Flamingo Magazine

No.

13

THE ICONS ISSUE

For Floridians. By Floridians.

BEHIND f GATES OF THE HOME WHERE A FASHION LEGEND LIVED

VERSACE,

VERSACE #NEVERAGAIN

PARKLAND SURVIVORS:

Where Are They Now? PLUS

x

TAKING IT TO THE NET WITH

SLOANE STEPHENS

50 THINGS

TO DO THIS SPRING

INTO THE WEEDS: DO GREENER PASTURES LIE AHEAD FOR MARIJUANA IN FLORIDA?

Flashback:

1978

On Campus with Ted Bundy

Harvesting organic GuayakĂ­ Yerba Mate in South America

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 vision holds that yerba mate culture will power our Market Driven Regeneration™ business model to regenerate ecosystems and create vibrant communities.

— SP RI N G 20 1 9 —

CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S

44

54

62

72

THE HOUSE VERSACE BUILT

WEED THE PEOPLE

LOVE GAME

THE FACES OF CHANGE

BY ERIC BARTON

The Miami mansion that Gianni Versace once owned has captivated Floridians and tourists for more than 20 years. Go behind the gates of the infamous home, now a boutique hotel where visitors can revel in luxury.

Cover Photography by

B Y S T E V E D O L LA R

The state’s medical marijuana industry is growing like a—well, you know. Does the success of the companies producing it and the rising tide of popular support for medicinal pot point to greener horizons for full legalization?

MARY BETH KOETH

On the cover: Model Caroline Krystoff at The Villa Casa Casuarina wearing dress by Très Nomad and 18K dueling Malachite Shield cuffs by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry. Styling by: Cresta Bledsoe; Makeup and hair by: Jesus Bravo

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B Y N I LA D O S I M O N

B Y E M I LY B L O C H

Tennis champion Sloane Stephens has carved out a place for herself among the world’s most elite players. We chat with the 26-year-old about her everlasting love for the Sunshine State and the evolution of her career.

One year ago, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting became one of the deadliest in history, sparking a surge in youth political activism.

We caught up with the March for Our Lives changemakers to find out where they are now.

On this spread: Model Caroline Krystoff inside The Villa Casa Casuarina wearing maxi wrap skirt and tie tank by Très Nomad.

Styling and jewelry by: Cresta Bledsoe; Makeup and hair by: Jesus Bravo Photography by Mary Beth Koeth

D E PA R T M E N TS

12

41

WADING IN

COLUMNS

ON THE FLY

14 /// THE SPREAD: Elevate your cocktail repertoire with these CBD creations

41 /// C APITAL DAME: For Florida State alumnus Diane Roberts, the new Ted Bundy movie opens old wounds

87 /// BIRD’S-EYE VIEW: Rediscover the classics in Miami’s Art Deco district

18 /// FLAMINGLE: Five female founders who have changed how we live 20 /// M ADE IN FLA: Fresh and flirty knitwear by Miamian Karelle Levy 24 /// F LEDGLINGS: On the road with singer-songwriter Elizabeth Cook 26 /// O NE-ON-ONE: Olympian Shannon Miller on the future of gymnastics 32 /// T HE STUDIO: In the shallows with fine-art photographer Chris Leidy

83 /// PANHANDLING: Good vibrations with Prissy Elrod 88 /// F LORIDA WILD: Carlton Ward Jr. pays homage to his childhood love: The old stilt houses of Captiva

86 94 /// G ROVE STAND: Matthew Medure’s Jacksonville empire 103 /// THE ROOST: Perfectly appointed homes for the design enthusiast 108 /// T HE TIDE: The must-see events and happenings to catch this season 112 /// FLORIDIANA: For the love of shells

90 /// M Y FLORIDA: An ode to Yeehaw Junction’s brothel, its burgers and a bygone era

35 /// JUST HATCHED: The insider’s guide to what’s new around the state

S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

3

EDITOR’S NOTE

W

hat is a Florida Icon?

Mickey Mouse? Naval oranges? Or our favorite bird—the pink flamingo?

You don’t even have to cross the state line to know that these beloved symbols universally represent Florida. But for those of us who grow up here, raise our families here, go to college here, take our first jobs here, retire here or even just regularly vacation here, the people, places and things embodying the spirit of our home (or home away from home) are more complex than your average recipe for Key lime pie.

Florida icons mean something different to everyone, depending on which part of the state you live in, your age and how you spend your time.

The profiles and stories awaiting you in our pages might surprise you, but they all have deep roots in our sandy soil, storied history in our collective memories and new prominence in our cultural fabric.

Our cover story, “The House Versace Built,” takes us behind the gilded gates of one of the most famous homes in the world. Situated in the heart of South Beach, The Villa Casa Casuarina, also known as the Versace mansion, has enjoyed a renewed public obsession with the popularity of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which won a Golden Globe for best motion picture made for television in January. We decided to take a firsthand look inside the villa and experience the legacy of one of our favorite adopted Miamians.

In our feature “Love Game,” we get to know Plantation native and tennis

phenom Sloane Stephens, who at the time of this issue’s printing was ranked No. 4 in the world. The 26-year-old Grand Slam champion has earned a place among the world’s tennis elite while advocating for equal pay in the women’s sport. We’ll be cheering her on as she continues to make her climb to No. 1, and especially as she defends her title at this year’s Miami Open.

While Stephens takes it to the net, a different type of play is unfolding on the grass across

the state in Tallahassee. Ever since Floridians voted to legalize medical marijuana a little more than a year ago, an entire industry has sprouted up—one with a little-known history here and one that might soon unlock new sources of revenue as well as people serving time behind bars.

In our story “Weed the People,” we talk to some of the most influential figures in Florida’s cannabis advocacy movement and visit one of the state’s biggest production facilities to find out if greener pastures lie ahead.

And finally, some of the newest faces to become synonymous with the Sunshine State are those of teenagers. The students who survived the Feb. 14, 2018, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have become household names across the nation with their campaign against gun violence. In our piece “The Faces of Change,” we caught up with some of the founding members of March for Our Lives to find out what’s next for the movement and where they are now.

We tell these stories, and many more, of the new forces and old classics that truly reflect how Floridians live, what brings us joy and what causes us concern. And while we will always have big love for our favorite plastic yard ornament, we hope this edition inspires fresh-squeezed thinking on what constitutes a Florida icon.

E di tor i n Chi ef & P u b lish e r

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

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PHOTOGR APHY BY MARY BETH KOETH; MAKEUP BY JENNIFER COMEE WITH THE ROSY CHEEK

Fresh-squeezed icons

ISSUE

CONTRIBUTORS

13

For Floridians. By Floridians.

• FOUNDED IN 2016 •

EMILY BLOCH is a multimedia journalist originally from Fort Lauderdale. She joined Flamingo as associate editor in January. In this issue, you’ll find her feature on the student changemakers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Bloch’s work has appeared in publications including Teen Vogue, in which she covers national politics, The Daily Beast and Business Insider. Previously, she covered community news at the Sun-Sentinel. Bloch has a degree in journalism from Florida Atlantic University. You’ll often find her in the Flamingo office making Cuban espresso.

NILA DO SIMON is an award winning journalist and editor. She has contributed to Marie Claire, The New York Times and Venice magazine.

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, the native Floridian has been known to throw a few elbows on the basketball court and hit a couple of forehand winners. In this issue of Flamingo, Do Simon got to meld her two skills, chatting with tennis champ Sloane Stephens for our feature.

— s p r i n g 20 1 9 —

EDITORIAL 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 Associate Editor Emily Bloch emily@flamingomag.com Contributing Designer Victor Maze Contributing Editor Eric Barton Cont ributin g Writers Cassidy Alexander, Eric Barton, Emily Bloch, Christina Cush, Steve Dollar, Prissy Elrod, Sean McCaughan, Laura Reiley, Diane Roberts, Maddy Zollo Rusbosin, Rob Rushin, Nila Do Simon, Carlton Ward Jr. Contributing Photographers & Illustrators Jenna Alexander, Leslie Chalfont, Beth Gilbert, Gabriel Hanway, Mary Beth Koeth, Stephen Lomazzo, Emilee McGovern, Brecht Vanthof, Libby Volygyes, Carlton Ward Jr. Copy Editors & Fact Checkers Brett Greene, Emily Orr, Katherine Shy

MARY BETH KOETH launched her career as a designer for Hallmark, where she spent her weekends traveling Europe with a camera in hand.

Her pastime led to a career change. She studied photography and apprenticed in Norway and Los Angeles before branching out on her own. Her work has appeared in Southwest Airlines’ Spirit Magazine and Vogue Italy, among others, and has won numerous awards. These days, she roosts in Miami Beach, a city rife with visual candy for her to capture—like our cover shoot at the Versace mansion she photographed in January.

SALES & MARKETING Marketing & Promotions Annie Lee Social Strategy Christina Clifford Global Director Partnership Marketing Neil Strickland neil@globetm.com Global Director Partnership Marketing Claudio Dasilva claudio@globetm.com Interns Mae Logue, Megan Massion

DIANE ROBERTS is an eighth-generation Floridian, living in Tallahassee. She’s been writing for newspapers since 1983, when she started writing columns for the Florida Flambeau. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Guardian and The Washington Post. She was a commentator on NPR for 22 years and has authored four books. In this installation of her regular Flamingo column, Capital Dame, Roberts explains why she won’t need to see the new Ted Bundy movie or Netflix series. Currently, she teaches literature and writing courses at Florida State University.

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Contact Us

P: (904) 395-3272, E: info@flamingomag.com 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.

JSR MEDIA

connoisseurs wanted

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In Greater Fort Lauderdale, we welcome everyone who shares our taste for new discoveries.

Explore a vibrant collection of cultures and activities. Find the GO-TO guide for before, during or after your trip at sunny.org/vacationplanner @VisitLauderdale | sunny.org

A DV E RTO R I A L

A SPORTING PARADISE

From Major League Baseball to world-class PGA golf courses and an all-inclusive waterfront resort, ST. LUCIE makes for an unforgettable springtime getaway for the active, outdoorsy family.

T

HINK OF ST. LUCIE and think about the smell of freshly cut grass, the warmth of sun on your face after months of unforgiving chill, the sharp crack of a bat connecting with a baseball and the roar from a crowd jumping to its feet as players from the New York Mets race around the diamond.

For many, Port St. Lucie is synonymous with Major League Baseball Spring Training at First Data Field and the unforgettable experiences and traditions forged during training season in this vibrant stretch of South Florida’s east coast.

But what many may not realize is that when the players take off their cleats for the day, the memory making doesn’t stop. If you look beyond the outfield, it’s easy to see all that the area has to offer—including chances to get in on the action yourself.

THE GOLFER’S ESCAPE After watching the boys swing for fences, perfect your stroke at Port St. Lucie’s PGA Golf Club.

The world-class PGA Golf Club offers an ideal place to escape and spend a few days playing the links and enjoying luxury golf facilities, which are open to the public and appeal to both beginners and experts. Practice on 54 holes, across three courses, and within a 35acre training center with some of the best golf professionals in the country.

Stay in the PGA Village by reserving one of their fully equipped golf villas or a vacation rental home, or book a nearby hotel and explore the restaurants and shopping just a few minutes away.

THE FA MILY ADVENTURE Looking for a family-friendly eco-excursion? Get in touch with the area’s natural beauty at Club Med Sandpiper Bay, the only all-inclusive Club Med resort in the United States, situated on the banks of the St. Lucie River and offering a wide array of academies and activities from tennis to beach volleyball, sailing, wakeboarding and even flying trapeze.

Packages include accommodations, culinary and beverage offerings, land and water sports and entertainment. The resort caters to active families looking to relax and engage in Florida’s great outdoors.

St. Lucie brims with Old Florida charm and undiscovered adventures —in the stands, over land and on water. Go fishing and kayaking on the Indian River Lagoon in Fort Pierce, take a guided wildlife boat tour through the St. Lucie River that winds through the heart of Port St. Lucie, go horseback riding on the beach on Hutchinson Island, surf at Fort Pierce Inlet State Park, and hike in Savannas Preserve or Jack Island Preserve state parks.

So come cheer on the Mets, but don’t leave without experiencing the full sporting paradise of St. Lucie.

Explore Float Just Get

Trace your path through miles of untouched nature preserves and heritage trails, float down the most biologically diverse estuary in the country, or simply drift away into vacation bliss. Immerse yourself in warm south Florida sunshine, blue skies and a vacation of serenity or adventure.

From tides to trails...plan your coastal escape to St. Lucie, Florida today.

To get inspired, go to VisitStLucie.com

[

THE SLICE P R O DUC TS + EVENTS + PROMOTIONS

SUIT UP Fort Lauderdale’s Montce Swim outfitted model Caroline Krystoff for Flamingo’s photo shoot at the Villa Casa Casuarina in this cream rib Tropez tie-up one-piece ($198) from the brand’s spring 2019 Resort line. Vintage Gianni Versace belt supplied by What Goes Around Comes Around Miami and earrings and cuff by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry. Our story, “The House Versace Built� begins on page 44. montce.com

BEACHY KEEN Amanda Lindroth, the Florida-born interior designer known for her tropical chic aesthetic, released the perfect accessory for your coffee table—her new book. Island Hopping offers a look at Lindroth’s elevated yet approachable interiors. Her signature style involves fusing traditional design with beachy flair. amandalindroth.com

EXTRAORDINARY WONDER

ISBN 978-0-9912420-0-9 ISBN 978-0-9912420-0-9

When a widow is reunited with her college boyfriend after three decades, she’s forced to choose between a second chance at love and the daughter opposed to her mother’s new life. Prissy Elrod, whose column can be found in this issue, is an author and artist based out of Tallahassee.

Chasing Ordinary, her second book, shatters the archetype of the model Southern woman as a mother, daughter and wife through sharp humor and a dose of Florida humidity. prissyelrod.com In Prissy Elrod’s memoir, Far Outside the Ordinary,

husband, Boone, from a terminal disease, and the two unlikely and unconventional aides who moved in and became part of her once, ordinary family.

Her long, awaited sequel, Chasing Ordinary, picks Prissy Elrod is an artist, humorist, professional

In Prissy Elrod’s memoir, Far Outside the

upspeaker, a full year after Boone’s death when Dale, her columnist, and the author of Far

Ordinary, she tells of the year she fought to save

college sweetheart, appears in her life Outside the Ordinary.

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her husband, Boone, from a terminal disease,

Florida University mother of two learns heState is still in love and withthe her.

But nothing’s ever

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ordinary family.

writing, painting and chasing her tail.

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of one chapter ending and another beginning,

up a full year after Boone’s death when Dale, her

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college sweetheart, appears back in her life and

yourself, and the importance of not closing doors,

she learns he is still in love with her. But nothing’s ever that simple. Through her attempts to build a

but having the courage to step through them.

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www.prissyelrod.com

COVER DESIGN:

Katie Campbell

PHOTO: Kira Derryberry www.prissyelrod.com

www.prissyblog.com

/prissyelrod

COVER DESIGN: PHOTO:

/prissy.elrod

Katie Campbell

Katrice Howell

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closing doors, but having the courage to step through them.

—JAMIE RICH, EDITOR IN CHIEF, PUBLISHER, FOUNDER OF FLAMINGO MAGAZINE

Through trials, tribulations, and downright humorous moments, Prissy Elrod weaves an irresistible plot touching on the theme QH WPKSWGN[ CPUYGTGF RTC[GTU CPF VJG p[QW ECPoV CNYC[U IGV what you want, but you get what you need� mentality. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and most importantly... you’ll want more. —KATE AND KATY RHAMEY, KR SQUARED PRODUCTIONS

$24.99 ISBN 978-0-9912420-8-5

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— Flor idians, far e, f inds —

WADING IN — The Spread —

G etting toas t y wi t h CBD-i nf us e d c oc kt ai l s

— flamingle —

F lorid a’s badas s f e m al e f ounde r s

— made in fla —

D ressin g Mi am i one t hr e ad at a t i m e

— FLEDGLINGS —

R ebootin g wi t h s ongs t r e s s El i zabe t h Cook

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O lympic gy mnas t Shannon Mi l l e r ge t s pe r s onal

— the studio —

Dive into C hris Le i dy’s unde r wat e r phot ogr aphy

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S tatewide ope ni ngs not t o be m i s s e d

Wildwood native and singer-songwriter Elizabeth Cook

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WADING IN :THE SPREAD FLO RIDA-F R ESH BITES & BEVS

By Er i c Ba rt o n • P h o t o g ra p h y b y L i b b y Vo l g y es

The New Chill in Cocktails A cannabis extract makes for tasty, vibe-inducing drinks

Blueberry Yum Yum

BLUEBERRY SHRUB

S e rv e s 1 1 1/2 ounces Nolet’s Silver Dry Gin 1 1/2 ounces blueberry shrub 1/2 ounce lemon juice 2 ounces Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut 25 milligrams CBD oil (see note) PREPARATION: Add all ingredients except CBD oil to a cocktail shaker filled with ice.

Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add CBD oil and serve immediately.

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FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// S P R I N G 2 0 1 9

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen 2 cups cane sugar 2 cups white vinegar PREPARATION: Combine ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until thick and fully reduced. Let cool completely. Blend until smooth, store in a glass container and keep chilled.

NOTE: Use a volume of CBD oil that contains 10 milligrams of CBD extract.

A

fter three decades in business, Sylvia Tzekas has found a new way to elevate cocktails and lower stress levels for customers at her restaurant, Sea Sea Riders.

“You notice people at the bar are a lot less anxious, not so worked up,” she says from the downtown Dunedin mainstay.

The reason? Tzekas has been slipping something unusal into some drinks lately— nothing nefarious, but actually the trendiest new ingredient in craft cocktails. It’s called cannabidiol oil, or CBD, which is an extract from the cannabis sativa plant.

Bartenders across Florida have been dropping hints of the clear oil into their creations, saying CBD delivers a mellowing effect without the high from marijuana. At Hooch and Hive in Tampa, CBD makes its way into the Bake and Wake, a drink spiked with espresso H I G H B A L L H A N G O UTS and topped with almond milk foam.

SEA SEA RIDERS CBD also ends up — LOCATION — in a beverage that 221 MAIN ST. Plant Miami makes DUNEDIN with pineapple, — HOURS — TUES.–THURS. 11:30 AM–9 PM coconut milk and FRI.–SAT. 11:30 AM–10 PM dark rum. seasearidersdunedin.com At Maven in Palm Beach, CBD MAVEN adds a spin on a — LOCATION — Mai-Tai. Maven’s 207 ROYAL POINCIANA WAY PALM BEACH bar manager, — HOURS — Grant Moulder, MON.–THURS. 11 AM–1 AM says he uses a CBD FRI. 11 AM–2 AM SAT.–SUN. 10 AM–2 PM that imparts a mavenpalmbeach.com slight undertone of pot. “When I make a cocktail, I want you to taste the ingredients, so I want you to taste the CBD,” Moulder says. He has found CBD can soothe aching muscles. Working on his feet all day at the bar, Moulder often heads home with tension in his back—something that’s alleviated

by CBD. For those looking to master CBD mixology at home, there are key tricks, says cookbook author Jules Aron. Aron spent 15 years as a New York

Left: The Blueberry Yum Yum CBD cocktail by

Sea Sea Riders restaurant in Dunedin was named one of Restaurant Hospitality’s best cocktails in America.

Above: The OmMai CBD cocktail by Grant

Moulder of Maven features maraschino liqueur and rum. See the full recipe at flamingomag.com.

City bartender before reinventing herself in West Palm as a holistic health coach and the author of four cookbooks. Her No. 1 tip for cannabidiol drinks is to know the difference between CBD oils and tinctures. The oils can add a nice visual effect floating on top of a drink or can be emulsified into a foam.

A CBD tincture can simply be added before stirring or shaking. Some brands have a definite weed-like flavor, meaning they shine when paired with with intense vegetal and citrus notes. “[CBD] plays into flavors really well,” Aron says.

The biggest challenge bartenders have when serving CBD is convincing newcomers that it won’t get them high.

“At the beginning, we were constantly educating people,” Tzekas says.

Regulars soon caught on, although she still gets first-timers asking questions. No, Tzekas says, CBD won’t get you high, but it sure helps make tasty, calm-inducing cocktails.

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S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

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WADING IN :THE SPREAD FLO RIDA-F R ESH BITES & BEVS

Purple Haze S e rv e s 1 1 ounce aged golden rum, such as Plantation Grande RĂŠserve 1 ounce fresh pineapple juice 1 ounce butterfly pea flower tea 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice 1/2 ounce honey syrup (see note) 1/4 ounce aquafaba (liquid from canned chickpeas) 1/4 ounce coconut milk 1 drop orange blossom water 15 milligrams CBD oil (see note) Pinch of maqui, pomegranate and acai powders (optional) PREPARATION: Add rum, pineapple juice, tea, lemon juice and honey syrup to a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake well. Strain into chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Discard ice and add aquafaba, coconut milk, orange blossom water and CBD oil to shaker. Shake, without ice, until thick foam is created. Pour onto cocktail.

