Designated Drivers
Drizly, drizly.com
The idea of “alcohol delivery” is something you might not have considered since college and that one guy who’d buy for the entire dorm floor. Now though, booze drop-offs have gone all aboveboard and high-tech. Drizly (Their logo is a bear. Geddit? Drizly bear?) recently arrived in South Florida, and the concept is straightforward. You download the Drizly app and then, when the festive thirst hits, you order. Drizly partners with ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, which brings your booze, deals with payment and checks your ID. Whether you’ve just realized you forgot to order that case of wine for the wedding reception or you simply want more IPA without missing the Dolphins’ fourth quarter collapse, Drizly can help. The Drizly website’s also a lot of fun, with popular drink recipes and other tips for using the stuff that’s going to turn up any moment at your door. Oh, and they promise to get the libations to you within an hour, which is more than that dude in the dorm ever did.
Drive Me Out to the Ballgame
EventRide, eventride.com
Getting to and from Marlins games isn’t always fun when you live in Fort Lauderdale. The drive usually means tackling the Miami rush hour on the way down. On the way back, there’s that white-knuckle entry onto the Dolphin followed by the mad dash to the left lane for I-95 north. You could take public transportation – but only if it’s a day game, as Tri-Rail has stopped running by the time night games end. Now though, the Marlins are helping you find someone else to do the driving. The team has partnered with EventRide, a carpooling app aimed specifically at sporting events and concerts. You download the EventRide app, sign up via Facebook and payment details, and look for nearby people heading to the ballgame. If you don’t mind the drive, you can make a little extra money by offering rides to others (or be a sort of Marlins Ride Fairy and offer rides for free). As an added bonus, you even get to help the environment and cut down on road congestion. And of course, while the Marlins have officially partnered with EventRide, you can use the app to get to any game or concert that people are going to.
Treasure Island
Island Company, the Ritz-Carlton, 1 N Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., islandcompany.com
In Fort Lauderdale, we know how to dress for the beach, we know how to dress for a formal occasion – and, if we’re really embracing the lifestyle, we know that there’s not much difference between the two. Now a shop specializing in a classy, upmarket beach lifestyle is coming to our oceanfront. Island Company has opened a shop in the Ritz-Carlton. Island Company offers men’s and women’s swimwear, accessories, “resort wear” and other items tailored to tastes that are a bit too champagne to be entirely Jimmy Buffett, but a bit too margarita to be wholly yacht club. If your beach experience has been suffering for lack of vintage sunglasses, a kimono beach tunic and a beach towel explaining your ethos (“Quit your job, buy a ticket, get a tan, fall in love, never return”), you’re in luck. The Fort Lauderdale location is just the seventh in the world, and the third in Florida after Palm Beach and Naples. (Other locales include Grand Cayman and Martha’s Vineyard.) See image above.
