in the ’50s, Juracsik worked in the tool and die trade. However, when he met Billy Pate, a Florida fisherman who was having trouble with a beat-up reel, that all changed.

“My dad told Billy that he

could fix it, but only if he was taught how to fly fish in return—that’s how it all started,” explains Marianne Papa, Juracsik’s daughter, who serves as Tibor Reel Corporation’s vice president and director of marketing.

The two men hit it off, leading Juracsik, a natural Mr. Fix It, to create a reel that was unparalleled in its durability and quality. Soon after, his company was born.

Over the past 41 years,

Above: Everglades Signature

Series by Tibor Reel

Below: Casting perfection

Tibor Reel Corporation has become a major player in the fly-fishing world, thanks to its reputation for fine-tuned craftsmanship. From the reels’ aluminum builds to their cork drag systems, every part is American-made and designed to stand the test of time. “We keep things clean and simple,” says Papa. “My father always says, ‘The most beautiful machines have the least moving parts.’” tiborreel.com —Maddy Zollo Rusbosin

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

19

WADING IN :MADE IN FLA SP LASH

Seas the day and hit the surf with custom paddleboards made in Clearwater.

Above All three styles of custom boards from Live Watersports Right: The L2Fish board

20

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

board IT TOOK A MOTOR HOME,

a trailer full of inventory and a family journey from Key West to Canada for John Cleckner, 38, to really get the word out about Live Watersports in 2013. The Cleckners went from shop to shop along the East Coast introducing their fiberglass paddleboards to the world. Luckily, their road trip paid off—their boards are now everywhere from Japan to Dubai.

Cleckner, a native Floridian, always loved being on the water. When he noticed a hole in the market for paddleboards that could also be used for fishing, he got an idea: build customizable models. After receiving encouragement from his wife, Joana, who helped develop the brand and logo, Cleckner gathered a tightknit manufacturing team. “If you call me and you want a pink board, or some crazy design, we can do it in two weeks,” explains Cleckner.

Each model is covered in tracks, so anything from kayak accessories to a trolling motor can be attached to it. “We built a platform that you can build from and from which you can do multiple activities,” he says. “Every model has an owner who is super passionate about it. We’ve talked to or emailed everyone who has a board, which is crazy. People want to be a part of what we’re doing.”livewatersports.com —MZR

COURTESY OF LIVE WATERSPORTS

over

From authentic adventures to one-of-a-kind experiences, Palm Coast and the Flagler Beaches are filled with opportunities to connect with nature.

Come fall in love with the area’s unique personality and unspoiled charm — your vacation is sure to be anything but ordinary.

www.VisitFlagler.com

WADING IN :MADE IN FLA SMASH

Work It Out Never sweat what to wear on the court or in the gym rocking chic styles from this Miami brand. matches and fitness classes, Denise Cronwall was always on the hunt for stylish yet functional workout gear. Realizing that boutique options were few and far between, she decided to put her fashion design degree from Miami International University of Art & Design to work and, in 2012, created Denise Cronwall Activewear, a Miami-based design house that specializes in apparel for fitness, tennis and golf.

“The flattering fit, feminine styling and luxuriously soft materials are the features that differentiate the brand from others,” explains Cronwall, a Miami native who grew up playing tennis and doing gymnastics. “Plus, all of the collections are created with the Florida climate in mind.” Not only are the fabrics breathable, they also have SPF 40+ sun protection that will last throughout the garment’s lifetime, making the pieces ideal for outdoor activities.

With colorful patterns and lots of layered sheer materials, Cronwall’s line offers Floridians fashionforward staples that look great on the courts, the links and beyond. denisecronwall.com —MZR

22

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Above Mystical inverted pocket legging Left: Mystical skort in white with Mystical layer top

COURTESY OF DENISE CRONWALL

BETWEEN FREQUENT TENNIS

ADVERTISEMENT

HOMEGROWN MAKERS, DESIGNERS & SHOPS

1 3 2

JESSIE PREZA

1. Sailors Siren

Entertain boldly with a nod to the Southern symbol for hospitality: a large pineapple ice bucket, pineapple stirrer, and gold shaker. sailorssiren.com

from $5–$225

2. Manifest Distilling

Get toasty this winter sipping award-winning rye whiskey with a unique wheated mash bill and vodka from non-GMO Idaho potatoes. manifestdistilling.com

$44 & $29

3. Underwood’s Jewelers

William Yeoward Crystal: two Atalanta double old fashioned tumblers, Corinne tall cocktail jug, Lillian square vodka decanter underwoodjewelers.com

from $120–$175

Above: Saints of Old Florida coffee

table book, saintsofoldflorida.com, $48, Crème de La Cocoa: Handmade assorted chocolates in heart and round shapes, cremedelacocoa.com, $6 for four

ADVERTISEMENT

4

5

7 6

4. Alligrove

Architect and designer Cuyler Hendricks forges these cuff links out of bronze, sterling silver and18-karat gold plate using a 3D printer. The University of Florida graduate kicked off the collection with the classic alligator studs and now offers blue crab, arrowhead and skull and crossbones styles in all three metals. alligrove.com, $65–$150

5. Salt Pines

Andrew Smith, owner of Tampa-based outfitters for the sporting life Salt Pines, created The Tarpon Stripes coastal blue long-sleeve pocket T-shirt to celebrate the Silver King, one of the world’s greatest sport fish, and the blue waters in which it’s found. The 100 percent pima cotton shirt is made in the USA. saltpines.com, $40

6. The Chef’s Canvas

A beautifully designed coffee table cookbook celebrates Northeast Florida’s culinary talent and the Cummer Museum’s diverse art collection. Inside find recipes created by the area’s top chefs, which visually represent works by artists like Thomas Hart Benton and William Glackens. thechefscanvas.com, $60

7. Crème de la Cocoa

These hand-painted, hand-casted chocolates made by husband and wife team Bailey and Nils Rowland of Cremé de la Cocoa look more like tiny works of art than edible confections. Flavors include salted caramel, bourbon balls, banana curry and cinnamon whiskey.

Purchase them in boxes of four or more. cremedelacocoa.com, from $6

ADVERTISEMENT

9

8

10

11 8. Case+Drift

An all-purpose, quick-drying travel companion, this Turkish towel is custom designed to combine style and versatility, making it perfect for globetrotting or wrapping up at home. Rock it as a towel, scarf, blanket and more. Available in a variety of colors and styles. Dreamed up by a fellow explorer. caseanddrift.com, $40

9. IceMule Coolers

These high-performance, hands-free coolers are designed and manufactured to accommodate most every outdoor excursion, from fishing the flats to relaxing on the beach or hiking swampy trails.The Boss, a new addition, keeps ice frozen for a week, while the Classic is perfect for day trips. icemulecoolers.com, $49–$299

10. Saints of Old Florida

Saints takes readers deep into Old Florida, where simplicity, adventure and community thrive.The 2017 Florida Book Award winner brings together the authors’ personal stories, heirloom recipes, vintage relics and authentic photography in a natural-cloth hardback cover with gold embossing. saintsofoldflorida.com, $48

11. Matt Dean

Fine handbag designer Matt Dean created Rivet as a modern interpretation of the classic tote. It features clean lines and thoughtful hardware with commanding presence. Like each bag in the collection, Rivet is formed from a single piece of leather, achieving uninterrupted simplicity. shopmattdean.com, $1,390

ADVERTISEMENT

12

Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry is an unmistakable brand of relaxed luxury that merges minimalistic form, nature, artisanal craftsmanship and social responsibility.The collections include shark tooth fossils from the small coastal community of Ponte Vedra Beach as well as geometric modern pieces that focus on multi purpose use, form, line and movement. All of the pieces are one of a kind and handmade in the USA with 18-karat recycled gold, conflict-free diamonds and natural nonheat-treated gemstones.These modern heirlooms embody an understated sense of luxury with a versatility that goes day to evening and complements the wearer’s easy glamour.

Earrings, left: 18-karat Cinq Mini Circle white diamond earrings.

Necklace, left: 18-karat Asymmetric Column black diamond lariat necklace.

Earrings, right: 18-karat Maxi Circle Half-Circle white baguette diamond earrings crestabledsoe.com

price upon request

KELSE Y MAGENNIS

12.Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry

Miracle on 41st Street.

With hundreds of new and brokerage yachts ďŹ nely orchestrated along a one-mile esplanade of illustrious Collins Avenue, the Miami Yacht Show truly is a miracle to behold.

FEBRUARY 15-19, 2018

MiamiYachtShow.com

WADING IN :MADE IN FLA B y K a t i e H en d ri ck

It’s Electric–Boogie, Woogie, Woogie!

Zip down the beach with a Florida-made e-bike.

Above: Surfers love to get around with their boards on Flaunt e-bikes. Below: The front tire of an aqua and blue e-bike; the Vicko model with custom cotton candy color

B

icycling might be the dreamiest their bikes sit around in the garage collecting way to get around the town or dust,” says Kevin Mount, co-founder of Flaunt beach. You get exercise, fresh Electric Vehicles in New Smyrna Beach. Keen on air and unobstructed views of the world reversing that trend, his company, established in around you. Plus, you can forego the stress 2013, studied what deters people from cycling of hunting for a parking and developed products that remove space and feel good these painful points. about reducing Flaunt’s bicycles are built with FLAUNT ELECTRIC a 500-watt electric motor your carbon VEHICLES and a 36-volt, 15.6-amp footprint.

— LOCATION — If only there Samsung lithium battery 105 MAGNOLIA ST. weren’t pesky pack. “A lot of people hear NEW SMYRNA BEACH elements like these details and picture a — HOURS — sand, hills motorcycle, but that’s not DAILY, 10 A.M.—6 P.M. and wind that what these are like at all,” flauntvehicles.com make pedaling Mount says. more formidable For starters, than fun. electric bicycles, also known “A lot of people hold out for as e-bikes, make very little perfect weather and, consequently, noise. They don’t emit any

28

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

greenhouse gases or require a special license to operate.

“They look, sound and ride just like regular bicycles, except you can go a whole lot farther without exhausting yourself. And you can still get a great cardio workout on an e-bike,” Mount

COURTESY OF FL AUNT ELEC TRIC BICYCLES

says, addressing the common belief that adding a motor to a bike negates any exercise potential.

“Several research studies have found that e-bike owners are actually getting a better workout than owners of regular bikes because they ride more often and for longer durations.”

With three different power modes and six speed settings available, there are 18 ways to experience a Flaunt bicycle, ranging from a full-throttle ride at 20 miles per hour in which the motor does all the work to a light pedal assist, where the cyclist contributes most of the effort. “You can have a completely leisurely ride or just opt for a boost when conditions get tough,” as when navigating a headwind, soft surfaces or a steep bridge, Mount explains.

The bikes’ ranges vary according to a rider’s selected setting, but, on average, each travels about 40 miles per charge. Flaunt bicycles come with a charger that plugs directly from the wall into the battery. The battery is removable, so, “just like with their cell phones, users can recharge anywhere they can find an outlet,” Mount says. It takes approximately three hours for the battery to fully charge.

Headquartered a mere two miles from the Atlantic Ocean, Flaunt designed its bikes with the beach in mind. Built to endure a saltwater setting, they feature aluminum frames, stainless steel spokes, a galvanized steel “rust-buster” chain and stainless steel nuts and bolts. (Riders who frequent

Below: The matte black Atticus e-bike

the shore should use an air compressor to blow sand out of the bike’s crevices.)

Flaunt currently sells two models, the Vicko and the Atticus, which buyers can customize with tires and handlebars best suited to their ideal activity–trail or road riding­. Different colors are available, too.

Mount and Todd Hilton, the company’s engineers, are both lifelong surfers intent on protecting the environment. “That’s what drives us,” Mount says. “We’d love to see more people embrace eco-friendly transportation.”

Flaunt has some customers who’ve decided to sell their cars and rely entirely on their e-bikes.

“There’s a man in Los Angeles who rides one to work,” Mount said. “He’s shaved half an hour off his commute, plus he’s saving significant gas money and getting endorphins, so he’s starting his day in a much better mood.”

Since he began commuting by e-bike, Mount has become a real admirer of his town. “There’s so much you don’t notice when you’re traveling 40 or 50 miles per hour in a car,” he said. “At a slower pace, everything’s

Above The LCD screen on a Flaunt e-bike

more beautiful.”

Flaunt is located in New Smyrna’s historic district at 105 Magnolia St. The brand’s bikes are also sold at JC’s Bike Shop in DeLand, Seminole PowerSports in Sanford and Ron Jon Surf Shop. flauntvehicles.com

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

29

WADING IN :FLEDGLINGS FLO RIDA MUSICIANS ON THE R ISE B y S t eve D o l l a r

young GUN

A Florida singer-songerwriter makes her way in Nashville.

A

lthough she’s a rising star in Nashville, Kim Paige is never too far from the shores of her hometown, Ponte Vedra Beach. It was there that she fell in love with country superstar Faith Hill, with whom she once sang as a lucky teenage fan at a Jacksonville concert, and rode a jet ski she named FaithHillina. As a ninth-grader at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, she often skipped basketball practice to play piano. That paid off when she moved to Music City at age 18.

Paige wrote a song for singer Kaylee Bell that became a No. 1 hit in Australia and collaborated with David Hodges of Evanescence.

Now, she’s pushing her solo career as a performer, with a string of pending song releases and the track “We Need a Wife,” a sassy take on domestic discontent. The singer-songwriter, 25, tells Flamingo how she got there.

KP: When I was in eighth grade, my grandma passed away from leukemia and a girl at my school committed suicide. Us girls were just wearing our hearts on our sleeves. There was a lot of emotion that I was going through, and I got a guitar and started writing this really sad song to make me happy. It was called “Life Will Be Beautiful Again.” My family and friends loved it, but, oh, it was terrible. Most of my songs after that were way worse!

WHAT WAS IT LIKE MOVING STRAIGHT TO NASHVILLE AFTER GRADUATION? KP: It’s definitely been a rollercoaster. I quickly went from being a huge fish in a small pond to being a very small fish in a very large pond.

30

YOU WERE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO LAND A FOUR-YEAR SONGWRITING DEAL WHILE YOU ATTENDED BELMONT UNIVERSITY. HOW DID THINGS CHANGE AS YOU DEVELOPED A CREATIVE VOICE?

KP: People I was writing for before, it was just trying to write the next radio hit. When I started writing this [new] batch of songs, these songs are so me. They’re fun. It’s stuff I cannot wait to play live for people. I love it and I want to put a smile on people’s faces.

Sad songs for me were easy, writing how you feel. It’s switched over now.

It’s pretty easy for me to write a fun song and tap into those emotions.

Happy songs are challenging to write at times, but they started coming really natural to me. I’m always in my element here in Nashville. I’m writing my life, I feel, and I don’t really know how I got there.

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

COURTESY OF KIM PAIGE

WHEN DID YOU START WRITING YOUR OWN SONGS?

3

TOP SINGLES

by Kim Paige

1. “ We Need a Wife!”

2. “Roll up Your Sleeves” 3. “Getting Along Famously”

IN APRIL, 6,000 FANS CAME OUT TO ROSCOLUSA, THE SONGWRITERS FESTIVAL YOU PRODUCE IN YOUR HOMETOWN. AND YOU BROUGHT ALONG A LOT OF YOUR PALS FROM NASHVILLE. HOW DID THE FESTIVAL START? KP: In 2012, we all came down there and wrote songs all week and then invited a bunch of family friends and their friends, and we ended up having 150 people. My parents and their friends brought over tons of outdoor furniture. My dad’s company built a tiny stage that was two feet off the ground.

We put Christmas tree lights up there. It was so cool. We played music all night long. We paid all our expenses, and I think we all made $25. We were happy.

WHERE ELSE CAN YOUR FLORIDA FANS SEE YOU?

KP: I play a lot of music festivals.

Key West. The Island Hopper Songwriter Festival in Captiva.

I opened for Clint Black at the Florida Theatre [in Jacksonville] in March, and that was my biggest dream come true. It was always my dream to play the Florida Theatre. I had never even seen the stage before. So to be behind the scenes and getting ready ... I had my band with me.

Oh my gosh, it was frickin’ cool.

For more info visit: kimpaigemusic.com

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

31

WADING IN :JUST HATCHED DEBUTS TO PER USE (NORTH) CAPE HOUSE

A M E L I A I S LA N D

While on vacation in Cape Town, South Africa, Tiffany and Wes Hinton and Lance and Lauren Jones wanted to open a lifestyle shop. Enamored by the coastal-chic style prevalent in the area, the group sought to recapture that feeling at home.