Sprinkle with superfood powders and serve immediately.

NOTES: Prepare honey syrup by heating equal parts honey and water over medium heat, stirring constantly, until combined.

Use a volume of CBD oil that contains 10 milligrams of CBD extract. Most brands indicate the amount of extract in each dropper on the bottle.

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FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// S P R I N G 2 0 1 9

This page: Author and

wellness cocktail expert Jules Aron designed this violet-hued cocktail that complements the euphoric CBD with tropical flavors.

PELIC ANBE ACH .COM | 8 0 0. 525.6232 | FORT L AUDERDALE , FL

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WADING IN :FLAMINGLE A FLO CK OF FASCINATING F LOR IDIANS

A League of Their Own These five Floridians all launched globally dominating companies— and they were probably wearing heels when they did it.

SARA BLAKELY

ILLUSTR ATION BY STEPHEN LOMAZZO

ALLI WEBB

MARTINE ROTHBLATT

ANNA BOND

Shapewear Savior

Popsicle Philanthropist

Haircare Hero

Do-All Diva

Stationary Star

Blakely, the 48-year-old founder of Spanx, built a billion-dollar empire specializing in bodyshaping undergarments for women. Born and raised in Florida, she had the idea of Spanx after getting tired of the discomfort caused by wearing pantyhose in the brutal Florida heat.

She armed herself with a pair of scissors and history was made. She has been featured on Shark Tank, QVC and The Oprah Winfrey Show and is a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks. In 2006, she founded the Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation, providing funds to charities that empower young women.

Hatcher is the owner of Feverish Ice Cream & Gourmet Pops and has dedicated her time and knowledge to inspiring up-and-coming entrepreneurs through her seminars, technology innovation and college funding. Her vegan-friendly popsicle shop in Miami donates a portion of each sale to her PopPreneur outreach program, which works to teach underprivileged urban youth entrepreneurship skills. She also established BlackTech Week and Code Fever, initiatives to help rid communities of “innovation deserts” by educating black and disadvantaged families about technology.

The founder of Drybar and a 43-year-old mom of two, Webb grew up in Boca Raton and tried several jobs before realizing hair care was her calling. Webb attended beauty school and started her business venture, Straight-AtHome, by giving in-home blowouts via referrals.

However, the demand for a business that focused exclusively on hairstyling and drying grew beyond her wildest expectations.

Webb went from trekking across town with her blowdryer in her Nissan Xterra to conquering uncharted hair care territory. Drybar has blown up to a $100 million operation with more than 100 locations.

The co-founder of Sirius Satellite Radio, Rothblatt is the highest paid transgender person and female executive in the nation. When her daughter was diagnosed with a rare type of high blood pressure, Rothblatt created a biotech company to help save her life. She founded United Therapeutics, a medical company experimenting with genetic modification to develop organs for human transplant. Rothblatt, a resident of Satellite Beach, is the author of several books on a wide range of topics and created the first full-size, battery-powered environmentally friendly electric helicopter.

Bond is the chief creative officer, illustrator and coowner of Rifle Paper Co., an international stationery brand. The 34-year-old co-founded the company with her husband in their hometown of Winter Park in 2009. Bond quickly went from working out of her garage to running an internationally known brand with more than 5,000 stores around the world. The company sells everything from postcards and planners to accessories and home decor, all with a quirky vintage twist. Bond’s illustrations have been featured in partnerships with companies including Keds shoes and Floridabased Corkcicle.

FELECIA HATCHER

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[ WADING IN :MADE IN FLA B y Ma d d y Z o l l o R u sb o si n

LOOM SERVICE This isn’t your grandma’s sweater. KRELwear brings its fun, flirty knits to Miami

K

arelle Levy is a knitwear designer—but you won’t find any sweaters in her portfolio.

From rompers and kaftans to hot shorts and bodycon dresses, Levy’s brand, KRELwear, proves that knit has as much of a place in South Beach as it does in the snow with its fashion-forward designs. “I call it tropical knitwear,” she explains.

Parisian-born Levy moved to Miami as a baby, and her love affair with textile art began during her childhood. “My mom was born and raised in Sweden, so I grew up with a weaving loom and her doing large-scale needlepoints at home,” she says. “I’ve been crafting since I was a little girl, and in high school, I took weaving classes at the University of Miami, because I

Above: The rasta tank

[

dress by KRELwear is handloomed in Miami and made of a combination of cotton, viscose and elastic.

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JAMES MAN, ANDRE GABB

wanted to know how to use the loom that I had in my basement.” The classes struck a chord with Levy, so when it was time to attend college, she enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design. “I thought I’d be weaving the entire time,” she recalls of her decision to become a textile major. “But then, I picked up a course on knitting machines and never wove again—I was literally hooked.”

After graduation, Levy returned to Miami, where she worked various jobs that ranged from costume design to retail. But her knack for knitting was stronger than ever. Initially, she began making avant-garde pieces that were intended for the performing arts rather than daily wear.

“They were full-body socks, so they were really good for dance because they would morph the body,” she says. “Eventually, I realized that [other] people should be able to wear them. Being in Miami, nightlife has always been prevalent in my lifestyle, so I started making clothes and having my friends wear them.”

Before long, she was producing so many styles, it only made sense to start selling them full-time. By 2002, KRELwear was officially a brand, with the name, “Krel,” stemming from Levy’s old high school graffiti tagline. All of her designs are currently made from bamboo, tencel—a fiber made from wood pulp— viscose, metal or cotton, so there’s not a thread of heavy wool in sight at her Northeast Fourth Court boutique. These natural fibers are super breathable, too, so they can handle Florida’s grueling heat and humidity.

“It could be considered a vegan line,” she adds. “Everything is produced in Miami. It’s a yarn-to-garment boutique brand.”

At KRELwear, nearly everything is made to order.

“We have very little stock, so people can come to our shop to purchase or do custom pieces. Like if they love the shape we have, but they’re not in love with the color, they can pick and choose,” she says. This is possible since there’s an industrial knitting machine in-house: “We’re pretty much the only people in Florida who have this machine and do this kind of work here.”

Levy’s company takes the customization process one step further with Quickie

Above left: The

Missy Marine twopiece tank top and skirt is made of cotton, viscose and elastic.

Above: The

White butterfly asymmetrical poncho is made of Tencel.

Right: Karelle Levy is the founder of KRELwear, a Miami-based knit clothing company.

S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

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WADING IN :MADE IN FLA around the world where she’d display styles she created out of glow-in-thedark thread. Locally, Levy hosts monthly “Stitch N Bitch” workshops, where she teaches people how to knit at zero cost over cocktails. She also frequently creates installations for Miami’s art community.

“I’m an artist making fashion, so my concepts are completely different than a typical fashion brand,” she says. “Plus, many of my clients are collectors. A lot of them have sections of their closets that are kind of dedicated to my clothes, and that’s really amazing.”

As for what’s next for KRELwear? Levy is hoping to start a menswear line—and finally tackle the sweater: “Because after over 20 years of knitting, I think I should learn how to make sweaters,” she laughs.

striped romper by KRELwear features a combination of cotton, viscose, elastic and metal fabrics.

Right: This coral romper with an accompanying shawl is made of tencel.

for a set price of $100. Within one to Couture, a service that allows customers two hours, you’ll have a KRELwear to walk away with a one-of-a-kind style on original. the spot. The process is fairly “It’s a really fun and simple: Choose a pre-made unique project because fabric, then browse the shop’s KREL anyone, any age, any photo album for inspiration.

— LOCATION — 7520 NE 4TH COURT #107 gender can come in and Once you have an idea of MIAMI get a piece,” she explains. what you want, Levy will pin — HOURS — Levy also approaches the fabric onto your body WED.–SAT. 12–7 P.M. her business differently and work with you to create krelwear.com than a typical designer. She something that you look and always wants her fashion to be feel good in. From there, inclusive—not to mention fun. In 2008, she she’ll sew the design, whether it’s a top hosted a series of black light fashion shows or a dress or something totally different,

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JAMES MAN, ANDRE GABB

Left: The Fruit Loops

WE’RE

ALL TALLAHASSEE THAT & MORE

Beyond Tallahassee’s universities and politics, there’s a special place that brims with award-winning restaurants, local craft breweries, gorgeous trails and spring festivals like the Red Hills International Horse Trials, Springtime Tallahassee, Southern Shakespeare Festival, LeMoyne Chain of Parks Art Festival, and Word of South Festival. Plan your trip now.

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WADINGIN IN::FLEDGLINGS FLEDGLINGS WADING FLO RIDA MUSICIANS ON THE R ISE FLO RIDA MUSICIANS ON THE R ISE B y x xBxyx R xx ob x xRxuxsh x xi n xxx

Home Cookin’ Country artist Elizabeth Cook was poised for stardom until her family life got in the way. Now, she’s back in the studio with a new album in the works— and it has a little extra seasoning.

W

ildwood native Elizabeth Cook has lived a life full of the stuff of classic country songs—from her bootlegger daddy and songbird mama taking her onstage before she was in kindergarten to a stint at the Grand Ole Opry and a sit-down on The Late Show with David Letterman.

With the wind at her back and a sitcom deal in hand, Cook seemed poised for stardom. But the years after 2011 saw a series of unfortunate events unfold: Her family farm burned; her father, brother, mother- and brother-in-law died in rapid succession; she got divorced;

and she checked into rehab. It took five years to get back in the songwriting and recording groove.

In 2010’s Welder and 2016’s Exodus of Venus, the artist almost sounds like two different people.

The same strong voice and sharp song construction that fueled her rise are enhanced by the experience of a woman who has lived the breadth of joy and loss in full. We caught up with Cook in January as she was recording a new album and gearing up for a cross-country tour and trip out to sea with the Outlaw Country Cruise alongside Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and the Drive-By Truckers.

THE YEARS BETWEEN WELDER AND VENUS WERE FULL OF PERSONAL TRAGEDY. WHAT MOVED YOU TO GO BACK TO THE STUDIO?

EC: Tragedy ain’t all it was. Literally, the day I began the process of following up Welder with the next album, I was invited to sit on the couch on The Late Show with David Letterman.This came out of nowhere and quickly led to a sitcom deal with CBS and basically two years of partying at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. Then the tragedies began. Then the recovery from the tragedies began. I went back into the studio out of necessity in 2015. I wasn’t

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This page: Guitarist and vocalist Elizabeth

Cook is drawing attention following a national tour and a new album on the way.

5

FAN FAVES

by Elizabeth Cook

1 2 3

DYIN’” “ Exodus of Venus “EXODUS OF VENUS” Exodus of Venus

“EL CAMINO” Welder

4 5

HEROIN ADDICT SISTER” “ Welder

occ.you.pa.tion coder designer strategician triathlete

SOMETIMES IT TAKES “ BALLS TO BE A WOMAN” Balls

well. I was in a bad relationship and on heavyhanded psych meds. But I stand behind every line on Exodus of Venus. It came from the place I was living. It was visceral, but I wasn’t really cognizant. I was still in a bad dream.

SIX YEARS AWAY IS AN ETERNITY IN THE MUSIC BIZ, ALMOST LIKE STARTING OVER. HOW HAS YOUR APPROACH TO THE FUNDAMENTALS— WRITING, TOURING, RECORDING—CHANGED?

EC: I feel more grown up and like a kid again all at the same time. I think I’m less intimidated by it all. Like Lt. Dan at the top of the ship in the middle of the storm on the shrimp boat. I’m still fragile. But whatever. Bring it.

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WHO ARE YOUR KEY INFLUENCES?

EC: My main influence is just my life. I sing about it in all kinds of ways. The way it sounds is meant to serve the point of telling about it, and nothing more. I am not reverent to any one ilk of instrumental conglomerates. I am a fan of Jell-O.

JACE K ART YE

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FIVE YEARS? WHAT’S THE ELIZABETH COOK MASTER PLAN? EC: I decline to fill out this job application. That would be an exercise in futility.

Check out her tour dates at elizabeth-cook.com.

Aerotek is an equal opportunity employer. An Allegis Group Company. ©2018

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WADING IN :ONE-ON-ONE CO N VE RSATIONS, INTERVIEWS, STOR IES B y Ja m i e R i ch

Balancing Act

Olympic gymnast and cancer survivor Shannon Miller on her love of florida, personal fitness and how to protect young athletes WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO JACKSONVILLE?

SM: I happened to be in law school in Boston. And I also started golfing in tournaments. It was just this sport that I started to take up to kind of come out of my shell. I was very shy growing up.

There was a charity tournament being held [in Jacksonville]. My husband’s company was sponsoring the event. Six months later, he found a roundabout way to get my email. And we just kind of started talking long distance. Years later, I ended up here, married with two kids.

Above: Former Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller moved to Jacksonville about a decade ago.

Right: The cancer survivor follows a 30 minute fitness plan four to five times a week.

T

he game of golf and love are the two forces responsible for pulling Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller away from Boston, where she was attending law school, down to the Sunshine State over a decade ago. Since then, Miller, 41, the most decorated female American Olympic gymnast of all time, has survived ovarian cancer, built a company focused on women’s health issues, started a family and found a new calling helping young athletes stay safe.

Flamingo Editor-in-Chief Jamie Rich caught up with Miller to chat about her lifestyle, health and wellness, and what she’s doing to help keep athletes safe in the aftermath of the USA Gymnastics scandal. Here are some highlights from their conversation.

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SM: I retired from gymnastics at the ripe old age of 19. In 2010, I launched my company devoted to women’s health. At the same time, I started hosting a radio show. I got to interview physicians and nurses. As we moved into the fall, we were talking about cancer awareness. I remember talking about the importance of getting to those regular exams and knowing the signs and symptoms.

I had my appointment coming up and saw I was going to be out of town. I called, thinking, “I’ll put it off. I just need to get through the holidays.”

I remember waiting on hold, thinking, “I’m about to do the exact opposite of what I tell other women to do. And here I am an advocate for women’s health.”

When the receptionist came on I said, “I don’t want to put it off. Can I get on a cancellation list or first available?” She said, “Oh, that was actually a cancellation on the other line. Can you come on over now?” About an hour later, I found out I had a baseball-sized cyst on my left ovary, which was diagnosed as a rare form of ovarian cancer.

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S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 /// FLAMINGOMAG.COM

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WADING IN :ONE-ON-ONE WERE YOU FEELING SYMPTOMS AT THE TIME?

SM: At the time I would have told you no. I didn’t know the symptoms.

I learned I had three of the primary signs, and I completely overlooked them. Bloating—I mean, seriously?

Did I have too many Diet Cokes? Or do I have cancer? You don’t think of bloating, as a woman, as a very serious issue. But I also was having pretty severe stomach pain, and yet, it was a year out from having a baby.

My body was going through all kinds of crazy things. I lost about 6 pounds within a month. But again, I was thinking, I’m losing some baby weight.

So I did not put any of those together.

Until recently, most people thought of ovarian cancer as something that you wouldn’t get until later stages of life. [But] my form of ovarian cancer actually targets late teens through early 30s.

HOW DID YOUR DIAGNOSIS REFRAME YOUR LIFE VISION?

WHAT DOES YOUR PERSONAL FITNESS PLAN LOOK LIKE?

SM: With fitness, I have a 30-minute plan. It’s 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the afternoon, 10 minutes in the evening. Four to five times a week is kind of what most of us should target. [It’s important to] work physical activity into your everyday life and understand that, while a gym membership is great if it’s utilized, there are also other ways to get to be fit and active. I know that the best thing for my body is to change it

28

Above: Miller at age 14, competing in her first World Championships in 1991. Today, she still holds the title of the most decorated female American Olympic gymnast. She retired at age 19.

up. Because your body gets used to certain exercises, and then it’s not challenging.

And if you’re not challenging your muscles, not challenging yourself, then it’s not a productive or efficient use of your time.

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR GYMNASTICS CAREER. ARE YOU STILL ONE OF THE MOST-DECORATED U.S. OLYMPIC GYMNASTS IN THE COUNTRY? SM: I think that’s going to be challenged. I have seven Olympic medals right now. So yeah, it’s cool.

FLAMINGOMAG.COM /// S P R I N G 2 0 1 9

AND WHAT ABOUT YOUR TEAMMATES AND THE GIRLS FROM THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN? ARE THOSE WOMEN STILL IN YOUR LIFE?

SM: They are, and even my team from 1992 as well. I just had dinner with one of my teammates. And it’s really fun because when we see each other, you just kind of pick up where you left off. It’s just this bond that will never be broken, having that opportunity to compete together and to accomplish something so incredible.

In many ways [it] still feels like a dream,

DAVE BL ACK

SM: It is about living and having the best quality of life you can. So what health means to one person may not mean the same thing to their neighbor, and it may mean something different at different parts of your life.

What health meant to me at 19—at the height of my Olympic career—is very different from what it means now. Right now health means being here for my kids, being able to play with them, and all of the things that I want to do in my everyday life. I started to look at health as even more all-encompassing than just fitness and nutrition. It’s the rest and recuperation. It’s spending time for ourselves and focusing on our health and not feeling selfish about it.

F RO M

CO T TAG E S especially winning with my team in 1996. You just kind of look back, and you think, “Wow. Did that really happen?”

And it’s fun to have grown up with all of these amazing people that had these common goals and understood what you were doing and why you would work out seven hours a day.

WERE YOU EVER ON THE WHEATIES BOX?

SM: We were, yeah [laughs]. I think there’s a lot of memories that are pretty vivid, like I can close my eyes and I’m right back there in the moment.

BESIDES SKILL, WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WIN A GOLD MEDAL?

SM: I think that you have to enjoy what you’re doing. And when we talk about loving a sport or art or music, whatever your passion is, we talk about loving it. Not that you have to enjoy it every day, and it isn’t necessarily going to be easy every day. Anything worthwhile is not necessarily going to be easy to do, but if you enjoy the process, the journey, if you have a passion for it, that can take you so much farther than just being talented. My coach will tell you I was never the most talented girl in the gym. I wasn’t very strong. I wasn’t naturally flexible or powerful. But I would outwork anyone, and that’s what I knew I could do. And he talked about how I always did a little bit more. If he told me, “10 laps around the gym,” I’d do 12. “50 push-ups,” I’d do 55. In fact, he used to joke that he didn’t know if I was a really hard worker or if I just couldn’t count, but that was where my niche was. And I think that’s a really important lesson that you can overcome some of these other things if you really love it and you’re willing to do the work. And I think it’s hard to go and do the work if you don’t love it.

IS GYMNASTICS ONE OF THOSE SPORTS THAT YOU HAVE TO START DOING AS A TODDLER IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED?

SM: Gymnastics is a really great sport for young children, 6 and under, it’s fabulous. Not because they’re necessarily going to be a gymnast, but because it’s a full body workout. So at an age when kids can’t throw a ball, they can’t catch, they may not even be able to walk yet, they can get in the gym. They can start learning this body awareness. They’re engaging their brain

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Athlete Safety Matters will teach youth athletes, and the adults in their lives, how to prevent, recognize and respond appropriately to abuse (physical, sexual, emotional), neglect, bullying, cyberbullying and digital dangers.

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SM: Well, the number one thing that they need to be looking for is the safety for their kids. And I think that’s in any sport. Or as I said, music, art, anywhere you’re going to leave your child in the custody of someone else, you need to be aware and communicate personally with their coach, with the gym owner.

Communication is the key.

SPEAKING OF SAFETY, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE STATE OF USA GYMNASTICS?

SM: I tend to look for silver linings, as difficult as that can be sometimes.

And through this terrible ordeal for so many, I look to ways that we can better protect our children. In 2017 I began working with a nonprofit that’s located here in Jacksonville: the Monique Burr Foundation for Children. The MBF offers the only evidence-based comprehensive abuse-prevention education available in the United States. They have educated over 2.5 million children on sexual and other types of abuse as well as bullying, cyberbullying and digital danger. I spearhead the task force devoted to Athlete Safety Matters, a new program that launched last fall. These programs can help athletes, of all ages and levels, in understanding the red flags in a way that is age-appropriate, as well as action steps they can take to protect themselves.

DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE SPORT HAS BEEN TAINTED BY THE LARRY NASSAR SCANDAL?

