Everglades City Tamiami Trail

It’s the Saturday before Christmas and we are on our way from Miami Beach to Naples. It’s a cool day in the high sixties. Since we could leave Miami Beach by 10 am we deciced to take the scenic route which is Tamiami Trail route 41. This is called the Old Alligator Alley. You can actually see alligators on the side of the road about 20 miles in.

Our first stop was Oasis Welcome center which we were out for a few minutes. Then we started driving towards Everglades City. We took a scenic route Turner River Road. It was truly beautiful with lots of mangroves, tropical birds alligators and typical Everglades wildlife. Below you will see some pictures I managed to take. I highly recommend to take this route.

We were getting hungry and decided to head to Everglades City for food. The first sign we saw was City Seafood as we entered the city. It looked like the parking lot was full and was definitely a popular spot. After parking a block away we walked to the front of the building which had two picnic benches and tables with people enjoying the sun and eating their fresh seafood. City Seafood is a very casual restaurant where you order your seafood and you pick up at the window when its ready. The menu is rich with frog legs, stone crab legs, daily catches like grouper, snapper, dolphin fish, and other local fishes. Lots of shrimps, prawns, conch, oysters and lobsters. The kitchen was very busy but friendly. Order takes about 10 minutes as they prepare it. We asked for some samplers so we could taste a bunch of stuff. Conch was good, crab cakes were awesome. Fish was very very fresh. The fried food was surprisingly light. We all enjoyed fresh seafood. Oh, I forgot to mention that the back of the building has many tables that you can sit and the scenery is unbeliavable. As you can see in the below pictures it’s like a backyard paradise. They have the blue intracoastal waters with green mangroves and other plants. Airboats taking passengers around. Fishing boats are tied to the piers. It’s a beautiful scene.  You can sit out there on a patio chair  for hours just enjoying the scenery.

New Florida Restaurant Chair

Hurricane season is almost over in Florida but unfortunate disaster from Hurricane Sandy hit the northern states leaving behind 60 million people effected with at least 100 casualties. During hurricane sandy Florida has some damages in the coastal areas but it really wasn’t bad compared to other states. With this hurricane weather cooled off as a result of the cold front brought from north. Now the days are low eighties and at nights are low sixties.

The weather cooling off is a sign of the Florida tourist season. Snow birds will soon start flying down and filling hotels and apartments in Miami and South Florida. You can easily tell by the traffic congestion that really do not exist in any other time of the year in certain areas.  With all the tourists coming down to Florida, hotels and restaurants start getting ready for the busy season. Some hotels are completely changing their furniture and some of them are redesigning current areas. Restaurants are looking for better comfortable and eye catching furniture.

Just in time for the busy season we bring out the Florida chair. This is the armless side chair which is a complement to the Ibiza chair. Florida restaurant chairs are stackable. They are available in three colors; white, coffee brown and charcoal gray. Florida chair is a woven looking 100% polypropylene chair. This chair is great in all outdoor applications. If you look at the wickerlook collection, you will see the four chairs offered are Verona, Capri, Ibiza and Florida. All these chairs are made for commercial use. They offer the woven look without the hassle of metal and aluminum and also obviously without the problems of unraveling wicker.

We are very excited to offer the Florida chair to the hospitality industry. Hopefully by this time next year this chair will be all over the country in the best hotels and restaurants.

Proud to see CozyDays furniture

We have been doing alot of traveling since the begining of summer. Some of our staff made a 10 day road trip from Miami, FL to Seattle, WA. Driving through United States is sure an amazing experience they say. From healthy yogurt shops to high end restaurants, we’ve been serving many businesses. Everytime we spot one, we share the images with our staff and post it on our blog.

Here are few photos of our furniture spotted around the United States.

Most of the restaurants, coffee shops, yogurt shops choose our furniture for different reasons. Here are few:

  • They look very chic, elegant and modern.
  • Business is looking for a specific color.
  • They are resistant to hard weather conditions.
  • They are strong enough to last long and light enough to stack them everyday.
  • Business already owns our outdoor / indoor chairs and they love the quality.