Handwoven seagrass nesting baskets, herringbone throw towels, and sculpted porcelain dishware line the shelves. Tiffany, a former interior designer, makes sure each piece carried at Cape House works well with every other. This cohesion of style is where the shop

for Florida State students and alumni alike. Four years later, the Madison Social team is putting the finishing touches on College Town with the opening of Township across the street from the original bar. Township mixes an open, communal vibe with the look and feel of a traditional German beer hall. Partnered with Proof, a local brewery, the 8,000-square-foot hall is lined with long wooden tables, and the bar offers more than 90 beers on tap, ranging from dark lagers like Shiner Bock to Proof’s famous pale ale, the EightFive-O. townshiptlh.com

WILFRID’S BARBER AND FINE GOODS P E N S A C O LA

excels. It encourages the idea that a few well-placed throw pillows and a tasseled, handknotted rug can turn a house into the ideal beachside cottage. shopcapehouse.com

TOWNSHIP

TA L LA H A S S E E

Since first rolling up its iconic garage doors, Madison Social has helped to transform the Gaines Street area into College Town, a thriving social district

32

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Above: Singer-songwriters Chelsey Michelle and Chris Underdal performing at the Blue Jay Listening Room Below: Tallahassee’s latest beer hall, Township

Taconic Beard Oil and Dr. Squatch’s peppermint-scented shaving soap. The brothers aim to cater to men who don’t cut corners with their grooming.

Refined but not stuffy, Wilfrid’s casual atmosphere and friendly barbers make the shop a great place for those who are just looking for a quick trim. wilfridspensacola.com

BLUE JAY LISTENING ROOM JACKSONVILLE BEACH

Inside the cozy Blue Jay Listening Room, a Nashvillestyle singer-songwriter music venue, folk singers like Jacksonville’s Mere Woodard and The Snacks Blues Band trio perform original songs and tell the stories behind their music to a small attentive audience.

The intimate space, with about 20 tables and a rustic wooden bar, is open to all types of artists. The only prerequisite?

Have a tale to tell. Cara Burky, the owner of the Blue Jay, says any genre that can be broken down into an acoustic set is welcome. She references MTV Unplugged, which was produced to allow listeners not just to hear live music but also to listen and connect with the person playing it, as an inspiration for the venue. bluejayjax.com

JESS HENDERSON, GENE O’NEIL, COURTESY OF TOWNSHIP

Above: The perfect table setting at Cape House

Hurst Butts has been the owner of the upscale Volume One salon for years. After watching his male clientele grow, Hurst, enlisting his brother Evan as a partner, decided to open a barber shop. Wilfrid’s, located in the newly renovated One Palafox Place in downtown Pensacola, feels like a big-city barber shop grounded with Southern charm.

The shop’s services, such as hot shaves and beard trims, combine old-school techniques with modern sensibilities. The selection of products includes

WADING IN :JUST HATCHED DEBUTS TO PER USE

Pure Perfection

from beginning to end.

ONE OCEAN BOULEVARD ATLANTIC BEACH, FLORIDA 32233 (904) 249-7402 WWW.ONEOCEANRESORT.COM

TOP BHHS CER U PROD 16 & 2015

Selling the best of Jacksonville...

RIVERFRONT TO OCEANFRONT TIMELESS RIVERFRONT ESTATE IMMACULATE DESIGN

MLS#898569

PANORAMA OF DOWNTOWN SKYLINE WARM FAMILY HOME

MLS#902481

4593 ORTEGA BLVD 5 BR/6 BA | 6,878 square feet $3,595,000

SUNSETS ON THE ST. JOHNS RIVER PRIVATE SPRAWLING ESTATE

MLS#808982

4626 RIVER POINT ROAD WEST 5 BR/6 BA | 5,427 square feet $1,500,000

2217 MILLER OAKS ROAD 6 BR/6 BA | 5,700 Square feet $2,275,000

ANITAVINING.COM

O: 904- 739- 1674 C: 904- 923 -1 5 1 1 E : A NITA @A NITAV INING.COM 1983 SA N MA R CO BLV D. J ACKS ONVILLE, FL 3 2 2 0 7

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

33

-

WADING IN :JUST HATCHED DEBUTS TO PER USE (C E N T RA L ) THE HALL ON FRANKLIN TA M PA

As new food halls continue to pop up in urban centers across the country, The Hall on Franklin feels distinct. The Hall, with five vendors, takes a simplistic approach by uniting its menu— everything the food emporium offers can be ordered from anywhere in the space. Order a Chicago-style roast beef melt with house-made giardiniera from Melt Shoppe, a Belgian chocolate torte from Bake’n Babes and a butterscotch latte from Kofe to finish it off, all from the same seat. Getting food, dessert and coffee in one place allows for time to sit back, eat,

Above:

The Glass Knife’s carrot cake with buttercream frosting and 23-karat gold flake

drink and enjoy the Hall’s warm atmosphere on one of its many cozy sofas. thehallonfranklin.com

THE GLASS KNIFE W I N T E R PA R K

Local entrepreneur Steve Brown opened The Glass Knife with the desire to share his mother’s love of baking. The name is inspired by her collection of ornate Depression-era glass cake knives, which are on display in the dessert cafe. The Glass Knife plans to reimagine classic creations such as carrot, red velvet and chocolate cake with a contemporary twist.

The Southern Red Velvet, for example, takes the cocoa-infused cake and layers it with cheesecake and cream cheese frosting, as well as a topping of housemade buttercream garnished with edible 23-karat

gold flake.

These decadent desserts can be quickly devoured or slowly savored in the cafe’s covered patio, which has the feel of a lush English garden. theglassknife.com

THIRD HOUSE BOOKS & COFFEE GAINESVILLE

Third House Books takes its name from the sociological

34

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Above: The Hall on Franklin brings together multiple restaurants, bars and cafes into one lounge space. Below: The quaint Third House Books & Coffee

concept of the third place, which is the idea that having a third social setting outside of the home and the workplace helps facilitate creativity. The bookstore feels like an inviting reading nook, complete with a coffee bar and living-room-style lounge with framed art on the walls and a brick fireplace. The inventory of books is carefully curated, offering no more than 300 titles at a time. Third House wants to encourage bookworms to browse the stacks without feeling overwhelmed by too many choices. Third House also hosts weekly discussions and movie screenings of novels adapted to the silver screen. thirdhousebooks.com

OCEAN COURSE AT HAMMOCK BEACH RESORT PA L M C O A S T

On October 6, 2016, the seaside golf course, which features six holes directly overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, closed ahead of Hurricane Matthew. The damage the course sustained took a massive toll on the lauded links and kept the course out

of commission for more than a year. This fall, two months after Hurricane Irma hit the resort, the Jack Nicklaus Signature course emerged more pristine than ever, with salt-tolerant Platinum Paspalum grass on the greens, the fairways and the rough and spruced-up tee boxes and bunkers. The restoration also included The Lodge, a boutique hotel within the resort that’s right next to the course, overlooking the sea. hammockbeach.com

WADING IN :JUST HATCHED DEBUTS TO PER USE (SOUTH) ETARU

H A L LA N D A L E B E A C H

THE BEVY N AP L E S

The Bevy welcomes a diverse crowd and lures clientele with signature cocktails and New American cuisine from executive chef Michael Voorhis.

The centerpiece of the bistro is its bright modern bar, which features inventive drinks like the Cedar Fire Old Fashioned, made with smoke from freshly lit cedar planks. Flanking the bar are open-air courtyards for

Above: Robata-grilled tiger prawns at Etaru

TANG PHAM, COURTESY OF THE GL ASS KNIFE, R AFAEL HERNANDEZ, LIBBY VOLGYES

Modern Japanese robatayaki cuisine collides with fresh South Florida vibes at Etaru, situated just steps from the sand and with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean. Floor-to-ceiling windows, ipe-wood tables and limestone floors create an earthy, Asian-inspired atmosphere.

While classic dishes like raw sashimi and robata-grilled black cod elevate Etaru’s main menu, culinary counterweights such as the Etaru burger with shitake ketchup anchor the beach bar’s lineup. Etaru, which opened this fall, serves brunch and dinner in

three distinct ecosystems: the main dining room, the groundlevel beach club and the bar. etarurestaurant.us

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

35

WADING IN :JUST HATCHED DEBUTS TO PER USE (SOUTH)

JENS ZIEHE, COURTESY OF H2O SUITES, COURTESY OF THE BEV Y

al fresco wining and dining.

Twice-cooked pork belly with kimchi roasted vegetables stands out on the appetizer menu, and lamb ragout served with whipped goat cheese headlines the entreés. The Bevy even welcomes four-legged friends: The Tailwagger menu offers a three-course meal made for dogs that do not like being left at home. naplesbevy.com

H2O SUITES KEY WEST

Designed with couples in mind, the adults-only resort offers just 22 one-bedroom suites but makes the most out of its additional space with a fitness center, a 24-hour concierge and rooftop deck equipped with a bar and pool overlooking the island’s southernmost point.

Each suite is outfitted with an Italian marble bathroom, glass rainfall shower and private balcony or patio. Premium accommodations include a suspended sofa swing overlooking the courtyard and a secret patio with a private plunge pool. The resort is situated only a short walk from Duval Street and the rest of the Old Town district of Key West, but far enough away from the action to feel like a secluded island sanctuary

36

Above: Paradoxe Intentionen by Anna Oppermann at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami Below: Tranquil fountain and garden at H2O Suites; craft cocktail at The Bevy

for those wanting to enjoy a quieter paradise in each other’s company. h2osuites.com

INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART MIAMI

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami is christening its

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

new building with a fitting exhibition, “The Everywhere Studio,” which examines how the artist’s studio has evolved over the past eight decades.

The exhibition showcases works from 50 artists, including an installation by Anna Oppermann and pop art

by Roy Lichtenstein.

This exploration is a perfect maiden voyage for the three-story, 37,500-squarefoot building as the institute begins to discover the possibilities of its new space.

A commissioned piece from Charles Gaines takes advantage of the museum’s cantilevered staircase. Bronxborn artist Abigail DeVille

populates the sculpture garden with work reflective of Miami’s diverse social history. icamiami.org

— Unf ilter ed Fodder —

CAPITAL DAME

By Di a n e R o b ert s • I l l u st ra t i o n b y Ja ck S p el l m a n

’CANE ’CANE GO AWAY

Now that hurricane season has come and gone, Roberts sizes up the deadly storms that have left us all a little hungover.

Here’s how we prepped for a hurricane when I was a kid in Tallahassee: First, we’d buy canned tuna, saltine crackers, Cocoa Krispies, a couple of 50-pound bags of dog kibble, a case of canned cat food, rolls of masking tape and a bale of hay. There were two dogs, two children, nine chickens, an indeterminate number of barn cats and an evil-minded

pony to feed. Next, we’d fill all the bathtubs and the washing machine with water. We’d then deploy the masking tape on the windows in the iconic “starburst” pattern. And finally, we’d load the .38.

Tallahassee rarely gets a direct hit, but last year’s Hermine, which was a rain-dumping, tree-cracking bear, and Kate in 1985 were exceptions to the rule. I was at school in

England during Kate—younger readers may want to note this was in the hard-to-imagine era before the internet—and the British news reported, not helpfully, “North Florida destroyed by hurricane.” I was convinced that my family was dead in the ruins of our house, the dogs were howling in grief, the pony was indifferent and all my summer clothes had blown to Alabama.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

37

CAPITAL DAME UNF ILTER ED FODDER

In truth, they were barbecuing pork they get on Interstate 95 or I-75 and try to Florida. The Great Gale three times a day and having a jolly time hightail it to Georgia, if that’s something you of 1848 destroyed with the chainsaw. can do at 10 mph.

Tampa and nearby To this day, I’m tempted to tape the Other people panic early, which means that Fort Brooke. Luckily, windows when a hurricane heads my way, Lowe’s is stripped of every piece of plywood there wasn’t much even though science tells us that’s dumb. and Publix becomes a raging frenzy of in Tampa back then.

We used to think the tape might stop the freaked-out shoppers, all of whom just know On September 17, glass shattering into tiny pieces and flying it’s a matter of life and death to get the last 1928, a remarkably around. Now we know that, if you tape four-pack of StarKist. It can feel like the end ferocious hurricane the window, you might have large shards of civilization is at hand in Publix the week rearranged the land around of glass, rather than small pieces, flying before a ’cane. All the batteries go, along with Lake Okeechobee and unleashed a maelstrom around. Way more dangerous. The same the water. I watched people toting off four of water. More than 2,500 people, most of goes for the gun. No doubt it will soon be or five cases of bottled H2O, even though them poor farm workers, died. In 1949, an state law that every Floridian must own at Tallahassee’s tap water has been named the Atlantic hurricane decimated the grapefruit least one firearm, but, unless you expect best-tasting in Florida for three straight years. crop. And in 2004, Hurricane Charley sliced looters to come for your junk food stash One lady, discovering that every iteration Captiva Island in half. or plan to bag a buck or bear So here’s a pro tip for newer fleeing from the rising waters, Floridians: Nature bats last.

We can’t predict exactly where waving a piece about during a Hurricanes do whatever they they’ll go or what they’ll do or how high-wind event strikes me as damn well please. They are deities evil they’ll be. Yet hurricanes—like professional-grade stupidity. created out of warm water, warm mosquitoes, flying cockroaches and Of course, this is Florida. The air and the spinning of the Earth. idiotic politicians—are a central fact sheriff of Pasco County actually The word comes from Hurakan, a of Florida life. issued a warning via Twitter to god of the Taíno and the Maya, a people who wanted to shoot at Hurricane of water—up to and including coconut and bringer of storms and chaos. Maybe we’d take Irma: “You won’t make it turn around & it tonic—had sold out, punched a family-size them more seriously if we gave them more will have very dangerous side effects.” container of ginger ale in sheer frustration, interesting monikers. I’m tired of hurricane Most Florida residents come from knocking it off the shelf. I suggested, gingerly, names that sound like my great-aunts (Irma somewhere else, which can be a real that she might fill up a bunch of plastic jugs and Hermine) or the children of Gen Xers problem during hurricane with water, which would be cheaper anyway.

(Emily, Olivia, and Philippe). Who wants to season. Some people She looked at me scornfully and said, “You say, “Yeah, Harvey tore my roof off” or “I lost simply refuse to obviously don’t understand hurricanes.” everything in Hurricane Vince”? If you lose believe that a Ah, but nobody understands hurricanes. We everything in a hurricane named Sekhmet or storm can destroy know what forms them, but we can’t predict Ogun, at least there’s dignity in the tragedy. everything exactly where they’ll go or what they’ll do How about we name hurricanes after gods they’ve ever or how evil they’ll be. Yet hurricanes—like and goddesses instead? Name a storm Thor, known, so they mosquitoes, flying cockroaches and idiotic Astarte, Hades or Kali, and everybody will haul off and politicians—are a central fact of Florida life. straighten up and maybe even stop building buy that illThe peninsula has been shaped, sculpted and on wetlands and barrier islands. I burned the built property on slapped around by hurricanes since it rose side of my head in 1975 sitting at the kitchen that barrier island. out of the sea 28 million years ago. In 1565, a table reading Nancy Drew by candlelight.

They’re super laid-back hurricane hit the French Huguenot settlements Nancy was being kept prisoner in a secret about the hurricane until of Northeast Florida, damaging Fort Caroline, passage under the stairs of a scary old house, they see a TV reporter clinging to a wrecking ships and weakening the residents so I didn’t notice that I’d flicked my hair into concrete planter on Brickell Avenue, trying so much that the Spanish didn’t have to exert the flame and caught it on fire. The storm was not to get blown into Biscayne Bay. Then themselves much to drive their rivals out of called Eloise. I’m sure I’d have handled my

38

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Let me show you fabulous Jacksonville... where Florida begins!

Beverley Brooke bald patch better if the hurricane had been named Persephone.

I’m not saying hurricane names are the problem, just that they’re a problem. From 1953 to 1979, hurricanes were handed appellations that made me think the meteorologists were getting back at their ex-wives, or that really snooty girl in college: Beryl, Donna, Betsy, Carla. Activist Roxcy Bolton of Coral Gables, a member of both the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the National Organization for Women, began protesting the practice in 1968, saying women “deeply resent being arbitrarily associated with disaster.” She finally won: In July 1979, Hurricane Bob hit Louisiana, spawned eight tornadoes, stumbled around the southeast and finally ended up in the western Atlantic, where it collapsed.

Insert your own first husband joke here.

I know, I know. I shouldn’t be making fun of life-altering weather events, not when it will take the Keys years to recover from this year’s season, not when Barbuda has pretty much been destroyed and Puerto Rico, that beautiful island claimed for Spain by Christopher Columbus in 1493, the place where the heirs of the Taíno still thrive, lies in ruins. But as Floridians—at least the ones who’ve been here longer than five minutes— understand, hurricanes provide a chance to look hard at ourselves and our rulers and decide anew what kind of people we want to be. Hurricanes also let us look around and laugh for the sheer joy of still being alive.

r e a lt o r

TOP PRODUCER 13 yEaRs

Turning your dreams into an address m: (904) 910-2782 | o: (904) 383-3697 Beverley.Brooke@FloridaNetworkRealty.com

BBROOKE.COM © 2017 An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity.

Bird is the word.

Like us on Facebook @facebook.com/ flamingomag Follow us on Instagram @TheFlamingoMag and Twitter @TheFlamingoMag

Join the chatter.

Diane Roberts is an eighthgeneration Floridian and was educated at Florida State University and Oxford University. A longtime NPR commentator, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian and the Tampa Bay Times. She has also authored four books, including Dream State, a historical memoir of Florida, and Tribal: College Football and the Secret Heart of America.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

39

40

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

he so fly Flip Pallot forged a revered angling legacy in the backwater byways of the Sunshine State.

