It’s lunchtime here at the conference, and so I thought I would share with you some observations of Miami Beach jotted while I ate breakfast:
- It is clear the resort’s business is dependent on the Snowbirds from New York. This is made clear by the fact that I get both the Miami Herald and the New York Times on my doorstep each morning. At a business hotel, you get USA Today.
- I don’t know whether it is a New York attitude, or just crappy water in Miami Beach, but when you sit down at a restaurant and ask for water, the response is always “House or Bottled?”. When I say “House”, I always get a real weird look, as if to say “You drink that swill, ugh.”.
- The restaurant in the morning is almost completely devoid of customers, yet there is numerous staff around: head captain, 3-4 waitcritters, busboys, etc. This could easily explain the high prices, especially if they are more labor based than food based.
- However, even with such staff, service has been “eh”. Perhaps this is because every hotel seems to add an automatic 17% “discretionary gratuity” to each bill. Most people don’t delete it. Most wait staff realize this, and thus provide mediocre service.
- Every morning I’ve had breakfast down there, there is this elderly man. He sits at the same table, and is known by all the staff. When he is done, they help him out where he sits in the lobby. A touching vingette.
- There appears to be this whole notion of people coming down to Miami Beach for weeks at a time and staying in one of these resorts, with a meal plan and everything. I think this is an East Coast thing; I’m certainly not aware of it in Los Angeles.
- There is pink and turquoise everywhere. Now I see why folks thought the original Flamingo in Las Vegas was based on Miami-modern.
- You know, the ocean is on the wrong side….
[Can’t figure out where the title is from? Go here, and then search for “Miami”.]
