11 minute read
The Local
Three Don’t-Miss Events
BARRETT-JACKSON AUTO AUCTION, April 7-9, Expo Center, South Florida Fairgrounds, 9067 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, $72.90 in advance for weekend ($80 at the door), day rates starting at $25.20. This luxury annual auto show and auction event at the fairgrounds features hundreds of cars worth millions in total value, and attracts around 50,000 people each year to view (and buy) 1950s cars, muscle cars, luxury brands like Porsche and Mercedes as well as auto memorabilia. Visit barrett-jackson.com for more information. DELRAY AFFAIR, April 8-10, downtown Delray Beach, free. This much-beloved arts and crafts festival (plus beer fest) celebrates its 60th year in 2022, having exploded from its modest beginnings as the city’s Gladiolus Festival decades ago. The affair stretches for 12 blocks down the middle of Atlantic Avenue and has everything from hot dogs to hats and home décor and just about anything in between. Not to be missed. Visit delrayaffair. com for more information. SUNFEST, April 28-May 1, downtown West Palm Beach waterfront along Flagler Drive, $45-$90. This major music festival features more than 40 bands—rock and reggae, funk and country, hip-hop and electronic, and everything in between. Headliners ths year include AJR, Lil Wayne, Sam Hunt, Slightly Stoopid and Goo Goo Dolls. There will an art district, floating bars, lots of food and special VIP seating. Visit sunfest.com for more information.
Locals sound off on issues affecting our community.
April is known for “new beginnings.” What is a new beginning you have had in your life that really changed it?
“In the past year I started a gratitude journal, beginning each day reflecting on all the goodness and blessings in my life; it’s been life-changing!”
—Enid Atwater, President/Owner, the Atwater Agency
“Working with the George Snow Scholarship Fund. I’m loving feeling more connected to my Boca community!”
—Laura Gilli, Director of Special Events, George Snow Scholarship Fund
“My wife Mary Catherine and I recently welcomed our first child, Charlotte. While a newborn baby brings about many new adventures and challenges, she has reinforced my value of family and excellence both personally and professionally—for the next generation!”
—Michael Maus, owner, Maus & Hoffman
APRIL SHOWERS?Rain Gear We Love
South Florida celebrates its rainy season, when life in the tropics luxuriates in afternoon soakings, blooming everything and a cooldown every day.
So why not meet the season with a little nod to style? Here are a few picks on how to make a splash when the rains come...
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1. MAISON MICHEL nylon bucket hat, $310; 2. BALENCIAGA raincoat, $2,450; 3. OFF-WHITE umbrella, $150; 4. TUMI backpack, $100; 5. BOTTEGA VENETA rubber rain boots, $850
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all available at neimanmarcus.com
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THREE EGGS-CELLENT BREAKFAST PLACES
1. SAQUELLA, 410 Via De Palmas (in Royal Palm Place), Boca Raton, 561/338-8840. This is a downtown fave for a café breakfast with an impressive “All-American” omelet, French toast to cry over, a Monte Cristo (with eggs) and the Tuscan Sensation Everyday Brunch, which is civilized, European, and delicioso.
2. CHRISTINA’S, 263 N.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach, 561/278-3200. Old-timers will remember Christina’s when it was a tiny place over on Gleason Street by the beach; back then it was one of the only great places in Delray to go for breakfast, and it still is, years and years later, with lots of competition. Bright and cheery, this is a locals’ fave, and we love the Twilight Burrito, the Egg McWilly and the classic Morning Sun breakfast.
3. TOM SAWYER’S, 1759 N.W. Boca Raton Blvd., Boca Raton, 561/368-4634. Tom Sawyer’s has been breakfast central in Boca (oh sure, they have brunch, but this place is all breakfastland) since 1985 with a menu (and portions) that could be called massive. It has it all, from three breakfast stalwarts—biscuits, grits and country fried steak—to its mighty and much revered breakfast skillet. Yes, in a skillet.
Breakfast in a skillet “The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.”
—MARK TWAIN
# 1
Rank of Peeps for past 20 years (of non-chocolate Easter candy)
16
billion
Jellybeans sold at Easter
80.6
Percentage of Americans that celebrate Easter
WHEN: April 28May 22 WHERE: Boca Stage, 3333 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton COST: $45-$50
CONTACT:
561/447-8829, bocastage.net
It took 28 plays for Adam Rapp, a prolific denizen of off-Broadway drama, to finally land a show on the Great White Way, but the wait was worth it: The playwright’s intense “The Sound Inside” would go on to receive six Tony nominations in 2020, and would be listed among the best shows of the year by Time. The play is about a cripplingly lonely creative-writing professor who finds a kindred spirit in a talented but mysterious student. Their relationship grows increasingly personal and discomfiting. The intimate confines of Boca Stage make for an ideal setting for the show’s regional-theatre debut.
HENRY ROLLINS
WHEN: April 5, 8 p.m. WHERE: The Parker, 707 N.E. Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale COST: $27.50-$183 CONTACT: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org From his time fronting the seminal West Coast punk band Black Flag to his present day as a subcultural renaissance man, Henry Rollins has always been a road warrior. He even portrayed a road warrior—a virulent white supremacist, in fact, who died a glorious death in the second season of “Sons of Anarchy.” But most of the time, he measures his miles in words spoken. He unloads hundreds of thousands of them a night in his solo monologues, a craft, like that of Spalding Gray or Hal Holbrook, that enjoys few peers in today’s entertainment landscape. Part stand-up comedy, part personal history, part social activism, his performances are unpredictable, evocative and often as wild as one guy with a microphone can be.
