There aren’t many city hotels outside of NYC that make you feel like you’ve just stepped onto a movie set, but the historic Fontainebleau Miami Beach has built an experience untethered to the tyranny of time, unconcerned with formidable competition; standing confidently on South Beach with the kind of swagger only a chiseled Grand Dame could muster.
Many celebrities note this as their favourite hotel in the state. Jay-Z and Ye famously held a wild Watch the Throne release party here. The highly polished property has also starred in many Hollywood staples, including Goldfinger and Scarface – two films driven by aesthetics and grounded with a sense of place.
It’s not hard to see why the property glows with such a storied reputation when you strut into the sweet-smelling lobby, which swirls with an unforgettable signature scent that’s light, luxurious and clean. The heady aroma is one such example of Fontainebleau’s incredible distinction, reiterating that scent is one of the most underrated design elements in any space.
Signature scents are vastly underused in the hotel industry. When they are, they’re usually generic and largely forgettable. It’s been just under a year since I stayed two nights as a guest of the Fontainebleau, and I still remember exactly how the lobby smelt. Exactly.
Bergamot and lemon give way to a heart of rosewater before melting down to the base notes of jasmine and lavender. It’s a masterfully orchestrated blend – one of many ways this historic property, which has been open since 1954, muscles through the fickleness of modernity to remain one of the best luxury hotels in the entire country.
The hotel’s original owner purchased Havery Firestone’s seaside mansion to build the hotel in the 1950s. Keeping the palatial, Mansion-style schtick was a very good idea.
Look up and you’ll spot a trio of $1 million gold crystal chandeliers shaped like upside-down wedding cakes, their nuanced glow dancing over a lounge area, illuminating a white marble floor decorated with black marble bow ties – an important motif for the hotel that nods to the hotel’s original designer, Morris Lapidus and his whimsical sense of style.
Despite this, there’s an obvious sense that the hotel’s glory days are far removed. Peering over into the backyard, a palatial garden of pools and bars, I picture what partying here would have been like in the 80s. With billion-dollar views of South Beach and taller-than-tall palms in the foreground, it would have been the most glamorous scene in America. It looks like the overworked grounds of a wealthy celebrity’s mansion.
And while the age is obvious, it’s not hard to tell that this is very much still a prestige stay, coveted by party-minded rich folk who fly in to soak up Miami’s hedonistic summer air each year. The hotel is the embodiment of a Rick Ross song: sophisticated, lush and indulgent with an undercurrent of ferociousness.
None of that is by accident. Fontainebleau Miami Beach is a masterclass in luxury, looking and feeling more pretentious and unapproachable than it actually is.
Location
Fontainebleau Miami Beach is no longer just its main tower. The hotel has around 1,500 rooms across multiple towers now, all conceived as its own complex tied together by its lavish backyard that is a hop jump away from the golden sands of Miami Beach.
Millionaire’s Row is what they call it, and it’s not hard to see why. If obscene wealth papered by old money had an aesthetic, it’d be this Art Deco side of Miami Beach spliced with its beachy lifestyle. Miami Modern was birthed on these grounds by Lapidus.
Fontainebleau is but one of several impressive buildings in the area, but it’s easily the most noticeable thanks to its curved exterior and the long, segmented balcony that runs across each room and each floor of the main tower. It’s a knockout; feeling both like a relic of Miami’s characteristic design, which typically matches bold, monochromatic colours with off-white.
The downside here is that you’re not on the most fashionable side of Miami Beach. There’s plenty to do up this end, but most of the modernity has trickled down to South Beach. The property is just above Mid Beach, about a 10-15 minute Uber from where most visitors want to be these days.
Design
While the Fontainebleau’s rolodex of celebrity regulars would swell, perhaps the most famous association for the hotel was with The Rat Pack. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford were all frequenting the mansion-like hotel in the 1960s. That’s why the winding walkway between the main tower (Chateau Tower) and Sorrento Tower is defined by its big, flashy display of black-and-white photographs documenting the hotel’s relationship with the legendary musicians.
For a hotel that certainly has the space for it (there’s still a lot of unused space between all the towers), there’s a surprising – and disappointing – lack of art and exhibitions celebrating such a rich stock of celebrity history. It’s a change I hope to see if I ever find my way back to this era-defining hotel, not only because the Fontainebleau Miami Beach has such a rich legacy worth celebrating, but retrospectives like this help ground guests with a sense of place, which enhances any stay considerably.
Rooms
The rooms at the Cheateau Tower, the oldest of the four towers, were recently remodeled. And I guess that was a big deal for the Fontainebleau seeing as the redress was around the same time the brand finally found its footing elsewhere in the country (by opening the most lavishly modern and unapologetically decadent resort in Las Vegas right now).
