Mozzarella Sticks At The Museum: Inside Art Basel’s Other Hot Party Series

Big upping NYLON’s parties is part of my job description, but an informal poll conducted after our Dec. 6 bash shows that everyone who made it in did have a grand old time, despite the fire marshal’s best efforts. In my impromptu exit interviews, another name came up as a Miami Art Week social MVP: American Express, who put on an ambitious quartet of back-to-back-to-back-to-back events.

Hours after I landed on Dec. 5, I sat in traffic headed to the Rubell Museum for Night Shift hosted by Amex and Delta Airlines. Yara Shahidi and James Blake chatted as I glued myself to a bookcase near the kitchen run by LA restaurant Jon & Vinny’s during their Miami residency — the better to swoop in on a very unsupervised-child dinner of chicken nuggets, mozzarella sticks, tuna conserva lettuce cups, tomato bruschetta, and soft serve, not in that order. As Andre Power and Sky Jetta played in the courtyard, guests mercilessly cut one another to order mezcalitas and espresso martinis and snapped pics with the green boxes from which slices were directly served. “This is much nicer than Salone,” one attendee said.

Blake’s DJ set didn’t end until 2 a.m. or so, but by 9 a.m., the Rubell was back open for more Jon & Vinny’s pizza, with breakfast toppings this time, and coffee — and special early access to the exhibitions. Across the bay, the Resy lounge at Untitled Art Fair unclipped its velvet ropes soon after to show VIP guests a good time with a Memphis Milano aesthetic, a scene-stealing beachfront view, and a generous spread from Jon & Vinny’s, by this point surely the busiest restaurateurs in town. In between seeing what the galleries had to offer, i.e., attempting to scrounge up funds to timeshare a footed Shida Kuo sculpture and a Natee Utarit oil of a woman threatening Hello Kitty with a knife, I returned to the lounge to rest up for the long NYLON night ahead — and to shoot my third espresso of the day while looking longingly at the rainbow cookies.

The day after the aforementioned NYLON function was doubly marred by not sleeping and having to work (the things I do for you), but this reporter bucked up for one last Amex hangout with Marriott Bonvoy poolside at the W South Beach. The gusty weather only amped up the cinematic effect of Uncle Waffles’ set, though the tequila jacket (and carnitas tacos) courtesy of New York City’s own Superbueno helped, too. Thinking about traveling to any of the destinations depicted in Mexican artist Jimena Montemayor’s installation would have to wait until less tired times, but you know it was a good weekend when you return home running on fumes but happy, with your phone slicked with tuna-conserva juice and pizza grease.