● Greenstreet Cafe (Coconut Grove) - Mosey on over to this Grove hot spot on Saturday mornings with your pup in tow. Always a little wait for an outdoor seat, but absolutely worth it. The watermelon lemonade is divine, but if you are looking for a drink of the non-virgin variety, sort opt for the blood Mary.
● Balans (South Beach) - You don’t need a night on the town when you can have the mimosas at Balans. Get sloshed after a delish meal and keep the energy up with a game of I Spy. It can’t get any better than pointing out a Lincoln Road tourist set over eggs Benedict.
● Baleen (Coconut Grove) - May we recommend this resto for the views alone. Secluded from the usual cluster of tourists, locals arrive decked in their Sunday best. An assortment of brunch fare is presented inside, but definitely ask for a seat by the bay.

As regional director of nightlife for Morgans Hotel Group in Miami, Josh Wagner oversees Skybar at the Shore Club, Sunset Lounge at Mondrian, and Florida Room at the Delano. Here, he talks to us about cachaça, Grace Jones shedding tears, and growing a beard.

What are your favorite places in Miami, outside of Morgans properties?
The pool at The Standard Hotel is the most relaxing place in Miami, period. There’s an incredible place called Silvia’s. It's this inland restaurant on the canal where nobody speaks any English, and you can pick your fish in an icebox right there, and they cook it up right on the spot for you. I love the bar at Smith & Wollensky. I like Abbey Brewing Co. because it's a tiny bar that just has beer and a dart board, and on any night off, there's nothing better than a pint and a game of darts.

Sure, you could pay to stay and play, but why limit yourself to just one aquatic experience?

1. Delano - Getting past security may be harder than scoring a table at Casa Tua on a Saturday night, but it's well worth it. If waving to a pretend friend on the other side of the velvet rope fails, head to the bar; chances are, spenders will be welcomed. Plan your wardrobe around lounging; no one comes here for dipping.
2. The Shore Club - More modern than tropical, getting into this pool is fairly simple. No special trickery required. Put away your camera; shooting celebrities will get you kicked out.
3. The Setai - Access to this sought-after pool is doable from the outdoor restaurant by the boardwalk. Favorite among the Parisians and hip-hop moguls, Setai is "ze bomb."

● Plat Bleu (South Beach) - Don't know if anything inside the Delano can be considered "casual," but French brasserie meets Brazilian churrascaria is close as it gets.
● Dada Bar (South Beach) - Old-school artsy lounge with tricked-out sound system and celebrity DJs, sans pretense.

Alan Philips and Josh Shames are founders of SKY Group and Deluxe Experience. Their clients include One Group (STK), Gerber Group (Whiskey Bar), Morgans Hotel Group (Hudson, Royalton, The Shore Club), Borgata Hotel, Brier Group (Highbar) ... the list goes on.

What are your favorite places in the world?
Alan Philips: Sushi of Gari. They have the freshest fish, simply and creatively prepared, in understated surroundings. I don't think that there is anywhere you can experience something as delicious and unexpected as the salmon tomato onion sushi. Bagatelle has incredible energy and music, very New York. I recently had the pleasure of staying and experiencing the newest Morgans Hotel in Miami, Mondrian Miami. Marcel Wanders has designed a spectacular hotel that captures the surprise and whimsy that you first felt when entering the Delano 20 years ago.
Josh Shames: The Box is an amazing New York experience, and I've never felt the energy from a nightclub that I have felt at Palladium in Acapulco, Mexico. 2000-plus people, with floor-to-ceiling glass walls over looking the Acapulco bay. As for restaurants, the China Club in Hong Kong or Il Latini in Florence, Italy, are the two of my favorite dining experiences. If I had a last meal, then it would be Don Pepe's in Ozone Park.

Jeffrey Beers, the creative mind behind Bostonian restaurant tour de force Bond, on his many passions, pacing department stores, and the differences between New York and Dubai.

How would you describe yourself? I’m a passionate and intense artist. I’m an architect by training, but I’m also a glassblower. My interest is in the arts and painting in general. When I was in architecture school at RISD, I met Dale Chihuly, the glass blower. I became a glass blower under him as I was studying architecture. I had exposure to the world of glass art and all sorts of very talented artisans which made a huge difference in my perceptions as an architect. Glass blowing is all about form and balance -- being able to balance volumes and explore forms from a strict architectural sense to a fluid sense. So glass blowing allowed me to really explore form and color and things that were impossible to study on paper. The only way to physically draw these things was on paper. It taught me so much.

We tried for a top 10, but settled for 5. After all, we are in recession, people. If Cup O' Noodle and sparkling cider is on your New Year’s Eve menu, may we suggest rolling out a blanket on Ocean Drive and 8th Street for some free-of-charge fireworks viewing. If, however you wanna be a baller, consider the following.

1. The Mondrian Miami hotel is teaming up with Tommy Pooch and Alan Roth to ring in "Recessison," a.k.a. NYE 2009. Two hundred bucks will buy you an entry into the Sunset Lounge, where a 20-piece orchestra will mix with tunes spun by DJ Tavin. Resident eatery Asia de Cuba offers a range of packages depending on your wallet and/or appetite.
2. If you're a reality TV junky, head on up to the Shore Club, where Kristin Cavallari is set to make an appearance. Organized by Skybar and New York’s Tenjune, live performances will include Busta Rhymes, Ron Brownz, and Pras. Mos Def spins while you pay -- $275 to be exact.

Steve Haffner, the man behind the curtain at Kayak.com, reveals his jet-setting ways, mid-meeting bar games, and the destinations you should add to your globetrotting roster.

Where can we find you outside the office? I travel a lot, and I love the restaurant scene. La Esquina in New York is a great Mexican restaurant in the basement of a nondescript building. I like Rick Bayliss' place in Chicago, the Frontera Grill. I love the bar scene at the Sanderson Hotel in London. It's a good mix of Europeans, Russians, and the occasional expat.



Who do you admire in your industry? There are those larger than life types: David Neelman, who started jetBlue -- he's a serial airline launcher who has made money every time. He just launched Azul in Brazil last week, and he's amazing. Another is Jeff Boyd of Priceline, who has been there for eight or nine years. He took a nice little company and made it outperform everybody in the industry. Now it's worth $3.5 billion.



A cluster of nearly nude baby-faced models holding one of twelve artist-designed pop-up books greeted guests entering the Krug champagne/Visionaire 55: Surprise party at the Raleigh Hotel. The celebrated boxed set of hardcover books includes designs by photog legends Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, and Steven Klein. I couldn’t help but marvel at Testino’s subject focus on male models -- how incredibly fitting.

Recession schmession. At the Art Basel events in Miami, the champagne is still flowing like Fiji water. From the rumor that UBS would not tone down their annual dinner and gala -- even amid scandal speculation -- to the abundance of caviar on hors d'ouvre trays, it all smells like decadence to me. Cartier hosted a preview of “Diamonds, Gold and Dreams,” an approximately seven-minute film by David Lynch projected inside the Cartier Dome in the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens. The transfixing film features cascading diamonds and Cartier jewels on 180 degrees of ceiling projection with an equally mesmerizing score. It played once every hour, leaving partygoers hungry for more. The Dome, built specifically for this event and film, took two weeks to construct and will be disassembled directly after Basel.