By MICHAEL ADNO

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

41

42

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

— Flip Pallot

Coming into a larger basin, Pallot stopped the boat, and we drifted across a flat flanked by a spoil island and a tall dune separating Mosquito Lagoon from the Atlantic. A tarpon rolled near the island.

“Two fingers to the left,” Pallot pointed. A school of redfish churned in the shallows, agitating the surface into a coffeecolored froth. Manatees surfaced, and a group of porpoises flung mullet at each other. Pallot, clad in a button-up, sunglasses and a straw hat with a spray-painted camo pattern, sat contentedly as a flock of terns took off from a nearby oyster bed, stirring the soundscape.

After a lifetime spent cultivating moments just like this one—his first trip into the Everglades was 60 years ago—he told me, “The most precious thing I’ve ever known is time. Just time. You can’t replenish it.”

At the tail end of the 19th century, Pallot’s grandfather arrived in South Florida on a

ROB O’NEAL

Slowly cutting through the Intracoastal Waterway north of Central Florida’s Mosquito Lagoon, Flip Pallot, 75, spun the steering wheel of his skiff to the east, looked left and right, and then gracefully put the boat on plane, weaving through a labyrinth of oyster beds and shallow shoals. Each pivot of the boat and tweak of the steering wheel seemed effortless, every drop of water beading off the rail in place.

On the shoreline south of the historic Eldora settlement, live oaks draped in Spanish moss spilled into flatwoods dotted with cabbage palms. It was nothing short of magic. It was as though I’d traveled back in time and become a guest on Walker’s Cay Chronicles, the fishing program that Pallot ran from 1992 until 2006 on ESPN. In its 16-season run, with Pallot as its principal host and creator, the show gave rise to a whole new world of outdoor programming with its concoction of adventure, mystery and philosophy.

Pallot’s contributions to fly fishing and boat design—he has cofounded or consulted for multiple companies, including Hell’s Bay Boatworks—are simply overwhelming. He has inspired generations of outdoorsmen and continues to do so. “That show was one of the building blocks that became my life,” Pallot says. “It was the perfect seedbed for a lifestyle to spring from.” Out on the water, 25 years after the show first aired, I wanted to get a sense of how that came together.

Maybe if I hadn’t known about the magic that exists outdoors, I would have been ok behind that desk, but I did, and I had to get out before I forgot what it was like to be happy.

stagecoach. He’d made the passage from Russia, through Europe and across the Atlantic, finally working his way down the East Coast after entering the country through Ellis Island. “We were South Florida people,” Pallot said. Both his mother and father were born in the region, and he grew up west of Krome Avenue in Homestead on a thumb of farmland jutting into the eastern Everglades. The periodic inflections of his dialect harken back to that time. “Snook” sounds like “snewk,” “creek” is pronounced “crik,” and “My-am-ah”—as Pallot says— wasn’t much of a city back then. Waiting in line at the movies was a social event; if you didn’t know the person in front of or behind you, you knew their cousin.

Early on, Pallot got a taste of the Everglades during fishing trips with his father. Later in life, he’d return again and again to those seemingly endless corridors. In 1961, he enrolled at the University of Miami, but he was drafted into the army as a linguist only a year later. Over the next five years, Pallot got a whiff of the far-off locales that would later become essential to his life and career. Back in Miami, he got a job at a bank and worked as a fishing guide on the weekends. He kept his desk job until 1976.

“I listened to people tell me why they should be given a loan,” he explained during one episode of his show. “I did this for a number of years, and all the time I knew something was This page: Pallot missing from my life. on the platform of a Hell’s Bay Maybe if I hadn’t known skiff, just one of his many about the magic that innovations in exists outdoors, I would the world of flats fishing. have been OK behind Opposite: Pallot that desk, but I did, and poles a bonefish I had to get out before I flat with baseball great Ted forgot what it was like to Williams in 1969. be happy.”

Sweat Equity

As a kid, Pallot cut his angling teeth with talents such as John Emery, Norman Duncan and Chico Fernandez. All three of these fishermen hold a special place in the annals of angling, but in South Florida they’re like deities, garnering as much deference as Pallot.

In 1959, Pallot met Fernandez at a local haunt, the Tackle Box. “He had this Cuban accent, and I’d never heard anything so cool in my life,” Pallot recalled. “And, shit, he had a fly rod.” Fernandez had just arrived stateside on a ferry from Havana, filling his Mercedes 190 SL with jazz records and fly rods as Fidel Castro forced out Cuban president Fulgencio Batista.

“There I was. I spoke English OK, but not very well—like Tarzan,” Fernandez joked.

“We had an identical case for fly fishing and probably an identical income, which was almost none. So we made our own flies, modified reels, spliced fly lines. We had to learn everything.”

Eventually, they began renting tiny skiffs

from a boat livery on Summerland Key called Speck’s. Later, Pallot and Emery would split the cost of an engine, and, when the owner sold the place, they bought a boat. Soon, a trailer followed, and Key West was within their reach. “Then it was game on,” Pallot said. “Suddenly, we had complete freedom.”

They were young and hungry, with a burning desire to catch the big fish. “Those were our weapons,” Pallot said.

Oftentimes, they’d stake out Stu Apte’s house on Little Torch, gleaning what they could by watching him carry gear down to the dock. Apte, one of fly fishing’s legends, would become a household name through his achievements: modifying the blood knot, scouting far-off flats by airplane, guiding Joe Brooks, penning books and amassing world records like candy. “We’d just sit there and watch how he did everything,” Pallot said, a grin spreading across his face. “It was better than fishing.”

As Pallot recounted those formative years

in his soft cadences, he gently put his hand on the push pole straddling his skiff and deemed it the greatest teacher in the world. “Every stroke you make is an investment—of your time, your physical effort,” he noted. “You’re going slowly enough to see the natural world, and eventually, all those things connect.”

Generations of Promise

In 1964, Bernard “Lefty” Kreh took a job heading up the Metropolitan Tournament in South Florida, concurrently working for the Miami Herald Below: Pallot as a fishing columnist. A few and Todd years later, he would co-found Fuller of TBA Outdoors on Florida Sportsman magazine. a Hell’s Bay At that point—17 years after Marquesa flying down he learned to cast from Joe the Indian Brooks, the host of American River.

Sportsman and the angler credited with the ascension of the sport—Kreh was a star in the then-small community, his name synonymous with the sport of fly fishing. But as a veteran exhibition shooter, Kreh also had unparalleled accuracy with a modified BB gun.

Only a week after he arrived in Miami from Maryland, a knock came at Kreh’s door. When

I ever met him, and we became very close,” said Kreh. “I never realized I was teaching Flip anything. I learned a hell of a lot from him.”

At that point, Pallot was still wearing a suit and tie, spending his weeks doling out loans at a desk. But, as Kreh joked, “You couldn’t get a loan during tarpon season.”

In 1971, Jose Wejebe’s father contacted Kreh

“He was such a nice kid that you couldn’t ignore him,” Pallot said. Five years later, in 1976, Wejebe decided to pursue guiding, but nobody would loan him the money for a truck, trailer and boat. Fortunately, Pallot did.

Pallot deemed those loans the best he’d ever made. “Certainly, I’m happier about those loans than any others because of who Jose turned out

We had an identical case for fly-fishing and probably an identical income, which was almost none. So,we made our own flies, modified reels, spliced fly lines. he opened it, a young man said, “My name’s Flip Pallot, and I hear you can shoot aspirin tablets with a BB gun.” Pallot, 24, brought a bottle of 200 aspirin tablets, and Kreh showed him that a bead of oil dropped into the gun’s chamber would make it exponentially more precise. They started tossing the capsules into the air and shooting. “That was the first time

— Chico Fernandez

with a request to teach his teenage son how to cast a fly rod. Kreh coached Wejebe behind the Herald building. Wejebe would become one of the most unforgettable personalities in angling.

“He was so into it that I gave him a fly rod, reel and line,” Kreh remembered. Eventually, Kreh introduced Wejebe to Pallot, and the two became close friends.

to be—what a great friend he turned out to be.”

He cleared his throat and added, “He never missed a payment.”

Wejebe’s show Spanish Fly ran from 1995 to 2012 on the Outdoor Channel and presumably would have continued long after. However, in 2012, Wejebe perished when his plane crashed shortly after leaving the runway in Everglades

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

45

Buenos Aires to the Bahamas

Below: Pallot

casts a tight loop against a Bahamian sky.

46

In 1984, Pallot nudged his boat forward with a new client on the bow, Diane Rabreau. They were set to spend a half-day fishing, but, as he told Sarah Grigg of Fly Fisherman magazine, “I could smell her like a bird dog and was shot through with love.” And as Diane told me, “I liked everything he was saying, his presence, his voice, and I knew he liked me, so I took advantage of that.” Now Pallot’s wife, she explained that, although she hadn’t been exposed to that fly fishing side of Florida before meeting him, the more she went out, the more she wanted to know.

As a Pan American flight attendant, Diane

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// FA L L 2 0 1 7

spent exorbitant amounts of time pacing the narrow corridors of jetliners. On one trip, she got to talking with John Abplanalp. She mentioned her husband and gave Abplanalp their phone number. A little while later, Abplanalp saw Pallot on an episode of NBC’s Outdoor Life. He called immediately. His father, Robert Abplanalp, was the owner of Walker’s Cay, a small resort in the Bahamas, and he invited Pallot to come outfit the place with a fleet of skiffs and guides. As Diane explained, “One thing led to another, and we got sixteen years of a show thanks to one crazy, serendipitous day on a flight.”

Before creating Walker’s Cay Chronicles, Pallot appeared on episodes of American Sportsman and Outdoor Life. Orlando Wilson, an outdoor producer and host himself, approached Pallot to ask if he’d like to develop a saltwater fishing show. At the time, Mark Sosin was beginning to develop Mark Sosin’s Saltwater Journal, but other than that, “There was absolutely nothing on the horizon.” Pallot agreed with the caveat that he have independent control over the show’s content.

In the first year that Saltwater Angler ran, it surpassed the ratings of shows hosted by Roland Martin, Bill Dance and even Wilson. Pallot’s charm, paired with an unconventional approach to programming, lent the show a gravitas others couldn’t match. In response, Wilson took the reins, but in the second season, it withered.

With all that experience, Pallot approached the Abplanalps with an idea for a show that would eventually become Walker’s Cay Chronicles. Using the island as a jumping-off point, the Abplanalps funded the pilot and pitched the project to ESPN. “It was about the story, the relationship and the learning process.

The whole idea of the show was to portray that,” Pallot said. And it did, in inventive ways that evoked the prose of Guy de la Valdene, Jim Harrison and Thomas McGuane—all close friends of Pallot’s. “He told a story about those places, and the fishing was just part of it.

Walker’s—in most people’s minds, including mine—is the finest fishing show we’ve ever had,” Kreh said.

Much of that charm grew out of Pallot’s

Opposite clockwise from left: Lefty

Kreh’s last tarpon; Pallot washing his boat; Kreh and Pallot running the shallows in 1968; Pallot and Norman Duncan slide an amberjack over the gunwale in 1968.

COURTESY OF FLIP PALLOT; TBA OUTDOORS/HELL’S BAY BOAT WORKS (AND PREVIOUS T WO SPREADS)

City. Wejebe was one more link in this chain of talented anglers, from Brooks and Kreh to Apte and Pallot.

Pallot’s proximity to that flare of promise in Wejebe could have been the reason he traded his pen for a push pole, becoming a full-time guide in the early 1980s.

Walker's... is the finest fishing show we’ve ever had.

— Lefty Kreh

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

47

48

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

pin down. It made clear that the outdoors was a sort of beacon to return to—a kind of cathedral made of old-growth mangroves and basins filled with promise. Pallot’s reverence for these places became a new way of seeing the world.

In the Rearview

Now that conservation has become a buzzword, Pallot broods about the state of the angler’s relationship to the outdoors today—including his own. As he told me, “The issues snuck up

TBA OUTDOORS/HELL’S BAY BOAT WORKS

approach to guiding. As he explained, “Part of my package was a tremendous appreciation for the natural world. We’d stop to see an eagle or an orchid [or] go into a certain bay just to see flame vine.”

To get a sense of the show’s legacy, I called Mike Dawes, an accomplished angler, guide and filmmaker who grew up sleeping on the porch of his grandfather’s cabin in Deep Water Cay. “I remember the sense of adventure it provided,” he said. The show evoked a childish, awe-inspiring hope. And, for countless viewers, the ethos of Walker’s Cay Chronicles articulated something many were after but none could quite

on us. We thought it would never end.”

Pallot is the first to admit, “We did a miserable job of preserving the good ol’ days.” He cited a lack of awareness among his peers about the larger issues at hand, such as development, regulation and pollution. He believes the dangers of these issues could have been, and perhaps still can be, avoided. “If future generations are willing to settle for the fact that those were the ‘good ol’ days,’ then [depleted fisheries] is what they’ll have. But what they need to do is what we should have done: Get aggressive, get loud and get in the fight.”

His voice softened, and Pallot told me, — Flip “The downside of the attention these shows drew was the pressure on the resource, but my rejoinder is: If you don’t know something, you can’t love it. And if you don’t love something, you can’t protect it.”

In 1992, the Pallots left South Florida to settle in Mims, east of Orlando. “A hurricane drove us up here,” Pallot explained. Just after Walker’s Cay Chronicles began filming its first season, he and Kreh were scheduled to film an episode in the Everglades. Two days before Kreh was set to fly down, he called Pallot, concerned about a storm sliding through the Florida Straits. Pallot urged him not to worry about it: They’d have a hurricane party, and then, after the storm passed, the fishing might be really good. On the evening before Hurricane Andrew hit, the storm gathered strength. Despite law enforcement’s incessant reminders to evacuate, “Our people never left for hurricanes,” Pallot said of his family. “So— foolishly—we stayed.”

Two hours into the storm, the roof of their home was torn off like a piece of paper, “and, once the storm came inside, it was just a shipwreck.”

Taking cover in their bathtub beneath a waterlogged mattress, they hid there until the

gales devolved into gusts at daybreak. “When I went outside, the devastation of that storm was just unspeakable,” Pallot remembered. “Our house was gone.

“In that period, we realized Miami was not what it once was,” Pallot said. Because their roots ran so deep in Homestead, leaving was a monumental decision for them, but the town had changed. In Mims, Flip and Diane felt like they were still in Florida—his Florida.

“Time sort of stopped up here.”

When I pulled into the long narrow driveway of their home in July, I saw bright red buckeye flowers in full bloom on their front porch.

Just as the legends have Pallot it, Pallot always keeps a buckeye seed in his pants pocket for good luck in the woods or on the water. He deemed it one of the “most antiquated Southern traditions.” But Southern superstition paired with ruthless pragmatism seems to have lent Pallot an unrelenting charm, and maybe that’s what has carried him so far.

If you don’t know something, you can’t love it. And if you don’t love something, you can’t protect it.

Above: Pallot,

pictured on the bow of a Hell’s Bay Marquesa, created and starred in Walker’s Cay Chronicles, one of the most beloved fishing shows of all time.

Below: Raised in Homestead, Pallot learned to fly fish by staking out fishing pioneers like Stu Apte and watching everything they did.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

49

o o o o o 1o Seconds from now oo o o With a movie adaptation of his New York Times

best-seller Annihilation hitting the big screen this February, author Jeff VanderMeer takes us into the Future

and the Florida wilderness that inspired A book trilogy.

By

STEVE DOLLAR

o o oo o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o oo o o

Not too long after he moved

52

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

sequels that continue the storyline. Authority is a black-comedy riff on bureaucratic dysfunction, and Acceptance is a metaphysical page-turner that circles back to the beginnings of Area X in a whirling, hypnagogic fashion but does little to decode its mystery.

“When I wrote Area X, I didn’t have to do any research,” VanderMeer says. “It was a place I already knew.”

That deep familiarity is apparent in VanderMeer’s prose, which shifts between mortal absurdity and kaleidoscopic reverie—between, say, the earthbound and the transcendental.

The approach got him christened “the weird Thoreau” by The New Yorker. “They imagine nature, both human and wild, in a new way,” wrote critic Joshua Rothman about Annihilation and its companion volumes. “And they take a surprising approach to language: in addition to being confounding science-fiction novels, they are fractured, lyrical love letters to Florida’s mossy northern coast.”

Above: Author

Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation will be released as a major motion picture starring Nataile Portman this February.

K YLE CASSIDY, COURTESY OF FSG, ADOBE STOCK

to Tallahassee some 25 years ago, Jeff VanderMeer took a hike in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, a 68,000-acre habitat winding along 45 miles of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

It’s a mecca for all manner of migratory birds and home to an ark’s worth of hairy, scaly, sleek and sharp-clawed beasts, from that Sunshine State spirit animal the alligator to the Florida panther VanderMeer spied during one of his myriad walks there.

That day, however, the young novelist got caught in one of those raging gully washers that rise up out of an otherwise placid Panhandle afternoon and come shredding through the lush canopies of foliage.