SM: Obviously, there’s been a huge impact on the governing body of the sport. However, the sport of gymnastics remains a great sport with so many incredible benefits both physically and with regard to learning life lessons such as goal setting,

Above: Miller was diagnosed with ovarian

cancer in 2010.

teamwork, good sportsmanship and more. We would do a disservice to every survivor if we didn’t take action to prevent future abuse. The answer isn’t to keep our children away from the incredible benefits of youth sports, it’s to educate and empower all children through youth sports. We must continue to shine a light not just on the issue of abuse but also on the education that is so critical in preventing it.

RIGHT. ARE YOUR KIDS IN SPORTS?

SM: They are. My daughter takes gymnastics along with a few other things. And my son does a variety. He switched from gymnastics. He now does the ninja program at the gym.

They go to TNT Gymnastics.

NO PRESSURE, JUST SHANNON MILLER’S KIDS DOING GYMNASTICS.

SM: We don’t put a lot of pressure on them. And actually neither of them, I think, are in love with the sport. They might change their mind.

LILIANE HAKIM

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WADING IN :THE STUDIO FLORIDA ARTIST PROFILES B y C h ri st i n a C u sh

CHASING the LIGHT A Pulitzer heir elevates his underwater photography, globetrotting to satisfy his proclivity toward abstraction

C

hristopher Pulitzer Leidy, 37, was born into Palm Beach royalty, as grandson to the legendary designer Lilly Pulitzer and her newspaper tycoon husband Peter Pulitzer. When it comes to creating his own visual expressions of paradise, Leidy departs from his famous family’s signature preppy aesthetic. His eccentric nature and casual style—he has a tattoo that reads, “Never Stop Playing”—belie the serious intention behind his work creating abstract, underwater fine-art photography.

As part of his privileged upbringing, Leidy was raised on “the Island” until seventh grade, then moved to London with his mom and brother after his parents divorced. He attended a boarding school in the English countryside and eventually went to college at Full Sail’s film school in Orlando. After graduation in 2002 he

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moved to Los Angeles for the first time, “ready for a motion picture career,” not as an actor but as a cameraman and crew member.

He started at “the bottom rung” of the film industry, as a production assistant, learning as much as he could about the camera. Next, he made a career-building move to New York City in 2006 that lasted for five years. “I climbed the ladder there. The grind of being a cameraman was tiring, as was the lack of creative control.”

His next adventure: an investment in underwater equipment.

“I spent my savings, self-made from work in the film industry, on underwater film and lights. I got freelance work from Fox Sports

CHRIS LEIDY, RUSH ZIMMERMAN

Clockwise from top left: Spiral 2, Sharks and Vana Floor are all photos by underwater photographer Chris Leidy. Leidy uses techniques like double exposures and ambient lighting to capture Florida sea life. Below: Leidy, 37, is a part-time Palm Beach resident.

Fine Arts. Fine Food.

So, find time.

Above: Icicle Reflection, a photo by Chris Leidy

shooting a fishing show.” Though he enjoyed being on a boat, surrounded by water, Leidy hated relinquishing all rights to the film footage. He made a life-changing decision, inspired by the “beautiful stuff” there was to capture underwater.

“I went down on grandfather’s boat, The Sea Hunter, and from May to September, I shot my ass off. I came back, edited and had a big, sold-out gallery show in Palm Beach. I had a taste of living my dream. That was 11 years ago.”

Leidy was happy living in Palm Beach and owning a photography gallery that showcased his underwater-themed work until last October. He left Florida after the death of his grandfather, Peter Pulitzer, whom Leidy refers to as “Dear Old.” Pulitzer cultivated Leidy’s love of the outdoors and comfort in the depths of the ocean.

“We have an old boat,” Leidy explains, “a steel hull that we take down to [the] Bahamas every year. I was brought up free diving and fishing in the boat. I had knowledge of what beauty was under there.”

Contemplating his impactful grandparents, Leidy says, “Losing our top dogs was really sad. Granny is in my soul, and my grandfather is the one I credit with where I am in my career.”

He moved to Los Angeles again, hoping to ease his malaise, but he felt restless there and headed to Bali shortly after with plans to take photos below its crystal waters. Concentrating now on Bali’s natural splendor, Leidy’s work has evolved from Florida fare like manatees, hawksbills, green turtles, tarpon and snook.

“I’m going for more contained double exposures. I prefer shallow water, sand, ambient light,” he says.

Though he’s on a journeyman’s quest for clarity and subject matter, Palm Beach tugs at his heart. “It’s mostly family when I go home. My brother with his wife and kids. I’m a super fun uncle.” Since he’s still a Palm Beach homeowner, he sometimes contemplates returning to Florida. “I’d open up a gallery again. But there’s no rush.”

Purchase Leidy’s work at artsy.net or leidyimages.com.

These aren’t our only attractions. Enjoy one of our many outdoor festivals or discover a unique find in one of our boutiques or antique shops. Explore even more as you stroll down “America’s Main Street”.

So much to do and see, you’ll want to pack a bag and stay a while.

Conveniently located between Daytona Beach and Orlando.

Download a visitors guide at VisitWestVolusia.com

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EXPERIENCE AN IMMERSIVE

CULINARY

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With sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean, Fish to Fork weekend will offer an unmatched foodie experience, with true dock-to-dish specialties. Join us as we welcome renowned chefs from around the country to showcase their fishing and culinary skills, leading up to a final chef showdown.

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WADING IN :JUST HATCHED DEBUTS TO PER USE (NORTH) flavor. “Our goal is to become a predominantly sour brewery in the next two years,” Flores said.

Fishweir offers non-alcoholic options like kombucha and a made-in-house soda, multiple TVs for watch parties, plus a kidfriendly atmosphere. fishweirbrewing.com

JOSEPH’S COTTAGE PORT SAINT JOE

When Hurricane Michael hit north Florida, shops like Joseph’s Cottage, a coastal lifestyle store, were left in shambles. “We were extremely fortunate to have only two inches of saltwater muck inside the shop, compared to many of the businesses downtown, who had up to four feet of water in their buildings,” owner Melissa Farrell said. After repairing, rebuilding and mentally regrouping, Farrell reopened the shop on March 1 with fresh coats of paint, new awnings and more merchandise. “Reopening Joseph’s Cottage means a new beginning,” Farrell said. “So many in our community lost everything. I am so grateful to be able to reopen the doors and welcome everyone in.” josephscottage.com

utilizing modern information and ingredient sourcing to provide a feeling that is both familiar and pushes boundaries.” The upscale restaurant offers a thoughtful selection of Italian and domestic wines and top of the line dishes such as Australian wagyu tomahawk steak. illussotlh.com

BOXWOOD & BIRCH PONTE VEDRA BEACH

Bronze bookends, lamb wool throws from Ireland and oversized vases are just a few of the carefully curated items found at Boxwood & Birch, a new venture presented by Constance Riik, the owner of the design firm CSR Interiors. “When I started my design business, over 10 years ago, I always dreamed of having a showroom alongside my studio,” Riik said. “My goal was to create an environment that is beautiful and elegant yet warm and inviting, and of course functional for how we work. I wanted it to reflect what I can create for my clients.” The design boutique is Riik’s first retail location and offers home accessories and furniture. It is located within Merchant Plaza. csrinteriorsinc.com

IL LUSSO TALLAHASSEE

Above and right: Home accessories and furniture store Boxwood & Birch is interior designer Constance Riik’s first retail project.

FISHWEIR BREWING COMPANY

JESSIE PREZA

JACKSONVILLE

For Broc and Stacey Flores, what started as an at-home hobby spiraled into a fullfledged business. Fishweir Brewing Company opened in Jacksonville’s Murray Hill in November and quickly

established itself as the neighborhood’s first brewery.

“We really wanted to help the craft beer community grow and expand into new and different things,” Stacey Flores said. The family-owned business has 20 taps, with house beers including a coffee blonde and a sour beer, featuring a tart, citrus

FOR THE LATEST HAPPENINGS, PHOTOS & VIDEOS, FOLLOW @THEFLAMINGOMAG

Il Lusso, Italian for “the luxury,” is a traditional Italian restaurant with a midcentury modern design. The restaurant is the brainchild of Daniel Renninger, director of operations at Sage, a local French bistro. “Whether it be treating yourself to a quick lunch, a coffee to take a break or a luxurious dining experience, we aim to bring a little bit of luxury to everyone’s life,” Renninger said. “We feature handmade pastas and crafted sauces based in tradition but

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WADING IN :JUST HATCHED DEBUTS TO PER USE (C E N T RA L )

Pokéworks in Orlando features Hawaiian food in a fast-casual setting.

SPARKMAN WHARF TAMPA

What used to be the Channelside Bay Plaza now breathes new life as Sparkman Wharf, a waterfront retail center. The re-imagined plaza features live music, restaurants, a beer garden with more than 30 local brews and a lawn where movies are screened.

Sparkman Wharf opened in December and is billed as Tampa’s first look at Water Street, a 50-acre stretch of waterfront businesses, offices and experiences. The first phase brings some of Tampa’s best-known chefs to one place

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in an outdoor food hall made out of shipping containers.

Visitors can find everything from Vietnamese spring rolls to Mexican street corn. sparkmanwharf.com

POKÉWORKS ORLANDO

Peter Yang started Pokéworks in 2015 as a way to introduce Americans to Hawaiian food in an approachable way.

Now, the Forbes 30 under 30 honoree’s vision is available in Orlando. Pokéworks offers burrito, bowl and salad options with proteins like ahi tuna, salmon, chicken and tofu plus

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toppings including seaweed salad, pickled ginger and wasabi. The Orlando location, which opened within Oviedo’s Stonehill Plaza, is one of more than 20 locations throughout the United States and Canada.

Down the line, Yang hopes to have 100 Pokéworks locations open by 2020. pokeworks.com

THEATER WEST END SANFORD

In the early 1900s, Sanford residents visited the Princess Theater for movies and live entertainment before it eventually closed down. Now,

years later, Theater West End is picking up the pieces and giving the historic district a performing arts venue again.

The old building’s new interior features exposed brick walls, Edison lights, neon and clean lines. Since opening last August, Theater West End has programmed a season’s worth of musicals including Wicked and The Color Purple. Other shows include West Side Story, Ghost and burlesque shows.

The theater also offers youth programs where students can create and participate in their own stage productions. theaterwestend.com

POKÉWORKS

Above:

WADING IN :JUST HATCHED DEBUTS TO PER USE (C E N T RA L ) CHICKEN GUY! ORLANDO

Above:

Chicken Guy! is TV chef personality Guy Fieri’s latest restaurant venture.

RENEE CASCIA

When Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl and chef personality Guy Fieri joined forces for a new restaurant, they landed on a simple theme: chicken.

Chicken Guy! is Earl and Fieri’s first joint venture. The concept came together two years ago, according to Fieri, when Earl told him that “chicken was the future.” Chicken Guy! serves its tenders grilled or fried and offers 22 housemade sauces to accompany them including wasabi honey and bourbon brown sugar barbecue. “We said we want to be the best in the chicken business,” Fieri said when the restaurant opened. “[It’s a] pretty cool experience.”

FOR THE LATEST HAPPENINGS, PHOTOS & VIDEOS, FOLLOW @THEFLAMINGOMAG

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

Sitting above Gucci in Miami’s Design District, Kaido is a Pan-Asian food and cocktail lounge that features decadent pleasures like wagyu tataki, foie gras and king crab legs, paired with elegant beverages.

“You are encouraged to engage with your fellow diners and try something a little bit new but also familiar,” chef and owner Brad Kilgore said. “The cocktails have a great range in flavors, many varieties of Japanese whiskey and sake that pair well with a menu that speaks to everyone.” Critics say it’s the old classics that shine at Kaido, like Kilgore’s spin on crab rangoon and dumplings that are elevated by including quality ingredients like blue crab and Ibérico pork. kaidomiami.com

FORT LAUDERDALE

Featuring a panoramic beach front view, the luxury indooroutdoor restaurant on Fort Lauderdale beach opened in November. “We created Dune

Above: Kaido, a cocktail lounge in Miami, features innovative twists on familiar favorites like grapefruit hamachi.

Below: LaunchPad is a Palm Beach–based retail store with a revolving inventory, highlights independent designers.

to be a casual contemporary restaurant that guests will want to return to again and again,” said Craig Reid, chief executive officer of the Auberge Resorts Collection. “The menu is ingredient-driven, upscale but never fussy.” Signature items include a wood oven–roasted mahi-mahi with fennel, short rib with sweet potato puree and top sirloin with spicy roasted romaine and hollandaise. The dining room, which features public and private spaces, glows from an abundance of natural light and includes midcentury furnishings. dunefl.com

LAUNCHPAD PALM BEACH

LaunchPad, a boutique that rotates displays of fashion,

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accessories, home decor and furniture, welcomed its first clients in November. Since then, the store, situated on Worth Avenue, has featured 20 brands including luxury designers and small, independent makers like Circa Who, Lele Sadoughi and Source Adage. “Designed as a chic, in-home living room, the LaunchPad experience changes weekly,” said co-founder Katherine Lande. Lande and her business partner Nicole Munder have both lived and worked in Palm Beach for 15 years.

“One of our main goals is to help introduce brands to Palm Beach and see them become successful,” said Munder, who describes LaunchPad as a modern approach to traditional retail. shoplaunchpad.com

LINCOLN EATERY MIAMI BEACH

On the corner of Lincoln Lane and Meridian Avenue, the Lincoln Eatery opened in January, claiming the distinction of Miami Beach’s first food hall.

The 9,600-square-foot space on Lincoln Road currently hosts 13 food and drink concepts including a liquid nitrogen ice creamery, a New York kosher deli and a loaded bar. With seating inside and outside, the interior features swanky subway tiling and concrete floors. A central bar offers beer, wine and cocktails.

Lincoln Eatery opened after more than two years of planning.

The second phase of the food hall, which is scheduled for later this year, will include a rooftop bar. thelincolneatery.com

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL 32082 | PONTEVEDRA.COM | (844) 648-8833

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— Unf ilter ed Fodder —

Capital Dame

By Di ane R o b ert s • I l l u st ra t i o n b y S t ep h en L o m a zzo

THE END OF INNOCENCE

Diane Roberts doesn’t need to see the new Ted Bundy film or Netflix series —she already lived through the horror once.

We stared at his picture in the newspaper. This guy couldn’t be the one.

This guy was handsome, in an olderbrother way, with preppy hair and a smart blazer, the type our mothers would regard as Homecoming date material. In the photo, he was smiling, even though he was handcuffed. He looked relaxed. Not like

a killer. During the three weeks since Jan. 15, 1978, when two young women were beaten to death in their beds in the Chi Omega house, we—my sorority sisters, my friends, all the girls at Florida State and me—had imagined the killer as some dark, deformed monster, some evil shadow who never quite took human shape. But there he was, the psychology major

and honors graduate from the University of Washington, the one-time law school student who had been a Nelson Rockefeller delegate to the 1968 Republican National Convention—Ted Bundy. We’d been taught that men like him—educated, middle-class— would cherish and protect girls like us.

Many of us have tried to forget Bundy.

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Capital Dame UNF ILTER ED FODDER

But there’s nothing like a polished and plausible serial killer for seizing the American imagination. Forty years later, Ted Bundy still haunts us. Netflix has a new documentary series on him, called Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, and Zac Efron plays him in the movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

We didn’t learn the whole story until much later, some of it years later. But this is what happened: The night of the 14th, Ted Bundy had been hanging out at Sherrod’s, a bar on Jefferson Street next to the Chi Omega house. One of the waitresses, herself a Chi Omega, noticed him checking out the girls. But that’s what guys do in bars, right? Especially college bars. He was there, then he wasn’t, vanishing into the loud darkness of Saturday night.

Around 2:45 a.m., Ted Bundy slipped into the Chi Omega house via a back entrance. That January was freezing, and the lock on the sliding glass door sometimes malfunctioned when it was cold. Bundy crept upstairs with an oak club and went on a silent rampage, bludgeoning to death Margaret Bowman and strangling her with pantyhose, battering and raping Lisa Levy.

He attacked two other girls and might have continued through the house, where three dozen girls and a housemother lay sleeping, but somebody at the end of the long hallway got up and spooked him. Bundy ran downstairs to the foyer. It was around 3 a.m. by then. Chi Omega Nita Neary was coming back from a date. She saw him, a man holding a big piece of wood. He ran

out the front door and disappeared.

Upstairs, Karen Chandler stumbled into the hall. Her skull was fractured. Chandler’s roommate Kathy Kleiner sat on the bed, her mouth full of blood. There was so much blood: on the sheets, on the floor, on the furniture, on the walls—even blood on the ceiling. The

I pulled out dress after dress: a sequined chiffon halter design (too disco), a Gunne Sax by Jessica with a huge skirt and a lace-up bodice (too hippie) and finally a silky highwaisted number with big romantic sleeves.

I stood in front of the mirror and held it up against me, slowly becoming aware there was a radio playing somewhere. The news was on. And suddenly I could hear every word, clear and sharp as an icepick: “Again, police confirm two co-eds are dead, found murdered in their sorority house on the campus of Florida State University … ” I stared into my own eyes in the mirror.

The radio didn’t say which house. There were 16 sororities at FSU. It could be my house; it could be my sisters dead. The silky dress slid to the floor in a puddle of ivory rayon at my feet.

In the days after the murders, we slept with the lights on. We cried a lot. We huddled in the rec room.

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police came; the ambulances came. They took Margaret and Lisa away. This wasn’t supposed to happen to girls like us.

An initiation

I liked fraternity socials and drinking Dixie beer with my Sigma Kappa sorority sisters at The Palace, a dive near the FSU stadium, but I liked to study even more. I was a nerd in chick’s clothing. I’d moved back home for the winter quarter of 1978, having decided my sorority house was too noisy and crowded for an English major with an almost-straight-A transcript (except for that stupid B in physics).

One bright, cold Sunday afternoon after church, I went shopping at Rheinauers, Tallahassee’s nicest store. I was looking to spend my Christmas money on a new dress to wear for the initiation ceremony for our pledges. My old one, the one I’d worn for my own initiation the year before, looked like an undercooked meringue, all puffy and girly. I wanted something more sophisticated for the ceremony in March, my first as an active—a full sister. It had to be white, of course. Some sororities wore black for initiation, but we wore white. And pearls.

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Darkness Falls

On Jan. 7, 1978, Ted Bundy had rented a room in a once-grand old house on College Avenue in Tallahassee, less than a 10-minute walk from Chi Omega. Nobody in town knew then that he had escaped from jail in Colorado, where he was due to go on trial for the 1975 murder of a young nurse. She was his 14th or 15th victim. Nobody knew that yet, either. Bundy stole a car, got to Denver, flew to Chicago, took a train to Ann Arbor, stole another car, drove to Atlanta and caught the bus to Tallahassee.

Bundy wasn’t his real name. Theodore Robert Cowell was born in 1946 at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Burlington, Vermont. His mother, Louise Cowell, told different stories about who his father was: a sailor on leave, or perhaps an

Capital Dame UNF ILTER ED FODDER

Air Force veteran. Some people thought his father might have been Samuel Cowell, his own violent, misogynist, mentally unstable grandfather.

After Bundy fled the Chi Omega house, he broke into an apartment a few blocks away.

He beat FSU dance major Cheryl Thomas with the same piece of oak he used to kill Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy. He drove around the state looking for more victims. On Feb. 9, he raped and murdered 12-year-old Kimberly Leach in Lake City.

Bundy returned to Tallahassee, but he was running out of cash and scared the police would soon find him. He stole a VW Beetle and drove west from Tallahassee. On Feb. 15, a Pensacola cop named David Lee caught him near the Alabama border. “I wish you had killed me,” Bundy said. “Would you kill me if I tried to run?”

Dream girls

When I got to the Sigma Kappa house that Sunday afternoon, and found it wasn’t us, it wasn’t my sisters who died, I felt guilty that I was so relieved. Every sorority woman I knew, from a fellow English major in Alpha Chi to a high school friend who’d pledged Zeta, said they felt the same.

In the days after the murders, we slept with the lights on. We cried a lot. We huddled in the rec room. Boyfriends and Big Brothers (fraternity guys “adopted” by the sorority) stayed over every night to guard the house.

The Interfraternity Council provided escorts to night classes. Alums came to supervise the installation of combination locks and bolts on the windows. The university sent chaplains, counselors and cops to help us pray, talk us through our reactions and caution us to never, ever go anywhere alone.

I didn’t know Lisa Levy or Margaret Bowman, though I’d spent time in the Chi Omega house. I rushed them until Pref Parties—one of the final phases of the rush

process—until they cut me, which wasn’t a shock. The Chi Os weren’t all dream-girl Farrah Fawcett blondes (like the Tri-Delts), but they were, to my eyes, glamorous and self-confident. With my inexpertly blow-dried hair and social awkwardness, I wasn’t many sororities’ first choice, except when it came to keeping up the house grade-point average.

