The James Royal Palm Grand Opening

Photography by Chelsea Olson ; PHOTOS: Seth Browarnik on March 3rd, 2013 in Arts, Lifestyle

Miami Beach, FL – February 27, 2013 – Art and hospitality came together for one incredible grand opening at the James Royal Palm last week. From the minute you walked into the hotel, you could tell that this is not an ordinary party. The retro art deco yet hip hotel on South Beach had everyone outside at the beautiful pool and patio area where drinks were flowing, delicious bites from Florida Cookery were tasted, and music from the unique duo DJ Mia Moretti and electric violinist Caitlin Moe of The Dolls was thumping. Artists were doing live sketches, there was a visual projection over the pool, and later a performance. But these elements don’t just come together for one night. What makes the James so different is how it has brought an important cultural piece into the mix: the arts. The New World Symphony, YoungArts, Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and Public School make up the curated Cultural Collection. The James brought these four forces together because of what they have to offer Miami artistically for a year-round collaboration.

A little bit about each of these key players: the New World Symphony is a world-renowned America’s Orchestral Academy celebrating its 25th anniversary season, housed in the architectural delight by Frank Gehry on 17 Street in Miami Beach. YoungArts identifies and supports emerging artists in the visual, literary and performing arts areas, and MOCA, one of the most prestigious museums in South Florida, has contributed a permanent piece installation at the James by local artist Jorge Pantoja. And lastly, Public School is a relatively new line from former Sean John designers Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne. They’re bringing their fresh flavor to the James with designing the hotel’s uniforms and doing trunk shows throughout the year. Last Wednesday, all four of these power houses came together for the hotel’s grand opening and celebrated with an amazing mix of design, art, food, and music. It truly was an all around cultural experience.

Jonna Eriksson

Maxwell Osborne & Dao-Yi Chow

World Red Eye: What was the inspiration for the uniforms you designed for the James?

Maxwell Osborne, designer at Public School: The inspiration for this collection for the James Hotel mainly started from the James Hotel itself. They came to us, showed us the blueprints, where it was located from the inside and out, the color scheme they were going with, and what they wanted to do. They pretty much let us have free reign from there with what we wanted to bring to the table. So we wanted to bring more cutting edge stuff in terms of the hotel industry- instead of a traditional suit jacket we wanted to make a new cut. Instead of a guy in a bellhop, we wanted to make it fresher, more hip, and integrated. It should be some type of uniform so people know they’re staff, but at the same time, they’re still dressed hip to feel like equals and not like ‘staff’ where they could walk out on the streets or go out in it if they wanted to.

WRE: What do you think of the James now that you’re down from New York and get to see the finished product all together with your designs?

MO: I love it. I’m actually a big fan. I don’t think I’ll ever stay anywhere else ever again in Miami. From here on out. Even if our uniforms aren’t here- the James Hotel I’ll always be a fan of.

Dao-Yi Chow

WRE: What would you say is your favorite piece or the most fun to create?

MO: Our favorite piece was personally, doing the women’s because we’re a menswear brand, so when they said we had to do women’s we got to do things we want to do in the future that we haven’t been able to get around to yet. We got to dabble in the women’s market, playing with the silhouettes, designing the women’s product, and dressing women is amazing. It was fun.

Bonnie Clearwater

WRE: What does it mean to you to be a part of the James?

Bonnie Clearwater, director of MOCA: Just the fact that hotels realize the value in partnering with culture. Here it is, right on the beach and ocean, and yet it sees the value of a hotel for culture and to partner with us. I think that says a lot for what all our institutions have been doing and the marketing we’re doing. We have built a very strong, committed, educated, sophisticated community that is going to appreciate what the James experience offers.

Anthony Spinello

Sarah Arison

Nathalie Cadet-James, Paul Lehr, & Bonnie Clearwater

WRE: What’s it like bringing YoungArts here and what made you decide to do this?

Paul Lehr, executive director of YoungArts: In terms of which hotel we were going to partner with, because we’re doing so many high profile things with buying the Bacardi campus and the celebrities we work with, there were a lot of hotels who wanted to partner with us. But the James was different than all of them. They stood out because they really cared about the arts and the culture and the community, while a lot of the other places we were dealing with just wanted our celebrities on their guest lists. So now I’m quite infatuated with the James and what they do, and telling everybody they should go to the James and stay there because they really have a passion for supporting the arts in our community. You don’t find a lot of brands like that, so I’m honored to be with them.

