Greetings ,

Monday, February 20 is President's Day, traditionally held on the third Monday of February, honoring presidents of the United States, including George Washington.

Tuesday, February 21 is Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), marking the last day before Lent, and often associated with lavish parades and parties in New Orleans.

As always, make plans to enjoy the great outdoors in our little city. Walk down Miracle Mile, experience the live theatre and the best movies, browse the book stores, look into the art galleries and meet up with friends at the restaurants -- including restaurant row in the 100 block of Giralda. Visit the parks and public spaces to appreciate the bounties of nature. 

Enjoy the best of Coral Gables in the coming days.

Robert and Robin Burr

please enjoy this image that reminds us of the beauty and serenity of our majestic city

The remnants of old trolley tracks along Segovia offer a hint about early transportation in Coral Gables

click on the image to see enlargement.

Coral Gables scenic photo illustrations © Robin and Robert Burr.

Every Tuesday

Schnitzel Time is Back at Fritz and Franz

Meet up with friends at Fritz and Franz Bierhaus for the Tuesday Schnitzel Special all day long; and Wednesday to Friday during lunch from 11am to 2pm. Buy one and get the second for half price -- a Coral Gables Bavarian tradition. Fritz And Franz Bierhaus offers authentic German and Bavarian cuisine, a fantastic selection of imported beer on tap (order Das Boot size if you dare). There's a fine selection of wine and a full liquor bar with cocktails. Try the oven roasted pork shank weekly specials, the gourmet burgers, the brats, Swabian käsespätzle pasta, the Rib-Eye Steak Au Poivre, and the best German potato salad in South Florida. After the meal, try a shot of schnapps or honey liqueur. The outdoor plaza -- home to many of Coral Gables' best holiday special events -- is an ideal setting for gatherings. Call 305-774-1883. https://bierhaus.cc

Starts Friday

Oscar Shorts at Gables Cinema

A perennial hit with audiences around the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of Oscar-nominated shorts at Gables Cinema. With all three categories offered -- Animated, Live Action and Documentary -- this is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your Oscar pool). https://www.gablescinema.com

Friday, February 17 at 7:30pm

Seraphic Fire - Enlightenment Festival - Life | Death

During an age of high mortality, Johann Sebastian Bach experienced the stark and tenuous nature of life and death firsthand. As a result, Bach’s music of human existence and death is, unsurprisingly, probing and profound. Seraphic Fire sings two of Bach’s haunting cantatas on death, and Reginald Mobley is featured in the solo alto cantata Vergnügte Ruh in this musical evening of inspiration and reflection. The performance takes place at St. Philip's Episcopal, 1121 Andalusia Ave. Get details and purchase tickets online.

Friday, February 17 at 7:30pm

Luciana Souza and Frost Jazz Ensembles

Brazilian vocalist and composer Luciana Souza is one of jazz's leading singers and interpreters. Her work transcends traditional musical boundaries, offering solid roots in jazz, a sophisticated lineage in world music, and an enlightened approach to new music. She joins the Frost jazz vocal ensembles in concert at Gusman Hall and also presents a solo set. Get details and purchase tickets online. https://ci.ovationtix.com/1811/performance/11132690

Friday/Saturday, February 17-18 at 8pm

West Side Story - Live Concert Performance

Enjoy a concert version of Leonard Bernstein’s beloved West Side Story at Pinecrest Gardens' Banyan Bowl Theater with the spectacular Alhambra Orchestra and some of the most outstanding voices in South Florida. Tickets are $20–30. Call 888-622-4849. http://www.miamiactingco.org

Saturday at 8am

Farmers' Market at City Hall

Every Saturday through March 25, from 8am to 2pm, bring the family out to Merrick Park across from City Hall for the Coral Gables Farmers Market. Local vendors bring fresh Florida produce, prepared foods, baked goods, flowers and plants, plus activities for children. https://www.coralgables.com/events/farmers-market-merrick-park

Saturday, February 18 at 9am

Creating an Oasis for Wildlife in your Garden

Join Mary Benton -- founder of Bound by Beauty, a non-profit organization that fights climate change with butterflies -- to learn how easy it is to transform yourself into a climate change champion, and your garden into an oasis for important wildlife. Learn how you and your garden can be part of the solution at this special seminar held during the Coral Gables Farmers Market. For details email specialevents@coralgables.com