Some girls packed up their cars and went home after the tragedy. Some stopped going to class.

I escaped into novels—Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch—long novels in which young women conquer their fear.

Bundy fries

In late 1988, Bundy had exhausted all his legal appeals. He had been convicted in 1979 of the murders of Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, as well as the murder of Kimberly Leach in 1980. Knowing he was soon to die in Florida’s electric chair, Bundy began talking about his long and bloody career, confessing to dozens of murders. He explained how he would pretend to be a policeman or a fireman or he’d hobble around on crutches, ask young women for help carrying something to his car, hit them over the head with a crowbar and drive them off to the woods. Sometimes, he would return to where he left them and rape their dead bodies; sometimes, he would dress them up in clothes he chose, make up their faces, paint their fingernails and do their hair. As though they were dolls.

I was in graduate school in England then, trying to finish up my doctorate. But friends of mine at the Florida Flambeau newspaper kept me updated. Bundy’s execution date had been set for Jan. 24, 1989. The bar that used to be Sherrod’s, next to the Chi O house, was now called the Phyrst, and the owner said he was going to serve “Bundy fries.” The morning of Bundy’s execution, a crowd of 500 showed up outside the state prison in Raiford. Some sold “Burn, Bundy, Burn!” T-shirts out of the trunks of their cars. People sang and chanted.

When the white hearse carrying his body drove off, they cheered.

Ted Bundy remains part of Tallahassee’s dark folklore. Tallahasseeans often called that crime the end of our innocence, when we started locking our doors. But for those of us who were in our late teens and early 20s at the time of the Chi Omega murders, 1978 was our expulsion from the paradise of childhood.

I came back to teach at FSU in 2006 after years in England and Alabama. The Phyrst is gone. The house Ted Bundy lived in on College Avenue is now a fraternity house parking lot. The Chi Omega house is still there, though it looks very different now, with a portico and white columns. After the murders, the interior was torn out and reconfigured, erasing all trace of the rooms where Bundy killed Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy.

I’m still in touch with a few of my sorority sisters, but we never talk about the murders. I’ll bet they, like me, sometimes think of Lisa and Margaret and all the other girls Bundy murdered. Girls like us.

I haven’t asked them if they’ll watch the documentary series or see the latest Bundy movie, which has been called one of 2019’s “most anticipated” films.

I won’t. I walk past the Chi Omega house at least once a week. I don’t need to wake those ghosts. I’ve known for a long time that the young and pretty and smart are just as mortal as the rest of us.

Diane Roberts is an eighthgeneration Floridian, educated at Florida State University and at Oxford University. 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.

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The story behind Miami’s most famous mansion, now a boutique hotel for those who want to spend a night among its opulence

The House that Versace Built

By ERIC BARTON Photography by MARY BETH KOETH Hair and makeup by JESUS BRAVO Styling by CRESTA BLEDSOE

Previous page:

Model Caroline Krystoff stands in the courtyard of The Villa Casa Casuarina wearing a dress by Très Nomad and 18K dueling Malachite Shield cuffs by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry.

Above: Model Caroline

Krystoff in a stairwell inside The Villa Casa Casuarina wearing a maxi wrap skirt and tie tank by Très Nomad and jewelry by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry Below: Once designer

Gianni Versace’s home, the converted boutique hotel is situated on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach.

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A Grand Home and a Gunshot Perhaps it’s the coquina steps out front that you picture first when thinking about Versace’s home. It’s there, where he was slain in 1997, that has become the most famed section of what might be among the world’s most photographed residences.

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That’s not just because of the macabre fascination of the murder; the manhunt for Versace’s killer Andrew Cunanan, who slayed five people in a spree that ended with Versace; or the pop culture references to it that just seem to continue, including last year’s appearance in FX’s American Crime Story, which recently won a Golden Globe for best television limited series.

It’s likely the home’s most photographed spot because few are allowed to continue past the threshold of the high gated entry.

On the day of my visit, a woman in a dress with a slit tracing the line up one leg stood sentry, a hand on her hip, as if ready to be placed in a centerfold. It is her job, quite simply, to tell people no.

The tourists passing by on always-crowded Ocean Drive ask her “all day, every day,” to point out the final resting spot of

KEN HAYDEN

T

he staircase takes a sharp left. Moroccan inlays along the bottom of the wall lead the way. A low slung ceiling requires a near acrobatic contortion to fit. A hand-painted tile promises what’s to follow: “Observatory.”

At the top of the stairs awaits a fairytale, a daydream of an artist. In a tight space no bigger than a walk-in closet, a porthole window not far off the floor lets in morning sun reflected off the ocean. A curved bench seat holds cushions in neon blue velour and throw pillows the color of moonlight.

From the bench, the walls of the domed room are finished first in brick. Above that begins an arched ceiling, azure blue, dotted with twinkling gold stars between vertical stripes bringing your gaze upward.

It’s here that Gianni Versace would spend his evenings. The founder of the Italian fashion house that bore his name would direct a telescope through the opening of his observatory and take in the moon and the stars. It’s not hard to picture him, maybe adorned in a housecoat and slippers of his own design, escaping into his imagination in the sky above his Miami Beach mansion, on Ocean Drive. The Villa Casa Casuarina, it’s now officially called. And for a steep price, you can be among the few to take in the heavens just like Versace.

Clockwise from left:

The tuna tartare from Gianni’s restaurant inside the Villa Casa Casuarina; the grand courtyard of the Villa Casa Casuarina with its crowning feature: Versace’s observatory; Gianni Versace vintage Medusa belt and leather Medusa bag mini supplied by What Goes Around Comes Around Miami, cuff by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry; the Azure suite in the villa is designed to evoke Gianni Versace’s method of melding influences from multiple styles.

Krystoff by the mosaic pool wearing a onepiece suit by Montce Swim, poncho by Très Nomad, vintage Gianni Versace belt supplied by What Goes Around Comes Around Miami, earrings and cuff by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry; Krystoff in dress by Très Nomad and jewelry

by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry

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paid $2.95 million, more than twice what the owner had spent on it just three years prior.

Having apprenticed as a boy in his mother’s Italian dressmaking business, Versace opened his first store in Milan in 1978. Unlike many designers in the industry, Versace took control of every facet of the company, from the lines to store layouts. He defined himself through vibrant colors, animal prints and tropical patterns, challenging previously understated Italian style. Vogue editor Anna Wintour once famously explained, “Armani dresses the wife, Versace dresses the mistress.” In an era of neon t-shirts under pastel jackets, Versace embraced Miami Beach style, recalls Melissa Sardinia. She had a franchise agreement to run the Versace stores in South

After Freeman died in the home in 1937, it would eventually become, like most of the squat structures that surrounded it, a low-rent building of 24 apartments, named, almost ironically, the Amsterdam Palace. It sat there for decades, like a tarnished silver tea set in a secondhand store. Around it cropped up a South Beach stew of all-night coke-powered discotheques, sleepy buildings for pensioners, and touristy shops hawking crass-slogan T-shirts.

The way Versace told it, he found the home by chance. He had arrived in Miami on the way to Cuba in 1992. He asked a cab driver to show him something “fancy and fun.” They drove past the Art Deco buildings along Ocean Drive, and then, when he saw the home, Versace demanded they stop. He decided right there he’d buy the place, even though it wasn’t for sale. He

Florida back then and often hosted him when he came to town.

She recalls being caught off guard when he declared his intention to buy his home. “I remember the day when Gianni said, ‘I’m buying that house on Ocean Drive,’ and I’m like, ‘What house?’”

The Versace store Sardinia operated in South Beach was a pioneer, adding high fashion to a neighborhood otherwise in hard times. Sardinia recalls showing up in the mornings to find the entrance littered with needles and homeless Marielitos, the hard-up refugees arriving from Cuba during the Mariel boatlift, sleeping in the doorway.

In addition to the mansion, Versace bought the building next door and leveled it. It allowed him to build a new wing onto the home and the grand “mosaic garden,” with more than a million tiles and stones and Versace’s Medusa logo in the center.

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KEN HAYDEN

Above from left:

Gianni Versace. They ask if they can have their photograph taken where he fell. Or maybe they could come in for a look around. But the steps and what awaits inside the home are only for those dining at the restaurant or staying the night.

Before we walk inside, though, first understand the background of the grand home Versace once occupied. The house was built in 1930 by Alden Freeman, who retired at just 27 thanks to a vast inheritance of Standard Oil money from his father. They say the design took inspiration from the Alcázar De Colón, the Dominican Republic home of the son of Christopher Columbus. It’s hard to see the resemblance now between the Alcázar’s simple rectangle of unfinished bricks and arches and Casa Casuarina’s Mediterranean Revival–style façade.

Twenty-four-karat gold mosaics line the pool.

He didn’t restore the home as much as he remade it, in a rethinking of the place to match the designer’s extravagant style.

In all, Versace spent $33 million on the work, ending up with a 23,000-square-foot home with 10 bedrooms and 11 baths.

He owned it just five years before Cunanan, who had rented a room nearby for $36 a night, gunned 50-year-old Versace down on the front steps at 9 a.m. on July 15, 1997.

At that moment, Italian expat Paolo Buonfante was in his Miami Beach office, on the phone with Versace’s sister and business partner Donatella. Buonfante is a modeling agent and was working out the details of an upcoming show, Piazza di Spagna in Rome. One of his models, Elsa Benítez, was scheduled

1990s, Rick Bragg wrote that “crime in Miami, the city where a man once was arrested walking down the street carrying a human head, seems more spectacular, more threatening.” Still, today, Miami Beach crime rates are some of the highest in the state and the nation overall.

After Versace’s death, the attention brought to Miami Beach’s crime problems crippled the fashion industry, Buonfante says. Fashion shoots began moving elsewhere, and with them, the models, photographers and agents. Many of the tropical photo shoots that might have taken place in Miami moved to Capetown. While the industry has seen growth in recent years in South Beach, Buonfante says he imagines the long hit it took after the murder is something that would have troubled

to walk the runway wearing Versace. Buonfante had the radio on in the background and heard vaguely that Versace had been shot. He told Donatella that there had been an accident at the mansion. Not sure if he should deliver the news, he told her to hang up and call the authorities. “She asked me if I was serious, and I repeated that I heard that there was an accident. I didn’t know what to say.”

The murder didn’t just take out a fashion legend, but it also set back South Beach’s status in the industry. Speaking from his office at DAS Model Management on Miami Beach, Buonfante recalls how the international media’s coverage of the shooting painted Miami as a crime-ridden cesspool overrun by drug wars and vagrants. It’s undoubtedly true that the beach, and Miami overall, have always struggled with crime. Reporting there in the

Versace. “He loved the vibe in Miami, like a lot of Italians, just like I did 30 years ago.”

Donatella took over the company after her brother’s death, but her reign would be marked by ups and downs; by 2004, sales had fallen in four of the past seven years, despite price cuts and a renewed effort on products that could sell. That year, Donatella’s daughter Allegra turned 18 and, under the terms of her uncle’s will, inherited half of the company. The company returned to profit in 2011 and three years later sold a 20 percent stake to private equity firm Blackstone to fund an expansion. This September, the Versace family sold the company to design conglomerate Michael Kors, which was renamed Capri Holdings, for $2.12 billion.

The recent sale signals a new era of expansion for the iconic

This page from left: Gianni’s

dining room set among lush poolside gardens; Krystoff wearing a one-piece suit

by Montce Swim, Gianni Versace vintage belt supplied by What Goes Around Comes Around Miami, earrings and cuff by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry

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“Oh, it’s a money-making operation now,” Copeland says with unbridled pride.

“Once word had gotten out, profits increased 247 percent over the last two years.”

A native New Yorker, Copeland first moved to Miami— coincidentally—just months before Versace. Copeland had a friend who lived on the third floor of the apartments that occupied the home back then, and he can vaguely remember the simpler appearance of the place.

Copeland works for Victor Hotels, a South Beach-based company specializing in boutique properties. It’s a family company, which began its life when brothers Joe, Ralph and Avi Nakash started the Jordache jeans empire in New York in 1969. They’ve since branched out into shipping, an airline, and especially real estate. At auction in 2013, they scooped up Casa Casuarina for $41.5 million, outbidding suitors including Donald Trump. On South Beach, the Nakash family also owns the Hotel Victor, the Breakwater, Ocean Hotel and the Casa Victoria Orchid on Espanola Way. In 2014, they laid down $90 million for the 40-story Setai hotel, which they’ve turned into a jewel of the island, earning awards and accolades that include a spot on Travel + Leisure’s “World’s Best” list in 2018.

Here, though, the Versace mansion holds just 10 suites,

The thing about the design is that the more you look, the more you see.

—Chauncey Copeland brand, which Gianni made more sought after by Americans when he moved to Miami in the ’90s.

After the murder, the home sat empty for three years until the Versace family sold it to telecom millionaire Peter Loftin for $19 million in 2000; he used it as a space for special events and, later, a restaurant. He brought in interior designer Katia Bates to restore the property to how Versace first imagined it. But in 2013 Loftin filed for bankruptcy. The famed property landed on the auction block. It was then, though, that the grand mansion finally got a new life.

starting at $474 during the offseason and running into the thousand-dollar-range per night November through April.

There’s also a restaurant, Gianni’s, with tables dispersed along the front steps, the courtyard, a formal dining room and a patio overlooking the grotto. It boasts a continental menu, rooftop lounge and the promise of access to a portion of the property. The first-floor common areas also host yearly parties

Above: Krystoff wearing

a maxi wrap skirt and tie tank by Très Nomad and jewelry by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry Insets: The Villa Casa Casuarina restaurant, Gianni’s, boasts a continental menu, cocktails and poolside dining.

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Chauncey Copeland waits inside the central courtyard of Casa Casuarina with his hands clasped in front of him, wearing a gray Lacoste cotton button-up, blue slacks and the sensible black shoes of a man on his feet all day. Despite being the general manager of the Versace mansion, he owns just one item of Versace clothing: a tie, which he just happened to wear to a party the night before.

Copeland has spent four decades in the hotel industry, and when he took over the property four years ago, it was his job to finally make a successful business out of the place.

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KEN HAYDEN

Inside the mind of Versace

Sushi In f suite An exclusive speakeasy-style dining experience awaits.

B

oca Ratonraised chef David Bouhadana and his partners came up with a concept like no other when they began plopping tiny sushi restaurants in New York City hotel rooms. SUSHI

BY BOU now has four locations in the city.

Early this year, Sushi

by Bou launched at Villa Casa Casuarina, the Miami Beach mansion once owned by the late Gianni Versace. For $125, diners get a key card to access Gianni’s 500-squarefoot suite, which is converted into a speakeasy-style four-seat sushi bar. The hour-long omakase-style experience includes sea urchin and scallop topped with charcoal salt, cocktails and $30 sake in a self-service vending machine.

sushibybou.com

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KEN HAYDEN

during Art Basel, including last year’s Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Finale, hosted by actress Tessa Thompson, star of Thor: Ragnarok.

To gain access to the swimming pool, the upstairs, the observatory and elsewhere, you must rent a room. Copeland explains that the guests are a mix of those for whom this is an extravagance and those who simply expect this level of opulence. “We get a lot of celebrities staying here. There’s that,” he explains. “It’s also people crossing off their bucket list.”

There’s also those fascinated by the ghoulish. They take selfies at the spot of the murder and want to sleep where Versace’s ghost may roam. But Copeland says those are rare.

“Just this week I had someone ask me about it,” he says of the murder. “First time in a long time.”

Armando Carcani, the hotel’s food and beverage manager, say he gets asked about the killing far more often.

“On a daily basis,” he says. Carcani is a native of Bologna and former manager of nearby Caffe Milano. The hotel hired him two years ago with the aim of raising the dining experience at Gianni’s “to the next level.” He’s sitting at a linen-covered table in the courtyard before lunch begins, his legs artfully crossed, smelling vaguely of cigarettes and cologne and wearing a robin’s egg shirt and a navy suit with exposed stitching and a pink handkerchief in the breast pocket. He considers the few Versace items he owns among his prized possessions. Yes, he says, his guests ask him about the murder. “But then every three days or so a man goes down on his knee and proposes right there at the pool.”

Looking up from the courtyard, Copeland points out some details. They are many, and, for first-timers like me, they are overwhelming. He explains that Versace didn’t want a home that simply matched one style. Just like his clothing line, which often blended designs rarely seen together, his home combines centuries and cultures. The banisters running along the open walkways above are Victorian, while arched cutouts in the plaster are Moorish. The exterior and terra cotta roof are decidedly Mediterranean Revival. The tiles and the little flourishes here and there are a mix of Italian, Moroccan, Spanish and probably a dozen other styles. The company maintains an artist on-site to preserve it all.

If the courtyard is heavy on design elements, the bedrooms are far more ornate. In the Venus Suite, a bed the size of your average kitchen sits below a ceiling painted like a floral trellis, with a bronze headboard adorned with an intricate leaf-painted stencil pattern. A giant marble diamond leads the way to the bathroom’s vestibule, with a circular crimson chaise offering a sitting area below a gold-and-black Greek-style statue, floral designs painted on the wall and a gold chandelier above. It’s conceivable to find the antique furniture, Victorian-style paintings and ornate frescoes on nearly every wall both gaudy and lovely at the same time. Still, the place is undoubtedly captivating, a journey into the mind of a designer who cared not

for tradition and instead embraced abundance.

“The thing about the design,” Copeland points out, “is that the more you look, the more you see.”

The tour concludes in the circular observatory that lords over the mansion from the far end of the central courtyard. Sardinia, who used to franchise the local stores for Versace, recalls nights spent up there with him. There’s a common belief that Versace used the mansion to host parties and house guests—famously including the likes of Madonna, Princess Diana and Elton John. But mostly he saw this house as his tranquil respite, Sardinia says, and he escaped to the observatory most nights.

Now, Copeland says guests often use it for something special, and a few have proposed or been married in the center of the room, where a speaking voice echoes pleasantly.

It’s calming to linger for a moment, the stars on the domed ceiling twinkling. The porthole window requires one to bend down to peer out. But it’s impossible to take in the view of the mansion’s courtyard below or the sand beyond it, as the morning sun gleaming off the ocean hides everything in its glare. Taking a step back, the room is dark again, with only the twinkling stars catching the light. Maybe, like me, you’ll imagine Versace there, staring up into the stars. Like the mansion itself, the room is an intimate voyage into the mind of Gianni Versace.

Above: Staying at The

Villa Casa Casuarina is the only way to gain access to certain rooms on the grounds, including Versace’s observatory.

Opposite: Krystoff on the villa’s balcony overlooking Ocean Drive wearing a dress

by Très Nomad and jewelry by Cresta Bledsoe Fine Jewelry

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This page: A grow room

inside the Northwest Florida cultivation space operated by Trulieve, the first and largest of 14 companies licensed by the state of Florida to grow and sell medical marijuana

f weed

People

Is Florida destined to become a pot-topia, a place with emptier jails and an influx of new tax dollars? We take a look inside the state’s medical marijuana industry.

By STEVE DOLLAR

•

Photography by GABRIEL HANWAY

D

“You want to be careful not to speed when you drive home from here” is a joke I heard more than once from the cheerful employees of Trulieve, the first and largest of 14 companies licensed by the state of Florida to grow and market medical marijuana. For full disclosure, I own shares in Trulieve, which has traded in Canada since last September.

Trulieve operates 514,450 square feet of cultivation space in Quincy, with more than 1,500 employees statewide and dispensaries in 24 cities from Miami to Pensacola. Amid rapid expansion, the company reported revenue of $28.3

TRUELIEVE

rive west from Tallahassee for a half-hour, and you’ll pass through a patch of classic, old-time Panhandle Florida. Quincy, population 7,600.

While its quaint downtown square offers a window into the past, the city also provides a glimpse into the state’s future.

In the mid-1940s, the surrounding Gadsden County was a leading producer of shade tobacco and remains legendary for its plethora of “Coca-Cola millionaires,” savvy early investors in the soft drink who kept the town afloat during the Depression. These days, though, the rusted tobacco shacks that dot open stretches of land are the weathered markers of another era. Around town, traditional Southern “meatand-three” buffets have given way to taquerias, signaling the growth and influence of the Hispanic population, although Gadsden remains the single Florida county where African-Americans constitute the majority of the population and one of the state’s few Democratic strongholds.

Those aren’t the only changes that have come. The downtown is known for a vintage “Drink Coca-Cola” mural on the wall of Padgett’s Jewelers, but there’s a new industry making its mark around these parts.

