At the chic, backlit hotel bar, where a mix of
softly thumping electronic dance music and aromatic cocktail bitters fills the
air, a mixologist slowly lifts a mist-filled glass cloche and releases the
wisps of hickory smoke with a gentle wave of the wrist.
Beneath the fog, an Old Fashioned cocktail
emerges, now infused with hickory wood smoke, crowned with a skewered Luxardo
cherry and a curl of orange peel. At the end of the bar, revelers are taking
turns with the communal porron, a wine vessel from Catalan country, while
others sip drinks spiked with activated charcoal and charred rosemary.
One might pluck this scene from any sexy
boutique boite in Madrid’s centro, but
I’m in Gainesville, Fla., of all places, and my bartender is a
student at the University of Florida down the street, making some extra cash
while he takes classes during the summer semester.
The AC Hotel Gainesville is the fourth by the Spanish AC brand to open in the Sunshine State (two in the
Miami area, one in Tampa), but it is unlike any other accommodations in the
somewhat sleepy college town.
The hotel’s interior is decidedly midcentury
minimalist, flaunting a monochromatic design scheme. The registration desk’s
monolithic black granite draws the eye exactly to where the guest’s stay begins
and ends; no guesswork needed. A bit farther back is the aforementioned bar,
where guests can sidle up for craft tipples and tapas, like albondigas and
warmed olives.
Guestrooms are sleek, bordering on sparse, but
the bathrooms are the real showstoppers, outfitted in slate grey tiling with
flattering mirror lighting and spacious rain showers, even in entry level
rooms. Each room also comes with a smart TV and mini-fridge for stocking up on
snacks from the in-house bodega downstairs (or the Target or Publix just a few
steps outside) for a Netflix night.
The rooftop pool deck stuns, with a sweeping
panorama of Gainesville’s live oaks and the red-brick University of Florida
campus. On football game days, it’s not hard to imagine being able to hear the
live action from “The Swamp” -- the nickname given to the Gators’ Ben Hill
Griffin Stadium -- while you sip sangria and watch the game on a flat screen in
the pool deck’s cabana.
Beyond the hotel, there’s much to explore on a
visit to Gainesville. The area itself has become a haven for craft beer, and
several breweries should be on the to-do list. Swamp Head Brewery and tap room
is an ideal starting point, and a tour is a fun way to spend 40 minutes and
score a free pint of its Midnight Oil oatmeal coffee stout. The tap room
incorporates the robust scientific and environmental community in Gainesville,
maintaining one-third of its power from solar energy, donating the spent grains
from brewing to feed local livestock and incorporating local ingredients like
honey and strawberries in some of their beer.
For an iconic slice of Gainesville, call ahead
for a table at Satchel’s pizzeria, and try to get a seat in the repurposed
VW bus with a table that seats five comfortably. The patio area is full of
sculptured metal art and mosaics, but the deep-dish pies are what keep the
college kids coming back year after year. After dinner, head next door to Lightnin’
Salvage Enterprises for live music several nights per week.
Like many college towns, Gainesville
touts some wonderful museums, including the new Cade Museum for Creativity
and Innovation, which opened in May. The museum is filled with hands-on experiences that
aim to make science and technology fun for families. Kids can meet inventors,
see their products first-hand, participate in themed experiments and learn more
about the problems they’re solving with real-world applications in a working
laboratory staffed with engineers.
The Cade Museum also features a permanent
exhibit about the invention of Gatorade and how it has evolved over the years to
become a cultural icon, all starting from a lab at the University of Florida – a
lab that the museum was able to relocate fully to the exhibit from the building
where it was originally housed on campus.
A bit more real-life wonder can be found at
the Florida Museum of Natural History,
where traditional natural history museum exhibits combine with technology to
bring Florida’s ecological mysteries to life. Kids and adults alike will marvel
at the lineup of giant shark jaws and teeth, all found fossilized in some of
the state’s waterways, like the St. John’s River.
The museum’s additional $13 fee for the
Butterfly Rainforest is money well spent. The enormous atrium, filled
with blooming tropical flowers and canopied with vegetation teems with more
than 400 species of butterflies. It’s likely one will land on your head, hand
or perch itself on your shoulder for an excellent photo op. Outside the glass
structure, a working lab showcases the butterfly life cycle for up-close looks.