On Friday, December 7 during Miami Art Week, VIPs including DJ Brendan Fallis, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, magician David Copperfield and Chef Thomas Keller descended on the 95-meter superyacht Kismet for Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts’ third “Pop Down” event. The idea behind the series is a play on a pop up, aimed at transforming unexpected locations beyond the walls of its hotels and resorts. Guests enjoyed specially curated dishes and cocktails by an international roster of 16 Four Seasons mixologists, chefs and pastry chefs–all handpicked from the brand’s properties around the world. Questlove DJ’ed on the second floor deck while attendees noshed on, well, everything.
Wherever you went on the seven-story yacht (owned by Four Seasons Toronto owner Shahid Khan), you were surrounded by food and beverage offerings from master mixologists like Fatima León, of Four Seasons Hotel Mexico City, Keith Motsi, of Four Seasons Hotel Beijing, and Ashish Sharma, of Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur. León, whose complex and tropical “Surrealismo” cocktail with tequila, guava juice, cinnamon syrup, ginger, cardamom and lemon juice finished with cotton candy was a huge crowd pleaser, relished the opportunity to create a special drink for the occasion. “The experience of being here in Miami for Pop Down has been amazing,” says León. “The colors, the people and the cocktails have been so inspiring for me during this trip.” León is planning to update the menu at her Fifty Mils bar in Mexico City and due to the popularity of this cocktail, she’ll likely add the creation next year.
Michelin-starred Chefs Daniel Boulud, of Café Boulud and d|bar at Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, and Chef Mauro Colagreco, of the newly reopened Four Seasons Palm Beach, showcased luxurious dishes like caviar, crab and lobster gelee and an egg cup stuffed with truffle, mushroom and fois gras bavarois (Boulud) and a warm mushroom tart with parmesan and black truffles (a signature at Colagreco’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants-ranked restaurant Mirazur) and pumpkin ravioli with white truffles (Colagreco). Chef Colagreco was excited to head up the coast to Palm Beach for the hotel’s opening. “It’s an amazing project, a very beautiful oceanfront hotel so there is lots in common with my restaurant in Menton, France,” says Chef Colagreco. “We have a pizza oven, tandoori, yakitori, many methods of cooking with fire.”
“Shahid Khan is so generous to invite us all to be here on his magnificent ship,” says Boulud. “I’ve been very happy with my relationship with the headquarters in Toronto. Tonight, we brought Cafe Boulud Toronto and a little bit of Restaurant Daniel with our charcuterie selection tonight; a hallmark of our Toronto restaurant menu.” Boulud has been busy this week in Miami visiting friends in the art world as well as spending time with chefs like Brad Kilgore at his new restaurant Kaido in the Design District. “Miami’s cultural life is vibrant,” says Boulud. “The blend of South American culture with European and American here in Miami is unique.” Boulud is an avid art collector, especially of artists that he’s gotten to know personally including Vik Muniz, Manolo Valdés, Chuck Close and Esteban Vicente.
On the lower deck spa level (compete with barber shop, sauna, pedicure station and hair salon no less), the sensorial experience continued as guests were invited to create customized perfumes from French fragrance house Atelier Cologne while surrounded by citrus trees. Also on the boat, two-story video walls displayed the works of Spanish artist Ignasi Monreal, whose digital paintings are featured in Four Seasons: The Art of Hospitality, the brand’s new coffee table book from Assouline. But that wasn’t the only artwork on display. En route through Island Gardens Marina where the superyacht was docked for the occasion, attendees were greeted by Glass Horizon, the latest Skynet installation from artist Patrick Shearn and studio Poetic Kinetics. The 35-foot high sculpture was constructed using rope, monofilament net and approximately 67,000 holographic Mylar streamers spanning 10,800 square feet and was on view as a public art work throughout the week.
The brand has plans to bring the next global event series to Hong Kong in early 2019 during Art Basel.
