“Some crimson poppy of a late delight | Atoning in its splendor for the flight | Of summer blooms and joys | This is September.” – Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 – 1942, Canadian Author)
Musings on the beauty of Alys Beach from the photo files of Alys Beach Marketing
Continuing this series, we offer another visual exploration of the design detail found in Alys Beach. Last month we celebrated the “Details of Alys” with glimpses of colorful millwork and contrasting elements found throughout town. In this edition, we continue our exploration of the fine details with the windows that often add a fanciful moment to the white masonry architecture.
Portals of light and texture, sometimes extremely clean and yet sometimes elaborately framed or festively flanked by bright shutters, adorn the simplified expanses like jewelry, and capture our attention as we walk the streets and pedestrian paths of Alys Beach. A variety of influences can be seen in these window designs, in the functional lines of Mykonos, the clean Bermudian treatment, and the flourish of a Moroccan touch, to name a few. These special moments can be found in the architectural details that create interest amongst the clean, white masonry structures.
A glow from within, a beautiful textile, a glimpse of a courtyard, rays of sunlight or a circle of sparkling night sky, an ornate iron lattice, the rustle of bamboo leaves – these joyful windows offer a peek beyond the white walls. We hope that this collection of images, our own and those of photographers Brandon Chesbro and Erin Pechtel Pool of le lune creative, will further encourage you to seek out the beautiful details to be found in Alys.
At Alys Beach, we are uniquely positioned to address these shifts in priority and are enjoying seeing our homeowners, established and new, spend more time here at the beach. Indoor and outdoor work and classroom spaces abound, with the most prominent of natural playgrounds – the beach. For those dreaming of Alys, we hope that you will enjoy viewing these beautiful homes and invite you to reach out to our wonderful Alys Beach Sales team for more information.
Building a legacy in Alys Beach.
To build a home at Alys Beach is to create a legacy, an investment in connection with family, friends and community, in the creation of memories across generations. The home building process at Alys Beach is a commitment to the highest standards of quality and integrity, whether building with our in-house construction team or one of our thoroughly vetted approved builders.
Since the town’s founding in 2004, Alys Beach Construction (ABC) has been creating homes exclusively for Alys Beach, overseeing the completion of a majority of the homes here. ABC not only has a vast history of experience with the building of Alys Beach homes but is devoted to the overall vision of the town and its community. They view each project as the building of a heritage for both the homeowner and the town of Alys Beach.
ABC considers the cultivation of a trusting partnership with homeowners from the onset of the project to be central to the success behind each home. To bring the vision to life, ABC believes in the building of a symphonic relationship between all parties and maintaining a high-level of visibility and guidance throughout the process. As the resident construction company for Alys Beach, ABC is uniquely accessible and team members are on property consistently throughout the building process and beyond.
Speaking to what ABC brings to the building experience, Vice President of Residential Construction Brian Spence says, “ABC, with a staff of 35 and growing, aims to provide each client with comfort and confidence throughout the build process, from estimating to the concrete structure, from finishes to the punch list, and all the way through the warranty response. This confidence is grounded in the years of experience and local knowledge possessed by our ABC team and our loyal subcontractors.”
Keep an eye on this space to delve further into some of the criteria that make building in Alys Beach such a specialized process. We will introduce you to our Alys Beach Design Team as well as our other approved builders and architects. We will also look further into our specialized Somerset Program and how the unified program of architecture, sales, construction, and interior design produce a seamless, efficient home building process. From Fortified for Safer Living® to Florida Green Building Coalition certifications, the construction of Alys Beach goes beyond the beauty of its Bermudan-inspired architecture to create spaces that are responsive to the environmental conditions of the North Florida coastline, as well as respectful and sustainable in relationship to our natural environment. We look forward to showing you inside the creative process behind the exquisite homes and buildings that make Alys Beach such a strikingly beautiful town.
Art is an integral part of Alys Beach as a town and as part of our larger community. As we recognize the importance of supporting the arts locally, particularly during these times of limited gathering and movements, our engagement with the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County has taken more prominence.
The arts have been part of the overall plan for building Alys Beach from the very beginning, from the initial designs. As a passion of our town’s namesake, Alys Stephens, outdoor art, performing arts and events are thoughtfully incorporated into the landscape and the life of Alys as a means for connection, for inspiration, and for pure celebration of life and joy.
The Alys Foundation supports Alys Beach’s artistic ventures including long-standing support of the Cultural Arts Alliance of South Walton (CAA), our local arts agency here in the larger community, dedicated to supporting the arts “through leadership, advocacy, funding, programming and education.” As director of The Alys Foundation, Alexis Miller has been at the forefront of these ventures in town and throughout the community. Alexis has also been an acting member on the board of directors for the CAA, Most recently, The Alys Foundation has partnered with the CAA to support the “Art on Demand” virtual programming series designed to bring the arts into our homes and encourage us all, near or far, to engage with, learn from and be inspired by local artists and makers.
