MIAMI MIRROR TRUE REFLECTIONS

SoFi Caf
500 South Pointe Drive
305-763-8692 Delivery

22 December 2014
By David Arthur Walters
THE MIAMI MIRROR
The Holidays are a sad time for many people because they are supposed to be happy and are
not very happy at all. They may feel sorry for themselves because they do not have family or
good friends, not understanding, because they do not have them, that some of the unhappiest
people in the world do have them.
The tragedy is worse for the lonely in big cities like New York when the winter is cold and dark.
Sad sacks are advised to treat themselves to sunny climes. I consider myself fortunate to live in
South Beach year around. It is a great tourist trap for me because it is a beautiful place, and I
cannot afford to get out of it.
Still nothing is perfect, so perfect that sometimes I long for nothingness. My occasion for sad
sackness this Happy Holiday Season is that my only friend who lives here turned down my
invitation to lunch at the SoFi Caf in the elegant South of Fifth district. I should not have
informed her that the SoFi Caf is a very casual, healthy food establishment, with an attractive
lunch special, my intention being to let her know that she would not have to wear Dior and

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MIAMI MIRROR TRUE REFLECTIONS

Ferragamo and the like. She demurred, saying that as a Republican finishing school graduate,
she would fain wait for a China plate opportunity.

Needless to say, she would have been jarred by the water jar the attentive waitress placed on
the table immediately after I sat down. Needless to say, I felt as blue as the hue the absurd
glass reflected from the environs, which included a surfboard on one wall!

Little did my best friend know that the upper crust from up north habituate SoFi Caf. You
would never know it because the most of them are down dressers. They recognize one another
by secret brand coding. A woman might be wearing $15,000 and only her casual peers would
know it. If the owners of the very casual caf knew it, they might raise the prices, which
happen to be very modest for the booming South of Fifth district of South Beach. That is last
thing discreet clientele would want to happen, not because they could not afford it, but
because the place would be flooded with indiscreet people. Remember how the Yuppies
invaded all those cool retreats in the city?

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MIAMI MIRROR TRUE REFLECTIONS

I brought along Musils The Man Without Qualities for company.
Two selves that know how questionable the self is nowadays hold on to each other, said
Ulrich, the man without qualities.
I was surprised the $19.85 lunch special I opted for included a bottle of Peroni beer. How
generous, given the rent around here! I said to the server, who plunked it down along with a
Number 31 sign, something else that would have mortified by absent friend.
Thirty one? I asked in mocked horror at the gaucheness.
A lucky number for her, she said, as she was born January 31. Well, I was born January 9, I said.
So we have the characteristics of a two-faced goat and a new age dreamed up by potheads, but
do not count on your astrological qualities, I said, because modern astronomers have
discovered miscalculations. Oh? So who are we? Darned if I know who or what I am or where I
belong, as I do not have any qualities.
With that I got down to business. The menu offered smoothies, acai bowls, fruit drinks with
healthy stuff mixed in, wraps, sandwiches, salads, pancakes, quinoa rice bowls, veggie and
turkey burgers, and so on.
The $19.95 Special has a choice of crab cakes, caesar salad, or power salad appetizer, with a
choice of mahi mahi, salmon, chicken breast as the main course, with sides of mashed potatoes
or brown rice and vegetables.
I chose the power salad, and the salmon to compare it with my missing friends salmon. She
loves to cook, and happens to be one of the best cooks on South Beach, at home of course.

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MIAMI MIRROR TRUE REFLECTIONS

The food was so excellent that I sent my compliments to the chef. Of course nothing is perfect
although this is the best of all possible worlds at the moment. There must be things for people
to complain about so civilization can advance to absolute utopia. Dessert should be included in
the $19.95 Special. Still, I was satisfied, and a little tipsy from Peroni to boot, nearly hypnotized
into bliss by the spinning crane on the construction site outside.

-XYX-

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