February 18-20

Coconut Grove Arts Festival

The legacy of the Coconut Grove Arts Festival continues with a long weekend of fabulous artists and artworks on display throughout the street of Coconut Grove. Proceeds help fund year-round arts programs. Since its inception in 1963, the association has awarded hundreds of scholarships to students who attend fine arts programs in local schools.

https://cgaf.com

Saturday, February 18 at noon

Bird Day at Tropical Audubon

After a two year pandemic hiatus, Bird Day returns to the Tropical Audubon Society campus in South Miami. Now in its ninth iteration, this annual Bird Day is an engaging, educational afternoon chock-full of enriching outdoor experiences. Featuring interactive activities and prizes, the free nature festival is designed for children and families, students, scouts and naturalists of every age, with rehabilitated wild birds and animals rescued by the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station and Wildlife Rescue of Dade County. Take part in Owl Pellet dissection. Craft Piping Plover chicks. Hone your binocular skills. Try your hand at Nature Journaling. Hear author Marta Magellan read her new children’s book: Flying Jewels: A Hummingbird Story. Get details and RSVP online. https://support.tropicalaudubon.org/a/bird-day-2023

Saturday, February 18 at noon

Touki Bouki

Film + Conversation Event -- the screening will be followed by a conversation with Dr. Patoimbasba Nikiema, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies / Global Black and Afropean Studies at the University of Miami. With a stunning mix of the surreal and the naturalistic, Djibril Diop Mambéty paints a vivid, fractured portrait of Senegal in the early 1970s. In this French New Wave-influenced fantasy-drama, two young lovers long to leave Dakar for the glamour and comforts of France, but their escape plan is beset by complications both concrete and mystical. Characterized by dazzling imagery and music, the alternately manic and meditative Touki Bouki is widely considered one of the most important African films ever made. Touki Bouki was restored in 2008 by the Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and the family of director Djibril Diop Mambéty. https://www.gablescinema.com/events/touki-bouki/

Saturday, February 18 at 9pm

Risky Business - 40th Anniversary

Meet Joel Goodsen, an industrious college-bound seventeen-year-old, a responsible and trustworthy son. Meet Lana, young, hot, exquisite and street-smart. Joel's (Tom Cruise) two preoccupations in life are: getting into college and having sex -- which until now has been just a fantasy. But Joel's parents are going on vacation and leaving him in charge of the house. Now, what Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) is going to teach Joel about sex and the free enterprise system in this contemporary coming-of-age tale is every parent's nightmare and a very Risky Business. Writer/director Paul Brickman (Deal of the Century, Handle with Care) deftly explores the teenage dilemma of growing up good-hearted but guilt-ridden. Set in the materialistic realm of upper-middle-class kids competing to get into the right college, Risky Business offers perceptive and often hilarious insights into love, sex and the free enterprise system. https://www.gablescinema.com/events/risky-business/

Sunday, February 19 from noon to 3pm

Woman's Club Centennial Fashion Show and Brunch

The Coral Gables Woman's Club will be celebrating 100 years of community service with a  Fashion Show and Brunch spectacular featuring clothing from designer Nathalie Moya and Bloom Boutique, modeled with jewelry accessories from Lele Reis Boutique. This is the premier event of their Centennial Year -- focusing on women-owned businesses and services. Invite all the women in your circle to attend, see the show, nibble on brunch bites made by R Catering, and drink some bubbly... with more surprises for attendees. The Coral Gables Woman's Club, founded in 1923, appreciates your support as it strives to better serve our community in a variety of ways -- but most importantly, since 1939 -- their free Children's Dental Clinic, providing free dental services to low income children in Miami Dade county. Your participation helps to bring beautiful smiles to their faces. The Woman's Club is located at 1001 E. Ponce de Leon Blvd. Call 305-733-5290. https://www.gfwccoralgableswomansclub.org/events 