For the 2020-2021 season, Alexis has been elected to serve as president of the CAA’s board of directors. “The CAA has benefited from Alexis’ passion and knowledge on our board for the past three years, and I know she will be an inspiring leader as board president,” said CAA Executive Director Jennifer Steele of Alexis’ election as president. “I am honored to work with Alexis in her new capacity and look forward to implementing strategies that will continue to grow the CAA and meet the needs of our creative community.”
Speaking to the honor, Alexis says, “In these unprecedented times, people are more isolated and craving experiences and creative content to engage with until we can come together again in person. I am inspired by the work that the CAA has been doing to bring art into people’s homes and the commitment to keeping art alive in Walton County. To keep our artists working we have to get even more creative in our approach, and my hope is that my experience planning events will be an asset to the mission of the CAA. I am excited to grow these virtual cultural events as the next president of the CAA.”
We celebrate this opportunity and know that Alexis will be a tremendous leader and conduit for cultural development in our community. We look forward to seeing her influence on outreach and programming and are delighted for Alys Beach to have such an active role in promoting the arts throughout Walton County.
To dine at Caliza Restaurant is to enjoy a divine sensory experience. In this season of change, the evening atmosphere at Caliza still feels special, elegant and easy, and the cuisine is as exquisite as ever. In the next few editions of The Alys Journal, let’s take a peek behind-the-scenes to see how menu items take their shapes and find their way onto our plates.
There’s something intangible in the Caliza Restaurant dining experience. The atmosphere, the lighting, the space that’s open to the evening sky yet enclosed. The cuisine – simple, but with ingredients that feel special, and combinations of flavors that feel familiar, yet just slightly out of our realm to place. The secret? Well, the secrets are in the play of the Caliza team and how they come together in their homes and daily lives to explore flavors, cultures, ingredients and inspiration as friends and family.
A peek into the kitchen reveals a deep-rooted dynamic that feels more like family than workplace. For Executive Chef Drew Dzejak, Chef de Cuisine Renato Falconi-Uscamayta, and Caliza Restaurant Manager Gray Soper and extending out to our Senior Director of Operations Hugues LeBerre and Jeremy Walton of The Citizen at Alys Beach, these roots go back over a decade to Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina. Developing mutual professional respect and friendship while working together there in the low country, the team individually migrated further south to share their talents with Alys Beach, bringing with them a passion, creativity and relationship that has been a gift to Caliza Restaurant and the Alys Beach Food & Beverage department.
The menu at Caliza benefits greatly from the blending of backgrounds and influences, including team member Hakeem Robinson’s Jamaican heritage, Chef Drew’s deep southern heritage intertwined with Polish influences, and Chef Renato’s Peruvian heritage and Italian influences, allowing for everyone to contribute flavors and methods for a confluence that is unique to this collaboration. Much of this creative process takes place in their home kitchens with ingredients pulled from their own gardens, from bartering with other purveyors and friends, from the local Mexican market, from sources that are fresh and often more humble than one might expect. From ceviche with leche de tigre to short rib tacos with smoked salsa, these homemade meals are the origin for the flavor profiles behind the dishes that make their way onto our plates at Caliza.
Pulling from vast childhood memories of family meals, past experiences working with the influences of cultures such as India and the Pacific Islands, and a wealth of seasonal, locally, and exotically sourced ingredients, our crew of culinary artists experiment on their families and on each other. Over the years, many a gathering has led to a long evening of cooking together in a casual “throw down,” a curry lunch has been prepared with heart and shared with the full team, or a successful event weekend has been celebrated over a backyard crawfish. This camaraderie, this collaboration and sharing of inspiration, enthusiasm, and ideas brings a depth of character to Caliza’s plates, a reflection of the character of their creators, of teamwork and collective passion.
Over the next several months, we look forward to sharing more on our food and beverage team and what they “bring to the table.” We’ll continue to explore the inspiration behind the flavors, the friendships and the process behind the beautiful foods and beverages here at Alys Beach.
Town & Country Magazine discussed real estate along with the overall appeal of Alys Beach in an article created for us in late July. The piece discusses the beauty of the town while featuring real estate sales opportunities and highlighting The Beach Club at Alys Beach, opening next month, and the new Selene & Easterly condominium residences.
We also enjoyed coverage in Veranda with a capture of a Khoury & Vogt Architects-designed space in an Alys Beach home included in the article on “25 Serene White Bedrooms that Embody Elegance.”
MSN.com added a special call out to Alys Beach within a 30A highlight on their list of “14 Thanksgiving Destinations To Satisfy Your Wanderlust This Fall,” courtesy of our friends at Veranda.
Thank you for joining us for the Fourth Edition of The Alys Journal. We hope this monthly share of insights offers you a few moments to come alongside Alys Beach, our special place of escape and respite.
“When summer gathers up her robes of glory, and, like a dream, glides away.” – Sarah Helen Whitman (1803-1878, American Poet)
“By all these lovely tokens September days are here, with summer’s best of weather and autumn’s best of cheer.” – Helen Hunt Jackson (1830 – 1885, American Poet)
