Cocktails, Dinner and a Show
A MARTINI AT THE AMERICANA, TWO STEAKS AT CHRYSTIE’S, AND A TOP-NOTCH MUSICAL AT THE MIRACLE THEATER
Knowing we would return to Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre later in our evening, we started by parking at City Parking Garage #1 on Valencia, behind the theater. From there we walked to Ponce and took a trolley to The Plaza Coral Gables. The trolley ride was retro and fun, and the waiting time just minutes.
At The Plaza, we started our Saturday night trifecta with cocktails at Americana Kitchen, the open-air bar/restaurant that faces the acre of open space in front of the Loews Hotel. We sat at an outdoor table in the covered area outside the bar, the light casting an auburn hue on the courtyard kiosks, the “Waiting” statue of two giant mice, a rectangle of green grass, and the ring of fountains that frame the space.
Left: An Old Fashioned at the Americana Bar, Top: Steaks for Dinner at Christy’s Restaurant, Above: Actor’s Playhouse at the Miracle Theater
Americana serves food, but its drink menu is exceptional, with its classic cocktails and dozens of bourbons, whiskeys, cognac, scotch, and tequila to choose from. I ordered an Old Fashioned with Maker’s Mark bourbon, while my better half ordered a rum and coke, holding the rum.
From there it was an easy stroll to one of the Gables’ true institutions, Christy’s restaurant. There are other steakhouses in the Gables, and many serve fine slabs of meat. But none have the traditional steakhouse feel of Christy’s, with its dark red walls, its Old Florida tin ceiling (also red), its vintage leather chairs, its dim lighting, and its separate bar room. We forgive proprietor Chris Klaick for updating the paintings (formerly Cuban landscapes and still lifes) with popand modern art, because he has kept a hard tiller on keeping the place as it was. And the new artwork, I confess, seems to make the place a little hipper, in a Mad Man cocktail culture kind of way.
We ordered the rib eye steak and the prime rib. Christy’s is one of the only places in the Gables that still serves prime rib, and only until they run out. That is one advantage of a 6 pm reservation. We split one of their legendary Caesar salads, which more than lived up to the hype, and ordered a dozen garlicy escargot, with a sauce that had to be soaked up with their warm bread. Christy’s has a relatively short menu, but what they do, they do extremely well. Does anyone else offer oysters Rockefeller?
Fully content on the gustatory front, albeit a little lighter in the wallet, we left with plenty of time to catch a north-bound trolley and walk to the Miracle Theatre from the stop just south of the Mile. We had tickets to the Actors’ Playhouse production of “Jersey Boys.” By the time you read this “Jersey Boys” will be gone, but “Waitress,” the theater’s next production, is sure to deliver the same high level of theatrical professionalism.
For those who have not attended a musical at Actors’ Playhouse, be prepared for production values that are national level; it is a memorable experience in a wonderfully cavernous theater that could be on New York’s Broadway. “Jersey Boys” was a blast, right up there with their previous productions of “Mamma Mia,” “Memphis,” “Get on Your Feet,” etc.
After the show was over, we walked past Vinya and Fratellino’s to the Paseo just east of the theater, which leads back to the Garage #1, complimenting ourselves on our strategic foresight.