 

Hot August in Istanbul

August is hot in Europe. After a few days in Madrid we are on the second leg of our much awaited vacation in Istanbul.  Walking in the old city, going thru the back streets we bump into many outdoor restaurants. Most of these cute places have modern furniture. It’s like a crazy contrast with thousand year old buildings and walls as the backdrop and modern furniture on the front. Here is a picture of a casual outdoor joint with Miss Bibi chairs. This is between the historic post office and the spice bazaar in Sirkeci.

Restaurant Chairs Spice Bazaar

Miss Bibi Chairs in Istanbul

 

As you can see the market umbrellas are really funky and don’t fit the decor but it looks like they were given by product vendors. Chairs are definitely paid for. High quality and eye catching Miss Bibi chairs from Siesta. Nice colors. The real funny thing is this isn’t even a real restaurant or cafe. But they have furnished their outdoor area in such a way to get the most out of the touristic business in the old city. I have seen the same chairs in the most chic areas of Istanbul miles away from the old city in ultramodern settings. That’s the beauty of modern and functional products. You can see the same chair in the most expensive restaurant in town or on a corner cafe that serves casual food. Below are some pictures of the Bosphorus during a boat trip from the European side to the Asian side (Kadikoy).

 

We’re cruising thru summer with great patio furniture

Brown Aruba Restaurant Chairs Installation

Brown Aruba Restaurant Chairs Installation

Summer is getting to its peak with father’s day just past and fourth of July ahead of us. Lots of exciting things are happening in the company. Pool owners are calling for pool floats, toys, pool storage items. Patio and balcony owners are revamping their outdoor areas. Restaurants are remodeling their outdoors. It’s all very exciting for us. Phones are ringing off the hook and our customer service reps are helping customers as best as they can. Vendors are having problems with heavy order volume and our vendor relations are pretty stressed out. So the bottom line is; we are very busy. But despite all the things that need to be done, I had to drive to Palm Beach Gardens on Friday to visit a customer and to witness a delivery. This is a commercial customer that’s changing all their outdoor chairs in their restaurant to our new Aruba Wicker Restaurant Chair.

Drive up to Palm Beach was pretty quick. It’s about 90 miles from Miami.  I-95 was open all the way so I was there in less than an hour and a half. When I reached there the truck has already arrived and the chairs were being unloaded. After greeting the owner and the managers at the location I started helping with removing the old restaurant chairs that they had. They were classic looking woven wicker chairs with aluminum frames. Chairs seemed like a poor quality but from what I understand the owner has paid a good amount of money for them at the time. All chairs had bent legs, broken weaves, and unraveling wicker fibers. They looked horrible.
Brown Aruba Outdoor Cafe Chairs

Brown Aruba Restaurant Chairs

The owner of this upscale restaurant and bar visited our distribution center a week ago and chose the Aruba chairs over any other that was available. He said he wants people to be very comfortable and spend time on his restaurant. He said Palm Beach is laid back and people want to be comfortable. Aruba chair has a good size. Arms have a good fit which feels natural. The material looks like the woven chairs they had there before but this is a mono-block chair which means it will never unravel, the legs will never bend. There are no metal parts to rust or bend. Unlike the chairs they had before Aruba chairs stack. The owner of the restaurant said “This is perfect for us”. I told them that this is our first installation of the Aruba chair which literally arrived the week before. Aruba chairs are available in white, brown and charcoal colors and is already a sensation among its first buyers.

Aruba Outdoor Restaurant Chairs

Aruba Outdoor Patio Furniture

Sometimes it’s great to be able to see and talk to customers first hand, especially during an installation. It gives you the insight of what they need, what they want. I’m very happy I drove up here and I wish the Turnpike was not clogged up on the way back.

It’s 4:00 pm on a Friday and I just walked in to the office. Bad traffic..