WRE: What can we expect from YoungArts at the James?

PL: We’ve got different things we’re doing. We did the banner that was out front before they opened, they’re going to come to our performances, and we’re going to work with them on whatever they need artistically because we have artists in the visual areas and performing arts. So for example, with Public School fashion house tonight who designed their uniforms, they wanted someone to draw them, so we had our artists come and do live drawings of the guests tonight. Whatever the James needs in terms of the arts, we’re here and willing to do.

Bonnie Clearwater, Paul Lehr, & Nathalie Cadet-James

WRE: What’s been your favorite part of the hotel so far?

PL: With the James it’s just more laid back and real. I was born and raised in Miami Beach and gone to all the big openings, and a lot of the time it seems about the scene and who they can get on their guest list. But there’s just something more genuine about the James. I really like the James because they have that real spirit.

Nathalie Cadet-James

WRE: What’s it like bringing New World here to the James?

Nathalie Cadet-James, director of Friends of New World Symphony: It’s fantastic. It actually feels like a fit too because they’re committed to the arts. They know how important it is for our community, so they’re very welcoming here, and we’re happy to be a part of this cultural collaboration. We’re looking forward to sharing our love of classical music with the James and to being partners with them in the transformation that’s taking place in Miami.

WRE: What’s your favorite part of the hotel?

NCJ: What I like actually is the spirit of the hotel. It’s one of giving, obviously, because all the great cultural organizations of Miami have come together to collaborate for the community. So the fact that they’ve brought us all together is really fantastic.

The TM Sisters

WRE: What brought on this renovation and what was the inspiration? Why the James?

Lisa Zandee, Senior VP of Brand Management at Denihan Hospitality Group: Well the property has such great bones in terms of the art deco side of it, and the James brand is all about being artistically inspired and community focused, so we felt that this building was perfect to bring a James to. Our whole thing is warm modernism. So our challenge was warm modernism meets art deco in a historic building, and we felt it was a really good fit.

WRE: What’s your favorite attribute of the renovation?

LZ: I like how our designer embraced the original terrazzo floors, the porthole windows and the original reception desk as the coffee bar now. So the whole coffee bar, James club area is my favorite as far as embracing the old, but my favorite of the new is the staircase by far. It’s the most stunning architecturally and our wow factor.

Kris Wessel

WRE: How’s it been so far having your first hotel restaurant?

Kris Wessel, head of Florida Cookery: It’s been interesting. The sheer numbers of people in the kitchen versus a private restaurant where there was two to three, and now it’s 17-20. That and also the layers of corporate communication are different as well. If you want to get something done, you don’t just do it, you email chains of people and cc, reply to all, and send multiple emails to actually get something done. That’s the biggest thing. The number of people you’re communicating with and directing- multiple chefs, sous-chefs, cooks- but I love it. It’s a beautiful property and a great property to showcase Florida.

WRE: There are multiple levels to Florida Cookery here- it’s got the downstairs outdoor patio, the upstairs inside dining room, and the outdoor dining area. What’s it like catering to all the different settings?

KW: Well that’s a challenge too actually. We only have one kitchen, and it’s on the second level. We have 400 rooms, 200 pool chairs and 200 beach chairs, so producing that amount of food for all of these seats and outlets is really challenging. I know why they called me because my former restaurant had the kitchen on the second level, and my 70 seats were on the river so they know I’m used to acrobatics… (laughs)

WRE: What’s been your shining moment so far since Florida Cookery opened a couple months ago?

KW: The shining moment was last Thursday when I had 300 chefs from all over the country here for an after party for the wine and food festival. Everyone from Guy Fieri to Emeril Lagasse was here, and I had a goat on a spit at 1am, a guava-glazed goat, a smoker where I was smoking fish, ribs, oysters, and a handmade Caribbean roti station. So me injecting my soul and the real flavor of Florida Cookery to chefs at a party where they were all relaxed and at an after party here in warm miami beach, tasting Florida in this setting. And that, by far, was just great. It wasn’t a typical event, it was just an after party and allowed me to really shine.