Not long after pulling into the parking lot of a revamped old furniture warehouse—the kind of site so nondescript it evaporates from view—I passed through a security checkpoint and donned a blue disposable lab coat. After wiping my shoes on a wet rubber mat, I stepped into one of multiple hangarlike spaces packed Counter clockwise wall-to-wall with budding bright green from top: Planters awaiting baby cannabis plants. The crops luxuriated plants at under an extensive lighting system, the Trulieve cultivation with their telltale feathered leaves and facility in urgent, sweet aroma wafting off of Quincy; TruClear concentrate purple-and-orange, trichome-specked syringes; a flowers.

Trulieve vape pen cartridge and a Transfixed at first sight, I had an 2-ounce jar of topical cream. immediate, reflexive reaction. I inhaled.

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need revised with blirred lights

send image to Beth! to blurr lights.

million for the third quarter of 2018. Its website lists an array of cannabis variants—with names like Super Silver Haze, Gorilla Grapes, Sunshine Kush, Mandarin Dream, Harlequin, 9lb Hammer and even Florida Man—sold in a variety of forms, including vape pen cartridges, tincture droplet bottles and vaporizer cups.

Such an operation was made possible in November 2016 when 71.3 percent of Florida’s voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution to legalize medical marijuana.

It was the greatest margin of victory in any marijuana reform initiative in the United States. Almost two million more people supported the effort than voted for Donald Trump for president, which suggests, in this swingingest of swing states, there might actually be something most Floridians can agree on.

And consider this: Nikki Fried, Florida’s new commissioner of agriculture, launched her campaign with a video that framed her standing in a medical cannabis greenhouse.

This might have seemed a radical stance for a Florida politician even a few years ago. But in 2018, the 40-year-old former public defender and cannabis lobbyist was the sole Democrat to win statewide office and the first this decade to gain a seat in the Cabinet. Fried campaigned on the issue, which, despite the favor it has with the electorate, ran into roadblocks with the GOP-controlled state legislature and former Gov. Rick Scott, who opposed certain measures— including allowing patients to smoke medical marijuana and removing the cap on the number of organizations licensed to produce and dispense it—that activists supported.

Before anything else happens, she said, “We have to get medical marijuana right.” Fried found an apparent ally across the aisle in the new Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trump-anointed former U.S. congressman. During his first week in office, DeSantis chastised the legislature and demanded action to end a ban on smoking medical marijuana. He also expressed his opposition to the requirement that the companies involved be vertically integrated, handling everything from production to sale. When the legislature convenes in March, either it can heed “the

Clockwise from left:

Marijuana plants growing in the Trulieve production facility in Quincy; a woman working in the “veg room” at the Trulieve facility; a cannabis plant on day 29 of its life cycle

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people’s will,” as DeSantis called it, or he will drop the state’s appeal to a court decision that deemed the ban unconstitutional.

“We’ll see some changes in this legislative session as far as the program is concerned,” insists Fried, who plans to create a new position to oversee the statewide cannabis program and introduce a series of initiatives, including the introduction of edibles—a term for “gummies” and other cannabinoid-infused treats—and guidelines for hemp, whose commercial production was legalized in December by the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill. “My belief is we’re going to begin working on a glitch bill this year, … and regardless, you know, I’ve got a pretty big bully pulpit, and we’ll be parsing those issues every step along the way.”

The trend toward liberal marijuana laws across the country will put Fried, and the Sunshine State, in the national focus, especially in the lead-up to the 2020 elections, when there could be a new referendum to sanction recreational cannabis, or “responsible adult use,” as advocates like to call it.

“Florida politically is kind of a microcosm of the country writ large,” says Ben Pollara, a Miami-based Democratic political consultant and medical marijuana activist who ran the 2014 and 2016 campaigns and is senior adviser to the medical marijuana advocacy organization Empowering Wellness. “There’s no clearer example of that bellwether status than the issue of marijuana reform.”

The movement has been a long time coming, with seismic shifts in public opinion in the past few years. Marijuana use was first restricted in the United States in 1937, an outgrowth of the antipathy directed toward a wave of Mexican immigration—apparently a political issue that never goes away. The U.S. government still lists the plant on the same schedule of drugs as heroin, a stigma that inspired a certain outlaw credibility for the “weed with roots in hell,” as a hysterical 1930s cautionary film called it. Meanwhile, American icons from Louis Armstrong to Willie Nelson publicly championed its use.

California led the way, legalizing medical marijuana in 1996. Two decades later, marijuana is legal for medical use in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Recreational use is legal in 10 of those states and D.C. And

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there is good reason to expect movement on the national front. With the Democratic takeover of Congress in the 2018 election, Politico reported, “the backlog of small changes that marijuana advocates have been clamoring for since 2016—clarification of banking rules, permission for veterans to talk to their VA doctors about medicinal marijuana, protections against federal interference for state-legal programs (medical and recreational)—is due to appear in upcoming appropriations bills.”

Several events in 2012 and 2013, including the legalization of adult use in Washington and Colorado, and the Obama administration’s Cole memo—in which the Justice Department promised not to enforce federal marijuana laws in states that had in some way legalized use—proved influential to Florida voters, Pollara says. After a 2014 referendum fell only 2.4 percentage points shy of the required 60 percent for approval, city and county governments around the state began decriminalizing the weed on their own. “It’s been a sea change on the issue,” Pollara says. “The DeSantis folks seem to be sending a lot of signals that they’re going to take a much, much different approach on this than the Scott administration.”

The two-term former governor, now representing the state in the U.S. Senate, was an emphatic marijuana opponent who campaigned on a pledge to require drug testing for welfare recipients. “Rick Scott wouldn’t have known the difference between LSD, heroin and marijuana,” says John Morgan, the colorful Central Florida attorney whose name has become synonymous with weed reform after he spent $15 million to $20 million, by his own estimate, to bankroll two referendum campaigns. “He just thought it was a bowl of M&Ms. There’s a brown one, there’s a green one, there’s a blue one. They all taste the same.”

Spread: A growing plant

in the early stages of its life cycle at the Trulieve cultivation facility in Quincy

Rick Scott wouldn’t have known the difference between LSD, heroin and marijuana. — JOHN MORGAN

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Scott is 66. DeSantis is 40, around the same age as many of the state’s incoming political leaders. It’s an important distinction, this generational shift. “These are young people who are not entrenched in the mindset of the last 100 years,” Pollara says. “It’s a pretty deeply ingrained cultural standard. Up until the last 10 or 20 years, marijuana was a drug.

It wasn’t medicine. It wasn’t something much more similar to alcohol. This was the ‘just say no,’ drug wars messaging.”

The popularity of cannabidiol, or CBD, products also did a lot to soften public perception, especially among consumers at the far end of the age range. “I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve overheard two old ladies talking in a coffee shop, [saying] ‘This is CBD, it’s the kind of marijuana that doesn’t get you high,’” Pollara says. “Every boutique that sells high-end bath and body products has a CBD thing. That’s been a huge deal.”

Some of the movement’s most ardent supporters have urgent personal motivations for taking their roles. Gary Stein, a Pasco County activist, microbiologist and epidemiologist who formerly tracked HIV and sexually transmitted disease cases in Florida for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wanted to help his wife, who has glaucoma.

“She was told by her doctor that if she tried using cannabis she’d be kicked off the practice,” he says. “Her medicine was not working and she was losing her eyesight. I thought it was a good idea to try to make this legal.” Stein, who also runs the political action committee Clarity PAC, plans to run in the special election for the Florida House seat vacated by Danny Burgess, the 32-year-old Zephyrhills Republican tapped

by DeSantis to lead the state’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Morgan, whom Pollara recruited for the cause in 2013, has a brother who is quadriplegic. “He used [marijuana] illegally to control his spasms and his pain and his anxiety,” the lawyer says. “It was immediate and it was effective, and it took him off seven Xanax a day.

When they came to me, I said, ‘Of course I’m for it.’”

When the vote on the initial referendum fell agonizingly short, Morgan couldn’t let it go. “I’m a bad sport,” he says. “I don’t take

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criminal justice manager of the Florida branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, estimates there are some 12,000 marijuana-related felony arrests and 40,000 misdemeanor arrests each year in Florida. Of the 55,000 people in Florida’s county jails, about 2,800 could be affected by a change in the law.

“That’s a small, single-digit decrease, but it’s also thousands of humans locked up in cages for possession of a plant,” Maguire says, noting that people of color, men and people under 29 are incarcerated for marijuana-related crimes at a disproportionate rate. “For every single person we can get out, that’s a family with a dad, or a husband with a wife. That’s sometimes lost when you look at big numbers.”

Unlike some proponents, Morgan doesn’t expect any action during the legislative session. “I don’t think legislatures ever get anything done for the good of the people,” he argues. “I think they are totally owned by special interests that have different agendas, and they are bought and

Everybody knows that one day it will be legal everywhere.

—JOHN MORGAN losing well.” What pushed the needle, though, was the public response he saw. “Everywhere I would go, people would come up to me—really sick people, veterans, firemen and policemen—and thank me for trying, for what it could have meant to them, and that’s so impactful. All of a sudden you’ve got this burden. God, is this what I’m destined to do?

How do I let them down? How do I walk away now when I can come back and do it better and smarter?”

Advocates also look to another benefit of decriminalization, if not outright legalization, of marijuana for personal use: a reduction in arrests and incarcerations and possible legislation, or language in a referendum, that could retroactively apply to those jailed for possession. Raymer Maguire,

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paid for. They may agree to something on [smokable medical marijuana], because the governor has the sword of Damocles over their head.”

Whatever happens in Tallahassee this spring, or doesn’t, is unlikely to slow momentum when the time comes for Floridians to consider the full legalization of cannabis.

“The interesting thing now is you’ve got industry,” Morgan says. “Before, you had a trial lawyer with some money. Now you’ve got licenses and people who are making large amounts of money. This time around, it’s going to be big checks written from big operators. [When] I was out there, I had a trombone, and I was marching down the street for the parade, and I turned around and there was nobody with me.

“We’re not at the tipping point stage, but we’re at what I call the inevitability stage,” he continues. “Everybody knows that one day it will be legal everywhere. Everybody knows that. And it’s not a matter of if, it’s just a matter of when. And when the snowflake will hit the mountain, and when the avalanche will fall, who knows? But it’s coming, and it’s coming very fast. It’s like those dominoes you used to see. The dominoes would click-click-click-click, and all

Opposite and this page from left:

Batches of CBD oil being prepared for testing; plants drying out before heading to product development; 9lb Hammer clones awaiting their new home; Mason jars filled with ground marijuana flower; a worker in the analytical lab taking samples

of a sudden they’re doing figure eights very fast. And that’s where we are right now.”

Morgan’s forecast points to a Floridian pot-topia, a place with fewer people in jail and an influx of new tax dollars to bolster education and better protect and preserve the state’s coasts and natural wonders. A place where cannabis can be as much a remedy for social ills as for physical ones.

As I marveled at the horticultural wizardry at the Trulieve grow facility, I got a psychological contact high. Like a lot of us, I imagine, I was only avid about smoking weed when I was in college. In more recent years, I would occasionally enjoy a puff of “Highway 20 dirt weed” with my father, who had a daily ritual of getting high on the deck of his lake house, with a little Willie twanging in the background. Close proximity to such radiant flowers was a tad disorienting.

And, as helpful Trulieve staffers reminded me more than once, Floridians will have to wait before marijuana is more than medical. Johnny Law is out there, and he has a nose for this stuff. I realize the lab coat isn’t only to protect the plants from workers and guests. It helps to keep that sticky-sweet perfume at bay.

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This page: At age 26,

Sloane Stephens is the No. 4 ranked player in the world.

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GAME

By NILA DO SIMON /// Photography by BRECHT VANTHOF

Tennis champion Sloane Stephens doesn’t let her jam-packed schedule get in the way of her love for South Florida. The 26-year-old U.S. Open Champion sat down with us to talk about her childhood, her love life and what it’s like to beat Venus Williams.

Above: Sloane Stephens’

2017 U.S. Open victory was the first in 19 years by an American other than Serena or Venus Williams.

Opposite: Stephens splits her time between Los Angeles and her native Fort Lauderdale.

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13 years Stephens’ senior and one of her childhood idols, at Arthur Ashe Stadium wasn’t impressive enough, Stephens would soon realize another career goal less than 48 hours later: her coronation on the tennis throne as the 2017 U.S. Open champion.

The victory at Flushing Meadows, New York, shocked everyone, Stephens included. Earlier that year, she had undergone foot surgery to relieve a stress fracture and

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plummeted to a ranking of 957 in the world, only one month before the Grand Slam tournament, where she came in an unseeded player. Looking back, however, it was never a matter of if Stephens would become the next great American player; it was a matter of when.

With a thousand-watt smile and killer court instincts, the No. 4-ranked Stephens is every bit the modern-day champion that American tennis has longed for, a worthy winner to follow the likes of Serena and Venus Williams upon their retirement.

In fact, Stephens’ 2017 U.S. Open victory was the first in 19 years by an American who didn’t have the last name Williams.

Stephens was born in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Plantation. By all accounts, she hit the genetic jackpot as the daughter of John Stephens, a professional football player who was the second overall running back selected in the 1988 NFL draft, and Sybil Smith, a first team All-American swimmer at Boston University and the first black female swimmer with that designation. With highlevel athletes as parents, her destiny seemed to write itself.

“In the fourth grade, I remember people would ask why I had so many muscles,” she says, laughing, in a phone interview from Los Angeles.

Stephens’ mom noticed her natural athleticism even earlier.

Stephens began walking at 9 months old, an age when most infants are mastering the art of crawling. “She had a natural balance about her,” Smith remembers. “At 5 years old, in kindergarten, she moved better than the other kids and could run around more fluidly than most. But was she going to be an athlete? Who knew?”

The sports gods, that’s who.

Stephens’ parents divorced, and the mother-daughter pair moved to Smith’s hometown of Fresno when Stephens was 2 years old. Smith eventually remarried, and the family began frequenting the tennis courts, thanks to stepdad Sheldon Farrell’s affinity for the sport. And that’s when Stephens the tennis player was born.

MIAMI OPEN - SLOANE STEPHENS

S

loane Stephens went to bed late at her New York City hotel on Sept.

7, 2017, dreaming of becoming a Grand Slam champion. The then 24-year-old tennis star, known for turning defense into offense faster than the ball speeds across the net, had defeated Venus Williams on the sport’s biggest stage earlier that day in a seesaw three-set semifinal match in a clash of generations at the U.S. Open.

And if beating Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam winner

There’s no doubt she wants to win. She is so gritty and has this fire inside that just comes out.

—Sybil Smith

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“It was when she was around 9 that I discovered Sloane had great hand-eye coordination,” Smith says.

Stephens’ talent quickly caught the attention of their club’s pros, who began developing her skills. When she was 10, the family returned to South Florida to further Stephens’ tennis development at the renowned academies, including

In the fourth grade, I remember people would ask why I had so many muscles.

—Sloane Stephens

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the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton and Saviano High Performance Tennis Academy in Plantation. But if you ask Stephens, much of the decision to move to Florida had nothing to do with tennis.

“It was really for my mom,” Stephens jokes. “She really loved Florida and its simplicity of life. Even though we say that we returned to develop my tennis skills, I know secretly my mom was ready to come back.”

Stephens turned professional in 2009 at the age of 16.

Success appeared sporadically. Her first notable win came in the quarterfinals at the 2013 Australian Open, when she beat Serena Williams in three tough sets. From there, her career had as many forward spurts as it did stalls, including an 11-month

layoff starting in the summer of 2016 due to her stress fracture.

Today, on a sunny day in late December, Stephens faces a dilemma that doesn’t elude even the most accomplished athlete: finding parking.

She’s driving around her Los Angeles neighborhood, where neighbors are renovating their home. Contractors have been flooding the normally tranquil street, making parking here a premium on most weekdays. “I can’t wait until the construction is complete,” Stephens says.

During the offseason, Stephens splits her time between

residences in Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale, though she calls the latter home, her mom says. She travels to Florida as often as her 11-month-long global tennis season allows, making a point to visit her favorite haunts in the Sunshine State when she’s competing in March’s Miami Open, a tournament she won last year during its final run at Key Biscayne before its relocation to Hard Rock Stadium.

“I grew up playing in Key Biscayne,” she says. “I played there nine years in a row, which was awesome. To be able to win the Miami Open during its last year on Key Biscayne was really special, especially because I was able to have all my family and all my friends in the stands.”

Much has happened to Stephens in the past 18 months. On

Below from left:

Stephens has been fit since grade school according to her mom. But her rock-hard core and muscle strength don’t come without work—like this resistance band workout.

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This page: Stephens dates international soccer star Jozy Altadore, who she first met in the fifth grade in Boca Raton.

serve and return THE SLOANe STEPHENS FOUNDATION

Aside from tennis, Stephens has been a fixture on the philanthropic scene. Through her eponymous foundation, Stephens has given children the chance to play tennis while exposing them to educational opportunities. Headed by mom Sybil Smith, who earned her master’s degree in counseling and consulting psychology from Harvard University, and in partnership with the Compton Unified School District, the organization serves families in Compton, California.

“Education is something that is heavily important in our family,” says Stephens, who graduated from Indiana University East in 2017. “A lot of these families don’t know what college is or how to get into college, and hearing that you can play tennis in high school and then in college is life-altering to some. Tennis is a vehicle to get your college credits or to get your college paid for. When our foundation held a program on the campus of the University of Southern California, I remember the kids saying, ‘Wow, this is a college campus?’ They had never stepped foot on a college campus before, so to be able to introduce them to it was really rewarding.”

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Opposite: Stephens always

keeps things positive on and off the court.

the positive side, she was declared the WTA Comeback Player Australia, my mom didn’t sleep for two weeks. She was a wreck. of the Year in 2017; won the Miami Open in 2018; reached the So I don’t want her to go to Australia again. The more I write, finals of the 2018 French Open, coming within a few games the bigger my memory bank of these moments becomes.” of taking the title; and was the runner-up at the 2018 WTA For others, including her mom, it took some time to underFinals, the season-ending tournament that hosts only the year’s stand that Stephens’ relaxed attitude after a loss doesn’t reflect top players. indifference. While players But defeats persisted. like Serena Williams are Stephens didn’t win a sinknown for passionate temgle match in 2017 after her peraments and racket-slamSeptember U.S. Open vicming outbursts, Stephens tory. She crashed out unrarely displays that type of ceremoniously in the first emotion when things don’t round of the 2018 Wimblego her way. don Championship and was “When she was 19 or unable to defend her U.S. 20, I would tell Sloane, Open crown after losing in ‘You’ve got to want to win the quarterfinals the same every match,’” Smith says. year. But in speaking about “But she would say, ‘I’ll the setbacks, she conveys get up next time and get a sense of calm. Her ability that win.’ I learned that’s to publicly shrug off a loss is just her approach after perhaps the biggest weapon a loss. There’s no doubt she possesses. she wants to win. She is “I question whether she so gritty and has this fire has a burning desire to win inside that just comes out. more Grand Slams or be We could be playing tag No. 1,” legend Chris Evert or playing cards, and she’s said of Stephens’ perceived just staring you down, laissez-faire attitude in an ready to pounce.” interview in early 2018. “I And Smith isn’t the don’t see it as much as I do only one who understands with other players.” the pressure Stephens is But what some mistake as under. Her international dispassion, Stephens insists is soccer star boyfriend, simply her natural tendency Jozy Altidore, burst onto not to dwell on things. the professional sports For me, the men’s game is so boring.

“As you grow and get scene at 16 years old and I could never watch a five-set game. older, you learn a lot about currently holds the U.S. yourself, you learn about men’s national team record — Sloane Stephens other people, and you learn for the most consecutive to manage,” she says. “The appearances with a goal. more things that happen to you, the more you are able to cope, The two first met at the Boca Prep International School when operate and move past the disappointments.”

Stephens was in the fifth grade. The two were friendly, but Her biggest tip? they lost touch as they grew up and continued their respective “I write notes in my phone. I’ll write about how the last time athletic careers. Then, as Stephens puts it, “I randomly ran so-and-so happened I felt like this. That helps me remember into him in a hallway—I was being really loud while talking my emotions and how I can learn from this circumstance if it to a friend on FaceTime—and I’ve spoken to him every day were to happen again. For example, the last time we went to since. That was three years ago.”

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Stephens has become an advocate for equal pay in women’s tennis; Stephens celebrating her win at the Miami Open in 2018

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Despite Altidore’s commitments to his club in Toronto and the U.S. men’s national team, and Stephens’ nonstop international career, she says they see each other often.

“People think we barely see each other, but we see each other more than they think,” she says. “If something or someone is important to you, you make time for each other.” Altidore’s support and understanding have provided her with a muchneeded rock.

