Ford Fiesta: Car Wash

Today was Ladies Day at Europa Car Wash on 60th and Biscayne, so my girlfriend Bradlina and I went for little soap and sud action and some free champagne! What a bargain ... $10 for a total hand job! Five big, sturdy macho guys detailing the car and then some! I'm telling ya, it's enough to make a girl all moist in the muffler and give up her low carburetor diet!

Europa Car Wash is part of this rising trend to remodel gas stations into something better than a place to buy crack and turn tricks on Biscayne Boulevard. Inside, the place looks like a Starbucks-turned-club-VIP-lounge, complete with funky glass chandeliers, cow-fur upholstered chairs and beaded curtains. Coffee, sandwiches and desserts tempt motorists while a cold beverage cooler filled with sodas and imported beers takes care of thirst.

Oh, and there's actually a Chevron gas station outside ... so if you need to fill up, clean up and eat up during your daily Miami urban adventures, this is a good place to stop.

Somehow, my friend Bradlina managed to convince the staff that he was female, or at the very least, quite in touch with his feminine side. We enjoyed a sip of spumante while waiting for the boys to clean the car.

Biscayne Boulevard is the really new happenin' neighborhood in Miami. If you do go to Europa to get your car washed, you might as well have an antipasti salad or slice of pizza at Andiamo down the road and then stop for a cocktail at News Lounge on 54th street station.

(And yes, you can also get your car washed at Andiamo!) Boy, I just love this part of Miami. Little Haiti is just around the other side of the tracks, where you can visit a botanica and get your share of dashboard saints (that's a future trip for us, definitely) or listen to some great alternative rock at Churchill's, Miami's oldest British pub.

Long known as a blighted boulevard (a friend of mine used to live off 55th street -- he said he'd find condoms hanging from the tree branches in the morning) -- Biscayne is turning a new leaf and in doing so paying homage to MiMo architecture. It's really one of Miami's funkiest communities today, with some very gorgeous Mediterranean architecture in various bayside enclaves. To learn more about life in the up-and-coming Biscayne Corridor, visit The Biscayne Times, Miami-Dade and Miamism.

More pictures on Flickr.



And just because I couldn't resist ...