Stay Tranquilo - Mr. Eats 305 - All Things Brand Building, Social Media, and The BEST Cuban Food in Miami

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

In this episode of the Stay Tranquilo Podcast, we sit down with The Mr. Eats 305, famous food blogger & content creator in Miami. Mr. Eats 305, aka George Arango, talks on a few topics on this conversation: how to build a personal brand and grow your following how consistency is your best friend leaving law school behind to pursue his passion for food how social media has changed over the years pairing a Moscato white wine from Stella Rosa Wine what is THE best Cuban food in Miami AND MORE We definitely recommend listening to this conversation and sharing with your friends. #staytranquilo This episode is brought to you by our friends at Stella Rosa Wine, America's favorite Italian import wine. Cheers! #wine #winelibrary #garyvee #mreats305 #food #travel #travelseries Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

up everybody you're listening to another episode of the stay tranquila podcast we're here with the man mr mr eats 305 yeah what's up what's up um it's been a long time coming i know we've been trying to do this for a minute um the the matching dolphins was not planned nope um but i mean it is a good time to be reping the dolphins i would say right oh yeah yeah it's always a good time actually i i never i don't lose faith in them no me either me either but it's been it's been a tough uh a few years as a dolphin fan but all good things but um it's an exciting time right out. Yeah, man. So before we get started, wanted to do a quick little shout out to Stella Rosa Wines. We're going to do something today where we're going to actually try this Moscato right here.

So we'll pour a glass in a little bit. And we'll get into a little bit about what you think is actually some good things to pair it with, maybe, you know, so you're the foodie expert. Yeah, put him on the spot. Yeah. But they got a couple different options. They got their non-alcoholic. They got their canned wines, which are great, ready to go drinks on the go. They got the there's champagne and rosé and prosaico and then again a couple different flavors in the non-alcoholic i guess spirit that you can call it but um definitely check them out they're pretty much available at any major retailer so yeah check them out but uh so yeah man i want to toss it to you um give a little bit of intro about yourself um i'm sure a lot of people obviously know who you are but you

never know there's always new i hope so i hope i hope i could keep helping more more people out, man. So if you don't know, it's Mr. Eats 305 on most socials, I like to, I don't like to call myself an influencer, a food critic, or a restaurant reviewer. I simply just like helping people find good places to eat and different experiences, things to do, and just kind of be that trusted local source that it's filtered through through me and my experiences, I've probably eaten at over 500 restaurants in my lifetime, and been doing this now for seven years since 2016. Nice.

Started off as a hobby when my fiancé girlfriend at the time, we're starting to date. We were just going out to eat every weekend, you know, just like how most couples do. What else do we do? We're going to go eat. Yeah, yeah. So I was posting back on my Snapchat stories. places and just typical like 2016 things a picture of my dish and no context yeah that's it but friends were asking me like oh what did you get this time where'd you go and it kind of

sparked that idea of let me just create this platform on instagram where it was like an up-and-coming app there was no stories there was none of that and little by little it just grew over time I kept with it consistency is key we can go back into that later and went to law school While I was there, besides that first year, but you don't have that much time in that first year, the second and third year I had a lot more time and I was building that brand and staying consistent and it was developing into a nice, you know, little thing that I had going on. Still didn't think that it was going to be a full-time job. Right, you never thought it would become something like what you did today.

No, you know, I was going to be an attorney. That's why I'm in law school. Most people don't. You know, they start something and they don't really know what's going to come. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, shit, look what we did. Yeah, yeah. So by the time I graduated, I had around. 70,000 followers, which is great.

Yeah. Especially since I wasn't giving it my all. But when I graduated, I was like, you know, let's see if I did give it my all where it could take me. So I crafted up a nice little business plan with the goals that I had in mind. And I hit my goals from the first year that I had set out in the first quarter. Wow. So I was like, all right, that's a great sign.

Let me stick with it. Let me continue. And that was about a year ago. I'd say a little over a year. That was in February of 2022. Okay. And now we're recording this in March of 2023. Or we're in March or almost April.

Yeah, almost April. And I've grown approximately over 100,000 followers in that one year span. So you're talking about almost 200K at this point? Yeah. I'm at 170 something. I'm not sure exactly. solely on Instagram and then on TikTok and the other platforms, I have a good following too.

But my main hub of content creation is Instagram. And have you felt the need to make a shift to TikTok with all the hype around it? Or has that not been something of really a focus? It's like, let me just continue to double down on Instagram because that's where I'm seeing the best. No, I think it's important to kind of tap into every market that you can. You know, I'm also on YouTube shorts and Twitter.

But my main focus is Instagram. The way I create content is Instagram first in mind. And when you're creating content, you kind of have to know who your target audience is, the target market. And I just feel like I connect better to my audience on Instagram. So I just kind of repurpose some of my stuff on TikTok. That's what I was going to ask. But every now and then, when I do see a trend or when I do see something, that fits me, I'll go and put it on TikTok that maybe might be focused just on TikTok.

Gotcha. I think it's important for everyone to keep doing that and not just focusing on one, you know, social platform. Of course, yeah. Imagine if people did that just on TikTok and now there's like these rumors and the speculations of it. Yeah, can you imagine? Being shut down.

Yeah, people that I've, I mean, I know people that have started to actually make a living off of TikTok. Yeah. And they've just doubled down on it. There's nothing wrong with that. But, you know, to your point. you can't be married to one platform it's like the same thing where how they always tell you like diversify your portfolio of incomes right it's it's kind of like that same mentality yeah and at the

end of day i think those people are going to be fine yeah because they're creators i think that's the best way to if you're going to label because people love labeling things if you're going to label someone like like me yeah it's just a creator where you're going to create content for either yourself or for a brand or for some sort some sort of action whatever it's like your job or whatnot, they just know to create good content, regardless of what it is. And there's always going to be a space for that. Yeah, they're creatives at the end of the day.

Whether it's traditional marketing, back of the day. For sure. So rewind a little bit, right? So you started in 2016, you know, he said that it was something that was more of a hobby at the time, you know, it wasn't really something that you were thinking was going to turn into kind of like a full time, right? So in between that period of you're in law school, you're just getting this, started, what was kind of your, I guess, process into really trying to say, hey, I want to

grow this, right? But I also got to focus on law school. Like, what was your kind of mindset going through that at that time? I just, it was kind of my passion project. Like, I loved doing it. I loved going out to eat. I started seeing the impact that it was having, you know, that people were trusting me and were going to these places and we were helping small businesses and we were being able to not

just be posting cool pictures or nice. pictures of a burger or whatever but actually have an impact some sort of value yeah so when you see that that impact and you and you have that like rewarding feeling it drives you to continue and that's where that's my day-to-day drive is that you see the impact that it's helping people and that people are finding good places that they might have not found without my video or whatever content I create yeah I mean it becomes almost like a resource book essentially where it's like hey I'm thinking of a new spot to find.

Where am I going to go to? I'm going to go to Mr. Eats, right? He's the 305 guy. He knows the spots in Miami. I'm going to see what his recommendations are. And then from there, you have an arsenal of options to choose from. Yeah, and that's kind of what I've tried to create through my social platforms. And I know it's not the easiest to navigate.

So then I also on my website that I just launched, I created this map that's interactive, has roughly 400 spots in Miami. of my favorite spots that are broken down by cuisine and location. So if we were to click on the map right now, it will tell us what's near us right now, as well as a search bar that if you type in pizza, pizza will pop up. You can make it as specific as possible in terms of what exactly you're looking for.

Yeah. And then the map will kind of populate exactly like that. Date night, my favorite spots, everything there from casual to high end. Very cool. Money signs. It's almost like a Yelp-ish kind of map. But filter, you're not going to find, you know, a fast food chain right on there. And I love fast food, but that's not what people are going

to look for. Yeah, of course. You know, you know where your normal spots are going to be. Yeah, because what, you know, for me as a consumer, right, if I'm looking for a new restaurant, I'm just going to put restaurants near me, but I'm going to see seven, eight, nine, 10 different restaurants and I'm not going to really know anything about them. You know, I might look at a couple of pictures, maybe a couple of reviews. Yeah. But coming from like a source like yourself, there's already some sort of like, you know, almost like a verification process that goes through that. Yeah, everything that a consumer would look at, I look at prior to going.

Like, through the years, I've did my homework, and I kind of know more or less one-up spot's going to be good even before going to it. You know, on the back end, I look at the Google reviews. I look at the Yelp reviews. I look at the people that are in charge, the, you know, the investors. And I know basically what's going on before I even step foot in the door. I know what type of content I want if I'm going to visit that spot before I step foot through the door. You know, I already know what the most popular dishes are. I already know, you know, through my back-end research, what to expect.

And that's something that's helped me when I travel to find new spots that even if I'm not the most familiar with the area. So if I were to visit Las Vegas or any other. You kind of go through that same vetting process. That same vetting process. It takes me a little bit longer, obviously, because I'm not as familiar. I mean, how many times, like, I'm sure it's happened to people that are listening? to this like how many times have you missed on going like missed in terms of like going to the wrong place especially traveling especially traveling you want to be you do your kind of same

vetting process you know like me myself but I get there and I'm disappointed or I'm underwhelmed almost right and then you might maybe even paid a premium because you're more inclined to spend money when you're on vacation on going to that cool spot and then you're like dude that was kind of like average you know and you have a process that ultimately kind of helps vet it yeah and I'm not saying it's it works every time of course not but it's it's it's probably better than the rest at this point yeah and it's through practice like it was just kind of doing it for my job it's my job it's so you know luckily every every time i travel i'm looking for those type of spots so i'm not just you know stuck on miami yeah but i kind of just to say that i'm from the 305 always rep in

Miami no matter where I go, whether it's New York, L.A., Vegas, all those places where, you know, I've been retained and go and visit and do reviews over there, over there to highlight, to help people that are living in Miami. Exactly. Where to go when they visit. The nation is like, hey, come to Vegas so that we can promote to the people that live in Miami. Correct.

So, because 80% of my audience is from South Florida. Yeah. Yeah. No, it makes sense. It makes sense. And it's a good marketing kind of tool for outside cities where a lot of people from Miami travel. to. Yeah, if brands or whomever may be are looking for like a direct impact, a target audience, target market, and they're looking for South Florida, I'm the, I don't want to say the spokesperson,

but that's who my audience is. Of course. Yeah, it makes sense. Something that, you know, I'm thinking, not only for my personal stuff, but I'm thinking, like, you have a platform that ultimately has been very successful and has, I'm sure, so much more room to grow. But in this process from 2016 to now, right what is one of the obstacles that that you've kind of faced through this process that that's ultimately something that you had to overcome um challenges maybe you know maybe it wasn't necessarily like a direct obstacle but some some sort of challenge along the way that you've faced that you're like you know what i got to do this if i really want to make this work yeah i i would say graduating law school and realizing this is something i wanted to try out creating that business plan sitting down and saying

You know, what type of content do I need to put out to be the most successful and do what I feel people want to see? People want to, you know, consume. That was that shift from photos to videos. So it was natural in the sense of that's where everything was headed, but it wasn't the most natural for me. Because it was more time consuming. It was different than what I was doing. So it was a little bit out of my comfort zone, but it was something I always wanted to do. I slowly and gradually was getting into it little by little because I

The aspect of view like actually being on the camera and talking that was that was definitely a big thing I didn't think it was the most uncomfortable I I don't it took time yeah you know the more I did it The more I was able to go out in the field and and meet people and showcase my face more or more like that was The necessary next step and it didn't happen one night to the next, like it was a gradual thing. I started in the kitchens and I was recording kind of behind the scenes of chefs and how they're making dishes. So I was making videos. I was learning how to edit. I was learning the back end stuff of how a video should be put together. And at first when you started, those videos probably were nowhere near the quality of what, you know,

what they are today. No, no, no, no. That's definitely a big tip and a big piece of advice is don't wait to create content because you don't feel like it's at par to people that you're seeing. I think the biggest thing is just to start. If you feel like you want to be doing something, just put content out there consistently, and you'll get better. You'll get better. So, you know, my photos were not the best. If we look back, my photos were not the best in 2016, obviously, one technology improves. And you improve, you understand lighting, you understand those basics of photography.

Once I got good, it switched to videos. Yeah, I mean, it's a constant evolution. You keep learning. You keep learning. You keep learning. You keep learning. You keep understanding who your audience is. You keep understanding how you can improve.

Yeah. And that's what keeps me going to is not just that Miami's booming. And I love learning about new spots. And I love... A lot of your success came prior to even this kind of like Miami kind of, I guess, boom. Yeah, yeah. It was, it was thankfully, I started early. Yeah.

But it was through just like loving food and the stories that it brings, the cultures, you know, celebrating more than just like it tasting good. Yeah. You know, understanding how it's like ragged rich stories and just like embracing different cultures that you normally wouldn't try because growing up, believe or not, I was not like this crazy eater. Yeah. You know, it was Awella's house that whatever she made you were eating.

And when you went out, it was, you know, Miami didn't have this stupid amount of restaurants that we have now. We had, you know, a lot of chains and, and the other, the other, the, The rest of the restaurants were in Miami Beach when we went downtown. You know, growing up in Kendall, there was Ila Canaria and, you know, chilies and different chain restaurants that were around us. And my parents weren't traveling all the way to Miami Beach to go to a fancy restaurant. You know, so it wasn't until college where I got like my car and like you finally started to explore.

That's one exactly when I started like actually eating food. Yeah. I think I had sushi for the first time in college. Probably same. Same. And then that was just like instant fell in love with wanting to grow the palate and understand more than just what's in front of the plate. And where are you from again? Are you Cuban? My grandparents are Cuban, but my parents were born here in the States.

And so it's same. The grandparents are Cuban and both my parents are born in the States. I mean, it's funny because my grandma, you know, you would think they all cook, right? Although I let's cook. But she didn't know how to cook until she got to the States. because she grew up, you know, pretty wealthy family, so it wasn't really something that she needed to do. And then when she got here, it was a complete opposite.

It's like, I have to cook for my family, stay at home mom, all that. And she's got her cookbook here still to this day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so that was a big thing that kind of led to my love for food. It was understanding my own culture and seeing the variety of dishes that we had. Yeah. That, you know, it was arco and pollo one day, ropa beja the next, you know, got in with Papa the next day,

it was like, dude, I have a full restaurant menu at home. Let me do this now with every type of cuisine, every culture, you know, whatever, whether it's Asian, Indian, you know, American, doesn't matter what it is Italian, you name it, the world is out there and they have different types of food.

So I love it. Yeah, no, me too. Any opportunity to try something new at this point? I grew up and my palette was small, man. Like, I didn't eat anything. And now it's like I'm open to try everything and anything. And it's cool because I think you nailed it. It kind of immerses you in the culture, right?

