Find a Little Piece of 1969 at Maya Hatcha in Coconut Grove

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If you're looking to get a dinner table conversation fired up, all you have to do is mention Coconut Grove. Miami's oldest neighborhood gets people talking – and you know what that means around here: yelling. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about how The Grove should be, what it shouldn't be, what it was, what shouldn't be built and what's being demolished.

Everyone cares because The Grove has a cool history that's a little hard to see nowadays. Maya Hatcha, a boutique on Grand Avenue, between CocoWalk and Sandbar, is a clear look at a Grove that once was.

This 45-year-old institution could quickly be described as a hippie boutique. The store is packed with racks of French linen dresses and wide leg pants, with goods collected from as far as Africa and Indonesia. It even touts Bob Marley's wife as a frequent shopper.

But, there's something kind of modern amidst the worry dolls and hanging elephant bells.

The new minimalism of 2014 feels at home in this historic boutique. I start to feel a bit like these clothes and these trinkets suit the kind of neo-hippie Gwyneth Paltrow, gluten free, gardening life I dream of. I quickly start a mental list of everything in the store I want: incense for each zodiac sign, a leather drawstring coin purse, a bias cut white linen dress with large pockets, leather belts with large metal plates, spoons made of coconut husks, smudge sticks for housewarming gifts and a necklace with a picture of Frida Kahlo painted onto a piece of salmon skin.

While Maya Hatcha is a bit old timey, the women shopping here are visiting older women from New York. It's distinctly trendy, albeit not intentionally. Then again, good things never go out of style.
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