coral gables kitchen tour: an invitation to snoop

the Coral Gables Kitchen Tour is an annual event put on by the Coral Gables Community Foundation - seeing as I'm both a life-long Gables-er and an Old Lady In Training (did you catch on the MIAMI NICE Instagram that I went to an orchid class last week?! - @miaminicemag) I was super excited to attend this early Saturday morning event.

If you can get me out of bed at 9 on a Saturday morning, you know I'm all in. Saturday morning, I jumped out of bed ready to go sneak around some Gables houses with my friend Ashley from Stanzione87 (if you haven't been - I mean, you're missing the best pizza in Miami. Click here to see some photos that will have you jumping in your car and heading out for a Napolitana pie).

The event has a funny structure: you meet in a fancy kitchen store by Merrick Park for breakfast and mingling. There, you receive a booklet with a map of the open homes. Then hop in your car (or your bike if you're ambitious) and drive from house to house in whatever order you'd like. Let me tell you, there was never a better day for my Barbie Dream Car - it was a super nice day to drive around in a convertible. It really amped up the whole Lady of Leisure vibe.

Once you're at the houses, the living area is all open (sadly, the bedrooms and more private areas are roped off) and you kind of wander around oohing and ahhing. There are local Gables businesses operating little mini pop-ups - La Taberna Giralda was serving black rice with squid in one house, Books & Books had a little table set up with coffee table books in another (image below), Aragon 101 did a very quirky tablescape, and there was sangria from a polka-dotted bottle in another (I saw it for sale at Epicure).

The best homes were the first ones we visited, the historic, very Coral Gables houses on Alhambra Circle.

I'll let the photos do a bit of the talking for the interiors, but I'll say this - next year, if you're a snoop like me, sign up for the Coral Gables Kitchen Tour. It's the perfect way to spend a February-in-Miami Saturday morning.

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-13_20150217-162029_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-14_20150217-162040_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-10_20150217-162025_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-16_20150217-162058_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-15_20150217-162100_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-12_20150217-162019_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-11_20150217-162022_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-9_20150217-162036_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-7_20150217-162032_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-8_20150217-162034_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-6_20150217-162016_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-4_20150217-162010_1.jpg

b2ap3_thumbnail_unnamed-5_20150217-162014_1.jpg

StylePatricia GuarchFebruary 17, 2015coral gables, design, houses, only in miami, sweatywinter