Downtown Hollywood Explorations

Downtown Hollywood Explorations

I am so excited about Dharma’s expansion into Broward County with our newest apartments at Sheridan Ocean Club because it means I get to visit more new and exciting places! This month we are going to start with downtown Hollywood and the Hollywood Art and Cultural Center.
 
Located less than three miles from our property at Sheridan Ocean Club, Historic Downtown Hollywood is a lively commercial, entertainment, and cultural arts district. Highlighted by the Artspark at Young Circle and dozens of bars and restaurants, Downtown Hollywood hosts hundreds of concerts, music festivals, dance exhibitions, shows, art exhibits, and much more.
We began our day with a great brunch at Patty Macs restaurant on Harrison Street. We started with a sampling of hibiscus, pomegranate and blood orange mimosas and an appetizer of the Truffle Mac and Cheese, made with Shiitake, Cremini, and Portobello mushrooms, garlic, white truffle oil, and mascarpone, gruyere, and fontina cheese. I am getting hungry all over again just thinking about it. I knew we had quite the eating day ahead of us, so for our meal, I got the Charred Brussels Sprouts and Prosciutto, which was cooked to perfection.
 
A ft er our meal, we walked around the block to get some great gelato at Tasta Gelato and Cafeteria, where they get their machines and ingredients straight from the Sicilian Don Peppinu company in Italy for the most authentic gelato this side of the pond.

We decided to walk off our food, and headed east past the Hollywood Arts Park, which had a glassblowing class going on (Stay tuned for the blog in which we try it out!), and arrived at the Hollywood Art and Cultural Center. This space houses a gallery with multiple exhibitions, an educational center that provides a Free Arts Family Day once a month, and a theater that offers acting classes for children. We toured the gallery, and I was thrilled to discover one of my former students had an exhibition going on there! Check out this spectacular quilt from Mark Fleuridor’s exhibition, Black Castor Oil.

Other artists pieces included this cool mask made of cardboard:

and this guitar art:

There was also a continuously running film screening of the short documentary Open Dialogues , which through the coming-out narratives of seven Broward County residents, explores how the LGBTQ community is marginalized among families, schools, churches and public spaces – and how individuals interviewed for the film learned to empower themselves in these spaces.

With our bellies full and our appetites for culture and inspiration satiated, we started to head back home, but first we stopped at Kay Rico Coffee house for a quick pick me up. My friend had a cappuccino, and I had the iced Golden Milk Latte. The perfect way to end a great day.

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