“There are times where I’m crying after a match, and he’s like, ‘It’s fine,’” she says. “He understands what I’m going through. When you’re training, sometimes you don’t want to be bothered, and he understands that. I think another athlete

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MIAMI OPEN - SLOANE STEPHENS

Above from left:

understands that we need our space sometimes. Like, I just ran sprints and my legs don’t work right now, so I just want to relax. Playing at a high level is hard to relate to, and to have that type of understanding is crucial. There have been times when he’ll ice his foot with me, even if he doesn’t need to ice it. It’s nice to have that little support, some love when you need it.”

Although she turns to her guy for “a soft place to land” in those times when she’s feeling vulnerable, Stephens takes a hard line when it comes to issues of equality in professional sports, especially the pay disparity between female and male athletes. She has become an outspoken promoter of women’s tennis, which has evolved from its early days as a sport with delicate ground strokes to a more powerful game with players showcasing a range of shots. In an era where talk about equal prize money for men and women in tennis still exists (a 2018 study stated that the top 100 men in tennis have out-earned women of the same ranking 71 percent of the time), Stephens says the women’s sport has come a long way toward achieving the same vaunted status that the men’s sport has.

“For me, the men’s game is so boring,” she says. “I could never watch a five-set game; it is so boring. I think some of the games I played, excitement-wise, have been pretty fun to watch, even the ones I didn’t win.”

This spring, Floridians will be watching Stephens compete and cheering her on for the win at the Miami Open and beyond. The girl from Plantation is no longer the underdog in any given match. She’s a formidable champion whose dreams apparently do come true.

A FEW OF HER FAVORITE THINGS

South Florida holds a special place in Sloane Stephens’ heart.

And so do these Fort Lauderdale eateries.

JERK MACHINE: “This place easily has the best Jamaican food in town.”

THE BEVERLY HILLS CAFE: “I love the buffalo chicken bleu cheese salad with ranch dressing.”

GREEK ISLANDS TAVERNA: “The lamb chops, hummus and green beans are the best things there. Wait— so are the lemon chicken and Greek salad!”

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the faces CONVERSATIONS with survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting

By EMILY BLOCH • Photography by EMILEE McGOVERN • Illustrations by JENNA ALEXANDER

This spread: David Hogg, a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, stands in front of youth activists at a Road to Change tour stop. Road to Change was a nationwide tour organized

by Stoneman Douglas students to register young people to vote and promote gun safety laws.

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of change and how they continue to shape the national DEBATE one year later.

VALENTINE’S DAY,

a day that is supposed to revolve around love and romance, now marks the one-year anniversary of one of the deadliest mass school shootings in modern history. On Feb. 14, 2018, 17 people died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a quiet city named one of the state’s safest only days before the tragedy. What followed has been nothing less than a tsunami of activism around common sense gun legislation, school security and mental health issues led by a group of teens who survived. Flamingo caught up with some of the changemakers to find out where they are now and what’s changed in the last 12 months.

Below: Emma González,

Jaclyn Corin, Cameron Kasky, Alex Wind and David Hogg earned spots on the cover of Time magazine for their activism.

Right: A warm embrace at a Road to Change event in Morristown, New Jersey

A MOVEMENT IS BORN

Survivors—including Delaney Tarr, David Hogg, Jaclyn Corin, Alex Wind, Cameron Kasky and Emma González—founded March for Our Lives, a movement dedicated to ensuring what happened at their school never happens again, giving rise to the hashtag #NeverAgain. The student activists spoke out, championing a need for stricter gun control and quickly becoming household names.

“I didn’t really have a choice but to get involved,” said Tarr, who was a senior at the time of the shooting. “When a tragedy happens to you, you never know how you’ll react. For me, my method of coping with grief and trauma was to speak out. I felt comfortable giving speeches, doing interviews. It distracted from something I couldn’t deal with and created a spark of change.”

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After starting March for Our Lives, Hogg, Corin, Wind, Kasky and González appeared on the cover of Time magazine. González quickly garnered more than a million followers on Twitter and caught the attention of celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Demi Lovato and Zendaya, to name a few. Comedian Jim Carrey even painted a portrait of the teen with her signature shaved head.

“Before, our voices were scoffed at and talked over,” González said last October at a Power of Women event. “Now I’m an 18-year-old girl who’s here today … [It’s] like we are holding the country upon our still-developing shoulders.”

Multiple books have been penned by the survivors and more are in the works, though many of the details remain secret, according to those involved with March for Our Lives.

“One of the main reasons I wrote the

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book was because I wanted to make sure my friends are remembered,” said Lauren Hogg, who along with her brother, David, wrote #NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws The Line. “All the money is being donated to gun violence organizations. It was therapeutic. The results, the feedback we’ve been getting has just been amazing.”

The students who founded March for Our Lives were honored by the Smithsonian with a 2018 Ingenuity Award and made Time’s Person of the Year shortlist.

“It’s crazy we could all gather together to do something we’re so passionate about,” said Adam Alhanti, a high school senior and the director of special projects for March for Our Lives. “It’s fantastic, even though it’s heartbreaking. It’s fantastic that I get to surround myself with these people.”

FAME AND FURY

But along with the thousands of Twitter followers, fan art and magazine covers came an onslaught of criticism.

Shortly after the shooting, a conspiracy theory emerged from the underbelly of the internet, calling the survivors “crisis actors.” By the end of 2018, the accusation was deemed “Lie of the Year” by the Poynter Institute’s fact-checking project, PolitiFact.

A fake video of Emma González made waves on the internet, showing the teen ripping up a copy of the Constitution, and politician Leslie Gibson dropped out of the race for Maine’s House of Representatives after calling González a “skinhead lesbian.”

“They’re either misunderstanding our movement or they’re just complaining and they’re not doing anything—which, ultimately, a couple of complaints aren’t going to hurt the cause,” Tarr said in an interview with Vox last year. “It’s an inevitability when you are doing something this big and this controversial for so many people.

Even though it shouldn’t be controversial.”

David Hogg was at the center of those conspiracy theories, with internet trolls and skeptics claiming that the 18-year-old was a paid actor from California and not an actual high school student. Accusers said that he was backed by radicals.

“I remember first finding out about the crisis actor thing,” said Lauren Hogg who’s now a sophomore at Stoneman Douglas. “I kind of laughed, but then I started getting more comments on Instagram and death threats about me and my brother.”

The students even got a shoutout in a Below: Adam Alhanti speaks at

a Road to Change event.

It's so crazy we could all gather together to do something we're so passionate about. it's fantastic, even though it's heartbreaking.

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We get Called superheroes. i don't think it's a fair term. this work isn't easy and it takes its toll. we are young people who desperately want to change our country.

— Delaney Tarr

Above: Delaney Tarr

speaks at a Road to Change stop.

Opposite: When students returned to school following the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting, campus had transformed into a memorial.

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now-infamous Louis CK set in which the comedian made fun of the survivors’ popularity.

“You’re not interesting because you went to a high school where kids got shot,” the comedian said during a new stand-up routine. “You didn’t get shot. You pushed some fat kid in the way and then, now I got to listen to you talking?”

Tarr quickly shot back.

“We’ve worked with plenty of comedians who have talked about us in a genuine, hilarious way,” she tweeted. “This is just being a dick.”

For Tarr and her March for Our Lives peers, there’s a constant struggle between adjusting to their newfound platform and coping with how they got it in the first place.

“We get called superheroes. I understand where that comes from, but I don't think it’s a fair term,” she said. “This work isn’t easy, and it takes its toll on teenagers who are still learning how to live a life irreparably changed. The more we are

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viewed as celebrities, as the saviors, the less people understand who we really are. We are young people who desperately want to change our country.”

Change Is Coming Jeff Foster didn’t know he had been preparing his students for this important work all school year long. He teaches Advanced Placement U.S. government and politics, covering issues like gun legislation, government policy and special interest groups.

Foster, an educator at Stoneman Douglas for about 20 years, resembled a boxing coach watching his students use talking points from his class during town hall events and public speeches. Today, he continues to work with his former and current students on March for Our Lives efforts.

“I still speak to and advise, when asked,

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I am very mindful that we are teaching at a very different school post-February 14.

I am hyper aware of anything that might trigger a student or colleague.

— Jeff Foster

most of my former students,” Foster said. “I will always be available to them.”

For Foster and the rest of the Stoneman Douglas faculty, almost everything has changed.

“I, along with the rest of the staff, am very mindful that we are teaching at a very different school post-February 14,” the teacher of eight classes and 233 high school seniors said. “I am hyper-aware of anything that might trigger a student or colleague and have changed some of my curriculum due to the event.”

When Foster plays a video clip for class, he mutes the segments where gunshots are audible.

In his spare time, he serves as a committee member of Ban Assault Weapons Now, an organization focused on adding an amendment banning assault weapons in Florida to

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Above: Emma González signs a T-shirt at a Road to Change event. Below: A Road to Change panel in Las Vegas

Above: During the Road to Change tour, Delaney Tarr and other survivors visited the Pulse Interim Memorial in Orlando, the site where 49 people died in a mass

MARCH FOR OUR LIVES

shooting on June 12, 2016.

the state’s 2020 ballot. He serves alongside victims’ parents and Congressman Ted Deutch, a Democrat whose district includes Parkland and Stoneman Douglas.

“I still believe we are very vulnerable and we have a lot of work to do to make our schools as safe as humanly possible,” Foster said. He’s already seen textbooks with pictures from the school shooting included.

Another likely future addition to textbooks?

The policy changes that followed the tragedy.

Last year, less than a week after the school shooting, busloads of Stoneman Douglas students took their concerns to Tallahassee. It was a scene reminiscent of students preparing for a field trip to a theme park on grad night, loading up onto charter buses with their duffel bags.

But for the survivors, this adventure carried

so much more weight than any trip to Disney World or Universal Studios ever could.

The students visited the Capitol, joined a gun control rally, held press conferences, observed Senate action and met with lawmakers including then-state Rep. Jared Moskowitz—a Democrat from Coral Springs and a graduate of Stoneman Douglas High School.

“We’ve seen this show before,” Moskowitz said in an interview with the Miami Herald following the shooting. “Now it’s in my hometown.”

Moskowitz, recently appointed the director of the Division of Emergency Management by Gov. Ron Desantis, played a key role in the passing of a landmark statewide bill that raised the minimum age for purchasing a rifle from 18 to 21 years old and established a three-day waiting period. The bill was signed into law by

former Gov. Rick Scott in March.

“I would have liked an assault weapons ban,” Moskowitz said in an interview with the Sun Sentinel editorial board. “Of course I would have.

But that bill was not on the table.”

Since then, additional changes have come down the pipeline as a direct reaction to Parkland.

Administrators were reassigned to new schools, the Broward County sheriff was replaced and President Donald Trump banned bump stocks.

“This is amazing,” Tarr tweeted at the time the ban was announced. “Thank you so much for supporting us. We have a lot to do, but progress is progress.”

Others felt it was about time. “We all feel amazing that it’s gotten passed but some of us are more relieved because this should’ve happened long ago,” Lauren Hogg said.

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Left: Students and

youth activists at a Road to Change event in Colorado

rocking

the vote How the Parkland survivors impacted the 2018 midterm elections THE SAME STUDENTS who organized a global march and concert less than a month after their school was the site of a mass shooting also helped spike a surge in youth voters, according to reports.

Student leaders, including the Hogg siblings, Delaney Tarr and Emma González, jumped on the “Road to Change”—a nationwide tour the students organized where they met with young people and helped them register to vote.

“We traveled to communities all across the country for two months, getting every person possible registered to vote, Tarr said. “After that exhausting and rewarding summer, we took on a variety of get out the vote projects.”

The 2018 young-adult turnout reportedly surged by 188 percent in early voting compared to 2014. Media outlets deemed the uptick “the Parkland Effect.”

“We’ve seen monumental changes, not only in policy but the mindset of young people,” Lauren said. “I think young people know now that they have the power to change things they don’t like. We kind of refreshed their memory.”

A report by the data analysis group TargetSmart said that after Feb. 14, 2018, the share of youth registrants across the country increased by 2.16 percent within five months.

“The youth of our country took democracy back in our hands,” Adam Alhanti said.

“Numbers of young voters have been through the roof. It’s crazy to see how many people are taking charge because of what they saw happen in Parkland, thousands of miles away.”

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We’ve seen monumental changes, not only in policy but the mindset of young people. I think young people know now that they have the power to change things they don’t like. We kind of refreshed their memory.

— Lauren Hogg

“We’re taking the small victories and keep going forward.”

In January, the student leaders continued to go forward, as they stood on Capitol Hill alongside Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

On Jan. 8, David Hogg, Corin, Charlie Mirsky—another student survivor—and others unveiled a universal background check bill with the House Democrats. The bill was one of the first introduced in the new Congress.

“Today we’re just celebrating background checks,” said Mirsky, who serves as a director for March for Our Lives. “Americans across the country should be expecting more in the next couple months.”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Broward County Public Schools deemed Feb.14, 2019 a “Day of Service and Love” at the school, a half-day for Stoneman Douglas students and staff, devoted to service projects, offering therapy dogs, massages, cooking demonstrations and manicures to students and staff. A county-wide moment of silence was also scheduled for that morning.

Students like Alhanti, however, are already thinking well past February.

“We’ve seen changes with the 2018 midterms, but we’re not slowing down,” Alhanti said. The high school senior has been juggling March for Our Lives responsibilities with college tours over the past six months. “We’re so geared up for 2020 elections, and we know we’re going to make a difference. If you thought we made a difference already, you’re not ready for what’s to come.”

Over the past year, many of the student survivors who started March for Our Lives have packed their bags for college. Corin and David Hogg will attend Harvard University this fall.

González attends New College in Sarasota, and Tarr recently started at the University of Georgia.

“Many of us are in school or going soon, while others have taken gap years. Since I moved away

recently, I don’t get to see everybody from the March as frequently, and it makes me a little bit homesick,” Tarr said. “But I know that when I come back I have my own little family waiting for me, ready to make some more change.”

Meanwhile, 15-year-old Lauren Hogg just wants to enjoy high school.

“I need to take it day by day. I’m the youngest one in March for Our Lives,” she said. “[I’m] enjoying my time with these people and realizing how amazing it is we’ve created something so beautiful.”

Back in Parkland on a sunny January afternoon, violets, marigolds and fuchsia tulips bloomed around a freshly minted sign with a new school logo for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The Project Grow Love memorial garden, planted with flowers in every color and decorated with painted stones with each of the 17 victims’ names, replaced a patch of land near the school’s entrance that a few months earlier was blanketed with cards, candles and memorial balloons.

Students and members of the community gathered together, just as they had 11 months prior. Now, in a place where so many lives were lost, hope and love blossomed.

MARCH FOR OUR LIVES

Above: Lauren Hogg speaks at a Road to Change event Below: Activists gather around David Hogg in Denver, Colorado

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TRUE TO YOUR NATURE Plan a getaway suited to your curious side.

www.VisitFlagler.com

— sunny dispatches from NW FLA —

Panhandling B y P ri ssy E l ro d

addingfpepper Sometimes the best way to add spice to your life is to head down the unexpected Costco aisle

ADOBE STOCK

I

looked outside my window to see the blistering sun beaming down from a cloudless blue sky. A perfect walking day for this Florida girl. In the words of Goldilocks after she tasted the three bears’ porridge, “Not too hot, not too cold.

It’s just right.” I reached inside the refrigerator for a bottle of water to take on my afternoon jaunt.

“Ugh, this thing needs to be cleaned out,” I mumbled to no one. I knew myself well enough to know that mess would bug me the entire walk. Note to self—don’t listen to your mumbling, Prissy.

Peering inside the refrigerator, I saw a slew of vegetables stuffed in the drawer. They clung to life, just barely hanging on. I pulled all of them out to sniff, squeeze and cogitate the fate of each.

Brussels sprouts are like a cat with nine lives.

They keep on keeping on. I sniffed the skankylooking things. They smelled OK, and besides, they’re ugly when fresh, so I gave them a good scrubbing and peeled off the ugliest of the ugly.

I cut the brown off the cauliflower, threw out the broccoli, and saved the carrots, beets

and rutabagas. I decided to practice what I preached to my peeps all those years. “There are millions of starving children in the world— eat your vegetables now.” They never did.

My picked-over batch looked salvageable, if I seasoned and roasted them. I spread the cut-up survivors on my parchment-covered pan and was ready to season.

Oh no! The tellicherry black pepper was gone, and the grinder was empty.

“Dale!” I hollered. “We’re out of pepper.

Let’s go to Costco.”

Yup. I’m a pepper snob. But I’m here to say

Costco has the best pepper, and it’s housed in a grinder.

I hollered a second time to my entrepreneur husband. He was doing his own grinding back in his home office. Fourteenhour days in front of three computers. I swear it looks like a CIA control center in there. For all I know he could be an agent.

The man needed to get his fanny out of that chair and go to Costco with me. A breath of retail air would be good for him. I looked up from arranging the Brussels sprouts and saw him standing with his head cocked and eyebrows raised. “I’ll go, but I don’t have time for your lollygagging. Just get the pepper and right back home, right?”

“Yes,” I said. I still wanted to walk later.

Twenty minutes later, we pulled into the crowded parking lot. We herded ourselves in with the other Costco cattle and showed our card to the herder at the door. The cattle inside swallowed us up.

“You get the pepper, I’ll grab the wine.

Back here in 10.” He was walking away and turned back. “Don’t get sidetracked.”

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Panhandling

sunny dispatches from NW FLA

loss.” Sold to the pepper girl, I thought.

“Okay, okay,” I answered, rolling my eyes. I doing this.” He pulled one of his pant legs to My husband the scientist wasn’t buying any of above his calf to show me. It was at eye level to should have gone without him, I thought. the claims without scientific proof. But he was my squatting self.

I headed towards the pepper aisle with a buying me an anniversary gift. Right smack-dab “L-l-look at you,” I stuttered. quickened pace. That’s when it happened. in the middle of Costco.

“Feel it,” he said.

I stopped right in my pepper track, Mr. Olympian drew up the paperwork. From I reached over and touched his herculean somewhere between the electronics and the the details, you’d have thought we were buying a muscle. And just as I squeezed his hairless ebony bamboo sheets. house. It would be delivered “white-glove” style calf in my hand, Dale walked up. He was holding There was a green-and-white banner in two to three weeks. two bottles of wine. hanging over a kiosk at the end of an aisle. It He handed us a stack of literature, offered a “What are you doing, Prissy?” read “ZAAZ wellness. evolved.” Underneath broad-toothed smile and insisted on escorting us “Look, honey, feel his muscle.” I looked up as the banner was this machine. It resembled a to the cashier line to pay our hefty mortgage bill.

Dale’s eyes locked with mine.

Bowflex or elliptical. It must be one of their I’m guessing he feared Dale would snatch me by “I’m not feeling his muscle.” cousins, I thought. the hair and drag me out of there if he didn’t.

My Olympian dropped his pant leg down after But that’s not what stopped me. No sir. It “So, what kind of medicine do you practice?”

Dale’s face indicated that’s where it belonged. was the chiseled body on top of the machine he asked as we stood in line to pay.

“Astronauts use it. Takes 12 minutes,” I said. that drew the pepper lady in.

“Medicine, me? I’m no doctor,” He looked like an Olympian, I said through a chuckle. standing, smiling and sweating “What’d you do today, mom?” My “Oh, I thought you were.” like a pig. daughter asked as I studied my “My friends say I try to be, Not climbing, pumping, pizza slice, picking pepperoni off always diagnosing them,” I replied. lifting or squatting. I repeat, he and stacking it on a napkin.

“Why, have doctors been buying was S.T.A.N.D.I.N.G. “Nothing much. I vibrated three times it?” I asked.

I moved in. and went to Publix.”

He shifted from one foot to the “What are you doing? other. “Doctors and chiropractors What’s that?” I asked. are putting them in their offices.”

I started babbling to Dale. He was pacing and I talk to everybody. Ask anybody.

“Really!” I was pumped. I felt like an ready to split. I wasn’t having it, though. I mean, “It’s a Zaaz. Stands for movement. astronaut and a physician in one sweep. seriously, the man was sweating from standing.

Astronauts use it in space—8,667 steps in “You could charge your friends, you know,” Come on. Wouldn’t you want to know how, why, 12 minutes at full throttle. Whole-body he suggested. what? I let him spill his pitch. He gave it to us vibration.” He was winded.

I pondered it. with the speed of a professional auctioneer.

