This week, news broke that Jack Penrod, founder of Nikki Beach, died on Monday, February 3, at age 85. He had been battling cancer.
It’s hard to put into words how much Penrod helped reshape Miami Beach’s image from a retiree community into a global hot spot. In 1988, he opened Penrod’s Beach Club on Ocean Drive in South Beach, long before the area would become a trendy destination. However, in 1997, Penrod experienced one of the biggest tragedies a parent can face when his 18-year-old daughter Nicole died in a car accident. To honor her, Penrod founded Nikki Beach (then called Café Nikki) the following year at Penrod’s Beach Club and turned it into a global brand.
Nikki Beach now has locations in St. Tropez, Marbella, and Dubai, among others. (At one point, Nikki Beach even had a short-lived outpost in Coconut Grove.)…