Motek, our beloved Miami-based Mediterranean restaurant is set to open five locations across New York City and they’re rolling out the welcome mat. The Miami Cancer Institute Arts in Medicine program at the Baptist Health Foundation is doing wonderful healing work, and you might think about joining them, like Eliot and I just did. An immersive Michelangelo exhibit is coming to Miami and is getting rave reviews. A friend of ours is the mother of a son who is a survivor of a school shooting, and just recently her daughter, a young artist whose work we collect, was fortunately in her dorm room at the time of the most recent school shooting at Florida State University. We were so happy to learn she received a prestigious art award from the University as her grateful mother looked on. We’re grateful too.

Motek from Miami to Open In NYC 

New York City is a land of restaurants. We all know that. We also know that NYC doesn’t need another restaurant chain. However, when a new restaurant offers  influences from Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey, and Yemen, NYC rolls out the welcome mat. Motek is the beloved Miami-based Mediterranean chain known for its vibrant falafel, kebabs, and shakshuka, that is now set to open five locations across New York City in the coming years. Founded by Charlie Levy in 2020, Motek quickly became a South Florida favorite.

The first NYC location will open in the Flatiron District in fall 2025, right on bustling Broadway. Following that, a kosher street food spinoff called Yallamotek is set to launch in the winter of 2026. The remaining three locations still under wraps.

Levy, a former New Yorker, sees the expansion as a natural next step, saying the bond between the two cities makes this move feel like a homecoming. With high demand for Mediterranean cuisine and Motek’s proven popularity, expectations for its success in New York are sky-high.

As a family-owned restaurant, with  six locations across Aventura, Downtown Miami, Coral Gables, Brickell City Centre, and Miami Beach, Motek has quickly become a staple in Miami’s food scene. We are also proud to include our sister concepts, YALLA, a Mediterranean street food counter at Aventura Mall, and SESAME Bakery, in the Motek family.

Ok New Yorkers, look forward to the best in Mezzes, Salads, Hummus Bowls.

The Miami Cancer Institute Arts in Medicine Program

We finally joined The Miami Cancer Institute Arts in Medicine program at the Baptist Health Foundation. It is comprised of professional musicians, singers, dance, visual artists and literary artists who play an integral role in healing and promoting the well-being of patients, caregivers and staff in healthcare settings. Our orientation was with Anna Obregon Romero, Development Manager, Miami Cancer Institute, Erica Marin, tour guide and Bex McCharen, Artist in Residence.

We wanted to get involved with this program because the arts – music, visual, literary and dance – play an integral role in healing and promoting the well-being of patients, caregivers and staff in healthcare settings. Engaging in the arts may include enjoying a musical performance, listening to a vocalist, watching an artist paint, creating your own masterpiece, reading poetry or writing your own short story. Research  has shown that these artistic interventions can improve health outcomes by reducing pain and anxiety, supporting caregiver wellness and transforming the patient experience.

I have to say that I feel the arts is also the best way to take you away from life’s demons. This is true if you have a dreaded disease or if you are filled with stress from every day demands. The arts give you hours of sheer joy that make life worth living. Complications in life will never go away.

That’s  why The Miami Cancer Institute Arts in Medicine program is so important. In order to provide an immersive art experience, patients have the opportunity to engage with artists throughout the Institute. Artists perform and create artworks in the main lobbies, clinic waiting areas, radiation and chemotherapy waiting areas, chemotherapy infusion suites and the outdoor meditation garden. Creative workshops are available for patients in active treatment.

The goals of Miami Cancer Institute’s Arts in Medicine program are to:

• Engage patients, caregivers and staff in the arts
• Cultivate a healing environment
• Create a therapeutic venue for self-expression
• Develop coping skills and reduce stress and anxiety
• Strengthen patient and staff communication
• Advance outcomes’ research within the field

Clinical evidence shows that cancer patients who engage in the arts report significantly lower levels of stress, anxiety and nausea during chemotherapy infusions.

Miami Cancer Institute’s Arts in Medicine program, part of the Cancer Patient Support Center services, was developed to help patients harness the healing power of the arts to better cope with their illness and treatment. LEARN MORE AND GET INVOLVED.

May 9. The Immersive Michelangelo Exhibit Opens

Time Out Miami just reported that Michelangelo is coming to Miami—and no, not in marble. That’s pretty funny Time Out. The special event publication said “A jaw-dropping, fully immersive art experience dedicated to the Renaissance master is set to open at 1212 Lincoln Road this May, marking the U.S. debut of Michelangelo: The Immersive Experience.”

First of all, the fact that the exhibit is on Lincoln Road tickles my fancy big time. Our favorite outdoor mall needs the traffic. This is a very sexy addition. Crowds will line up to see the show brought to Miami by Premier Exhibitions Group (the team behind hits like The Museum of Failure in San Francisco and Escher. The Exhibition & Experience in New York), the exhibition goes beyond the traditional, transporting visitors deep into the artist’s genius using cutting-edge tech, theatrical design and some art-world cred.

Time Out found out that the show, features a towering reproduction of The David, marvel at a complete 360-degree digital recreation of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and literally walk through a tunnel of “Heaven and Hell” to get there. There is also a hands-on Creative Lab that invites you to channel your inner Renaissance master by sketching, sculpting and getting creatively messy in a space inspired by Michelangelo’s own process.

That should be fun!

All the credit goes to art world veterans Josephine Bodogh and Johanna Guttmann. They are the brains behind the experience. Bodogh, known for her work connecting European artists to U.S. audiences through her North Miami Beach gallery JBContemporary, and Guttmann, who previously brought a photographic Sistine Chapel exhibition to Brooklyn.

The show will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 10am to 7pm (last entry at 6pm). Tickets are  $25 for adults and $17 for children. For more information and tickets, visit MichelangeloImmersive.com or follow @MichelangeloImmersive on Instagram.

The Emotions of A School Shooting and The Accolades Of An Art Award

A friend of ours  is a parent to a son who attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018 when a former student killed 17 people and just last week her daughter was in her dorm room at Florida State University when a gunman went on a shooting rampage killing two staff members and wounded others. There are no words to express the terror this mother felt both times. All we can do is send our love to her and her children and let them know we are here for them.

In the midst of all this, her 18-year-old daughter, Carmin Kilpatrick ( we collect her artwork) just won the HSF (Honors Scholars Fellows) Excellence in Visual Arts Exhibition Award in the Undergraduate division at FSU. Her painting, pictured here, will be displayed at the Student Union for a year.

Carmin describes her painting, “It’s about snowbirds or Boca/Miami transplants- people who move to Florida from somewhere like New Jersey. It’s called ‘The Real Thing.’” We love the way Carmin dramatizes life in such a way that makes our imagination run wild. Eliot and I feel her work makes us think about the supernatural even if that’s not the point of her composition. We like talking about what’s beyond the visible observable universe. Carmin’s paintings make us realize there are countless ways to look at the world and yearn for new adventures.

We just pray that her family, and the rest of us, are sparred from any more deadly situations. Peace on Earth for all.