Wood frame Bahamian cottages under live oak canopy, and the waterfront mansion Ace Ventura and Any Given Sunday used as a private Miami estate.
What Coconut Grove looks like
is the commercial street through the village center. Coral colored Mediterranean Revival buildings line it, with wrought iron balconies and green awnings around a small plaza and a stone fountain. Live oak and palm canopy covers most of the side streets running off it, leaving them shaded through midday.
is lined with wood frame shotgun houses, one room wide with deep porches across the front, dating from the 1880s to the 1920s. Small churches and a cemetery sit along the same street, with the Coconut Grove Playhouse at its eastern end.
South Bayshore Drive runs along the bay to the Barnacle, a bayfront cottage with a boathouse and a lawn running down to the water. fills the shoreline further north with sailboats and yachts on fixed docks, in front of Miami City Hall.
sits on the shoreline at the northern edge of the neighborhood, an Italian Renaissance style house behind terraced coral stone gardens. A stone barge breakwater juts into the bay in front of it, and a smaller garden pavilion stands under live oaks to the south. Condo towers rise along the bay behind the tree line toward Brickell.
Shot in Coconut Grove
Villa Vizcaya, the Deering family's 1916 waterfront mansion, has stood in for a private collector's estate in Ace Ventura and a political fundraiser in Any Given Sunday. A private house on the same shoreline, just north of the main gate, played the villain's estate in 2 Fast 2 Furious.
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, 1994
Villa Vizcaya
Played Ronald Camp's mansion, 1994
The party and the cellar search for a missing shark were shot at Villa Vizcaya, the Deering family's coral stone waterfront mansion, doubling as fish collector Ronald Camp's estate. The party scene was shot on the terraced gardens below the house.
Any Given Sunday, 1999
Played the mayor's party, 1999
The mayor's party in the football drama was filmed on the same terraces and gardens above the bay. Both productions used the house's own facade and grounds rather than a built set.
What Coconut Grove can double for
Bahama Village in Key West, Florida
Bahama Village's wood frame shotgun houses, narrow and gabled with full width porches, were built by the same wave of Bahamian settlers as Charles Avenue and run from the 1880s through the 1920s. The scale and the porch line match closely. Bahama Village's houses are painted brighter Caribbean colors and sit closer to the street, so a tighter frame on the porch and roofline holds the match better than a wide one. Try searching wood frame shotgun houses now.
Park Avenue in Winter Park, Florida
Park Avenue's brick paved street runs under an oak canopy past boutiques and cafes, a similar scale and canopy cover to Grand Avenue. Both are single block shopping streets rather than a mall. Park Avenue's storefronts are Spanish Colonial rather than the Mediterranean Revival balconies on Grand Avenue, so close facade shots need the right block. Try searching brick paved oak canopy street now.
