Welcome to Miami
Words Hannah Kane
Photography Michael Kleinberg
After endless months trapped on this cold, wet, windswept island with zero fun to be had, when the news of Moxy’s latest opening, in South Beach, Miami, landed on our desks it added some much-needed hope to our travel plans.
We’re already big fans of the Moxy brand having stayed at their Times Square hotel for New York Fashion Week, and their first resort-style hotel is equally as covetable. A couple of blocks back from the ocean on Washington Avenue, the hotel forms part of the regeneration of the Art Deco Cultural District, with local architect Kobi Karp preserving the original 1930’s Art Deco shop facade and adding the new seven-storey tower on top to house 202 rooms, each benefitting from floor-to-ceiling windows to maximise the Florida sunshine. The city’s history and multicultural influences inform the design, with additional references to Midcentury Modernism, and the flavours of Havana and Mexico.
As an imprint of the Marriot group, Moxy is aimed at millennials and the incoming Gen-Zs and hits the sweet spot of design aesthetics to affordability. Interior designers Rockwell Group were partly inspired by the Clyde Mallory Line, an overnight ferry service between Miami and Havana that operated in the 1940s and ‘50s to create bedrooms that feel glamorous yet efficiently maximise space. For parties of friends, they have quad bunk beds rooms that work out around £100 per person per night.
No one comes to Miami to hang in their rooms, and Moxy South Beach, as one of the first hotels to open in the pandemic only February 2021 has made some adjustments to our post-pandemic way of living. Mitchell Hochberg, President of the Lightstone Group, the developers, neatly describes it, “The feeling of warmth and excitement that a hotel can evoke comes in large part from being around other people, even if you’re six feet apart. In fact, what we call social distancing is really physical distancing. We can still be social but in a way that’s safe and comfortable.” Public spaces are dotted with seating areas, semi-private enclaves to soak up the atmosphere, and guests can choose their level of staff interaction, from regular to contactless.
Hotel dining options range from the all-day taco stand and bodega Los Buenos to elegant seafood restaurant Como Como, a marisquería (seafood restaurant) and a ceviche style raw bar that specialises in authentic dishes from Mexico’s beloved coastal towns, like Puerto Escondido, Los Cabos, and Acapulco. For day lounging there’s Serena, the second-floor sundeck and pool area offering sharing plates and sunset cocktails and come evening the energy moves to Mezcalista, velvet-clad mezcal lounge with live DJs (remember them?) and dancing on the banquettes permitted. Go all the way up and you reach The Upside, a tropical rooftop exclusively reserved for hotel guests with 360-degree views over the ocean and the Miami skyline. An open-air movie screening room with daybeds and other low seating shows classic films after dusk as well as special screenings and premiers from local partners like the Miami Film Festival.
As a new focal point for local artists and fashion-forward revellers, Moxy South Beach is the first place we’re dropping by for a Margharita next time we’re in town.
Moxy South Beach, 915 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida 33139
Search dates and rates on the website.
FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM