By Coral Gables Gazette staff

Cyclists will roll out from the Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center on Sunday, March 15, for one of the city’s most popular outdoor traditions: the annual Bike & BBQ, an 11-mile guided ride through Coral Gables that ends with a picnic at historic Matheson Hammock Park.

Check-in opens at 9 a.m. at the Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center, 405 University Drive, with the ride departing promptly at 10 a.m. The route concludes at Matheson Hammock Park, where participants will enjoy a barbecue-style picnic, live music by Bob Bonnen, lawn games, and refreshments. A police escort will accompany riders throughout the route. After the picnic, participants may join an optional guided ride back to the Youth Center.

The event is part of Bike Walk Coral Gables’ Cycle Day series, which features themed bicycle tours through the City Beautiful throughout the year. Bike & BBQ is among the most popular of those events, combining a scenic ride through Coral Gables’ tree-lined streets with a destination that carries its own place in South Florida history.

A destination with deep roots

Matheson Hammock Park, located at 9610 Old Cutler Road just south of Coral Gables, is no ordinary picnic ground. Opened in 1930 as Miami-Dade County’s first public park, the site began as a gift of 85 acres of beachfront property from industrial entrepreneur William J. Matheson to Dade County. The park has since grown to 630 acres of coastal land bordering Biscayne Bay, encompassing mangrove forests, hardwood hammocks, and one of South Florida’s most recognizable landmarks — a man-made atoll pool flushed naturally by the tides of the bay.

The park’s design is the work of landscape architect William Lyman Phillips, who was hired in 1936 and worked with Civilian Conservation Corps crews to develop the site. Phillips designed the park to guide visitors through three distinct Florida landscapes — swamp, mangrove forest, and open bayfront — while protecting the land’s natural resources. His crews constructed miles of coral stone walls and structures that still stand today, including the historic pavilion where this year’s Bike & BBQ picnic will take place.

Who is behind the ride

Bike Walk Coral Gables is a nonprofit organization founded in 2011 with a mission to promote safe cycling and walking as everyday forms of transportation and recreation in the city. The organization runs a monthly Gables Bike Tours series — held every third Sunday in partnership with the Coral Gables Museum — as well as annual events including Bike to Work Day and the Tour of Kitchens bike option. Bike & BBQ is presented in partnership with the City of Coral Gables, Dade Heritage Trust, and Coral Gables Crime Watch.

No Boundaries Sport will be on site to inspect participants’ bicycles before the ride departs. Organizers recommend the event for riders ages 10 and older who can maintain a minimum speed of 10 miles per hour. Riders under 16 are required to wear a helmet. A goodie bag will be provided to participants who register in advance.

A ride that reflects a larger mission

Bike Walk Coral Gables envisions a community that values cycling and walking as safe and healthy forms of daily life. The organization’s monthly tours, which rotate through different themes and neighborhoods, are designed to give residents a new perspective on the city’s history and architecture from the seat of a bicycle. Events like Bike & BBQ extend that mission beyond the tour route, using a shared destination — and a shared meal — to build community around active transportation.

Dade Heritage Trust, which co-presents the event, has long worked to preserve Miami-Dade County’s historic structures and landscapes. Its involvement in Bike & BBQ reflects the overlap between the region’s architectural heritage and its natural one — both on display along the route from the Youth Center to Old Cutler Road.

The route itself passes through some of Coral Gables’ most distinctive streetscapes, including the canopy roads and Mediterranean Revival architecture that have defined the city since its founding by George Merrick in the 1920s. Merrick’s vision of a walkable, beautifully designed city — built around pedestrian plazas, lush greenery, and thoughtful street design — is precisely the kind of urban environment that Bike Walk Coral Gables works to preserve and extend.

For Coral Gables residents, Bike & BBQ offers something that few civic events can: a reason to see a familiar city differently. The ride covers 11 miles on a Sunday morning in March, but the destination has been a point of civic pride in South Florida for nearly a century. Both are worth the trip.