Canines Lapping Up Luxury in Miami Beach
By Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 5, 2006; A02
MIAMI BEACH -- With pink pearls hanging delicately around her neck and her silken, pearly white locks flowing in the ocean breeze, Teddy luxuriated on a plush lounge chair covered with a white towel emblazoned with the Ritz-Carlton crest on a pool deck overlooking the Atlantic.
A white-uniformed attendant offered champagne, and Teddy's companion, Sandra Seligman of Detroit, reached for a fluted glass as she schmoozed with passersby and soaked in rays from the subtropical sun.
Teddy opted for water, which seemed more fitting, as Teddy is a 2-year-old mix of Shih Tzu, poodle and a bit of terrier who travels with Seligman everywhere and enjoys the finest of treatment -- especially on Miami Beach.
This city has gone to the dogs.
Its posh pastel hotels offer dog beds and menus, peanut butter treats and rawhide bones, and waiters trot up to poolside with food and beverage for man and his best friend. Patrons of outdoor restaurants on famed Lincoln Road Mall sometimes trip over dogs leashed to their owners' chairs, lapping Perrier right along with the humans.
Never mind that it's not legal for the dogs to be there (dogs are not allowed in public areas where food is being served). It's longtime tradition -- and that trumps the law.
"Dogs are part of our culture here," said Nanette Rodriguez, public information officer for the city of Miami Beach. As to why the city hasn't tried to enforce the law: "The public is tolerant, the restaurants are tolerant and we've never had a problem."
Restaurateurs know the score.
"The owners love their dogs as their own children, so if you are hostile to the dog, you get an irate customer," said Jane Choi, a manager at Balans on Lincoln Road, who said she could be identified only if it was made clear that she welcomes dogs at her restaurant.
Meanwhile, dogs go to work with owners (who have sympathetic employers), are feted with birthday parties and are adorned with duds from the Dog Bar, a 24-hour establishment that calls itself "the nation's most unique full service luxury specialty pet supply store."
(Let your dog decide: for lounging, perhaps, a $300 mid-century-design sofa inspired "from vintage Le Corbusier seating for humans!" and for that special occasion, a tux or wedding gown with veil for $100 or more.)
City planners designing renovations to public parks are making sure to include dog runs and space for dog owners and their pets to mingle. Though dogs aren't allowed on the sand -- the same is true at most other beach resorts -- owners have won the right from city officials to take their dogs on the Beachwalk, a paved public trail along the beach. (Tasteful dispensers provide plastic bags for owners to collect their dogs' business.)
There is no denying tension between dog lovers and dog non-lovers here on Miami Beach, where some of the latter find the former unacceptably canine-obsessed.
Recently at Balans, for example, a man poured a bottle of water on his hot dog (the air was stifling), and the dog, doing what every wet dog would do, shook off the water, thus spraying droplets of dog-contaminated H20 on a table where the diners were not amused.
Elaine Somma lives in Coral Gables and brings her deaf, nearly blind, albino dachshund named Mos Def (really), to Miami Beach for the annual Dachshund Winterfest. But she said she would rather not dig into a plate of stone crabs while a dog is shaking its dander all over the plate. "Can't we separate from our dogs for meals?" she asked.
Despite this, dog lovers seem to be getting the upper hand here.
In June, the Florida state legislature created a three-year pilot program allowing local governments to issue permits to restaurants that want to allow dogs in outside areas under specified rules. A spokesman for the city attorney's office said no action has been taken to set up such a program in Miami Beach.
Meanwhile, the upscale Loews Hotel now has companion programs: "Loews Loves Kids" and "Loews Loves Pets."
Said vacationer Krista Myers of Boston: "I prefer the dogs over the kids."
The Hotel Victor on Ocean Drive has a Sunday happy hour called "Lazy Dog Day," which front office supervisor Jason Brennan said gives "dogs a chance to mingle with other dogs."
Dogs weighing 25 pounds and less are welcome at the hotel. At check-in they get a bed, food and water bowls; at bedtime "a turn-down amenity," which might be a specially designed bone with a Hotel Victor wrapper, and a bottle of Evian, Brennan said.
On Lincoln Road, dogs on some days are as numerous as people -- and at least as well-coiffed and decked out in canine couture. Westies, bichon s frisés and Chihuahuas travel on bicycles, skateboards, in the pockets of lightweight coats, in carriages and on jeweled leashes.
It's one big social scene, from morning until late at night.
"He likes the people," said Kelly Feig, who came from her home in North Miami Beach one Sunday morning to walk Theolonious, a 1 1/2 -year-old 60-pound boxer. "And he likes seeing all the sights and smells. He likes seeing other dogs. He has fun. When he sees big dogs, he likes to play rough. With little dogs, he's very protective."
Seligman said of Teddy's visit to Miami Beach: "She's exhausted because she's met so many dogs."
Jay Richards of Philadelphia, also vacationing on Miami Beach, had one regret. "I have two Rottweilers, and if I could bring my dogs on vacation, I so would. They are too darn big," he said. |