The next thing I knew, my shoes were off Three weeks after our Costco trip, I’d come “It’s called a WBV for whole-body vibration. and I was on his machine in the middle of home from a three-mile walk in Florida’s Costco. It was vibrating my whole body as he Here’s the kicker—12 minutes of WBV equals humidity. My hair had grown from six inches pushed buttons on the panel. Boy, was I glad one hour of conventional weightlifting. Every of frizz. I heard the doorbell ring and went to I wore my sports bra for the work- stand-out. muscle fiber will automatically tense and relax at I was about as close to an astronaut as I’d answer. And there it was in all its glory. My the same rate the machine is vibrating. Usually, ever be. white-glove delivery.

20 to 30 times per second, over 90 percent of “Turn it higher,” I said.

“Where you want it?” the delivery woman your muscles will be working. Try it three times a “No, that’s enough, ma’am. You don’t want day, 45 minutes between each time.” asked. An hour later she was gone, and I was an to overdo it.” astronaut in my own house.

He took a breath, wiped his forehead, and When I climbed off the machine, everything kept going.

Now, you’re probably wondering how this in my body was tingling. story ends. Well, a picture is worth a thousand “It increases metabolic rate, builds lean muscle “Wow, my legs feel like rubber,” I said, words. But unlike Mr. Olympian, I’m not mass, raises serotonin levels in the brain, builds squatting down and trying to get my shoes showing you my muscles. energy, lowers stress hormone levels, improves back on.

However, I will tell you, the machine is my lymphatic flow, increases bone mineral density, “I’m telling you, my calves are rocks from best anniversary present ever. This from someone elevates human growth hormone and aids weight

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who has owned plenty of exercise equipment and been going to gyms for decades. You name it, I’ve done it: spinning, rowing, Zumba, yoga, and Pilates. But vibrating, well, it takes me to a whole different level, so to speak.

If only there was a better way to tell people what I’m doing to get these strong legs.

Without thinking, I keep defaulting to one word that gets me in trouble.

The first time it happened was at one of our family dinner gatherings. Fifteen or so relatives were congregating in the kitchen scarfing pizza and drinking wine. Everyone was talking and nobody listening. A typical American family.

“What’d you do today, mom?” my daughter asked as I studied my pizza slice, picking pepperoni off and stacking it on a napkin.

“Nothing much. I vibrated three times and went to Publix,” I said.

I slid the un-pepperoni slice inside my mouth and looked up to see my daughter’s mouth wide open and both her hands over her daughter’s ears. The whole room was silent, with every eyeball on me.

“No, not that!” I screamed to my dirtyminded family. In unison, they burst out into sidesplitting laughter.

But I got the last laugh. I mean, seriously, how many of them can say they roll with doctors, chiropractors and astronauts? Okay, maybe I stand with them. But whatever.

I never did get my pepper that day. Truth is, I forgot about it.After some lollygagging inside Costco, I learned a valuable truth: variety is the best spice in life.

And here all along I thought it was pepper.

Prissy Elrod is a professional speaker, artist and 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, was realeased in early 2019.

WHER E A S EA RC H FO R B U R I ED T R EA S U R E B ECO M ES A P R I C EL ESS M EM O RY.

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• HiltonSandestinBeach.com

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#HiltonSandestin

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[ — fin e arts, favor ites, f lings —

ON THE FLY — BIRD’S-EYE VIEW —

How Miamians do the Art Deco district

— FLORIDA WILD —

C arlton Wa rd Jr. r e m e m be r s a bygone e r a i n Capt i va

— GROVE STAND —

Ja cksonville che f Mat t he w Me dur e m ake s hi s m ar k

— THE ROOST —

B uild ers ta k e creat i ve c ont r ol of t he s e l uxur y abode s

— THE TIDE —

Wh ere to go and what t o do t hi s s pr i ng

— FLORIDIANA —

A sh ell of a r oads i de phot o-op

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cocktail from Matthew Medure’s Rue Saint-Marc in Jacksonville, made with Cask & Crew whiskey, Buffalo Trace bourbon, ginger juice, lime, bitters, ginger beer, fresh grated nutmeg and mint

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STERLING TUCKER

This page: The Uncle Buck

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

Destination Art Deco

Don’t hate South Beach because it’s beautiful. the famed miami beach neighborhood teEms with architectural icons, chic boutiques and authentic eateries Straight out of Italy, this hidden gem specializes in handmade pastas and a perfecto vino selection.

820 Alton Road

2. ESPAÑOLA WAY

This historic street bustles with shoppers and diners soaking up its bohemian atmosphere.

Between Washington Ave. and Drexel Ave.

3. COLONY THEATRE

8. LOEWS MIAMI BEACH HOTEL

This icon glitters, with its signature spire, an oceanfront pool, a luxe spa and Lure Fish Bar. 1601 Collins Ave.

9. THE BETSY HOTEL

This literary-loving hotel at the top of Ocean Drive hosts exclusive events including book and poetry readings.

1440 Ocean Drive

Originally opened in 1935 as a Paramount Pictures cinema, the classic Art Deco venue hosts live stage performances.

1040 Lincoln Road

10. LA SANDWICHERIE

4. TAQUIZA

11. THE WEBSTER

Steve Santana gives the people what they want: mouthwatering tacos with handmade tortillas.

1351 Collins Ave.

7.

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3.

Open until 5 a.m., this tiny shop has been serving French fare on fresh-baked baguettes since 1988.

229 14th St.

This chic boutique in the heart of South Beach holds three stories worth of designer duds.

1220 Collins Ave.

6. BOOKS & BOOKS

13. PUERTO SAGUA

7. THE BASS

14. NEWS CAFÉ

ILLUSTR ATION: LESLIE CHALFONT

Founded in 1982, this book shop still serves as the city’s leading independent book store and coffee shop.

927 Lincoln Road

The crown jewel of the art scene, this contemporary art museum features exhibits from international artists.

2100 Collins Ave.

This classic option for authentic Cuban food is known for its ropa vieja and guava pound cake.

700 Collins Ave.

9.

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13. useway r Ca thu r acA M

14.

Ocean Dri ve

Italian dining by the mosaictiled pool inside Gianni Versace’s former home.

1116 Ocean Drive

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2.

5. THE LINCOLN EATERY 12. GIANNI’S AT THE A new mecca for foodies VILLA CASA CASUARINA with more than 16 culinary experiences under one gorgeous roof.

723 Lincoln Lane N.

8.

5.

Collins Ave .

1. MACCHIALINA

No trip to South Beach is complete without a visit to this sidewalk cafe and bar, open 24/7.

800 Ocean Drive

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ON THE FLY: FLORIDA WILD P H OTOGR APHS & F IELD NOTES B y C ar lton War d Jr.

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Old Salt

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ith concrete seawalls and high-rise condos dominating the landscape of my youth, scattered mangrove islands near my home of Clearwater represented a rare wildness where a boy with a boat could still get lost. When my family first visited Charlotte Harbor to fish in Boca Grande Pass, I was immediately drawn to an unbroken ribbon of mangroves standing guard at the water’s edge.

Parts of Charlotte Harbor feel like a journey back in time. Coming through Captiva Pass toward Pine Island, a mirage will take shape on NOTES the watery horizon. As you draw nearer, a small cluster of stilt houses — HABITAT— will rise above the grass flats and CHARLOTTE HARBOR, oyster beds and begin to separate PINE ISLAND SOUND from the mangroves beyond. Once I found these historic structures, I — SEASON — returned to photograph them many LATE SPRING times. At sunrise, at sunset, during afternoon thunderstorms, the stilt — TIME OF DAY— houses take on a different character EARLY EVENING in different light, always evoking a sense of heritage and mystery. This photograph was captured looking — SUBJECT— PINE ISLAND east just after sunset over the Gulf. In FISH SHACK the right conditions, the final rays of sunlight scattering through the earth’s atmosphere will cast purples and pinks on the sky.

The stilt houses are markers of Charlotte Harbor’s commercial fishing legacy. Many were built before World War II at a time when a railroad from Punta Gorda connected nearby fisheries to northern markets. Some shacks housed fishermen for weeks, and others were ice houses owned by fish companies. The camps and ice houses became less relevant as boats became faster in the second half of the 20th century and catches could be taken quickly back to port. Some structures were burned down by natural resource officers. In 1991, ten of the buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and families who own them, on land leased from the state, rebuilt to historical specifications after Hurricane Charley destroyed most of them in 2004. This photograph was made the following year.

26°37’44.01” N

82°11’28.51” W

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ON THE FLY: MY FLORIDA SUNSHINE STATE STOR IES B y R o b R u sh i n

MEET ME AT THE JUNCTION The extinction of Florida’s most beloved brothel (and its burgers)

I

am a sucker for historic markers.

Behold, those weighty plaques at roadsides trivializing notable events from a hazy past. To wit, this gem from a crossroads south of Atlanta: “On November 28, 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman stopped here to water his horse, Sam, during his storied March to the Sea.” Or this one from Chattanooga, Tenn.: “On this site in 1916, Ernest Holmes mounted the world’s first wrecker mechanism on the body of a 1913 Cadillac to create the world’s first tow truck.”

I confess a weakness for this archival

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catnip, my nerdy curiosity being but one among many grievances my children specify with discontent. Mea culpa.

But there is one enticement that, until recently, eluded my obsession, though I have passed it at speed many times. (Blame this failure to investigate on pre-adolescent pleas that meeting the Mouse was infinitely more compelling than my curiosity, those little savages.) At Exit 193 on Florida’s Turnpike— and take a moment to savor the possessive apostrophe where any ordinary state would have appended the definite article “the” instead— stands a marker that would make even General Sherman and Mr. Holmes stand and salute.

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I have at long last alighted at Yeehaw Junction, a “census-designated place” in Osceola County that boasted 250 residents in 2010 but that is surely less densely peopled today. A flat expanse extends miles in every direction.

Insects probe my ears, nose and throat. Even in December, the sun exerts palpable weight.

Aside from a pair of modern truck stops, there is literally no there, there, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 441 and Florida State Road 60.

It is a bare crossroads where one might either bargain with the devil for favors or pass through at all possible speed. My kids would have been sorely disgruntled had I dragged them to read this epistle, posted nearby:

EBYABE, TOM HALL

Above: The Desert Inn Motel, located in Yeehaw Junction off State Road 60 Opposite below: In 1994, the old brothel was converted into a modest museum.

“The Desert Inn was founded as a trading post in the late 1880s. The present building dates before 1925 and served as a supply and recreational center for cattle drovers, lumber men and tourists during the era when much of Osceola County was still undeveloped wilderness. Cowmen working the free ranging cattle on the palmetto prairie and lumber men cutting timber in the nearby pine lands came to the Desert Inn to eat, drink and dance at this “oasis” where they could enjoy some relief from their arduous labors. Local patrons of the trading post and restaurant included African Americans and Seminoles, who had separate dining facilities in the era of segregation. The construction of roads in the 1930s brought tourists to the area, and a set of overnight cabins were erected behind the original building.

Today the Desert Inn continues to be a popular destination for tourists and local residents. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.”

The “present building” is abandoned now. The Desert Inn closed in June 2018, its crumbling skeleton suffering the entropic embrace of harsh elements and an unholy alliance of aggressive Florida weeds that resemble oversized hands crushing old-school beer cans. To stand and contemplate this lost gemstone of Real Florida, wedged into the smallest pie slice of land at this sandy crossroads, is to abide vindictive whorls of tractor-trailer-generated haboobs and diesel-

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ON THE FLY: MY FLORIDA

Above: The view heading south on US 441 to Yeehaw Junction

perfumed dustnados of sand, grit, tire bits, and snack food detritus.

Yet stand and ponder I must. Heck, the Desert Inn is on the National Register of Historic Places, one of several dozen brothels so recognized across this great nation. And let us note how the official plaque prissily elides this legacy, euphemizing what went on as recreation and dancing. Honey, please.

Yeehaw Junction, née Jackass Junction, was a beacon to thousands of working men through the years (and likely the bane of many working women). This one-time brothel and trading post, later a gas station, restaurant and honeypot for roving packs of thirsty motorcycle enthusiasts, has stories to tell.

The Desert Inn opened in the 1880s as a trading post, which later became a bar and brothel for cowboys, lumbermen, ranchers and farmers. As recreational centers go, it was a typically indelicate place. Cattlemen drove their herds to market through the crossroads and stopped for recreation. Eschewing the convenient bovine theme, this humble carrefour was dubbed Jackass Junction during the 1930s in honor of the burros that carried the clientele to their preferred, um, recreations. Around the same time, the state paved the roads in a spasm of modernization

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intended to encourage tourist transit. Alas, access to water and electrical service would not arrive until 1978.

In the late 1950s, the Florida State Turnpike Authority deemed the Jackass Junction name inappropriately coarse for the delicate tourists who would travel Florida’s (gleaming new) Turnpike. The Desert Inn’s website (desertinnrestaurant.com, still online as I write this) accuses the arbiters of moral probity at Standard Oil, eager to site a service station at the Junction, of demanding any moniker other than Jackass. Either way, I lament the change.

Here the tale reaches a fork in the road: One version of what led to the name change recounts strained negotiations between the authorities and locals aggrieved at the insult to their beloved census-designated place. The story goes that they insisted on “Yeehaw” because that is the sound a jackass makes. Another account suggests that the new name was derived from a Seminole word for “wolf.”

Whatever.

As I admit my bias, I question whether the rechristening was worth the trouble, public perception-wise. You say Yeehaw, I say Jackass.

Let’s call the whole thing off. I hold as selfevident that if the original name had stuck, I would have visited in time to enjoy the Desert

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Inn in all its post-brothel glory. My fantasy of taking over one of the 11 rooms out back—“Clean rooms with showers $45. No reservations, no refunds”— while gawking at a parade of tourists, swilling cheap beer and gorging on the Inn’s storied burgers and fried green tomatoes, has been blown to the four corners in a cloud of road grit. I would trade a month at South Beach for that right about now. Dammit three times.

Even closed, the Desert Inn remains an attraction. While I was there, three cars and a 12-passenger van—from Quebec, no damned less—pulled up and disgorged a cluster of disappointed attractees exclaiming “Oh, man” and “No way!” All of us were Googling (yeah, this is the place, alright), laughing, scratching our heads and golly-goshing in touristic minor key harmony as yet another piece of fading Florida comes a cropper.

Fun fact: The Junction played an unwitting role in defending our way of life from the scourge of global communism. A 1968 experiment conducted under the United States Department of Defense Project 112, labeled DTC Test 69-75, had a U.S. Air Force F-4 Phantom fighter jet spray Puccinia graminis var. tritici (aka stem rust) on wheat fields around Yeehaw seven times to test a potential method of decimating the Soviet Union’s wheat crop, should the Cold War ever turn hot. Given that Project 112 was primarily focused on biological and chemical agents like anthrax, Staphylococcal enterotoxin and Francisella tularensis, as well as “controlled temporary incapacitation,” the Junction got off easy—if we can characterize potentially lethal secret poisoning by your own government as “easy.” Whatever impact stem rust might have had then, fifty years later the hypertrophic weeds pulling the Inn back to earth are unimpressed.

It ain’t paradise, and there is damn sure no need to put up a parking lot. But it is a pointed, fine reminder: You don’t know what you got til it’s gone.

EBYABE

SUNSHINE STATE STOR IES

from holes

Slammer & Squire, World Golf Village

HOPS

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Package Includes: 4 Nights’ Accommodations at Sawgrass Marriot Resort & Spa 1 hour lesson at PGA TOUR Golf Academy | 3 Rounds of Golf | And More Visit us at www.golfexperiences.com for details.

TM

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

Making Medure How Jacksonville’s Matthew Medure left aN IMPRESSIVE job as the youngest chef in a Ritz-Carlton kitchen to develop seven (and counting) restaurants that range from fast casual to fine dining.

This page: Jacksonville

chef Matthew Medure’s highly coveted souffles use seasonal ingredients.

Favorite varieties include vanilla bean, chocolate and peanut butter.

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I

t’s not a stretch to say that Matthew Medure put Jacksonville on the culinary map. He’d been a young phenom: After starting his post-culinary school career at the Ritz-Carlton flagship in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, he went from intern to chef in a single year. Then he was asked to open a Ritz-Carlton property in Amelia Island, the youngest chef in the whole company. But he still felt something was missing.

“I found myself wanting more. I didn’t feel like I was accomplishing what I wanted. I started working the front of the house, I put on a tuxedo and greeted guests.”

Still, not enough.

“People who knew me said I was crazy, said, ‘Stay at the Ritz.’ There was lots of barbecue, cafeterias all over the place, a lot of fried Southern food. But Jacksonville didn’t really have a food scene. Nothing that elevated the culture of the city. That made the decision very difficult.”

Nevertheless, he took a leave from the RitzCarlton, found a space that had previously been a bank and built a restaurant. In the San Marco district, Medure opened Matthew’s Restaurant in 1997, defined by white tablecloths, handmade pastas and regionally sourced meats.

“People felt like they were in a different city.

We weren’t doing mind-blowing food. We weren’t trying to scare anyone. It was just genuine service, fresh food done simply and well.”

Perhaps Medure, 49, had an advantage.

He was born into the business, after all. His parents had Medure’s Catering in Newcastle, Pennsylvania. Medure, one of four boys, went to the Pennsylvania Institute for Culinary Arts with the intention of elevating his parents’ business. His oldest and youngest brothers have taken over the family business, while Matthew and David, the middle two brothers, ended up together in Jacksonville.

Three years after launching Matthew’s, Medure opened Restaurant Medure in Ponte Vedra Beach in 2001.

“Now we have seven restaurants, and we’re just about ready to start construction on

Above: Chef Matthew Medure opened his first restaurant in Jacksonville in 1997 and now has seven.

The Perfect Souffle S e rv e s 4 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus 2 ounces for ramekins 2 cups whole milk 1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup for ramekins 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 6 eggs, separated

PREPARATION: Combine flour and 4 ounces butter in a large bowl. Mix with hands until it forms a thick paste, about the texture of Play-Doh. Bring milk to a boil over mediumhigh heat. Whisk butter-flour mixture into boiling milk and stir until combined. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on mediumlow speed until cool.

Once mixture has released steam and bowl is no longer hot to the touch (about 15 minutes), add egg yolks one by one, making sure each yolk is incorporated before adding the next. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and set aside.

Thoroughly clean and dry stand mixer bowl.

Add egg whites to stand mixer bowl. Using the whisk attachment, whip egg whites on high speed just until they reach stiff peaks.

Using a spatula, gently fold egg whites into souffle base mixture, a third at a time. Place souffle base in refrigerator until ready to bake.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Using a pastry brush, butter ramekins and dust with sugar. Fill ramekins just to the inner fill line and bake for approximately 18 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

VANILLA BEAN CREME ANGLAISE S e rv e s 4 1 1/2 cup whole milk 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1/2 vanilla bean 5 egg yolks Pinch kosher salt PREPARATION: Pour milk into a medium long handled pot. Using a paring knife, cut vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the center to release seeds. Add seeds to milk and bring to a boil over mediumhigh heat.

As the milk is coming to a boil, combine egg yolks, sugar and salt in a medium bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined.

Temper the hot milk into the egg mixture by slowly pouring the milk into the bowl while whisking.

Pour mixture back into medium pot.

Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until creme anglaise is thick enough to hold a line on a wooden spoon. Strain into a bowl and chill over an ice bath. Serve in a small pitcher alongside souffle.

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ON THE FLY: GROVE STAND SEASON’S EATINGS

MATTHEW’S — LOCATION — 2107 HENDRICKS AVE. JACKSONVILLE — HOURS — MON–SAT 5:30PM–10:00PM matthewsrestaurant.com

RESTAURANT MEDURE — LOCATION — 818 A1A N. PONTE VEDRA — HOURS — MON–SAT 5:00PM–10:00PM restaurantmedure.com

M SHACK — LOCATION — ATLANTIC BEACH 299 ATLANTIC BLVD. ATLANTIC BEACH — LOCATION — ST. JOHNS TOWN CENTER 10281 MID TOWN PARKWAY JACKSONVILLE — LOCATION — RIVERSIDE 1012 MARGARET ST. JACKSONVILLE — LOCATION — NOCATEE TOWN CENTER 641 CROSSWATER PARKWAY PONTE VEDRA BEACH mshackburgers.com

RUE SAINT MARC — LOCATION — 2103 SAN MARCO BLVD. JACKSONVILLE — HOURS — MON–THURS 4–10:00PM FRI 11:30AM–2:30PM, 4–10:30PM SAT 10AM–2:30PM, 5–10:30PM SUN CLOSED ruesaintmarc.com

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our eighth, called Midtown Table, in the St. Johns Town Center area. It will be casual but full service, with freshly milled flour for bread and pizza, one of those big Neapolitan pizza ovens coming in, a lot of homemade pasta, a full bar.”

