Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club

This dazzling yet understated hotel is a trip back in time— and a celebration of modern luxury

Written by MARIE SPEED

The original Surf Club, relegated to faded party pictures from the 1930s or ‘40s, may seem like a fragment of the lost Florida dream: the days of parties in a ballroom with Noel Coward or Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Frank Sinatra, the duke and duchess of Windsor. A private social club for the rich and famous north of Miami Beach in sleepy little Surfside, the Surf Club was the brainchild of tire tycoon Harvey Firestone and designed by Russell T. Pancoast as an exclusive oceanfront refuge as well as a place for “proper impropriety.”

It opened on New Year’s Eve 1930, and the elegant shenanigans began, from elephants parading down the grand Peacock Alley entrance, to a themed Arctic party with 300 tables made out of ice. As the world—and Miami— changed in the ‘60s and beyond, the Surf Club remained a longstanding private club (but without the elephants), a Mizner-esque Mediterranean bastion of sedate generational memberships and children’s pool parties—and, of course, the famous cabana life, which was at the center of it all.

What was left of the Florida dream, though, was reborn with dramatic audacity and style in 2017 when Nadim Ashi, founder of Fort Partners, bought the nineacre property fronting a turquoise sweep of ocean.

Ashi teamed up with Parisian interior architect Joseph Dirand, designer Kobi Karp and architect Richard Meier to transform the club into its new iteration, three 12-story glass towers that disappear seamlessly into the blue Miami sky, cradling the original Surf Club at their base. The hotel, operated by the Four Seasons, numbers 77 guest rooms and 30 hotel residences and

121 private residential apartments in a configuration that floats above the gracious historic club like a glass beacon.

Preserving that dream of the Surf Club experience is now combined with an impeccable modernist luxury that is stunning throughout.

In upstairs guest rooms, floorto-ceiling glass sliding doors open to a wide blue view of surf and sky; downstairs, all the original appointments have been restored and honored, from the high-beamed vaulted ceilings, the grand colonnades and fireplaces, the original murals and tile floors. Both the property’s signature restaurants—The Surf Club Restaurant by Chef Thomas Keller and Lido Restaurant and Terrace by Chef Michael White—now occupy what was once the ballroom; the exquisite Champagne Bar is a centerpiece. Most importantly, the core of the Surf Club legacy— the beach cabanas shaped in a horseshoe around the pool—have been updated but preserved, body and soul.

Our stay at the Surf Club began with lunch at Winston’s—a casual but elevated al fresco dining experience with a view of the beach, and even better, of a gelato cart strategically stationed only 20 feet away. We spent the afternoon in a reserved cabana, poolside. In the old days, the cabanas were

Amenities

At the Four Seasons Surfside, the amenities have amenities. To find out more about these, visit fourseasons.com/surfside. This is the starter list:

• Luxury spa

• Fitness center and services

• Private cabanas

• Three swimming pools, including the “Quiet Pool,” an adults-only pool

• 24-hour room service

• Airline reservation service where it all happened; Winston Churchill reserved two of them when he stayed in 1946—one for painting and one for napping. For us, it was relaxing by the pool, and an “amenity” appearing once every hour, from a tiny fresh fruit smoothie, to a cooling aloe gel, to any number of treats designed to remind guests that they are always being attended to, quietly and with much care.

Our evening began in the very grand Champagne Bar with the legendary Cocktail Trolley, a personalized craft cocktail experience delivered by an expert mixologist or barista, as they like to be called, who will involve guests in a sampling and a cocktail tailored expressly for them. The cart sparkles with tiny house-made infusions and rare liqueurs. Our experience was based on the vodka martini (what else), but there were detours involving vermouth infused with cherry blossoms, a gin bramble, Don Fulano tequila and a few other mysterious elixirs ordinary mortals would likely never attempt. As for dinner, try Lido or The Surf Club—because you won’t want to leave the property.

As Yankees legend Yogi Berra could have famously said about Miami,“No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.”This hotel with its historic legacy tucked away from the Magic (and crazy) City is a perfect alternative.

OUR DON’T-MISS: Order the French toast at breakfast at the Lido Terrace. We were told it is the best in the world, and we can confirm this is unequivocally true. Just do it, as the Nike commercial used to say. It’s worth every naughty calorie.

FOUR SEASONS HOTEL AT THE SURF CLUB

9011 Collins Ave. Surfside

305/381-3333