“I didn’t expect the storm,” VanderMeer remembers. “It started storming, and I got really turned around. Usually, you can see the road leading out toward the lighthouse.

I had no idea where I was. It was a very revelatory experience, just to be out there and feel completely lost and much farther from civilization than you actually are.”

That experience, among so many other daylong excursions in St. Marks and other preserves, provided inspiration for VanderMeer’s 2014 novel Annihilation, part of a trilogy that vaulted the prolific writer onto the New York Times best-seller list. In February, moviegoers worldwide will share those sensations with the release of a major Hollywood adaptation of the book, written and directed by Alex Garland of Ex Machina fame. Natalie Portman stars as The Biologist, one member of a survey team dispatched by a secretive government agency to explore otherworldly phenomena in Area X, a forbidden zone pervaded by a strange force.

VanderMeer followed Annihilation with two

On a breezy Sunday morning in early autumn, VanderMeer sits at an empty picnic table in San Luis Mission Park in Tallahassee. It’s another favorite spot to hike. There’s an elusive hawk he’s always happy to glimpse and a slight possibility of stumbling across museum staff in Spanish Mission era costumes, although such unusual occasions always seem less improbable when they happen to VanderMeer. After a peripatetic childhood and, now, intensive travel on book tours, these Floridian vistas ground him with a sense of place and supply boundless inspiration.

“There are so many different kinds of environments and landscapes,” he says of St. Marks. “You start out with pretty traditional pine forests, and then you go out into black swampy areas, which are very uncanny and unsettling.

There’s this quality of silence. The water absorbs certain sounds. The background chatter falls away. Even the birds’ communication falls away.

Except you hear every once in a while something you don’t know what the heck it is. And then you go more towards what looks like holding ponds but really it’s a raised berm with freshwater or brackish minilakes on one side and then the marsh reeds leading out to the sea on the other side, which is amazing. Because you have this sea of reeds and these islands of trees coming out of it … it really does look like islands even though it’s all land. It looks almost prehistoric, some of that vegetation, fairly primitive kinds of plants and trees, some of it. And then of course you can go out to the beach if you want. It changes so much between the winter and the spring. In the winter, you can be convinced that you are somewhere in southern Scotland.”

So perhaps it’s strangely fitting that the movie version of Annihilation had to expensively reimagine this promiscuous wilderness in a swampy region of the United Kingdom.

VanderMeer is not involved in the Paramount Pictures production, which also stars Jennifer Jason Left: The covers of Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, the three books Tessa Thompson and that make up the Southern Reach Oscar Isaac. He considers trilogy, also known as the Area X trilogy, it a separate entity from the and VanderMeer’s source material, which has latest novel, Borne. been reshaped by Garland, a

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

53

54

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

COURTESY OF FSG

novelist and screenwriter known for his work with Danny Boyle on Sunshine and 28 Days Later. This is Garland’s second feature as a director.

“It really anchors in a sense of horror and the unknown in many spectacularly effective and tactile ways,” VanderMeer says of Annihilation. “Despite the vicissitudes of Hollywood, it’s still unusual that it’s basically an arthouse movie coming out this way.” When he visited the movie’s set in England, VanderMeer was impressed by how closely the production team recreated coastal Northwest Florida. In fact, it was a little mind-blowing.

“It is a very surreal and weird experience all around to have something that’s the most personal thing I’ve ever written, almost like a diary entry in terms of landscape description, become this totally other thing.”

At one point, VanderMeer recalls with a laugh, he pointed to a mailbox covered in lichen and told Garland it looked exactly like his own. “And he gave me this look, like, ‘Are you from a family of hoarders? Do you never clean off your mailbox?’

And I’m like, ‘It’s North Florida, man! It doesn’t matter. I can do it one day, and it’ll be back the next day.’”

VanderMeer spent much of his childhood in Fiji, where his entomologist father did research on rhinoceros beetles. Later, when they lived in Ithaca, New York, it was moths. When the family moved to Gainesville, the elder VanderMeer took on that Southern menace, the fire ant, while working at the University of Florida and the United States Department of Agriculture.

“He found an enzyme in poison Right: A fictional frogs that works well in fire ant map of Area X prevention,” VanderMeer says. closely resembles coast “He’s known for separating out, the along Florida’s Panhandle. very laboriously, pheromones

It is a very surreal and weird experience all around to have something that’s the most personal thing I’ve ever written, almost like a diary entry in terms of landscape description, become this totally other thing.

—Jeff vandermeer

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

55

in ants.” The author’s mother was an artist and biological illustrator. “I always had one foot in my dad’s lab and one foot in my mom’s studio.”

VanderMeer began publishing his own work—including poetry—and the work of others in his teens in self-created literary magazines with names like Chimera Connection and Jabberwocky. He also organized literary events, sometimes poaching major guests who already had speaking engagements at UF. He studied journalism and Latin American history at the university, but day jobs and writing took up too much of his time, so he left school.

He was 20 when Ann Kennedy drove from Tallahassee to Gainesville to meet him face-toface. Like Jeff, she was immersed in the world of independent publishing. They had gotten to know each other through the community of science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts who wrote, edited and distributed homemade zines and journals. She had published Jeff’s work as well, “but I didn’t publish everything he sent me.”

It was the pre-web days of the late 1980s, and much of their communication was in letters.

“I had no idea that he was as young as he was.

He had been publishing for at least five years,” says Ann, now an editor whose efforts won her a Hugo Award, the Oscar of science fiction literature. She remembers bringing Jeff a bottle of champagne to celebrate the launch of his new magazine. “When I met him, I realized he wasn’t even old enough to drink the champagne!”

Nonetheless, he impressed Ann as a major

56

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

talent. “His work was so vivid to me, so right there,” she says. “His imagination, Right: Natalie the actual stories and Portman stars in characters he created, were the upcoming film. so unique. Some of those stories would stab you right in the heart with the strength of the emotion.”

After Jeff moved to Tallahassee in 1992, their separate literary endeavors gradually began to overlap. “After a while, it just made sense for us to publicly state we were working together,” says Ann. In 2007, the pair edited their first anthology together, Best American Fantasy. “It was my first time seeing my name on a book in the bookstore.

It was very exciting for me,” Ann says. Since then, Jeff and Ann married and went on to edit a library shelf’s worth of science fiction and fantasy anthologies. Among those titles are The New Weird, Steampunk, The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, The Time Traveler’s Almanac, The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals and last year’s The Big Book of Science Fiction—a 1,200-page epic whose revisionist perspective expands what we think of when we think of sci-fi, from first-time translations of Russian, Eastern European and Latin American authors to a short Above: Walks to

the St. Marks Lighthouse inspired VanderMeer’s work.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

57

DENIS TANGNE Y/ISTOCK , COURTESY OF PAR AMOUNT PIC TURES

This page clockwise from top: Borne fan art

by Madison Henline, Kirsten Brown and Ninni Aalto

58

story by W.E.B. Du Bois, the African-American social leader and public intellectual who cofounded the NAACP. That eclectic catalog of work can make his fiction hard to label. “I’ve never really felt part of the various literary movements I’ve been stuck with. I felt like I’ve just been passing through,” says VanderMeer, who has a publishing deal with literary powerhouse Farrar, Straus and Giroux. “They’ve stuck me with everything from straight-up science fiction to new weird, weird, speculative, slipstream— which is a really weird, amorphous term— magic realism, anything that seems to be hot or rediscovered at a particular time.”

Lately, VanderMeer has been associated with a

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

MADISON HENLINE, NINNI A ALTO, KIRSTEN BROWN, PAMEL A RIDDLE, PAT HUGHES, ADOBE STOCK

new term: eco-fiction. His new novel Borne tells the story of Rachel, a climate refugee scavenging in a ruined city. The city is menaced by a giant flying bear named Mord, the mutant product of the Company, a collapsed biotech firm whose creations are both bizarre and terrible. Borne, a phosphorescent octopod that can mutate into other life forms and objects at will, is another one of the Company’s experiments. Rachel adopts it, and tries to mother it, but things get complicated.

“I had this image of a woman reaching out to a sea anemone wrapped in seaweed,” says VanderMeer, who has a way of sponging up the world around him and transforming it through free association, not unlike the creature Borne.

In this case, he drew on his childhood in Fiji as a source, imagining that Rachel came from a similar place. “She was drawn to the creature because it was making her drawn to it and because it reminded her of where she grew up, which doesn’t exist anymore.” In VanderMeer’s visualization, the anemone wasn’t an anemone and the seaweed wasn’t seaweed, “but the matted fur of a giant bear … and as the scene panned out the bear flew off, and I realized we were in this desert city.” Borne is now also in line to become a movie, and VanderMeer will be more involved in the production process than he was

with Annihilation. The novel is fantastical in many ways, but it also reflects the very real concerns that have been present since his first stories and have recently grown more urgent. A lot of Borne, he says, isn’t even fiction.

“That’s the thing. If you haven’t been affected by climate change, you’re in somewhat of a privileged position at this point. And you absolutely have cities where multinationals come in, set up shop at the edge of town, suck the resources out to make products and ship everything overseas. That’s not too different from what’s happening in Borne, in terms of the Company.” A giant flying bear seems to

People don’t like to be lectured, especially where you have cause and effect that isn’t always apparent.

—Jeff Vandermeer be the stuff of fairy tales or, as VanderMeer suggests, something by the great Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, known for the animated classic My Neighbor Totoro. It made for an entertaining prop when the VanderMeers toted a wood cutout of Mord on the Borne tour. Pause to contemplate our current moment, though, and it begins to seem entirely plausible. “We’re at a point with gene splicing where you might, in 10 years, have kindergarten classes creating small creatures,” the author says. “The ethics and morality of

all this seems to be sliding to the wayside … this slippage between animal, product and art. When is an animal someone’s piece of art? When is it a product? When is it its own thing?”

Nothing VanderMeer writes is so painfully on-the-nose that it comes across as blatant social commentary. “People don’t like to be lectured, especially where you have cause and effect that isn’t always apparent. You have to be more subtle anyway,” he says. The trick is to engage readers on such a visceral level that they can feel what the character feels and “to trust the reader to enter a complex scenario where they might change their mind.” He’s trying to reach Left to right: Borne anyone “who says they fan art by Pamela believe in climate change Riddle and Pat Hughes but they think the crisis is 50 years down the road.”

In addition to other ongoing projects, VanderMeer is finishing a novel called Hummingbird Salamander. The title refers to a pair of stuffed animals that the main character discovers in a storage bin, the property of a mysterious dead woman who has left a key.

A wormhole beckons, and soon an average American cubicle worker finds herself entangled in an unimaginable vortex of bioterrorism and wildlife trafficking. It’s set, VanderMeer says, about 10 seconds from now.

“The distance between our science-fiction future and our present is collapsing to the point that it doesn’t exist anymore,” he says. “We’re in the middle of this catastrophe, whether we recognize it or not.”

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

59

The Secret Life of

Santa Claus Who knew that he has a condo in Margate, builds luxury yachts and starts growing out his beard in August?

Photography by MARY BETH KOETH /// Words by SARAH CLARKE STUART

Above: Joe Corcoran

with his friends in the pool at their condos in Margate

I

n the Truman Capote story “One Christmas,” the character Miss Sook says, “Of course there is a Santa Claus. It’s just that no single somebody could do all he has to do. So the Lord has spread the task among us all.” The bearded Floridians in this story would likely agree. They have each found their calling in Santahood, bringing joy to others, especially children. Every time they don the red suit, they demonstrate the spirit of generosity and goodwill that comes with being a real Santa Claus.

Through this portrait series created by photographer Mary Beth Koeth, we also unwrap a secret side of these Sandy Clauses, with glimpses into how they spend their time in the off-season.

Santa

Joe

HOMETOWN: Margate AGE: 80 SANTA SINCE: 2010 Joe Corcoran is a Florida snowbird who works full-time as the Bloomingdale’s Santa in Manhattan during the holiday season. A Bronx native, he now splits his time between Long Island, New York, and Florida. Many of his childhood friends from the Bronx also moved to the same retirement community in Margate. His friends take up 80 of the units, and they all plan to grow old together there. “Coming down to Florida, with all my friends around me, it puts me in a happy mood, a jubilant mood,” and that makes for a right jolly old elf.

Joe takes his charge very seriously, and from the moment he starts growing a beard in August, he’s mentally preparing for the holiday job.

“The most important part of being Santa is the love of the children,” he says. They can tell if you’re not into it. “If you can’t be the real Santa, don’t be Santa. I make every effort to do that. You have to believe that.”

Joe says he’s “always played Santa,” but, up until about five years ago, he used a fake beard. Now, he allows the children to tug on his real whiskers if they are having any doubts about his authenticity.

Joe challenges the older children, about 8 years and older, to help him spread the spirit of giving. He asks them to think of someone special and give an anonymous gift with a note saying it’s from Santa. He tries to show kids that the spirit of Santa is what’s important, not the actual man in the suit.

Above: Gregg Henry

photographed at Michael Rybovich & Sons Boat Works in Palm Beach Gardens

62

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Santa

GregG HOMETOWN: North Lauderdale AGE: 68 SANTA SINCE: 1992

Gregg Henry debuted as Santa Claus during a holiday boat parade in San Diego Bay. There was no official theme for the event, so he came up with his own: ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.

“I took the boat, and I made it look like a living room,” says Gregg, who works as a carpenter building 120-foot yachts at Dennis Boatworks in Fort Lauderdale. “And I took the mast and I made it into a huge Christmas tree.” He recruited friends and family to dress up in old-fashioned pajamas, and they loaded up the vessel with teddy bears and presents. Gregg suited up in a Santa costume for the first time that Christmas, and his water-sleigh float won first place in its category.

“I enjoyed the heck out of it,” he says. The following year, he entered the parade again. The theme this time was Santa’s workshop.

Gregg wielded his hand plane to craft a magical floating Christmas scene, and once again, he starred as the leading man.

He was hooked. The blue-eyed boat builder, who briefly worked as an exotic dancer after a nasty divorce, knew that being Santa Claus was a special gift. “It’s hard to explain the transformation that happens when I put on a Santa Claus outfit,” he says with a jolly-eyed grin.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

63

Santa

ERNIE

HOMETOWN: Fort Lauderdale AGE: 63 SANTA SINCE: 2010 Originally from Baltimore, Ernie Tedrow works as a condo and homeowner association manager in Tamarac, where he lives with his partner of 23 years. Even as a young kid, Ernie was always asked to play Santa because of his size. But, as an adult, it wasn’t until after he moved to the Sunshine State in 2001 that he began to take it seriously.

When the human resources department of the hotel company he worked for at the time called him into the office, Ernie didn’t anticipate their question: “Would you play Santa for our Christmas party this year?” They were a little concerned he might be offended by the proposal, but Ernie accepted the task with glee. He recalls how the company’s owner, Rebecca, first responded when she saw him all dressed up as Saint Nick. “I came around the corner and did my ‘ho, ho, ho!’” he says. Apparently, she lit up.

“It was amazing. I could see this little child. She cried, and we hugged.”

From then on, Ernie began playing Kris Kringle for different events and organizations. He joined the Palm Tree Santas, a regional chapter of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas. He read the book Behind the Red Suit and committed himself to the study of Santahood. “I read everything that I could read, I took the class, I took the oath and I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll be Santa!’”

64

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Above: Ernie Tedrow

reading letters in his living room in Fort Lauderdale

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

65

Above: Roy Strohacker,

shown here at his desk in Lake Worth, has his own investigative firm.

66

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Santa

Roy

HOMETOWN: Lake Worth AGE: 69 SANTA SINCE: Early 1970s Roy Strohacker has been playing Santa almost as long as he’s been working in law enforcement. He moved from Lorain, Ohio, to Florida in 1966 to study criminal justice.

Eventually, he became a supervisor in the organized crime unit of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. He was police officer of the year in 1983. Three years later, he retired and opened his own investigative agency, which he still operates today.

Roy started appearing as Santa 40 years ago, “back when the beard wasn’t real.”

He’s been doing it for so long that the kids he visited early on are now grown with kids of their own. Sometimes his wife dresses up as Mrs. Claus and joins him. He’s always amused by what the kids have to say. Some of his favorite questions address the logistics of Christmas Eve delivery: How do you get into a house with an alarm system? How do you go to the bathroom while you’re delivering presents?

How does the sleigh get around if there’s no snow?

When he’s out in public without the suit, sometimes Roy notices a child staring at him or overhears someone whisper, “I think that’s Santa!”

He welcomes the attention, giving the child a knowing wink or a nod.

When he’s not checking his list, Roy enjoys playing the banjo and collecting political memorabilia, old flags and Japanese swords.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

67

Santa

john HOMETOWN: Kendall AGE: 69 SANTA SINCE: 1984

John Snyder played Saint Nick for the first time in 1984, back when his beard was still dark.

A young woman had to teach him how to bleach it white.

At the time, he worked for a phone company, and one of his colleagues had brought two young cousins to the office. “When I walked through the door with my Santa Claus suit on, their eyes got as big as silver dollars,” John recalls. The two children started nudging one another and whispering “It’s the real one!” After that, the Vietnam veteran, Purple Heart recipient and former president of a Mensa chapter in South Florida had the confidence to pursue Santahood.