Henry Rollins
FLORIDA GRAND OPERA’S “FELLOW TRAVELERS”
WHEN: April 23-28 WHERE: Lauderhill Performing Arts Center, 3800 N.W. 11th Place, Lauderhill COST: $26-$205 CONTACT: 954/777-2055, lpacfl.com Politics, diplomacy, sexuality and faith coalesce around this English-language opera by Gregory Spears, adapted from Thomas Mallon’s 2007 historical novel of the same name. Set during Joe McCarthy’s 1950s witch hunts for sexual and political subversives, “Fellow Travelers” centers on the same-sex relationship that develops between an aspiring journalist and a State Department official—a clandestine courtship that leads to an act of betrayal, and a mighty powerful libretto. This overnight cult classic debuted in 2016—a rare contemporary inclusion to the centuries-old operatic canon—and marks a company premiere for Florida Grand Opera.
“Fellow Travelers”
DAN NORMAN PHOTOGRAPHY Ben Folds
BEN FOLDS
WHEN: April 9, 8 p.m. WHERE: North Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach COST: $55-$85 CONTACT: 786/453-2897, northbeachbandshell.com Musician and South Carolina native Ben Folds’ connections to Miami run deep: It was at UM’s esteemed Frost School of Music where he earned a full percussion scholarship, arriving on campus with a drum kit—for which he paid all of $27—and a dream. He ended up losing the scholarship and hurling that kit into a lake on campus, and before long found himself in lederhosen, playing polka for seniors in a German restaurant. These days, the 55-year-old iconoclast commands audiences of thousands with the magnetism of Freddie Mercury at Live Aid. A piano poet whose naughty and tender streaks color a rich 35-year career in the intersections of punk, pop and classical, Folds has clearly missed the thrill of live performance as much as his fans: His new tour is called “In Actual Person Live For Real Tour.”
[The course] is quite challenging. It really is a topnotch, championship-caliber golf course that’ll challenge every level of golfer.”
—Jason Hayes
Hole In One
Jason Hayes, GM of the new city-run Boca Raton Golf & Racquet Club, discusses ‘course corrections’ and more
Written by JAMES BIAGIOTTI
When it was announced that the owners of The Boca Raton were donating Boca Country Club to the city, the news was met with excitement from some and trepidation from others. Nearly two years after that announcement and seven months since the city officially took over, the golf course is open to the public, and there’s more on the way from Boca Raton’s newest amenity.
Jason Hayes, a veteran of South Florida golf hospitality, was selected to be general manager of the new club when the City of Boca took over late last year. He brings with him a decades-long history with the game of golf; at one point in his career he managed three courses at the same time. Earlier this year, Hayes spoke to Boca about how things are going at the newly acquired property—and what’s to come.
ON THE CLUB’S AMENITIES:
Since the city took over the property on Oct. 1, the only amenities that we are currently offering are golf-related. The golf course opened on Nov. 1, and the driving range opened at the end of December. We’ve approached this with a golf-first mentality. A lot of the facilities need to be renovated—some of them need to be renovated before they’re even safe to use. For example, the tennis courts had to be secured and shut down. We intend to develop a racquet center, which will involve tennis and pickleball. … There is an existing swimming pool, which the city intends to eliminate and use the space for a restaurant concept when we renovate the interior of the clubhouse. We feel that it’ll tie in a nice social aspect with some outdoor seating, which the facility is currently lacking.
ON THE RESPONSE SO FAR FROM CITY RESIDENTS:
We’ve had a very good response. We went with a soft opening due to some of the operational issues we had from such a quick transition. The resort was still operating [the property] through the end of September. So we had basically a 31-day turnaround to open on Nov. 1 as a city operation. Meanwhile, we still were operating the municipal course out west until Oct. 17. So we really had a two-week turnaround to shut down the old municipal course. So with that being said, we had many operational challenges. We had also implemented, at the same time, a brand-new software for tee time reservations and for point of sale. So we really had a lot thrown our way in the beginning, and we learned a lot quickly.
We had to do some repairs to the cart fleet, but since we got that up and running and were able to get up to full speed in December, we’ve had a great response from the community. Tee times, on several of our busier days, are completely full. We’re getting a lot of good comments about the condition of the golf course. We have a long way to go with what we want to do, but we’re pretty proud of what we’ve done thus far.
ON THE QUALITY OF THE COURSE:
This golf course was designed to be a sister course for the resort. So it’s aimed to have a private country-club feel to it as you play the golf course. It’s quite a bit different in its design than you would find for a typical municipal property.
Jason Hayes
ON DISCONTENT WITHIN THE COMMUNITY:
Overall, my opinion is that the relationship [with neighboring residents] has been good. There’s a small contingency within that neighborhood who were members when the club was private, who were not pleased with the fact that the resort donated it to the city to become a public facility, which is understandable. But overwhelmingly, the majority of that community is excited that the city has come in and taken on all the renovations. So when you look at that community as a whole, I think they’re very supportive.
ON THE FUTURE:
The city is, in the very near future, going to be able to present renderings of some of the exciting projects that are going to happen here at the club. I think the city residents, as well as the community next door, are going to be very pleased with what the city does here at the property, but it’s going to require some patience. The city will do it right, but it’ll take a little bit of time.
FROM TOP: VALENTINO
GARAVANI Atelier rain boot, $770
BOTTEGA VENETA
puddle boot, $650
CHRISTIAN DIOR
ankle boot, $1,150 PRADA rubber cage sandal, $650 All from Saks, Boca Raton