Regardless, it seems mostly to have been surface-level changes. My 400-square-foot Oceanfront Guest Room with Balcony did look like it was just given a fresh lick of paint, furthering the coastal design with a simple, but effective, palette of blue and white with a few modern art pieces to add vibrant pops. The visuals are mostly taken care of by what’s outside, however, with views from the balcony stretching far out to sea.
There are some rooms without balconies but given the indoor-outdoor space makes the room shine, I would imagine it’d feel like a compromise not having that extra bit hanging over Fontainebleau’s showy backyard sprawl. I’d imagine it’d be much quieter, though.
The backyard was buzzing for most of the day. Heaving but nowhere near what I imagine it used to be like, but enough for a Miami first-timer like me to get an easy idea of what Miami’s lifestyle is like. Party by day, party by night, recover poolside. It’s West Hollywood, but cooler. The noise travels far and wide, but the balcony door and windows are soundproofed enough that noise only slaps you in the face as soon as you open up.
I opted to keep the door open for most of the time I was in the room. Miami’s hot and moist air must be draining in July and August, but in May during my visit, it’s perhaps the most pleasant heat I’ve ever felt. Welcoming it into my room felt like a warm hug, albeit one accompanied by the chorus of party-minded guests dancing and drinking in the pool all day.
Food & Drink
Fontainebleau Miami Beach has 9 restaurants, 8 bars, 2 additional poolside bars, and outdoor poolside cabana cafe, and 24-hour room service. It’s not possible to be hungry here. And while standard continental breakfast is largely unremarkable, some of these places are perfectly aligned with Fontainebleau’s swanky standards.
I was only there as a guest for two days so had time to try just one signature restaurant properly. I picked right. Located in the Sorrento Tower, Mariabella by Michael White is a well-rounded stunner of a restaurant, its interior looking like it was lifted from Tulum while the food unmistakably flirts across the Mediterranean.
I’m from Sydney, where the hotel dining scene is only now just finding its feet. And so, despite heading to the US at least twice a year, I’m always surprised when a hotel restaurant leaves me completely satisfied.
Seafood lovers will take to the menu straight away. It’s dominated by the sea. Fresh antipasti dishes, like Maine lobster with tomato and eggplant, could crowd a table without guests even needing to think about entrees. But skipping pasta would be a mistake; the gnocchetti with blue crab, shrimp and Calabrian chili showcases precision and flair, perfectly cooked with the chili so light and lush that it adds just the right amount of kick to the dish.
The only thing missing from my experience: I should have opted to sit outdoors wrapped in Miami’s blanket-esque summer nights. I imagine the seafood would have gone down even better.
Amenities
There are too many amenities to list, so I’m not even going to try. Plus, I had limited time so didn’t get to experience the full breadth of Fountainebleau’s lifestyle.
Nightlife is a big factor of the hotel’s relevancy in ultra-modern Miami. LIV nightclub is the signature brand here, competing shoulder-to-shoulder with other nightclub staples but dominating as the most popular. Programming is a big reason; this club is pulling massive names by the week, but I didn’t enter so can’t speak to the production.
That said, I did spend time at LIV Pool Club at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas the week prior, and do get a sense of the brand’s tasteful approach to design – nothing garish or overdone, but nothing that your garden variety vapid-reality-TV-star-turned-vapid-influencer wouldn’t be completely taken by either.
Fontainebealu’s nightlife programming is an entire entity in itself. The hotel also hosts exclusive comedy shows, sets and other adjacent experiences with their outdoor BLEAULIVE series. There’s the Arkadia Pool Club, which is awkwardly squashed into a tiny section away from the main pools and feels undercooked.
Then there’s Bleau Bar. The lobby bar is directly opposite you when you go through the main entrance. It’s beautiful, heaving, star-studded and favoured towards stiff martinis and juicy cosmopolitans. The hotel’s signature bar has been a central part of the hotel’s lifestyle since the 1950s and is still thriving as a sure-shot celebrity-spotting occasion.
Service
Staff have clearly been trained well but the sheer size of the hotel and its constant thrum of guests-slash-partygoers renders you a faceless number at times. This is to be expected; those smaller, more intimate pops of gold-standard service are saved for the signature restaurants. Mirabella, for example, was made even better by the relaxed, personable staff who echo America’s high standards of service.
Value
If you’re making do with a standard room then I’d say you can expect to pay around $320-$350 a night. On average, you’re looking at around AU$600 a night, which is reasonably good value for what it opens you up to. Costs will add up when you factor in how many hard-to-resist temptations for hotel can throw you at any given moment.
Fontainebleau may never shed its party-minded reputation, but the rowdiness (I can’t even imagine what this place is like during Spring Break) is balanced by a great deal of sophistication. Great lengths have been taken to preserve many aspects of why this hotel penetrated deeper into the luxury market than most when it first opened, right down to the scent.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Fontainebleau Miami Beach
Address: 441 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33140
Contact: 1 800-548-8886
The author stayed as a guest of the hotel in May 2024.
