After Mark Bado, MCM, CCE, joined Mizner Country Club (Delray Beach, Fla.) as GM/COO three years ago, the club conducted a comprehensive survey of its roughly 500 memberships to understand areas for improvement. That survey became the basis for what projects Mizner would tackle over the coming years.
A few years prior, in 2020, the club had completed a $20 million expansion, which added an entirely new clubhouse, featuring a fitness center, a spa, a racquets shop—and an indoor-outdoor, poolside restaurant, which quickly became a member favorite.
Mark Bado, MCM, CCE, GM/
COO of Mizner CC.
Mackenzie Lalov, CCM, CAM,
Clubhouse Manager, Mizner CC.“Everyone wanted to dine there because it had that outdoor dining option,” says Clubhouse Manager Mackenzie Lalov, CCM, CAM. “So we talked about how to add an outdoor dining element to our [original] clubhouse and make that feel intentional. We ended up adding roughly 70 seats in a covered terrace that now connects to both our formal dining room [which also serves as a banquet space] and our casual grill.”
Today, the club is readying to welcome members back for the season following a yearlong, $7 million clubhouse renovation. The project included a fully renovated bar and grill and a new connecting terrace designed to create the open-air dining experience members wanted.
The grill is now brighter and more contemporary, with a versatile design that remains casual despite its more elevated look. The terrace extends that experience outdoors, taking advantage of South Florida’s climate and further connecting the two areas.
Bado describes the venue as “elevated without ever feeling formal.”
“Our intent when we started this process was to pay some homage to the original architecture, but also bring that in line with our newer clubhouse,” says Lalov. “Our One Mile Bar and Grille was very Tuscan, with dark beams and lots of dark paneling all over. We wanted to make that space feel more contemporary.”
Today, One Mile Bar and Grille features a lighter, fluted wood paneling, with contemporary furniture and patterned tiling around the bar, plus aged brass finishes.
“It feels very warm and inviting,” says Lalov. “You could watch a football game and get a steak, or you could bring your kids and have a hamburger and a martini. You can get sushi, or you can get chicken fingers. It’s elevated, but family friendly.”
The upscale-but-comfortable design is in line with the casual, South Florida experience Lalov says Mizner members value.
“We’re surrounded by some of the top clubs in the nation within three miles of our front door,” Lalov notes, “so how does Mizner feel different from other clubs? One of the recurring themes is that we are a casual club. You don’t have to get dressed up to come to dinner; we’re resort-casual year-round. We want members to feel that their club is an extension of their home.”
In fact, Mizner recently reconsidered its tagline: “Our original tagline was ‘a fresh take on tradition,’” says Lalov. “But what does that really mean? How much tradition is there in a 26-year-old club?”
It didn’t resonate with leadership nor the membership, so Mizner brought in a consultant and began to ask questions of the members: “What are your favorite things about Mizner? What do you feel when you’re here?”
“Members said ‘comfortable, friendly, welcoming, high-end,’ so as we started playing around the recurring themes that we were all describing, we slowly but surely came to our new tagline: ‘Where luxury feels like home.’”
All of Mizner’s spaces were designed with that intent.
“We want you to feel like you could come over and dine and be exactly who you are,” says Lalov. “[In] South Florida, [this is] the trend. You can go to high-end steakhouses and people are wearing jeans and polo shirts.”
Even the formal dining room in the original clubhouse was renovated with that in mind.
“Our formal dining room is elegant and more formal, but not so much that you couldn’t come in jeans and with your family and have dinner,” says Lalov. “It’s just a little bit more of an elevated experience. But that space is our private dining space as well as our banquet space. So we wanted to be more neutral in that space [for] a wedding or a bar mitzvah or functions of that manner.”
In addition to these updates, the project included a refreshed main clubhouse lobby and restrooms, and a reimagining of the turn experience, which previously consisted of a window serving hot dogs, sandwiches and basic soups.
“One of the big changes we made in our 2020 project was that we added a breakfast market: grab-and-go coffee, complimentary breakfast, a barista,” says Lalov. “We wanted to take that same concept and add that to our backyard at the turn: a grab-and-go lunch cafe, not just serving our golfers anymore. We have some breakfast sandwiches, hot paninis, grab-and-go salads, ice cream, and more.”
While there are always hiccups in any project, the renovation stayed largely on track and on budget.
“There were small detours or pivots that we made with materials, for example, but we were always pretty transparent that we thought it would take us a year,” says Lalov. “We opened our new formal dining and banquet space around the end of May, and the terrace and One Mile Bar and Grille about a month and a half later because of inspections, permitting and a few other things. But we did stay on budget.”
The club hosted soft openings for year-round members as each area was completed. The full space will officially open with a ribbon-cutting Nov. 14.