Now John spreads cheer at private events and makes the rounds at nonprofit organizations and children’s hospitals near his home in Kendall. “I adjust my routine for each individual experience.”

Over the years, he’s shaped his own best practices for how to be a good Santa. “One of the things you don’t do is promise a child anything specific. I always say, ‘I’ll try my best.’”

John loves the opportunity to bring joy into people’s lives, especially for terminally ill children. “When you walk into the room for the first time and that child beams, you can see the ton of bricks coming off the mother.”

Santa John offers some guiding principles not only for being the best Santa he can be, but also for life in general: “Love everybody. Be true to yourself. And remember that children are sacred.”

68

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Above: John Snyder

at his home in Kendall is a Vietnam veteran and Purple Heart recipient.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

69

Above: Don Fasig, at

home in Fort Myers, says that adults are sometimes just as enchanted with Santa as children.

70

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Santa

DON

HOMETOWN: Fort Myers AGE: 63 SANTA SINCE: 2005 Twelve years ago, Don Fasig’s wife, an interpreter for the deaf and hard of hearing, urgently needed a Santa for the hearing-impaired students at her elementary school. Mr. Claus had canceled, so she volunteered her husband. At the time, Don didn’t even own a Santa suit. He went out and bought one off the rack.

He remembers the first time the children saw him. As he walked in, he signed “Merry Christmas,” and they got very excited and started signing to one another: “Santa signs!

Santa signs!” “I was pretty much hooked after that,” he says. Every year since then, even as he takes on new work, he always visits the deaf and hard of hearing at the elementary school. He has watched the kids grow up and gotten to know some of their younger siblings as well.

One thing Don has learned over the years is that adults are sometimes just as enchanted with Santa as the children. Once, at a fundraiser, three elderly sisters came up to Santa Don and asked for a picture. They explained that their mother had always taken the three of them to see Santa when they were little. As the photo was printing, they told Don that they were going to the mother’s 90th birthday party that evening and would be bringing the picture as a surprise.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

71

WHEN NORTH

MEETS SOUTH Sisters Danielle Norcross and Beth Aschenbach, creators of the lifestyle blog Palm Beach Lately, head to Amelia Island to discover the natural beauty, culture, cuisine and history of Florida’s northernmost point.

By DANIELLE NORCROSS Photography by IRIS MOORE

DAY 1

W

ith only 30 minutes remaining of a fivehour journey from our home near Palm Beach to Amelia Island in Northeast Florida, the monotonous four-lane highway finally eased into a winding two-lane beach road, at times surrounded by endless marshland and at others canopied by old oak trees and wrapped in pine forest. A few remnants of Hurricane Irma piled on the roadside reminded my sister Beth and me just how severe the monster storm had been only one month earlier. But on this afternoon, the sun was shining, and a barely-there October chill in the air suggested a wonderful autumn weekend ahead in one of the oldest parts of our state. Any stress built up from our busy routines blogging and juggling family life flew out the window as Beth and I approached our destination for the weekend, the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge, a gray wood-shingled inn nestled among the sand dunes on a quiet stretch of beach.

Beth and I had come to Amelia Island for what we like to call a “sistercation,” a tradition we started years ago to take stock of our sisterly bond and reconnect in adventurous new ways. It’s not easy for us to interrupt our blogger-meets-mom rhythms that we love so much, but we always return from these jaunts to our jobs and our kids

Above: Palm Beach

Lately sisters cruising the Amelia River on a 37-foot catamaran

Inset: Aschenbach relaxing on the bow of the boat

74

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

OUTDOORS Four fresh-air excursions to take in Amelia Island’s natural splendor

BOAT SLIPS AND DAYTRIPS

A barely-there October chill in the air suggested a wonderful autumn weekend ahead in one of the oldest parts of the state.

—Danielle Norcross

feeling refreshed and inspired. Past getaways have taken us to more familiar South Florida locales, but this time we decided to head north, beyond Palm Beach County and past Orlando, to the northernmost reaches of Florida to experience the area’s natural beauty and soak in the history, culture, and a little rosé, too.

Amelia Island had been on my mind since passing through the area four years prior. And Beth wanted to visit Fernandina Beach, a quaint harbor This page clockwise town on the island, known for having from top: The sisters’ matching trunks at the a mix of heavy French and Spanish Elizabeth Pointe Lodge; cultural and culinary influences. From Amelia Island Lighthouse; Norcross on a charter pictures we had seen, the tree-lined cruise; fresh-caught fare at Timoti’s Seafood Shak downtown, dotted with Victorian-

Fernandina Harbor Marina 23 S. Front St. Fernandina Beach fhmarina.com

CAMPING AND HIKING

Fort Clinch State Park 2601 Atlantic Ave. Fernandina Beach

AMELIA ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE Reserve tours At the Fernandina Beach Recreation Center 2500 Atlantic Ave. Fernandina Beach fbfl.com

era buildings, seemed like a cross between Key West and Nantucket, Massachusetts, two of our favorite places. So we booked a two-night stay at the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge and planned a weekend of outdoor activities including biking, sailing, shopping and eating.

Because of the area’s history as a shrimping and fishing village in the early 1900s, we were excited to check out the harbor and take in the sights of the quaint town by boat. After checking into our oceanfront suite at the lodge and unpacking our matching pink trunks, Beth and I set out for a private sunset cruise with Tony and Cindy Jones, owners of Windward Sailing. We knew we had arrived at the right place when we spotted the

HORSEBACK RIDING ON THE BEACH

Happy Trails Walkers 1974 Peter’s Point Road.

Fernandina Beach happytrailswalkers.com

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

75

This page: The Elizabeth

Pointe Lodge overlooks a quiet stretch of beach Inset: The sisters behind Palm Beach Lately blog let loose at the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge

SHOPPING The best places on the island to outfit the home, body and mind

CAPE HOUSE

Home decor and gifts 4810 First Coast Highway, Suite 1 Amelia Island shopcapehouse.com

PEARL

Women’s clothing and accessories 503 Centre St. Fernandina facebook.com/pg/ pearlboutiquestyle

THE BOOK LOFT

Independent bookstore 214 Centre St. Fernandina thebookloftamelia.com

signature outriggers on some of the shrimp boats tied up at the dock. Tony and Cindy greeted us at the Fernandina Harbor Marina in the heart of town during the “golden hour,” when the setting sun casts a golden hue across the sky.

They welcomed Beth and me aboard a 37-foot catamaran with warm smiles and asked us about our coordinating Hunter rain boots. “We are known to still dress alike,” I explained with a laugh. We spent the next hour under sail along the coastline, exchanging stories with Cindy and Tony and even seeing one of Kings Bay’s Navy submarines coming up near Cumberland Sound.

Once the sun set on our charter, we thanked the couple for their Southern hospitality and headed for dinner at a popular open-air restaurant called Timoti’s Seafood Shak just a few blocks away. The casual menu had plenty of fresh, wild-caught seafood. We ordered the fried clam strips, grilled shrimp tacos and New England–

EIGHT FLAGS ANTIQUE MARKET

furniture & rare finds 602 Centre St. Fernandina facebook.com/eight-flagsantique-market

WADSWORTH’S Men’s and women’s southern apparel 204 Centre St. Fernandina facebook/wadsworths

76

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

style lobster rolls, which came served in paperlined baskets, and we dug into the spread sitting at a wooden picnic table under the stars.

With our bellies happy, we made our way back to the lodge for a welcome full night of uninterrupted sleep. The next day, as moms to two young children, our internal alarm clocks still went off with the sunrise. The lodge’s homemade breakfast buffet was already under

way, so we rolled out of bed—wearing matching navy “big sis, lil sis” jammies, of course—and followed the scent of coffee downstairs to find warm blueberry muffins, crispy bacon, cheesy eggs and fresh fruit awaiting us. We lingered at our oceanfront table on the wraparound porch mapping out our plans for the day.

DAY 2

S

hopping in Fernandina Beach was at the top of our list, so we changed out of our pajamas and hopped into the car. On our way, we passed the Amelia Island Lighthouse, the oldest in the state, towering above the marshy waterways, as well as several Victorian-style homes and inns along the road. When we arrived on Centre Street, the scent of warm chocolate from the local fudge shop in the heart of the village wafted through the air as we meandered by an eclectic collection of restaurants and shops.

It was easy to score local treasures, and our favorite finds included a pair of antique flamingos from Eight Flags Antique Market, the shop’s name a reference to the eight different flags that have flown over the city during its 455-year history, and a Florida map print from Hudson & Perry, a chic New York City–style gift shop.

We finished shopping at Pearl, a boutique known for its Lilly Pulitzer clothing that reminded us of home. A café next door called The Picnic Basket caught our attention, so we stopped in to check it out. A woman behind the counter helped us pack a basket with small

Clockwise from the top: A gourmet

spread of cheese, meat and sweets purchased from The Picnic Basket; Norcross and Aschenbach picking up the packed lunch; a mermaid fountain in the courtyard at the Florida House Inn; a bow hat by Tuckernuck and ruffled top and velvet skirt by Madewell create a wintry weekend look for style blogger Aschenbach.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

77

authentic Provencal restaurant led by owner, chef and Le Cordon Bleu graduate Katherine Ewing.

As we walked up to the building, a pale-yellow cottage built in 1906, we spotted Katherine picking flowers from her garden to place on the tables.

Inside the cozy house, filled with a dozen or so intimate tables, jazz music played softly, but it was the outdoor patio lined with large raised planters full of fresh herbs and vegetables that seemed extra inviting. We sipped our glasses of Château Val Joanis rosé under the warm glow of bistro lights and dreamed about future travels to France before capping off the evening with crispy calamari, fresh snapper and steak with pommes frites.

DAY 3 Above: The two

sisters pause in front of The Addison on Amelia Island.

Below: Crispy

calamari at Le Clos, which translates to “the field.”

78

goodies, including a charcuterie board, spinach and goat cheese salad, tomato and mozzarella sandwich, and petite desserts. Beth and I agreed the beach behind the inn would make the perfect lunch spot. From our perch on the coarse, lightbrown sand mixed with tiny shells, we soaked in the serenity of the quiet North Florida coast, which felt worlds away from the busier, whitesand beaches down south. We spent the afternoon savoring soft cheese, nibbling macarons and giggling about random thoughts, just like we’ve always done since we were kids.

Afterward, we freshened up and headed back to Fernandina’s main street for a stroll and the last dinner of our trip. We were eating at Le Clos, an

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

O

ur sistercation was quickly coming to an end, but we had a few hours left the next morning to explore. Leddy’s Porch at the historic Florida House Inn, the oldest stilloperating hotel in Florida, had been recommended by friends for brunch, and we were curious to check it out. It began as a military boarding house in the mid-1800s and was later transformed into a lavish spot for travelers like the Vanderbilts and Carnegies. We ate our shrimp and grits in a lush courtyard that overlooked their 350-year-old live oak tree, imagining the couples dancing on the old pine floor at one of their elegant events.

After brunch, we needed some fresh air, so we picked up a pair of bikes from SuperCorsa Cycles.

Shop owner and cyclist Drew Carver helped us

Above from center:

The vintage GMC truck at the entrance to Eight Flags Antique Market; furnishings old and new inside the market; Leddy’s Porch at the Florida House Inn, once a hotspot for famous visitors like the Vanderbilts and the Carnegies

It made us proud to be Floridian entrepreneurs, living out our dreams and celebrating our corner of Florida.

—Danielle Norcross

DINING Foodie destinations with menus fit for everying from paper plates to fine china ktk

LE CLOS

Fine French wine & fare 20 S. Second St. Fernandina Beach leclos.com

TIMOTIS

Local and wildcaught seafood 21 N. Third St. Fernandina Beach timotis.com

THE PICNIC BASKET

Gourmet baskets, light bites and coffee 503 Centre St. Fernandina Beach thepicnicbasketamelia.com

AMELIA ISLAND TAVERN Craft Brewery and comfort food 318 Centre St. Fernandina Beach theameliatavern.com

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

79

WHERE TO STAY From cozy inns to luxurious resorts, Amelia Island has them all.

HOYT HOUSE

Bed and breakfast in the heart of town 804 Atlantic Ave. Fernandina Beach hoythouse.com

OMNI AMELIA ISLAND PLANTATION

Oceanfront resort 39 Beach Lagoon Road Fernandina Beach omnihotels.com

ELIZABETH POINTE LODGE

Boutique seaside hotel 98 S. Fletcher Ave. Amelia Island elizabethpointelodge.com

80

This page from top: Brunch at Leddy’s Porch; an afternoon bike ride through Fort Clinch State Park; locals call it the Pippi Longstocking house, where the The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking was filmed in the 1980s in Old Town.

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

This page clockwise from top: Homemade ice cream

from Fantstic Fudge; Fort Clinch State Park; the beach at Elizabeth Pointe Lodge; shells from the beach; bikes at SuperCorsa Cycles; the gate at the Florida House Inn

load the bikes onto our racks so we could haul them to Fort Clinch State Park. While exploring a small section of the 1,400-acre area, we made two pit stops: one to hunt for shark teeth fossils on the northern beach—a plentiful landing spot for ancient treasures stirred up from the nearby St. Mary’s River—and another to see the Civil War–era fort. We didn’t find any fossils among what seemed like millions of tiny shells, but we did leave the park feeling invigorated from the hunt and our walk around the old fort.

It was time to go home, so we returned our

bikes and navigated back to the southbound highway. For the next five hours, Beth and I reminisced about the people we met and places we visited, all of which surpassed our expectations. We thought about the fact that each business, from the sailboat charter and the bike shop to all of the delicious restaurants, began as an idea fueled by individuals with a passion for sharing what they love. It made us proud to be Floridian entrepreneurs, living out our dreams and celebrating our corner of Florida.

The weekend reminded us how important it is to connect with the diverse landscapes, people and cultures across our state.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

81

DISCOVER H OW A NEW

DESTINATION C A N M A KE YOU F E E L

RIGHT HOME. AT

Escape to a beach destination that can only be found in North Florida. With endless recreational options, cuisine to please every palate, championship golf, 23 tennis courts and a full-service spa, you’ll never want to leave Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort.

EXTRA SUN, EXTRA FUN PACKAGE RECEIVE UP TO

INCLUDES LUXURIOUS

$

ACCOMMODATIONS,

250

RESORT CREDIT

VALET AND MORE.

P RIVAT E BEAC H FIRE

∙ O MN I A M EL I A I S LAND PL A NTAT I O N R ES O RT ∙ AM E L I A I S LAN D, F L

OMNIHOTELS.COM/AMELIAISLAND

— sunny dispatches from NW FLA —

Panhandling B y P ri ssy E l ro d

The Un- Magnolia Life lessons on how to survive without playing tennis, getting Botox or buying a condo in Pompano Beach

COURTESY OF PRISSY ELROD

I

won the Florida lottery. Not literally. I’m just lucky enough to be born and raised in the Sunshine State. There’s nothing about Florida I don’t love. Indoors. Outdoors.

Good, bad, even ugly, though I tend to filter the ugly.

I’m a strange bird. They say that if you admit you’re strange, you probably aren’t. To whoever said that, I say, thank you, kind person.

The strangest thing about me is that I don’t walk barefoot outside. And here I am, living in Florida. But, as a child, my mother convinced me I would get worms if I ever walked outside without shoes. I believed her. I don’t know where she got the worm information—or any of the other crap she fed me—but she always gave Daddy the credit.

She quoted Daddy until her death. “Lou says …” she always began. He died 30 years before she did. She gave me a thousand quotes I know he never said. (I see a book title here.)

My mother loved the sun, sand and surf. I’m guessing that’s who I got it from. Once, she visited her friend in Pompano Beach. She liked it way too much. Before she left, she bought herself a beautiful condo right smack dab on the Atlantic Ocean. She called Daddy—the only one with a job—and told him. Now, think It’s a Wonderful Life and you have the scene. I’m figuring she ran into someone like George Bailey and got her some money with one of those “good faith” handshakes.

Above: Prissy’s mama

Daddy learned about his new asset after the deal was closed. He answered her phone call after returning home from a long day at the office, his hospital rounds and an unexpected house call to collect stool samples from a patient who lived 30 miles away in the country. She stood on their new balcony describing the panoramic view, sea and sunset.

He might have thrown her fanny off that balcony, but it was a nine-hour drive to get to her, and he had surgeries scheduled all the next day.

Mama had the notion Daddy was wealthy, this

country doctor who was paid with tomatoes and cucumbers some days. She didn’t get to bask in the Pompano sun for long, though.

He sold the condo with her slippers still sitting next to the bed.

“Stand on somebody else’s balcony,” he said.

Mama never got over the condo sale, but she did find other balconies, shorelines, seascapes and sunsets. That’s the beauty of Florida: You don’t have to drive nine hours to find it. She happened upon Ponte Vedra—only spitting distance from our home in Lake City.

There are so many perks for those residing in our blissful state. We have gorgeous weather 11 months out of the year. I’m no meteorologist, so this fact is just a guesstimate.