Sunday, February 19 at 1pm

The Manchurian Candidate 

Screening with post-film conversation featuring award-winning filmmaker and author Gaspar González. A U.S. Army platoon, captured by Communists during the Korean War, is whisked to Manchuria for three nightmarish days of experimental drug-and-hypnosis-induced brainwashing. The aftermath transforms one of the captors -- decorated with the Congressional Medal of Honor -- into an operational assassin with a mission, and with a domineering mother who has intentions to promote her henpecked husband's political career. Originally released during the Cuban missile crisis at the highest point of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, the film is considered one of the most sophisticated political satires ever made. https://www.gablescinema.com/events/the-manchurian-candidate/

Sunday, February 19 at 9pm

2001: A Space Odyssey

4K Restoration supervised by Christopher Nolan. Stanley Kubrick redefined the limits of filmmaking in his classic science fiction masterpiece, a contemplation on the nature of humanity, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stone Age Earth: In the presence of a mysterious black obelisk, pre-humans discover the use of tools -- and weapons -- violently taking first steps toward intelligence. 1999: On Earth's moon astronauts uncover another mysterious black obelisk. 2001: Between Earth and Jupiter, the spacecraft's intelligent computer makes a mistake that kills most of the human crew -- then continues to kill to hide its error. Beyond Time: The sole survivor of the journey to Jupiter ascends to the next level of humanity. Based on the short story The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke. Award-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan, a longtime admirer of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, worked closely with the team at Warner Bros. Pictures throughout the restoration process, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

https://www.gablescinema.com/events/space-odyssey/

Monday, February 20 at 8pm

Jazz Monday - Two Voices - Two Trumpets - Kate Hamann and Chris Santiago

Every Monday, the Miami Jazz Coop presents great musicians representing a wide range of jazz with cabaret style seating to ensure an intimate jazz experience at the UU Congregation of Miami, 7701 SW 76 Avenue (Ira Sullivan Way). Enjoy Two Voices - Two Trumpets - Kate Hamann and Chris Santiago, starting at 8pm. Get details and tickets online.

Wednesday, February 22 at 6pm

Edouard Duval-Carrié - The World As I Know It

Attend a conversation with artist Edouard Duval-Carrié. Learn about his creative process and the wealth of references in his recent work now on exhibit at the Coral Gables Museum. Get details and RSVP online.

Starts Friday, February 24

A Doll's House, Part 2

As a door slams in 1879 Norway, a young wife and mother leaves behind her family, freeing herself from the shackles of traditional societal constraints. Now, 15 years later, that same door opens to reveal Nora, a changed woman with an incredibly awkward favor to ask the people whom she abandoned. Lucas Hnath’s bitingly funny sequel to Ibsen’s revolutionary masterpiece unfolds in a series of bristling stand-offs that reveal in Nora’s world, much like our own, behind every opinion there is a person, and a slamming door isn’t just an end, but also the chance for a new beginning. A Doll's House, Part 2 continues at GableStage through March 19. Get details and purchase tickets online.

Saturday, February 25 at 9:30am

Parkinson's Revolution Ride

Join the free charity ride to raise awareness and funds for Parkinson's Disease, powered by Parkinson's Revolution, and hosted at Rukus Cycling Studios at 253 Giralda. The event consists of two rides: first at 10am, which is welcome to be taken by any and all, including those who have Parkinson's -- followed by a bit more challenging ride at 11am, before cocktail hour. Call 786-600-7154. Get details online.

Save The Date
Sunday, February 26 at 4pm

March Madness III... In February

This performance by the Greater Miami Symphonic Band at Pinecrest Gardens features many famous marches, but maybe not so obvious. Led by Music Director, Robert Longfield, the program includes the "River Kwai March," "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" (Wagner), "Star Wars," "In Quest of Excellence" (Robert Longfield original composition), and "If My Friends Could See Me Now," sung by vocalist Susie Blank Wolfe. Tickets are $20 for adults, $5 for children over age 5 and for students with school ID, and are available at the box office on the concert day, or in advance online. Free admission to the Gardens after 3pm with adult ticket on the day of the concert. Call the GMSB HotLine 305-273-7687 or get details online.

Dependable Friendly Service

Two Computer Guys

Since 1998, the team at Two Computer Guys has been available for safe, reliable, efficient and friendly service -- for small businesses, families, students and anyone that needs computer help. They solve problems and get computers up and running at top speed quickly. Serving more than a thousand clients in South Florida over the past three decades. Just call when you need a little help. 305-444-1984. https://www.twocomputerguys.com