They had me at duckpin bowling.
They being the folks behind the Marriott Hutchinson Island Beach Resort, a luxury hospitality institution on the same-named barrier island east of Stuart. The resort recently completed a $50 million renovation that not only reimagined its interior spaces and amenities but added two dining concepts developed by Rocco Mangel of Rocco’s Tacos fame: The Hutch, a casual café for breakfast and grab-and-go options; and Locals Lanes, which offers … wait for it … duckpin bowling.
If you’re unfamiliar with this variation on traditional tenpin bowling—as I was until only a few years ago—you’ll be a fast learner. The lanes, pins and balls are smaller, so you’ll feel like a giant when you approach them, but the rules are essentially the same: Roll a sphere and hit as many pins as you can, aiming for strikes or spares. Locals Lanes, situated in a new building across from the Marriott lobby, contains four lanes for duckpin bowling, each with a self-operated scoreboard, complete with the sort of goofy graphics familiar at any bowling institution. The balls are roughly the size—but mercifully not the weight—of a shot-put ball, and there are no finger holes, so germophobes can play too.
The result is a game that evokes Skee-Ball as much as grown-up bowling, and it’s just one example of the quaint, analog entertainment in which Locals Lanes specializes. A billiards table stands next to the lanes, and around the corner, a compact video arcade features a handful of joystick-driven machines from the golden age of Generation X—Mario Bros., Pac-Man and Donkey Kong among them—that run on swipeable prepaid cards, not quarters. But everything about the place, from its ski lodge-style wood-paneled ceiling to the disco ball suspended from it, evokes a wholesome nostalgia that’s family-friendly in the truest sense of the word, in that its appeal encompasses grandparents, grandchildren and everyone in between.
This sense of multigenerational charm extends throughout the property, and indeed throughout Hutchinson Island itself. The Marriott is one of the island’s sprawling anchors, offering guests two pools (each with a Jacuzzi), access to a private stretch of beach it shares with a local club, an 18-hole golf course teeming with bird life, tennis and pickleball courts, five dining concepts and a marina that is currently in the midst of a reconstruction. Given that the resort is only an hour and 20 minutes’ drive from Boca Raton, it qualifies as a locals’ staycation spot while still offering an adventuresome distance from the familiar haunts—and pressures—of home.
The Hutch, Rocco Mangel’s other aforementioned new concept, is, like neighboring Locals Lanes, a highlight of Marriott’s recent reinvestment in the property. Its flamingo-hued color scheme and surf-and-sail photography lean into the Floridian lifestyle, while the menu options hew to one of Florida’s most dominant demographic groups: ex-New Yorkers. Hand-rolled bagels from Manhattan institution Ess-a-Bagel—which has been voted best bagel in the tri-state area—are flown in daily, and they do not disappoint. I ordered a breakfast sandwich exploding with egg, crispy bacon and gooey cheddar cheese on a perfectly starchy and golden-brown toasted sesame bagel that would have been delicious even when consumed plain. I’m no bagel expert, but this qualifies as the best bagel I’ve ever eaten. (For the record, the same level of praise cannot be offered to Latitudes, the Marriott’s poolside lunch-and-dinner restaurant, whose nachos and pasta dishes both left much to be desired—reinforcing the necessity of Mangel’s culinary interventions.)
A two-night stay at the resort, such as the getaway we enjoyed, should allow plenty of time for activities and sightseeing just outside the resort grounds. A three-minute drive or a 20-minute walk lead tourists to two of this small island’s cultural attractions.
The Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center, a 57-acre facility operated by the Florida Oceanographic Society, continues the region’s focus on family fun. The Society, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, oversees stewardship of Florida’s coastal ecosystems through its research, advocacy and educational initiatives. To the latter end, visitors can engage with stingrays and other invertebrates, such as horseshoe crabs, sea urchins and carpetlike sea cucumbers, at touch tanks, and learn about marine life from educational tours and guest lecturers.
The Center’s mission continues at its newest addition, the Ocean EcoCenter and aquarium, an indoor center that opened four years ago, and which houses simulations of various Florida ecosystems, from mangrove-lined estuaries to Stuart’s nearby Bathtub Reef Beach. Just outside the center, sharks, rays and species such as snapper, tarpon and triggerfish swim in a 750,000-square-foot open-air tank—a “gated retirement community” for the creatures, in the words of Community Engagement Coordinator Michelle Byriel.
Your visit to Hutchinson Island shouldn’t be complete without a stop at the Elliott Museum, across the street from the Coastal Center. Named for prolific inventor Sterling Elliott—Sterling’s son Harmon Elliott built the museum in 1961 as a tribute to his father’s work and interests—the cavernous space is manna for classic-car buffs, housing more than 90 priceless cars and trucks, along with permanent exhibitions on technology, local history, baseball and more.
But as a longtime devotee of the UFO/ET phenomenon, I was most impressed with the depth and breadth of the museum’s current special exhibition, “UFOs: Denial, Disclosure, Discernment.” While the show opens on a bit of levity—a sculpture of a gray alien beamed down from a flying saucer descending from a swirl of clouds, which makes for a memorable photo op—the exhibition thankfully eschews the tiresome giggle factor that still accompanies UFO coverage in much of the mainstream media. The level of research supporting this exhibition, which originated here at the Elliott, is both comprehensive and convincing, making the case for the seriousness of the subject matter across a series of information-heavy panels.
Televisions embedded in the panels showcase footage ranging from classic UFOs captured on film to the explosive testimony in recent years of UAP whistleblowers such as David Grusch, along with famous ephemera from UFO history. High-definition prints of crop circles in the United Kingdom offer visions of mandalas of extraordinary intricacy, symmetry and beauty.
Saving the most ingenious for last, the exhibition includes life-size A.I. avatars of famous ufologists Stanton Friedman, J. Allen Hynek (complete with his signature pipe) and Steven Greer responding to visitors’ questions. They follow you with their eyes, and they answer in relevant complete sentences, no doubt culled from large-language models such as ChatGPT but with a bespoke sensibility.
Will every visitor be as floored by a UFO show as I was? Surely not, just as I couldn’t give a tinker’s damn about a golf course, no matter how rolling its fairways or challenging its bunkers. But it further goes to show that this small, charming, occasionally eccentric island is full of out-of-this-world experiences.
The Marriott Hutchinson Island Beach Resort is at 555 N.E. Ocean Blvd., Stuart. For reservations, call 772/225-3700 or visit marriott.com.