Yes, it rains. Yes, there are those horrible hurricanes, and it’s hot as hell. And the 100 percent humidity bums people out. But it’s that humidity that keeps us from getting wrinkles. That’s a Prissy fact. When you pair the humidity with the amount of Botox Florida women inject into their faces, well— voila!—no aging. At least that’s what they think. But the curious passerby notices those wrinkly arms, hands and legs in contrast to the injected, humidified faces and wonders. I’m just guessing, but I bet Florida’s consumption of Botox runs neck in neck with crazy Hollywood, USA. Personally, I don’t use the stuff. I’m an organic chicken. And my mother scared me

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

83

Panhandling

sunny dispatches from NW FLA

84

tennis. “How can you not like it?” she asked me over and over again for 40 years.

“Mama, for the billionth time. I. Don’t.

Want. To. Play. Tennis.”

She was deaf.

“You aren’t coordinated enough to play tennis,” my sister Deborah would scream when I kept missing the ball as a kid.

Trust me, it wasn’t the meanest thing she ever said, but it was the truest. I sucked.

And I didn’t care. I just wanted to wear the cute tennis dresses. And still do.

It’s hard work staying fit. Over the years, I’ve done plenty of killers, like Tae Bo, spinning and running. I’m so over all of them.

Yoga was great until I was shamed from class one day. I arrived early and settled myself next to a beautiful older woman in the second row. She had the silkiest white hair all tied up in a neat, tight bun. She looked to be around 85. I was impressed by such dedication, especially at her age. I smiled and we both said hello. I laid out my brand-new lavender mat, yoga towel and the other paraphernalia I’d purchased at Walmart the day before.

Soon, the class was full, and the soft, hypnotic music began. The size-000 yoga instructor began chanting the Sanskrit words: asana, namaste, om, shanti.

I studied the unfamiliar poses made by the older lady to my left. Clearly, she knew yoga.

Suddenly, she took the lead, transforming from a granny to a noodle wearing pink. She twisted her limber body through each pose, stretching, bending, twisting, chanting. I watched her, tried to follow, but my dropped jaw kept messing me up.

When she lay on her back and I saw her lift that right leg up over her head and bring it back to the floor behind her resting head, I’d had enough. I wasn’t going to watch her do what I couldn’t. It was somewhere between cobra pose and Bharadvaja’s twist when I heard my back crack. Holy mother of geez! For three weeks, I spent every day in the chiropractor’s office. It was then I found Dean.

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Above:

Tennis with a view

Choosing a massage therapist is like a Tinder or Match.com date. You never know what to expect, whom you’re getting stuck with or if it’s worth a try. The difference between the massage and your Match date? You’re naked on a table with no small talk, coffee, wine or meal. I know little about dating sites, mind you. I never tried one, but my friends do keep me up to speed on trends. I care about where they find the next recycled man.

The first session with Dean was a month after the geriatric yoga noodle messed me up.

I was face down on the table. Like any first date, I kept my panties on and he covered me with a crisp, clean sheet. Dean started kneading with his fist and then moaned. More kneads and more moans. I had never heard a moaning masseuse before. It’s what he does when he works. He wasn’t moaning like your dirty mind is thinking.

His pressure was killing me. I inhaled a deep breath, then blew out tiny breaths, Lamaze style. My sinuses were full of clogged snot. I was determined to get all the knots out and then noodle my new self to that yoga class.

I could hear the Rocky theme song playing through the massage room speakers.

“Can I say something?” He interrupted my Rocky dream. “You’ve got to be the tightest client I’ve ever had, ever, twenty years I’ve been doing this.” I was blushing through

COURTESY OF PRISSY ELROD

with her tales of untruths. But then, she did live to be 90 years old with no wrinkles on her face. None. Zip. Zero. She never had Botox or a face-lift.

Her secret to ward off facial wrinkles: witch hazel, organic face cream and scotch tape. If she spied a new wrinkle, the tape would come out. She’d pull the wrinkle straight, then tape the straightened skin on each end. By damn, it worked. I swear.

Once, I ran into her at Fresh Market. I came around the corner and saw her in front of me pushing a shopping cart full of organic produce.

I called to her: “Hey, Mama.” When she turned around, I was aghast. Her face was all stretched as she smiled through plastic lips. She had forgotten to take her tape off that day.

There’s so much pressure these days to stay slim, tight and young-looking, which is, by the way, impossible. Everyone seems to be working out, or pretending they are. It occurred to me after spotting cutie pies at Publix, restaurants, and meetings that they might be faking it. How many times have I put on my cute Lululemon workout clothes and never gone to the gym.

Other outdoor frocks I love: tennis dresses and the two-piece versions of precious. I really have a fondness for those. But the game, not so much. My mother was a big tennis player and even bigger spectator. One year, when Daddy was on a hunting trip in Argentina, she had a large clay tennis court installed in our backyard.

I kid you not. The woman was fearless, or crazy, maybe both.

Daddy came back to town, saw what she had done and was madder than I’d ever seen him.

And I’d seen mad. The unadulterated view of the lake from his favorite chair was gone, not to mention the money in his bank account. He never went in our backyard again. I’m pretty sure he would have thrown her bad ass in the lake but for the fact that she couldn’t swim— not to mention that he would have had three bratty little girls to raise by himself. Once again, she’s mighty lucky he let her live.

All my mother wanted was for me to play

Panhandling

sunny dispatches from NW FLA

the dripping snot pouring from my nose to the carpet below. I was proud.

“Gosh, thanks.” There was an awkward silence as he switched to his right elbow, now coupled with his left fist.

“Um, you know that’s not a compliment, right?” My blush went flush, and I gave him a fake laugh. “Ha! Yeah,” I lied. Silly me—I thought he meant I was muscular, sculpted and fit. I was wrong on so many levels. I never went back to that yoga class. There would be many more massages with Dean, though.

My whole being relaxes when Dean is kneading, even my tongue. I babble and overshare stories. He once referred to me as a Southern magnolia after one of my tales. I wasn’t sure what he meant. But I left wondering. I was

Southern, alright, but I was no magnolia. Maybe a bohemian flower—if there was such a thing. I would tell him next time. Of course, I forgot.

I liken myself to a North Florida flower: firebush, powderpuff, candytuft. Personally, I like candytuft. It suits Prissy, the whimsical name my daddy gave me. That’s another story for another day.

I was grafted from two good plants, seeded, then sprouted. I was nourished inside this wonderful environment with sumptuous soil. They manicured and fertilized me with love, care and discipline. I grew strong, healthy and root-hardy. I blossomed, even propagated. And, like the candytuft, I looked delicate on the outside, but inside I was tough as nails.

Here’s the difference between candytuft and me, other than the whole plant thing: The poor candytuft just can’t stay colorful. The harsh elements of life steal her glory. But me, I have a better chance, having learned from the master of longevity. She taught me her magic, a way to keep blooming. And keep blooming I will, but only if my tape keeps sticking.

Prissy Elrod is a professional speaker, artist, humorist and the author of Far Outside the Ordinary. She was born and raised in Lake City and now lives in Tallahassee with her husband, Dale. Chasing Ordinary, the sequel to Far Outside the Ordinary, will be released in early 2018.

JACKSONVILLE DOWNTOWN

836 Prudential Dr, Suite 902 Jacksonville, FL 904-399-5620 JACKSONVILLE SOUTH

14540 Old St. Augustine Rd, Suite 2503 Jacksonville, FL 904-262-5992 JACKSONVILLE BEACH

1577 Roberts Dr, Suite 220 Jacksonville Beach, FL 904-270-1135 DAYTONA BEACH

Halifax Medical Center 415 N Clyde Morris Blvd Daytona Beach, FL 386-254-8211 TALLAHASSEE

Tallahassee Memorial Hospital 1401 Centerville Road, Suite 202 Tallahassee, FL 1-800-556-5620 TALLAHASSEE

A Place for Modern Miracles

Over 14,000 Babies Born!

800-556-5620 or firmfamily.com

2623 Centennial Blvd., Suite 101 Tallahassee, FL 1-800-556-5620 SOUTH GEORGIA

220 Northside Drive Valdosta, GA 1-800-556-5620 SOUTH GEORGIA

918 South Broad Street Thomasville, GA 1-800-556-5620 SOUTH GEORGIA

3025 Shrine Road, Ste 190 Brunswick, GA 1-800-556-5620

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 / // FLAMINGOMAG.COM

85

Reclaim Our Coasts s e a t u r t l e s fa c e m a n y t h r e a t s , i n c l u d i n g d e r e l i c t b a r r i e r s a n d o b s t a c l e s o n t h e i r n e s t i n g b e a c h e s a n d i n n e a r s h o r e wa t e r s w h e r e t h e y f e e d .

“ r e c l a i m o u r c o a s t s � ( r o c ) was created to improve nesting beach and near shore habitats by removing the hazards to sea turtles throughout Florida. Please report any hazards to sea turtles such as failed armoring or concrete debris on beaches, and fisheries debris such as abandoned nets and traps. c o n t a c t : ReclaimOurCoasts@gmail.com

v i s i t u s o n fa c e b o o k at facebook.com/reclaimourcoasts or accstr.ufl.edu f o r d o n a t i o n s g o t o : accstr.ufl.edu/make-a-gift-to-the-accstr

— fine arts, favor ites, f lings —

ON THE FLY — PLUME —

White trash cooking with the late Ernie Mickler

— THE STUDIO —

A classically trained painter blossoms in South Florida

— FLORIDA WILD —

C a r l t o n Wa r d J r. r u s t l e s u p s o m e S e m i n o l e q u a r t e r h o r s e s

— GROVE STAND —

C h e f Vi n c e n z o B e t u l i a e l e v a t e s I t a l i a n f a r e i n N a p l e s

— BIRD’S-EYE VIEW —

Old classics and new additions in Coral Gables

— THE ROOST —

A breath of fresh air in local real estate

— THE TIDE —

MARY BETH KOETH

Events that inspire travel across the state

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

87

F L O R I D A ’ S O N LY S T A T E W I D E F E A T U R E M A G A Z I N E

Don’t miss out!

SUBSCRIBE

For an annual subscription (4 issues) visit flamingomag.com for details or send a $30 check to JSR Media LLC, P.O. Box 3253 Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32004 Questions? Call or email us: (904) 395-3272, admin@flamingomag.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMIAH STANLEY

For Floridians. By Floridians.

Sharing yerba mate in the traditional gourd is a way of life in South America.

Photo Credit: Stevie Anna

ON THE FLY:PLUME

By M i c hae l A d n o • P h o t o g ra p h y b y L i b b y Vo l g y es

White Trash Cooking

Revisiting Ernest Matthew Mickler’s seminal cookbook almost thirty years later

E

rnest “Ernie” Matthew Mickler’s White Trash Cooking was published in the spring of 1986. The book—a 160-page anthology of Southern recipes, stories and photographs— was the result of Mickler’s travels around the South and his upbringing in Palm Valley, a place he described as “a cabbage-palm swamp near St. Augustine.”

According to his dear friend Petie Pickette, that’s where “Ernie learned cooking at his mama’s knee.”

Born the youngest of four boys in 1940, Mickler grew up next to the former County Road 210 bridge, sandwiched between Papa George’s Fish Camp and the Anchorage Restaurant. Mickler, a gay Southerner, liked to say, “White Trash” was separated from “white trash” by pride and manners, making a distinction between uppercase and lowercase versions of the epithet.

Mickler earned a bachelor’s degree from Jacksonville University before moving to California to earn a master’s from Mills College.

90

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

After that, he moved to Key West, where he said he met “all of the people that knew what to do to get my cookbook into print.”

When first published by the Jargon Society, White Trash Cooking flew off the shelves so quickly that the publisher, unable to meet the demand for the book, sold the rights to Ten Speed Press.

Everyone who read it, including Roy Blount Jr., Helen Hayes and J. William Fulbright, fell under its spell. Bryan Miller of The New York Times called it “perhaps the most intriguing book of the 1986 spring cookbook season.” And Harper Lee deemed it “a beautiful testament to a stubborn people of proud and poignant heritage.”

With recipes like “Mama Leila’s HandMe-Down Oven-Baked Possum” and “Tutti’s Fruited Porkettes,” paired with his photographs of everyday country life—scenes depicting cans of Ro-Tel and black-eyed peas, and folks sitting on tornup couches on their front porch—Mickler compiled a vital account of rural cooking and culture in the South.

“WHITE TRASH COOKING: It’s a

ON THE FLY:PLUME

dream come true. I can just hear Raenelle and Betty Sue at every Tupperware party in Rolling Fork saying, ‘Ernie went from white trash to WHITE TRASH overnight,’” Mickler wrote in a note penned in Key West in 1985 that appeared at the end of the book.

For many, Mickler’s work is comparable to that of fellow Floridian Zora Neale Hurston and worth returning to again and again, to share and celebrate.

Two years after White Trash Cooking was published, Mickler’s second title, Sinkin Spells, Hot Flashes, Fits and Cravins came out in the fall of 1988. It’s a more mature, idiosyncratic and regional look at his upbringing in North Florida. On November 15, 1988, one day after the book arrived at bookstores, Mickler died at his home in Moccasin Branch, Florida from AIDS. Perhaps because of his death, his work has not always attained the kind of critical cachet it deserves. Undoubtedly, White Trash Cooking remains one of the South’s most important contemporary touchstones. And, more than 30 years since its first edition, it remains as honest, funny and poignant as ever.

Miami Punch S e rv e s 1 2 - 1 4

Resurrection Cake S e rv e s 1 6 Take one cake mix, your choice. Mix as directed on box. Pour in well-greased cake pan, kind of deep. Over the top, pour a pint of stewed pears or other fruit of your choice. Canned fruit will do fine, but home-canned is best.

Then cover the top of the fruit with pats of oleo, or butter, and sprinkle with a good coat of sugar.

Stick in oven heated to 350 degrees for 30–40 minutes, or until cake has risen to hide the fruit and is brown. Eat hot with a good strong whiskey sauce.

WHISKEY SAUCE 2 1/2 1 1 1

cups of sugar pound of butter, or 2 sticks teaspoon pure vanilla extract cup of Jack Daniel’s Black Label pinch of salt

PREPARATION: Blend sugar, butter and vanilla until mixed completely. Then add whiskey bit by bit, mixing until it is a nice, loose, creamy sauce. The sugar is supposed to be grainy.

Pour over resurrection cake, and it’s guaranteed to resurrect.

“I can’t wait for the New Testament. This is the first Bible I could understand.”

—Andy Warhol (1986)

3 No. 2 cans orange or tangerine juice, chilled 2 pints vanilla ice cream 1 quart ginger ale, chilled PREPARATION: Pour chilled orange or tangerine juice and ginger ale into punch bowl and mix well. Drop ice cream by the heaping tablespoon into mixture. Stir until ice cream is partially melted. In Miami, that won’t take long.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

91

ON THE FLY:THE STUDIO FLOR IDA ARTIST PR OF ILES

By Nila Do Simon

DIFFERENT STROKES A Floridian with European roots realizes her lifelong dream to become an artist.

A

bove all else, Laura Lacambra Shubert captures moments. It is in this realm that the College Park–based painter finds comfort, showcasing life’s everyday moments with a joyful touch.

A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London, Shubert has become a sought-after presence in the Southeast and exhibits her paintings everywhere from Stellers Gallery in Ponte Vedra Beach to venues in North Carolina. Though her work has found prominence in these parts of the world, it can be said that Shubert honed her skills an ocean away. Born to a Basque

92

father and an American mother in Durham, she received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts North Carolina, and raised in Spain and from Southern Methodist University, and central Florida, Shubert grew up with an Europe, where she attended the Académie appreciation for de Port-Royal in American and Paris, Shubert My daughter has become a describes her work European art. model for much of my work. as representational Family outings Oftentimes, when I see to the Prado and and handled in beautiful light in a room, Sorolla museums a loose, gestural I ask her to strike a pose were common, as manner achieved so I can capture it. were chats about through her lushly art and culture with Juan Echánove, a successful Spanish artist and a family friend.

Trained both in the United States, where

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

textured oil over acrylic. A mother of three, Shubert, 54, often paints her children and the moments surrounding them.

“I’ve always been attracted to figures

ANN CHAMBLISS L ACAMBR A , L AUR A L ACAMBR A SHUBERT

Above from left: Artist Laura Lacambra Shubert in her College Park studio; Setting the Table and Blue and White China are acrylic and oil on stretched canvas.

and how light falls on them,” she says. “My daughter has become a model for much of my work. Oftentimes, when I see beautiful light in a room, I ask her to strike a pose so I can capture it.”

There’s a distinctly feminine touch to Shubert’s work, which focuses on segments of time as only a mother can observe them. She’ll highlight children splashing in water or a lavishly decorated table set for a family feast, contemplative moments that non-artists may forsake. Her varying vantage points and tight cropping—perhaps a subconscious ode to impressionist Edgar Degas, a major influence on her work—evoke the way a person might zoom in on an image in real life.

Shubert decided she wanted to be an artist when she was 11 years old. In fact, within the margins of her schoolbooks, she would constantly scribble the letters “IWBAFA,” which stood for “I Will Be A Famous Artist,” a dream she kept quiet for fear that it would be dashed by a naysayer if she voiced it aloud.

