Mayfair House Hotel & Garden

Mayfair House Hotel & Garden offers a different perspective on a familiar destination. It’s set neither in glitzy Miami Beach nor in a Downtown Miami skyscraper but in Coconut Grove, the upscale village-like arts and entertainment district along the coast a few minutes to the southwest of downtown. The original Mayfair is an uncommonly stylish 1980s icon by architect Kenneth Treister, and it’s been reverently updated by Goodrich NYC into the hotel you see today: the Mayfair House Hotel & Garden.

The word “garden” is in there for a reason; the hotel’s open atrium is filled with lush greenery, from towering palms to leaves that fringe the upper levels. The rooms are decked out in saturated colors, and combine clean contemporary lines with lively retro ornament; some include claw-foot tubs or vintage typewriters. It’s a far cry from Miami Beach minimalism, in the rooms and public spaces alike, and that’s an endorsement, not a criticism.

Those public spaces are the work of the local food-and-beverage wizards Lost Boy & Co.; the Mayfair Grill is a wood-fired Southwest-inspired restaurant plus a garden café and a bar that specializes in mezcal and tequila, while Sipsip Calypso Rum Bar, on the rooftop, is a tribute to the Bahamian settlers who were Coconut Grove’s founding residents.