Why the tech set is trading San Francisco for Miami
The Floridian city is creating waves with new hotels, eateries and art spaces, a boon not only for its new citizens, but also for visitors
Pharrell Williams and David Grutman at the Goodtime Hotel
Credit: Alice Gao
The pandemic has triggered a “tech-exodus” of digital entrepreneurs from San Francisco to more spacious cities in the US, and Miami, for one, has benefitted. With its year-round sunshine, low taxes, relaxed restrictions and ocean you can actually swim in, the city has spent the past year welcoming Bay Area émigrés with open arms; the Republican mayor Francis Suarez has even taken to Twitter to greet these future tech titans, pairing them with other arrivals – ex-New York venture capitalists who’ve swapped micro apartments in Manhattan for spacious Miami beach pads.
COVID-19 has changed the way the course is presented. Instead of seven sessions, there are five, and social-distancing guidelines have shrunk the class capacity from 200 to around 140. All attendees must fill out an online COVID questionnaire before entering campus.
Oh, and the class is conducted outdoors.
Grutman and his team managed to transform the rooftop of the university s Kovens Conference Center into a stage complete with colored spotlights and a hot pink step-and-repeat. Velvet ropes the kind you d see in a nightclub create sections for social distancing. Students are seated six feet apart from one another and wear masks during the class.
Rendering courtesy of Groot Hospitality/Carma Connected
At Winker s Diner, the American classic receives a whimsical facelift. The 240-seat diner, decorated in teal-colored Pullman-style booths and stainless steel-rimmed wood tabletops, will replace the jukebox of yesteryear with a more Grutman-appropriate DJ booth. What other diner has a DJ booth? says Grutman, explaining that the decision was less to provide a nightclub vibe and more to make sure the music matched the ambiance. I want everything to be perfect, and I don t want to leave the music programming to some streaming service, he explains. I want to have someone there to set the tone. The restaurant will offer American comfort food: sandwiches, soups, all-day breakfast, milkshakes, and floats.