Despite years of schooling and a steadfast focus on painting, when Shubert moved from France back to Florida in 1986, she had a difficult time finding work as an artist. To make ends meet, she began working at Walt Disney World, translating Spanish and French materials into English. There, she met her husband, John. Shubert would paint from their home, sometimes even in less than ideal conditions—such as the time their garage flooded, and Shubert had to paint in her wellies as she waited for the water to subside. Friends started buying her paintings, and an acquaintance eventually introduced her to a gallerist, which led to her first Orlando show in 1991. The rest, as they say, is history.

Even with an oeuvre that rivals that of some of the great masters, Shubert likes to think she has yet to peak in her career.

“Art is a lot like a sport,” says Shubert, who will exhibit at Onessimo Fine Art Gallery in Palm Beach Gardens on December 16. “Before my dad died, we played a lot of golf together, even though I was awful. I was always hopeful for that hole in one; you’re chasing that dream always, to hit that sweet spot.

Above from top: That’s the same way I feel about Summer Pots and Tulips are acrylic painting. I’m still looking for that and oil on stretched canvas. sweet spot as an artist.”

You Need the Right People to Succeed.

We believe in people and their amazing potential. We work hard to connect great people with great organizations. Whether you’re seeking new hires or contract support, you’ve come to the right place.

For more information, please contact our Orlando office at 407-803-5111.

Aerotek.com

Aerotek is an equal opportunity employer. An Allegis Group Company. ©2017

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

93

ON THE FLY: FLORIDA WILD P H OTOGR APHS & F IELD NOTES B y C a rl t o n Wa rd J r.

94

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

SEMINOLE Cowboys

I

was standing in the back of a truck parked in the middle of a pasture, waiting for the sun to rise over the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Brighton Reservation, just northwest of Lake Okeechobee. A group of cowboys had just trotted past in the dark, dogs at their heels. They were riding to gather the herd of cattle they would later drive past me on the way to the pens.

I readied my cameras and waited. The fog was still so thick that I could hardly see beyond the front bumper of the truck when I heard an escalating rumble

moving towards me from the right. As I lifted my camera to the empty horizon, a column of galloping horses, not cattle, materialized in my viewfinder for a few seconds and then vanished like a ghost train into the fog, the muffled thunder of their hooves a lingering reminder of what I had seen.

The few frames I captured from this surprise encounter in the pre-dawn light were gifts from the hidden wild of Florida’s heartland. I later learned that the Seminoles raise quarter horses as well as cattle.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

95

Private Wealth Management should be all about the numbers

4 % 100 20

TIMES LISTED ON BARRON’S TOP 100 INDEPENDENT ADVISORS**

1.7 #69

BILLION IN ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT*

NATIONALLY ON FORBES TOP 100 WEALTH ADVISORS**

In a crowded marketplace littered with sales professionals, finding good advice can be difficult. That’s why for you it should be all about the numbers. Call us today to learn about our institutional investment process for Wealth Management.

Corporate Headquarters 145 Lincoln Ave., Suite A Winter Park, FL 32789

407.567.2956 844.928.3770 info@wateroak.com

FEE-ONLY (No commissioned products)

YEARS IN BUSINESS

FEE-ONLY WEALTH MANAGEMENT

www.wateroak.com

*As of 12/31/2016. **Barron’s Top 100 and Forbes 100 are based on a number of measures, including but not limited to assets under management, years in existence, and compliance record.

ON THE FLY: GROVE STAND SEASON’S EATINGS B y L a u ra R ei l ey

Yours Tulia, Naples Vincenzo Betulia adds a third restaurant, The French, to his beloved downtown lineup and helps put the Paradise Coast on the culinary map.

MICHAEL CARONCHI

W

hen Vincenzo Betulia unpacked his lunch in elementary school, nobody wanted to share. There was caponata—think Sicilian ratatouille— and maybe cold cod poached gently in good olive oil. No sir, the kids of Milwaukee kept their PB&Js, and Betulia plowed through the food his Sicilian nonna had made for him.

His parents, both immigrants, were foundry workers, so his grandmother was the cook in the house.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his early lunchroom experiences, Betulia began his culinary career at age 14 with a dishwashing job in Paul and Joe Bartolotta’s Ristorante Bartolotta. He was quickly promoted to pizza maker and became a Bartolotta protégé, helping the brothers open a pizzeria and the James

Beard Award–winning Lake Park Bistro in Milwaukee. Then it was on to Bartolotta’s acclaimed Spiaggia in Chicago. And, as people tend to do after enduring Chicago winters, he vacationed in Florida.

At age 23, he came to Bonita Springs on vacation with a girlfriend. They ended up going their separate ways, but, before they did, they ate in a few restaurants. “What intrigued me about Naples and the dining scene at the time [was that] I felt like I could add something to it.”

Above: Oven roasted chicken, potato mousseline, English peas and bacon lardon

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

97

ON THE FLY: GROVE STAND PREPARATION: Bring all ingredients to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Remove from heat and allow to cool until room temperature.

S e rv e s 4

POTATO MOUSSELINE:

FOR BRINE:

3 pounds Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into halves 4 cloves garlic 1 pint heavy cream 1 stick butter Salt to taste

from The French

1 cup water 1 cup salt 1/4 cup honey 10 bay leaves 1/2 cup garlic cloves 2 tablespoons peppercorns 2 sprigs rosemary 1 bunch fresh thyme 1 bunch parsley 2 lemons

PREPARATION: Simmer the potatoes and garlic cloves in hot salted water until tender when pierced with a knife, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, gently warm the cream and butter in a separate pot and reserve until potatoes are ready. Once potatoes are tender, remove from water, and pass them through a potato ricer into a bowl. Add the cream mixture to the potatoes and season with salt.

ROASTED CHICKEN: 1 whole chicken, 3.5 to 4 pounds 1 stick butter, softened Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 6–8 cipollini onions, peeled 1 cup shelled English peas 4 ounces thick cut bacon, cut into lardon 2 bunches thyme

Above: Cacio e Pepe from Osteria Tulia

98

PREPARATION: Brine the chicken overnight in the refrigerator before cooking. When ready to cook, heat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the chicken from the brine and pat dry. Brush the chicken with soft butter and season well with salt and pepper on all sides and inside the cavity. Place the chicken on a perforated rack over a sheet tray. Place in the oven and roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Halfway through the cooking process, add the cipollini to the tray to roast. Toss the shucked peas with the bacon in a small pat of butter and reserve. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest another 5 to 10 minutes. Cut the chicken in half. Serve the chicken with potato mousseline and peas, and garnish with fresh thyme.

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Above: Chef Vincenzo Betulia plating pasta

He got a job at Campiello, then the 900pound gorilla of upscale Italian restaurants in the area. He eventually became head chef and held that role for nine years before taking the plunge in January 2013 and opening his own restaurant, Osteria Tulia. “[Visitors to Naples] come from the Midwest and Canada, either coming from an older country or an area that had barns and local pubs. Naples is a really new market—buildings are stucco and fake Tuscan. I wanted real brick. I bought [wood] from a barn in northern Florida. All the wood in the restaurant is 100-year-old Florida pine. People recognize that warmth.”

There were plenty of Italian restaurants in Naples at the time, he says, but he wanted a food program based in simplicity, featuring dishes that transported people to the roots of Italian cuisine.

“We don’t do tweezer food,” Betulia says, referencing the kind of ultra-fussy dishes, popular at some fine-dining establishments, that look as if they were plated with surgical tweezers. “There are a few top-selling dishes: tortelloni stuffed with braised short ribs, served just with melted butter with a marsala glaze and a foie gras emulsion.

We’re really known for pasta.”

MICHAEL CARONCHI, ZACH STOVALL

Oven Roasted Chicken, Potato Mousseline, English Peas and Bacon Lardon

Below: A feast full of delicious creations by Chef Betulia

THE FRENCH — LOCATION —

365 FIFTH AVE. S. NAPLES — HOURS —

SUN–THURS 11:30 A.M.–10 P.M. FRI–SAT 11:30 A.M.–10:30 P.M. thefrenchnaples.com

OSTERIA TULIA — LOCATION —

466 FIFTH AVE. S. NAPLES — HOURS —

MON–THURS 11:30 A.M.–2:30 P.M. 5 P.M.–10 P.M. SAT–SUN 11:30 A.M.–2:30 P.M. 5:30 P.M.–10:30 P.M. osteriatulia.com

BAR TULIA — LOCATION —

462 FIFTH AVE. S. NAPLES — HOURS —

MON–FRI 4 P.M.–1 A.M. SAT–SUN 4 P.M.–12 A.M. bartulia.com

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

99

ON THE FLY: GROVE STAND Cacio e Pepe

from Osteria Tulia S e rv e s 4 t o 6

12 quarts water 2 pounds dried bucatini, preferably a high-quality artisan brand such as Giuseppe coco or Afeltra 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 8 ounces Locatelli Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated PREPARATION: Bring a large pot of generously salted water to boil over high heat. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Reserve 2 cups of the pasta cooking water and carefully ladle into a large sauté pan. Strain the cooked pasta into a colander.

Set the pan over high heat, and add butter, olive oil and a few good twists of black pepper to the pasta water. Once the water is boiling, add the cooked pasta and allow it to get very hot. Remove the pan from the heat, and slowly add the grated Pecorino Romano. Stir continuously until the cheese has melted, forming a creamy sauce. Season with salt to taste, and serve with additional cheese and cracked black pepper.

The Bum Boat from Bar Tulia

1 ounce Bulleit Rye 1 ounce Bacardi 8 Años 1 ounce fresh pineapple juice 1/2 ounce orgeat syrup 1/2 ounce Monin Apricot Syrup 1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice 1 dash Bittermens ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters 1 dash Angostura bitters Pineapple slice Maraschino cherry PREPARATION: Add all ingredients except pineapple and cherry to a cocktail shaker, fill with ice and shake. Strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice and garnish with pineapple slice and cherry.

100

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Below: Guests enjoying the outside patio at The French

Left: Halibut with anchovy-thyme beurre

blanc, asparagus and potato mousseline

Below: Baked to perfection Gulf-shrimp

MICHAEL CARONCHI

pizza with pepperoni and ricotta

(cont’d from pg. 97) Okay, simple, but the foie gras tips the menu into fine-dining territory.

Garganelli with lamb sugo, tomato and sheep cheese is another customer favorite.

When the retail space adjacent to his restaurant became available, Betulia and his wife, Anna, cousin and Chef Frank Pullara, and General Manager Jason Zadorski annexed it and transformed it into Bar Tulia, which opened in December 2015. “[I realized] we could do a cool Italian-style gastropub,” Betulia says. “This was something [the city] needed.

There were plenty of Italian restaurants in Naples, but this was different.”

In January 2017, Betulia opened his third restaurant, The French, a classic brasserie. Would his grandmother approve?

“All of my restaurants have the same energy and feel and Italy and France share a border,” he says. “It’s a French restaurant with Italian technique, a 230-seat street-side brasserie with

the classic look of tile floors and tin ceilings, very casual. It’s not fine dining. This is a streetside brasserie.”

The French became an overnight success, and an experience the chef describes as being “shot out of a cannon.” For now, it appears Betulia has no additional projects on the horizon. The three restaurants, his three boys—Gianfranco, 10, and twins Luca and Paolo, 8—and a whole lot of plans for putting Naples on the culinary map are keeping him busy. In April 2015, he became the first chef in Naples to host a Friends of James Beard Benefit dinner, and he cooked at the Beard House in New York City in September 2016. He was also featured in a segment of Emeril’s Florida, and USA Today recognized Osteria Tulia as the No. 1 Italian restaurant and No. 1 lunch spot in Naples.

His overarching goal is to change the perception of Naples, to bring it national recognition as a foodie destination, alongside cities like Charleston.

And he’d like to see the local chef community work together to achieve that goal.

“I’m working on creating a camaraderie among chefs here. Yes, we’re all busy, but that would be awesome,” he says.

“And with the [annual Naples Winter Wine Festival], it’s cool to get all these chefs to come out to this sleepy beach town.”

A sleepy beach town, fine. But one that, these days, traffics in pretty notable nonna-style cod and caponata.

Halibut with AnchovyThyme Beurre Blanc, Asparagus and Potato Mousseline from The French S e rv e s 2

2 6-oz. East or West Coast halibut filets Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 medium-sized shallot, sliced 1 clove garlic, sliced 3–4 salt-packed anchovy filets 1 bunch fresh thyme 1 1/2 cups white wine 1/4 cup heavy cream 1/2 pound butter, cut into cubes and kept cold 10 Pei mussels, steamed in white wine and shucked 2 tablespoons minced chives 1 tomato, diced and seeds removed 1/2 bunch asparagus, peeled 2 tablespoons potato mousseline 1 ounce canola oil PREPARATION: Add the shallots, garlic, anchovy and a touch of olive oil to a small sauce pot and gently sauté over mediumhigh heat until the shallots become slightly translucent. Add the wine, and reduce until nearly dry. Add the heavy cream, and continue to reduce until the bubbles of the cream get larger. Lower the heat, and slowly add the cold butter a little at a time, whisking continually until melted. Strain the butter sauce, and add the chives and diced tomatoes.

Steam mussels in a small pot with a 1/2 cup of white wine. Cook over medium heat a few minutes until they open. Once open, transfer to a cookie sheet and allow to cool. Shuck and reserve.

Heat an oven to 350 degrees. Season the fish with salt and pepper. In a saute pan, heat canola oil over medium-high heat to near smoking point. Carefully add the fish filet and cook for 4 to 5 minutes.

Carefully flip the fish over using tongs, place in the oven and cook until done, about 3 to 4 minutes. Serve over mussels, potato mousseline and warmed asparagus.

Pour the anchovy-thyme butter sauce over the fish and salt to taste. Serve hot.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

101

ON THE FLY:BIRD’S-EYE VIEW

A WA L K I N G G U I D E TO O U R FAVO R I T E N E I G H B O R H O O DS

Old Miami

2.

1.

A recent revamp of Coral Gables’ Miracle Mile energizes an iconic community built in the 1920s by George Merrick.

4.

8.

Rapicavoli excels with an eclectic lineup of Cap’n Crunch pancakes, cauliflower steak and grilled quail. 804 Ponce De Leon Blvd.

6.

7.

2. MS. CHEEZIOUS This food-truck-turnedeatery serves grilled cheese in every way imaginable. 1915 Ponce De Leon Blvd.

3.

9.

10.

3. THREEFOLD CAFÉ

Craft coffee and gourmet breakfast is sourced from local faves like Panther Coffee and Zac the Baker. 141 Giralda Ave.

Aragon Ave.

Ponce De Leon Blvd.

1. EATING HOUSE MIAMI Chef Giorgio

Giraldi Ave.

5.

Miracle Mile

11.

H w y .

12.

S .D ix ie

4. ARAGON 101 Take a cooking class or join the supper club at this quaint culinary school.

101 Aragon Ave. 5. HOTEL COLONNADE Built in 1922, the

13.

contemporary escape offers luxury suites and a lush rooftop pool. 180 Aragon Ave.

Bird Rd.

14.

6. CORAL GABLES ART CINEMA

See screenings of the latest foreign and independent films. 260 Aragon Ave.

16.

8. BOOKS & BOOKS Find great reads and

O ld

7. ORTANIQUE A must-see on Miracle Mile, the restaurant is popular for its citrus-inspired décor and crafty cocktails. 278 Miracle Mile

Cu tle r

R d.

15.

café con leche at the locally owned bookshop, which hosts author talks and a monthly farmto-table dinner. 265 Aragon Ave.

12. VENETIAN POOL The public

swimming hole with aquifer-fed spring water was built in 1923 and remains a treasured icon. 2701 De Soto Blvd.

10. ACTORS’ PLAYHOUSE AT THE MIRACLE THEATRE This restored 1940s

13. BILTMORE HOTEL Walk the grounds

11. FRENCHIES DINER Enjoy a dainty or

14. SHOPS AT MERRICK PARK Explore

movie theater hosts performances of classic live theater productions. 280 Miracle Mile

decadent French meal with items like salad nicoise and duck confit club. 2618 Galiano St.

102

or savor Sunday brunch at the historic hotel, opened in 1926. 1200 Anastasia Ave.

this open-air retail destination with upscale shops like Neiman Marcus and Burberry as

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

well as a farmers market on Sundays.

358 San Lorenzo Ave.

15. OLD CUTLER TRAIL Ride this

scenic 11-mile bike trail under canopies of banyan trees and near stretches of beach.

Cocoplum Circle

16. FAIRCHILD TROPICAL GARDEN

Named for botanist David Fairchild, the garden houses a collection of rare plants.

10901 Old Cutler Road

ILLUSTR ATION: LESLIE CHALFONT

9. POOL LABSHOW This modern boutique features international brands like Inouitoosh and Muuñ. 376 Miracle Mile

AGED 8 YEARS FOR UNCOMPROMISING QUALITY AND U N PA R A L L E L E D F L AV O R .

Crafted first in 1862, BACARDÍ 8 AÑOS is aged under the Caribbean sun for a minimum of 8 years.

Each batch is made from a special selection of barrel-aged reserve rums, resulting in the perfect flavor with notes of oak, apricot, nutmeg and butterscotch.