His restaurants haven’t always been enormous or geared toward fine dining. After Restaurant Medure, he opened M Shack in Atlantic Beach, serving fastcasual burgers with his own blend of ground beef and truffle fries that seemed to resonate with locals. It took off; he opened three more (St. Johns Town Center, Riverside and Nocatee).

And from there, he turned his sights on a space directly opposite the original Matthew’s Restaurant and partnered with a couple of employees on a lovely little French bistro called Rue St. Mark.

With such a growing empire, Medure has ceded some of the reins at his flagship eatery. Chef Alexander Yim, who has been with the restaurant for 10 years, has shifted the vision slightly, adding Asian components to the stylish French/Mediterranean concept. However, that doesn’t mean the signature dishes have been jettisoned.

“There’s a foie gras dish that’s been on the menu since the beginning. There’s a Vidalia onion confit on the top of the foie, then we make a marmalade with onions and vanilla beans and honey, so there’s two types of onion and aromatics, a little crust on the outside, rare in the center, three textures, a little bit of aged balsamic.”

When he’s not shuttling between properties in greater Jacksonville, he’s attending to family with his wife, Jillian, a dentist. And there’s a lot of attending: Medure has six kids, ages 22 months to 20 years old, three girls, three boys. A big family, sure, but then sometimes that comes in handy when there’s a family business to run. After all, their last name carries a lot of weight.

“These days it’s been about focusing and trying to refine and get more efficient. We’re always looking for improvements. Jacksonville has a lot of inventory of restaurants, and there is no shortage of jobs here.”

Jacksonville—a former “meat and potatoes” town, according to Medure—is a place that just might owe him a debt of gratitude. Well, foie gras is a certain kind of meat, isn’t it?

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Above: M Shack, Medure’s dip into fast casual food, features elevated cheeseburgers, milkshakes and fries.

Opposite: The scallop appetizer at Matthew’s has torched scallops and shishito peppers.

Torched Scallops and Shishito Peppers A p p e t i z e r S e rv e s 1 2 U10 scallops 2 shishito peppers Sesame oil Salt and pepper to taste Furikake seasoning to taste PREPARATION: Lay scallops on a paper towel to soak up excess liquid. Thinly slice each scallop into 4 to 5 pieces. Lay scallops on a plate. Brush with sesame oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Slice shishito peppers lengthwise. Toss in a bowl with additional sesame oil and salt and pepper. Add to plate with scallops.

Using a blow torch, carefully torch entire dish to desired doneness, making sure to hit the edges of the scallops. Sprinkle with furikake seasoning to taste and serve immediately.

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PROMOTION

THE KEYS to paradise S

omething special happens while spending time in The Florida Keys and Key West. Whether lying sunkissed in a hammock or walking the beach at sunset, all those winter stresses instantly evaporate into the salt air. Known not only for world-class sailing, snorkeling, diving, fishing and outdoor pursuits, but also for fine art galleries, museums and cultural festivals all year long, The Florida Keys and Key West are beloved treasures of our state. Spring ushers in a playful vibe, giving visitors a chance to thaw and relax, with the best of what The Keys has to offer on full display. In Flamingo’s SPRING TRAVEL SPOTLIGHT 2019, we highlight some of our favorite places to stay, from high-style five-star resorts to chic boutique hotels and laid-back luxury villas.

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PROMOTION

No passport. No problem.

Here in The Florida Keys & Key West, we love making new discoveries.

Fortunately for us, one of our favorite places to explore is right in our own backyard. With hundreds of miles of warm, clear water, world-class boating, fishing, diving, snorkeling, kayaking, ecotours, wildlife and countless other diversions, there really is no place like home. fla-keys.com 1.800.fla.keys

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PROMOTION

CASA MARINA, A WALDORF ASTORIA RESORT OPENED: New Year’s Eve 1920 HIGHLIGHTS: The Casa Marina is an iconic beachfront property located on Key West’s largest private beach, the perfect destination for water sports and recreation. Enjoy toesin-the-sand dining at Sun Sun Beach Bar & Grill, plus two dazzling pools, a rejuvenating spa, a fitness center and 11,000 square feet of meeting and event space.

LOCATION: Key West (305) 296-3535

casamarinaresort.com

THE REACH, A WALDORF ASTORIA RESORT OPENED: 1984 HIGHLIGHTS: The Reach, a Waldorf Astoria Resort, is situated on Key West’s only private natural white sand beach, just steps away from world-famous Duval Street. Enjoy spectacular amenities like an oceanfront pool, water sports rentals, a fitness center, oceanfront dining at Spencer’s by the Sea and meeting and event space.

LOCATION: Key West (305) 296-5000 reachresort.com

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PROMOTION

I S L A N DE R R E S ORT R E I M A G I N E D

A special brand of hospitality awaits at the reimagined Islander Resort where earth-friendly, Florida Keys luxury meets a barefoot paradise creating the perfect setting for your next getaway! Dreamy, well-appointed coastal décor adorns our newly renovated guest rooms and suites. Just steps from your front door you will find massage and wellness services surrounded by our tropical gardens and sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.

Two waterfront properties provide the perfect resort accommodation options for spending a long weekend or a long winter. Our Oceanfront Resort boasts two restaurants, a state-of-the-art conference center, private beach with complete watersports offerings, two oceanfront pools, splash pad, hot tub, shuffleboard, volleyball and a 200-foot fishing pier.

Our Bayside Townhomes feature full gourmet kitchens, a gulfside pool, grill, picnic area, beach and a 14 slip boat basin.

All Islander accommodations offer complimentary, high-speed wireless internet and we never charge resort fees!

Mile Marker 82.1 | 82100 Overseas Highway, Islamorada, FL | 305.664.2031 | 800.753.6002 | sales@islanderfloridakeys.com I S L A N DE R F LOR I D A K E Y S . C OM

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PROMOTION

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ON THE FLY:THE ROOST RE AL ESTATE DOLLARS & SENSE B y S ea n M cC a u g h a n

Daring dwellings

These luxury properties aren’t for the faint of heart. They feature bold, over-the-top new designs from builders who push style limits.

Ponte Vedra

THOMAS WOLF, KEN MCCR AY

U

p in the northeast corner of the state, a Jacksonvillebased custom home builder takes inspiration from the oldest city in the United States, nearby St. Augustine, to create grand homes with Old World charm and modern amenities.

The architectural aesthetic of the Pineapple Corporation includes influences ranging from the West Indies—homes with broad porches, deep eaves, and Bermuda shutters—to rustic Tuscany and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style. But its specialization is a Spanish architectural aesthetic that’s almost as old as Florida is.

Pineapple builds custom homes and semi-custom homes for developments by companies including The PARC Group. The group's latest development, The Vista at Twenty Mile, is a gated community in Ponte Vedra, just north of St. Augustine. Baronial Mediterranean Revival houses, complete with courtyards, barrel tile roofs, vaulted ceilings and rich architectural details, fill The Vista at Twenty Mile.

229 Wilderness Ridge Drive Ponte Vedra $1,439,500

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

WINTER PARK

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STEPHEN ALLEN

B

uilders with a strong emphasis on statementmaking design are unusual anywhere, but particularly in Central Florida, where Z Properties has its headquarters in Winter Park. Many Z Properties homes give a bold, contemporary twist to traditional architectural designs through their flamboyant details. The designing and building firm is able to focus on the aesthetics of a property by bringing the process in-house. Picture one of its completed spec houses currently on sale: two stories on a standard suburban lot, white on the inside and out, but immediately noticeable by its arched gables and tall windows—not to mention the plethora of awnings, gates, accent walls and furnishings in saturated, bold colors. Z’s projects include new construction and renovations, from apartments and modest starter homes to generously scaled family houses.

1160 Mayfield Ave. Winter Park $1,800,000

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

Sarasota

BL AINE JOHNATHAN PHOTOGR APHY

T

ucked within the waterfront neighborhood of Spice Bay at the southern end of Siesta Key, this London Bay Homes property melds together West Indies architecture and a coastal feel.

London Bay Homes embraces the undemanding and relaxed style of high-end living associated with Sarasota while exclusively building properties priced at $1 million and higher. Although only a few hours away, Sarasota’s little seaside towns are worlds apart from Miami, and London Bay designs their houses accordingly. One of their newest and most expensive offerings is this waterfront number on Sharswood Lane. Outside, the house’s design is multi-tiered and elaborate with massive archways and grand entryways.

But go inside and it’s minimalist and contemporary all the way, with sweeping, open-plan interiors, high ceilings, clean lines and panoramic views of the water.

1238 Sharswood Lane Sarasota $5,925,000

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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 $400M+ IN CAREER SALES

OCEAN FRONT LUXURY

7 1 P onte Vedra Blvd. , Ponte Vedra Beach Over 6,500 square feet in the most desirable stretch of oceanfront property in Northeast Florida. Panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club’s Ocean Course. This concrete block construction, contemporary estate was built with guests in mind. The primary living space and two large suites surrounded by a massive outdoor terrace are upstairs. Downstairs has 3 guest suites that open to the lovely pool/spa, and a separated living space with kitchen. OFFERED AT $8,800,000

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

Gwinn Volen

Jayne Young

(904) 314.5188 gvo len @p vclub realty.co m

(9 0 4 ) 3 3 3 . 1 1 1 1 jayne y ou ng 1 1 1 1 @a ol . c om

#10 OUT OF TOP 50 TEAMS JACKSONVILLE BUSINESS JOURNAL BOOK OF LISTS 2018

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@FlamingoMag

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

ON THE FLY:THE TIDE ROAD TR IP–WORTHY EVENTS (NORTH) 25TH ANNIVERSARY SPRING TOUR

BROOKSVILLE & INVERNESS

March 29–31 & April 1–3

More than 500 cyclists discover Florida’s landscape by bike. Enjoy communal meals, live music, games and camping at each site. bikeflorida.org

TALLAHASSEE FILM FESTIVAL TA L LA H A S S E E

April 5–7

This celebration of independent films screens a mix of more than 90 documentaries, dramas and short films. Preview films by future Oscar-winning directors before people know their names. tallahasseefilmfestival.com

WORD OF SOUTH TA L LA H A S S E E

April 12–14 P E N S A C O LA

APRIL 30

For the first time ever, Dave Matthews Band takes the stage in Pensacola Bay. It’s one of four Florida tour dates, which include stops in West Palm Beach and Jacksonville. The Grammy-winning rock band from Virginia is known for songs like “Crash Into Me” and “American Baby.” Dave Matthews Band will kick off its 2019 summer tour at the Pensacola Bay Center. Additional stops include Colorado, North Carolina and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In 2016, Dave Matthews Band celebrated its 25th anniversary and last year, the band released its ninth studio album, Come Tomorrow. Keeping up with the band’s last six studio album releases, Come Tomorrow peaked at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 200 chart. With every ticket purchase, the group is including an unreleased live recording from its 2018 tour. The song can be redeemed online through the band’s website with proof of purchase. davematthewsband.com/tours

AMELIA ISLAND CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

UNWINED

March 7–10

PONTE VEDRA BEACH

March 12–17

March 22–23

This annual golf tournament has a party atmosphere with local food and drink vendors including Hawkers Asian Street Fare, Hoptinger Bier Garden and Sausage House. theplayers.com

This showcase features wine, craft beer and specialty cocktails from around the world. Patrons walk the booths, mingle with chefs and mixologists and take in live music. The event kicks off with the Biscuits and Jam Party. visitpanamacitybeach.com

A M E L I A I S LA N D

A car lover’s dream, this automotive charity event showcases hundreds of rare cars, new and old, from Duesenbergs to Porsches.

Test drives are also available. ameliaconcours.org

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PA N A M A C I T Y B E A C H

Music and literature join forces when more than 50 authors and musicians share their work. The annual festival, now in its fifth year, takes place at Cascades Park, a 24-acre venue downtown. wordofsouthfestival.com

ISLE OF EIGHT FLAGS SHRIMP FESTIVAL

FERNANDINA BEACH

May 3–5

Walk the docks and the historic downtown. Revelers pile their plates with hushpuppies, fried fish and of course, shrimp at this annual celebration of seafood. shrimpfestival.com

FORGOTTEN COAST EN PLEIN AIR A PA LA C H I C O LA

May 3–12

World-renowned artists convene to portray the scenery and culture of old Florida through painting at this ten-day gathering. The fair concentrates on restoring land affected by hurricane destruction. pleinairfl.com

DANNY CLINCH

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND LIVE

ON THE FLY:THE TIDE ROAD TR IP–WORTHY EVENTS (C E N T RA L ) EPCOT INTERNATIONAL FLOWER AND GARDEN FESTIVAL O R LA N D O

March 6–June 3 Botanical enthusiasts wander through gardens with themes including Shakespeare, surrounded by more than 70 Disney-inspired topiaries. disneyworld.disney.go.com

GASPARILLA CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE TA M PA

April 13 This car show is part of Tampa Bay’s Gasparilla festivities. Rare and historic automobiles and motorcycles will be on display. gasparillaconcours.com

WINTER PARK SIDEWALK ART FESTIVAL W I N T E R PA R K

March 15–17 One of the oldest, most prestigious juried fine art shows in the nation. Enjoy eats from vendors and mom-and-pop shops lining Park Avenue. wpsaf.org

GASPARILLA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL TA M PA

March 19–24

FIRESTONE GR AND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG

Hundreds of documentaries, short and feature length films, some never before seen in the U.S., debut in venues throughout the city. gasparillafilmfestival.com

FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG ST. PETERSBURG

March 8–10

IndyCar drivers race through downtown St. Petersburg on a temporary course that includes the runways at the Albert Whitted Airport. Take in the extensive views of the city—including the iconic Dali Museum and the Duke Energy Center for the Arts—while enjoying local food and interactive activities such as beer gardens, an IndyCar series fan village and driver autograph sessions. The race circuit features a 14-turn configuration that uses streets in the surrounding area. A three-day festival downtown will kick off the ninth straight year of the IndyCar Series. “The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is a must-do event,” Kim Green, CEO of Green Savoree Racing Promotions, which organizes the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, said. “St. Pete is a world-class setting with absolutely terrific sightlines of the Tampa Bay, and the downtown remains open for fans to experience its great restaurants and shopping. This is the ideal coastal destination for both the fans and drivers to get a new IndyCar season started.” gpstpete.com

FLORIDA BLUEBERRY FESTIVAL

MELBOURNE AIR AND SPACE SHOW

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING

TAVA R E S

March 28–31

March 30–31

Through March 26

More than 300 vessels convene at the largest classic wood boat show in the U.S. featuring a nautical-themed flea market, seaplane rides and more. acbs-sunnyland.org

Savor all things blueberry including fresh Florida blueberries, pies and other sweets at this four-day festival featuring a juried art show, a wine bar and free music. floridablueberryfestival.org

SUNNYLAND ANTIQUE AND CLASSIC BOAT FESTIVAL March 21–24

KISSIMMEE

MELBOURNE

Watch as the F-35 Lighting II Demo Team makes their North American debut. Also known as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the aircraft they’ll fly is the most advanced fighter in the world. airandspaceshow.com

M U LT I P L E L O C AT I O N S

As part of Major League Baseball’s Grapefruit League, fans can root on teams, including the New York Mets and Houston Astros, as they prepare for next season in the Sunshine State. mlb.com/spring-training

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ON THE FLY:THE TIDE ROAD TR IP–WORTHY EVENTS (SOUTH) ORIGINAL MARATHON SEAFOOD FESTIVAL M A R AT H O N

March 9–10 Appreciate locally caught fish, fresh oysters, lobster, shrimp and stone crab. Listen to local musicians and shop local vendors. marathonseafoodfestival.com

MIAMI OPEN MIAMI

March 18–31 The world’s top tennis players face-off at this premier tournament, taking place in its new location, the Hard Rock Stadium. miamiopen.com

FEMALE BREW FEST H A L LA N D A L E

March 23

SOUTH U.S. OPEN POLO CHAMPIONSHIP & THE GAY POLO LEAGUE TOURNAMENT

Created to highlight women in the beer industry, this festival showcases breweries from all over the country. femalebrewfest.com

WELLINGTON

Spanning 250 acres, The International Polo Club is a world-renowned polo destination. The tournament will host multiple events and matches featuring the world’s best horses and players throughout the winter and early spring. Polo is a team sport that requires coordination between a rider and their horse.

The U.S. Open Polo Championship is a timeless tradition, first played in 1904 and regarded one of the most prestigious tournaments in the country. In addition, one of the featured tournaments this year is for the league’s LGBT polo team. The league includes people of different ages, backgrounds and skill levels—some of the teammates never rode a horse before joining. All of the matches are open to the public and are played in brackets. The top team from each bracket will go to semifinals and advance to quarters and of course, finals. Spectators can sip on champagne while watching matches from the stands or field-side seating. ipc.coth.com

MIAMI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

ORCHID FESTIVAL AT FAIRCHILD

MIAMI SAILING WEEK

March 1–10

CORAL GABLES

March 8–10

March 4–10

Explore a maze of 10,000 orchid plants and exhibits at this botany celebration. Learn about orchid culture and floral photography, and take home a plant from one of the vendors. fairchildgarden.org

Hundreds of competitors come from as many as 23 different countries to compete on the scenic waters of Biscayne Bay. The week prior is filled with award ceremonies, cocktail parties and cultural activities. miamisailingweek.com

MIAMI

This film festival spans across multiple venues and features showings from up-and-coming directors. Guests can see films before the movies are released to the public. miamifilmfestival.com

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MIAMI

PALM BEACH INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW W E S T PA L M B E A C H

March 28–31

Yachts line the waterways as activities including a kids fishing class, seminars and more take place. pbboatshow.com

PEACE RIVER REVIVAL P U N TA G O R D A

March 30

Vibe to funky music at this second annual festival that combines jazz, soul, bluegrass and rock.

Florida-based band JJ Grey & Mofro headline the event. peaceriverrevivalpg.com

DELRAY AFFAIR D E L R AY B E A C H

April 12–14

Covering 12 blocks of downtown Delray Beach, the 57th annual fair has received awards for its wide selection of global art. delrayaffair.com

UNITED STATES POLO ASSOCIATION/DAVID LOMINSK A

March 27–April 21 & April 4–7

TORTUGA MUSIC FESTIVAL F O R T LA U D E R D A L E

April 12–14

Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney and Sheryl Crow headline this concert on the beaches of Fort Lauderdale State Park. tortugamusicfestival.com

KEY WEST PADDLE CLASSIC KEY WEST

May 4

Paddle around Key West in this 12-mile race, open to canoes, kayaks, dory boats and of course paddleboards. lazydog.com/events

KEY WEST SONGWRITERS FESTIVAL KEY WEST

May 8–12 Music fans descend on the streets of Key West to hear songwriters perform on stages from beaches to boats to bars and historic theaters. keywestsongwritersfestival.com

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1-877-999-4228 Above: Jacksonville-based JJ Grey & Mofro will perform at the Peace River Revival Festival in Punta Gorda on March 30.

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*Offer good with purchase of a CraigCat. Terms and conditions apply.

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FLORIDIANA ALL THINGS VINTAGE

A Shell of a Good Time

I

f you ask Christine Williams to name her favorite thing in her shop, the Shell Bazaar in St. Lucie, it’s going to be difficult. Maybe it’s the lighthouses or the windchimes or the candy or the coral or the necklaces or the old, ticky-tacky coasters. Perhaps, she says, at last, it’s the triton’s trumpet, a spiraled shell that looks like a cornucopia, tight croissant-like rolls striped beige and brown on one end and then a gaping bright white maw on the other. “If you don’t know it, you’re just going to have to Google it,” she says. “It’s beautiful.”

Since she can remember, Williams has been surrounded by such things. Not long before she was born, her father sold a truck stop he owned in Ormond Beach

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and was looking for something new. A friend recommended he start a roadside shop selling seashells. Her father set it up in 1953 in the no man’s land between Fort Pierce and Stuart.

A 2 1/2-ton conch shell replica outside has beckoned tourists since the shop was a few years old.

Since Williams was born, her family lived in an apartment over the shop. Her first memory is sitting in the giant conch shell and waving to passing cars. “There weren’t many,” she recalls. The most traffic came when Army trucks streamed by for hours during the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. She waved at them, too.

When she grew up, there wasn’t enough business at the shop to justify staying on.

She went out and made a name in real estate. In ’86, her mom asked her to come

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Above: Christine

Williams in 1958 alongside her grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousin.

back to manage the place, and after her mother died, Williams made the position permanent. She remodeled the apartment and moved into it in ’93, where she has been ever since.

VISIT ST. LUCIE, COURTESY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS

A family tradition since 1961 offers a slice of Old Florida life in St. Lucie.

Just A Little Overboard.

West Palm Beach waterfront along Flagler Drive pbboatshow.com THURSDAY - SUNDAY MARCH 28 - 31