In early April I was able to tag along with Michael on a business trip to Miami; it was his first big conference in his new role, and I was going to be meeting a bunch of people whose names I heard a lot but had yet to put faces to so there was a fair amount of excitement all around. I sat down and treated myself as the client--I threw myself into research, cross-checking many best-of/must-visit places, and I have to say that I was pretty pleased with the map I generated for us. It was way more ambitious than I could ever conquer in the time we’d be there, but that’s why I’m a big believer in options.
On our first night there, the group was trying to decide where to go for dinner and the idea of going to a steakhouse was thrown out as a suggestion. Knowing I would be hanging with a bunch of sales and sales-adjacent people for the week, I made sure that I had a good steakhouse recommendation at the ready and showed M’s boss the menu for Red, considered to be among the best options in Miami Beach. (Apparently Playboy listed it as the sexiest steakhouse in the country, but this wasn’t information I shared with the group because of, you know, professionalism.) We made our way down to South Beach, had a fantastic dinner, and it seemed like everyone was pretty happy.
While I didn’t dominate the suggestions for the rest of our time there, I’m pleased to report that every place I did suggest was a solid success, whether it was cocktails at Bar Centro in the SLS, really good Italian food at Upland, or divine ceviche at CVI.CHE 105. (I even got to take everyone to Anthony Bourdain’s favorite bar in the city!) I’ll be writing more about these places in this space in the future, but in the meantime, I’m just so happy that my first stab at this in a quasi-professional capacity was a rousing success.