This amber sipping rum is perfect for special occasions.

It can be served on its own or as the base for outstanding cocktails such as the Rum Old Fashioned.

LIVE PASSIONATELY. DRINK RESPONSIBLY. ©2017. BACARDÍ, ITS TRADE DRESS, THE BAT DEVICE AND UNTAMEABLE ARE TRADEMARKS OF BACARDÍ & COMPANY LIMITED. BACARDÍ U.S.A., INC., CORAL GABLES, FL. RUM - 40% ALC. BY VOL.

ON THE FLY:THE ROOST RE AL ESTATE DOLLARS & SENSE B y B et t y C o rt i n a -Wei ss

A Breath of Fresh Air Five properties that combine outstanding design with a gorgeous setting take outdoor living to a whole new level.

MIami 104

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

COURTESY OF ONE SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL REALT Y

E

scape South Florida’s urban jungle in this elegant—and massive—equestrian estate located in south Miami. Perched on five lush acres of impeccably manicured land, and with more than 11,000 square feet of living space, the two-story Mediterranean, built in 2009, boasts six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, vaulted ceilings, a gourmet kitchen and multiple fireplaces. Fully furnished, it also features luxurious amenities like detached guest quarters and a separate carriage house, two gazebos, a full outdoor kitchen, barns and stalls, and a spectacular pool framed by palm trees.

14949 SW 184th Ave., Miami LIST PRICE: $4,490,000

ON THE FLY:THE ROOST RE AL ESTATE DOLLARS & SENSE

D

esigned by acclaimed architect Guy Peterson of Sarasota, this contemporary three-story, four-bedroom home has an impressive unobstructed view of the Gulf of Mexico. Built in 2008, it boasts floor-to-ceiling glass walls and waterfront balconies in just about every room. Dine al fresco on the terrace and take a dip in the heated pool or a sip at the outdoor bar—all while watching one of those famed west coast sunsets. The nibbles can be whipped up in the high-end chef’s kitchen, which features custom cabinetry and Miele appliances. Or make it a night on the town: Charming Siesta Village, where fresh local fare and music blend deliciously, is just a short stroll from the home’s private gate.

150 Givens St., Sarasota LIST PRICE: $3,995,000

Sarasota BEACH LUXURY

COURTESY OF CHRISTIE'S INTERNATIONAL REAL ESTATE/MICHAEL SAUNDERS

MLS ID: 902247 O f f e r e d a t $2,500,000 Coastal contemporary home in Ponte Vedra Beach, with ocean views and deeded beach access. A complete Renovation in 2017 under the guidance of award-winning architect Nick Renard included hickory flooring and coffered ceilings.

A D I F F E R E N T K I N D O F R E A L E S TAT E T E A M

youngandvolen.com $300M+ IN CAREER SALES

•

$27M+ IN 2017

KEY WEST COMFORT

MLS ID: 899731 Offered at $1,225,000 This 5 bed, 5+ bath 2014 custom built home with water view in the delightful Key West inspired Paradise Key neighborhood of South Jacksonville Beach has a spacious floor-plan that flows into a grand outdoor space.

2 8 0 P O N T E V E D R A B LV D , P O N T E V E D R A B E A C H , F L 3 2 0 8 2 (904) 285.6927

Jayne Young

Gwinn Volen

(904) 333.1111 jayn eyo un g1111@ao l.co m

(9 0 4 ) 3 1 4 . 5 1 8 8 gv ol e n@pv c l u bre a l ty. c om

#13 OUT OF TOP 50 TEAMS JACKSONVILLE BUSINESS JOURNAL BOOK OF LISTS 2017

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

105

ON THE FLY:THE ROOST RE AL ESTATE DOLLARS & SENSE

ORland

T

his stately Tuscan sanctuary on the banks of the St. Johns River is grand inside, but its most exquisite feature is a stunning infinity pool flanked by dual docks and surrounded by meticulously manicured gardens. An outdoor cabana with a lovely seating area, fireplace and summer kitchen complete the open-air terrace. It can all be taken in from the spa, which is perched on a second-floor master suite balcony overlooking the spectacular view.

Other amenities include a four-car garage with a concealed workshop, a wine cellar with a copper ceiling, a theater room and an elegant library with hand-engraved artwork.

2535 Spreading Oaks Lane, Jacksonville LIST PRICE: $2,490,000

Jacksonville

W

hy not blend the rustic charm of horse country with the sophisticated chic of contemporary Florida design? This 12,815-square-foot, one-story home, built in 2014, does so masterfully, blurring the lines between outside and in with walls of windows that overlook 20 acres of peaceful green space. Fully furnished, the abode has five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms, and an open floor plan. It sits in the luxurious Ranch Colony gated community, where amenities include a golf course, horse trails and even a landing strip suitable for small planes.

1901 SE Ranch Road, Jupiter LIST PRICE: $4,950,000

106

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

MIKE LIDDELL, ERIC KOVAC S

JUPITER

ON THE FLY:THE ROOST

do

RE AL ESTATE DOLLARS & SENSE

COURTESY OF COLDWELL BANKER RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE

T

ORlaNDO

his 4,400-squarefoot estate with more than 1,000 feet of lake frontage and a 650-footlong seawall was completely renovated in 2015. The house features an open floor plan, a second-floor master suite, and an impressive double island kitchen with custom cabinets and quartz countertops. The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home is also equipped with smart technology throughout.

Outside, there’s everything a Floridian lakeside estate needs: double boat docks, jet ski lifts, a pool and private beach, a summer kitchen and a gas fire pit. All of it is nestled under gorgeous live oak trees.

3800 Bibb Lane, Orlando LIST PRICE: $2,495,000

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

107

ON THE FLY:THE TIDE ROAD TR IP–WORTHY EVENTS (NORTH) DICKENS ON CENTRE A M E L I A I S LA N D

Dec. 8–10

ST. AUGUSTINE FILM FESTIVAL ST. AUGUSTINE

Jan. 18–21

The oldest city in the nation kicks off the new year with a major event that celebrates

Above: Kayak and camp for seven days along the Great Calusa Blueway Below: Travel back in time for the fourth annual Dickens on Centre Festival in Downtown Fernandina Beach

local films and recent international releases. In its eighth year, the four-day St. Augustine Film Festival, which includes three galas, is sponsored by Flagler College and the Lightner Museum.

This year, the festival features films from Afghanistan, Russia, Sweden and Estonia. Among the films to be shown are A Hustler’s Diary, a comedydrama about a small-time crook turned writer, and The Spy and the Poet, a black comedy thriller about a beautiful spy, an abrasive poet and an awkward secret service agent. staugfilmfest.com

PADDLE FLORIDA’S GREAT CALUSA BLUEWAY

GAINESVILLE

Feb. 10–16

The seven-day, 57-mile paddle trip along the Great Calusa Blueway is an intimate journey through Florida’s pristine coastal waterways.

Paddle Florida, a nonprofit

108

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

organization that promotes water conservation, takes care of everything along the trip, except the paddling. Paddlers explore a different aquatic environment each day, from the oak hammocks of Estero Bay to the shallow estuary of the largest undeveloped barrier island in Southwest Florida.

Camp in cottages flanked by mangroves on Pine Island and on the sun-drenched shores of Bowditch Regional Park.

With food, gear, and lodging provided each day, the weeklong trip allows participants to concentrate solely on the quiet beauty of Florida’s coastline. paddleflorida.org

SANDESTIN GUMBO FESTIVAL SANDESTIN

Feb. 16–17

For 29 years, the best gumbo Florida’s Emerald Coast has to offer has been found at the 2,400-acre Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Miramar Beach. The festival begins with the Crawfish Boil Kick-Off

Party, where $15 buys a plate of crawfish fresh from the Gulf. The main event pits local restaurants and chefs against each other as they compete to produce the best gumbo in the area.

Sausage, chicken or seafood?

Seasoned or spicy? Blond roux or dark? You be the judge. sandestingumbofestival.com

(C E N T RA L ) UNCORKED

C L E A R WAT E R

Dec. 2–3

More than 80 vendors gather on the Gulf Coast to showcase the finest food, craft beer and wine the Tampa Bay area has to offer. The two-day festival features tastings and cooking demonstrations by notable guest chefs such as local culinary whizzes Jim Hendry and Joseph DiPaolo, who was named one of the top ten pastry chefs in America in 2016. With partners like St. Augustine’s San Sebastian Winery and the

PADDLE FLORIDA , DEREMER STUIDOS & AMELIAISL AND.COM, JEREMIAH Y. KHOKHAR, DAY TONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY ARCHIVE

For three days in December, the likes of Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge walk the streets of Amelia Island. Vendors and artists along Artist Alley feature holiday-themed keepsakes, and local restaurants like Joe’s 2nd Street Bistro offer classic English dishes. The Victorianera buildings are dressed up in twinkling lights, and the storefronts are decorated to provide attendees a glimpse into London circa 1843. The entire downtown rolls back the clock in celebration of Dickens’s famous holiday story, A Christmas Carol. Mingling with costumed employees and surrounded by old-fashioned English Christmas cheer, it’s hard not to be swept up in the nostalgic holiday spirit. ameliaisland.com

Experience and compassion you can trust.

Board-certified veterinary surgeon at the beaches

(C E N T RA L ) renowned Uinta Brewing Company, there are a hundred different ways to wash down the food. Uncorked’s beachside setting makes the fest feel like a culinary vacation, a place to soak up the views with a drink in your hand and your feet in the sand. clearwaterbeachuncorked.com

DAYTONA 500 ROLEX 24 LOUNGE LEVEL SUITES PACKAGE D AY T O N A

The Rolex 24 Lounge package is one of the best ways to enjoy Florida’s premier NASCAR race. The Rolex 24 Lounge Level Suites provide indoor and outdoor seating with an ideal vantage point overlooking pit row. The suites allow for all the sights and sounds of the traditional race experience with the added luxury of amenities like flatscreen TVs, Wi-Fi, a full bar and a premium buffet. The package includes entrance to the UNOH Fanzone, a walk along pit road, and exclusive prerace access to the drivers. daytonainternationalspeedway.com

SPACE COAST BIRDING & WILDLIFE FESTIVAL TITUSVILLE

Jan. 24–29 The Space Coast is home to one of the largest collections of endangered wildlife

in the country, and that makes it the perfect setting for nature watching. The Birding & Wildlife Festival offers an up-close and personal tour through the state’s expansive wetlands, thick hardwood forests and lush savannahs.

All tours are guided by wildlife and birding experts. Trips include a night hike around Merritt Island in pursuit of the resident barred owls, a boat ride along the Gulf Stream—where bottlenose dolphins, sea turtles and even humpback whales have been known to congregate—and a number of bird-watching expeditions designed for beginners. scbwf.org

T&C Pet Photography

Feb. 18

W. Thomas McNicholas, Jr., DVM

Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Surgeons

Orthopedics/ Arthroscopy

Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery

Soft tissue/Oncologic Laparoscopy

Arthrex Synergy UHDA™ 4K system

Neurosurgery

In-house helical CT scanner

Regenerative Medicine Arthrex Angel System™

(904) 853-6310 301 Jacksonville Dr. Jacksonville Beach Above: Uncorked Grand Tasting tent; drivers Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch at the Daytona 500 2017

Doctors on-site for 24 hour patient monitoring

HOURS Monday - Friday 7:30 am – 6:00 pm

FirstCoastVetSpecialists.com

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

109

ON THE FLY:THE TIDE ROAD TR IP–WORTHY EVENTS (C E N T RA L )

SUNSHINE MUSIC FESTIVAL ST. PETERSBURG AND B O C A R AT O N

Jan. 13 and Jan. 14 respectively

The Grammy Award–winning Tedeschi Trucks Band headlines and curates one of the biggest blues, funk and jazz festivals in the state. The moving music festival spends one day in

St. Petersburg’s Vinoy Park and the next day at Boca Raton’s Mizner Park Amphitheater.

The festival’s lineup includes Medeski Martin & Wood, a jazzy trio that specializes in “avant noise” music; Mike Gordon, a founding member of Phish; and the jam band Foundation of Funk. The Sunshine Music Festival sets itself apart from the many music festivals throughout the state with a kind of carefree soul music that feels distinctly Floridian. sunshinemusicfestival.com

(SOUTH)

Shanghai and Berlin—Bacardi No Commission returns to its roots in Miami. The brainchild of Grammy Award–winning producer Swizz Beatz, No Commission combines live music and visual art from a variety of local and international artists.

The showcase, presented by Bacardi, mixes different types of art installations reflective of the disparate colors and cultures that make South Florida a vibrant forum for artists. True to its namesake, No Commission works to empower these artists; 100 percent of the profits for artwork sold at the event go back to the artists themselves. dean-collection.com

BONNET HOUSE ORCHID FESTIVAL

NO COMMISSION

KEY WEST FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL

Dec. 2–3

Dec. 7–9

Jan. 24–28

F T . LA U D E R D A L E

This floral extravaganza marries natural vegetation, curated plant life and historical art in a

110

beautiful setting that takes full advantage of South Florida’s December sun. Each year, more than 3,000 people flock to the Bonnet House’s 35-acre estate, which includes an art gallery and lush gardens with five distinct ecosystems in the heart of Broward County, to experience an orchid wonderland unlike any other in the state. More than 40 vendors showcase a vast collection of fragrant orchids, colorful fruit trees and exotic bamboo plants. There’s also live music, food and gorgeous garden art. Simply browse the botanical beauty or start an orchid garden of your own with a special purchase. bonnethouse.org

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

MIAMI

After a couple of years touring on the international art circuit— from the Bronx to London,

KEY WEST

Key West, known for its clear blue waters, eclectic character and vibrant bar scene, is

GREG NOIRE, ADAM MOOSHIAN, ADOBE STOCK

Above: The Suffers, an award-winning 10-piece ensemble, takes the Sunshine Music Festival by storm with their Gulf Coast Soul. Below: Out of the gate at the Pegasus World Cup 2017 Right: Flower power lives at the Bonnet House Orchid Festival in Fort Lauderdale.

starting to make waves as a premier destination for something else—food.

The Key West Food & Wine Festival honors the island’s emergence as the latest foodie paradise with a four-day culinary showcase ranging from a Stock Island shrimp boil to a rosé brunch. The festival begins with an island-style gala at the Casa Marina Waldorf Astoria, celebrating the glamour of South Florida in the early 1900s. The festival continues with neighborhood strolls through the city’s Old Town and an oceanfront Grand Tasting that pairs wine, food and a famous Key West sunset. keywestfoodandwinefestival.com

ARRIVE & DRIVE

FILL YOUR NEED FOR SPEED

PEGASUS WORLD CUP

H A L LA N D A L E B E A C H

Jan. 27

In its second year, the Pegasus World Cup is set to be the richest thoroughbred horse race in the world with a $16 million purse. Each of the owners of the 12 horses competing put up $1 million for the right to participate. The race takes place at Gulfstream Park, an expansive complex anchored by the racetrack, two casinos and a high-end shopping mall overlooking the Golden Isles in Hallandale Beach.

Last year’s inaugural race featured California Chrome and Arrogate, two of the top horses in all of thoroughbred racing. While still in its infancy, the Pegasus World Cup is set to take its place among the most prestigious horse races in the world. pegasusworldcup.com

ARRIVE AND DRIVE local rotax club cart racing series

CORPORATE & PRIVATE EVENTS kart driving school mechanics and tuners onsite

352-291-0600 OCALAGRANPRIX.COM W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

111

FLORIDIANA

Her Majesty

An antique wooden boat holds a lifetime of memories for one Florida family.

G

uy Marvin bought Majestic, a 22foot 1936 Chris-Craft triple cockpit runabout, more than 20 years ago so that he and his wife, Laurie, and their kids, could spend time together out on the St. Johns River near their home in Jacksonville.

But what started off as a recreational toy became a family heirloom for the Marvins.

Through the years, Guy has kept the wooden vessel in pristine condition by regularly refinishing Majestic’s varnish. Despite her beauty, the antique runabout was made for getting up on plane and flying down Florida’s waterways. The boat was originally powered by a Chrysler Majestic engine, which inspired her name. The Chrysler engine eventually needed to be replaced, and a Chris-Craft MBL, which

112

produces 58 horsepower and pushes the boat along at about 40 mph, was added.

“We don’t baby it,” Laurie said on a recent fall day in Jacksonville. “The kids used to waterski behind her when they were young.”

With their children all grown up, Laurie and Guy have found new ways to enjoy Majestic. Every spring, Guy organizes a group cruise of about 30 antique boats on the St. Johns River. The fleet departs out of Jacksonville and ends up in Tavares at the Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival. The 140mile trip takes about seven days, including the three-day festival, which attracts about 200 boats from across the United States Above: xxxxxxx and Canada.

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 • 2 0 1 8

Below: Guy and Laurie Marvin

aboard their 22-foot, 1936 ChrisCraft triple cockpit runabout, Majestic. Guy captained the boat during Flamingo’s cover shoot.

MARY BETH KOETH, CLOTHING BY EMLY BENHAM, JEWELRY BY CRESTA BLEDSOE FINE JEWELRY

ALL THINGS VINTAGE

2017 WINNER ARROGATE