Because the staff is usually from there as well. So the ambiance, you know, the restaurants do a really good job of kind of like bringing it to life. So you get a really kind of like an affinity towards that culture and an interest into that culture. Not even just not the food, just outside of everything that the culture may have to offer. Yeah, it kind of gives you like, no pun intended, but a taste of the culture. Yeah, exactly. So if you like it, go and visit and like immerse yourself into. to you know, Greek culture or Italian culture, whatever may be, and visit the country and

you'll love it even more. Yeah, totally. So someone that wants to start a personal brand, right? Obviously, that's a little bit different than 2016 than it is today. What would be one of the things that you would recommend someone, because I feel like it's becoming more of a common theme that people want to start something, right? They have these hobbies and they want to turn it even into a little business, turn it into a little page, whatever it is, but they want to start something outside of maybe whatever

they're doing for work. What would you recommend to somebody that wanted to get started in this kind of climate today? Yeah, so in 2016 to, I think 2018, I don't think I showed my face on my page at all. I kind of wanted to keep it like behind the scenes, no one knew who I was, kind of like old school food reviewer, food critic type of thing. But I never, one thing I never did is talk bad about a restaurant either. I don't, if I, before to answer your question, I'm gonna, I like that, is that I, if I don't have a good experience, I don't share it.

Because they could have an off day at the restaurant, they can be understaffed, whatever it may be, but I don't want to kill a business or do damage to a business just because one person said it was bad. Right. That's not who I am. And, you know, I just think, I respect that way. It's better.

And people always comment all the time, I'm like, man, this guy loves everything. It's like, no, you don't understand. There's so much other things behind the scenes. Exactly. And even if I go to a place that I love, I'm only highlighting the dishes that I love. So they'll feed me literally like half of the menu,

if not the entire menu. And I'm not posting about the entire menu. Of course. I'm posting three to five dishes that I thought were the best. So to the people out there listening and seeing the page, I don't post literally everything. I just post the things that I like and I just keep my mouth shut on the bad experiences that I do have,

which are very little, but they still happen. Of course, it happened. I mean, there's no perfect spot out there. Yeah, yeah. So, and then to get back to your question about starting your own personal brand, consistency and just putting it out there, starting, don't wait for like needing the perfect name, needing the perfect brand idea,

not invest in in branding. Like I literally just rebranded Mr. Eats and created a color palette and logos and all that. Just this year and this is seven years in. I had nothing before that. Yeah. Literally nothing.

It was just posting food and like a catchy name. But it's only catchy because people got used to it. Yeah. People started understanding that it was creating its own brand, awareness brand, you know, its own brand. Right. But for advice, kind of not caring what other people think, staying consistent if you like it, and make sure that you like it because you're going to need to keep going with it.

The consistency is only if you actually enjoy what it is that you're doing. Like if you start losing the joy out of it and you're just doing it because you want to be the next cool guy on Instagram, then you've lost sight of why ultimately you want to do it. For sure. And I get questions every now and then for people that start a food page, whatever you want to call it. And they're like, yeah, I started it because I wanted free food. I'm like, that's not going to last.

Yeah, like that's not why I did it. That's not why anyone should do it. Like, it's because. You didn't even start getting real food in the beginning. No, I was, I was, I still to this day, I pay for meals when I don't want to, like, I never solicit any business. I'm not the one to reach out and be like, hey, I'm Mr. Eats. Right.

This is my media deck. I reach this amount of people per month, like, pay me or, or feed me. It's all outreach through the brand. Yeah, they reach out to me, and then we negotiate on the back end type of things, how when I can make it, all that. And it's got to make sense for both parties. Like if it doesn't make sense for you, then I do my homework and I see like if it's a place that I even need to go and spend my time and try it, then I go and I do, you know, my due

diligence. But the, I don't outreach at all to places. I will spend, I spend my, money if I need to, especially the first two or three years when I was creating the brand. It was my hobby. It was like, we're going out to eat every weekend. Might as well to post about it. It's a little bit of an investment in yourself and the product that you're trying to create. Yeah, I was already spending the money anyways. So that's how I see. Like if you love golf. You're already going to those places. Yeah. That's how I look at it. I started doing golf stuff because I was

like, dude, I play golf all the time. Why not make content out of it? Right. Exactly. And podcasts, I mean, there's a little bit more logistics to it too. But I'm like, I'm a social guy. I like to talk to people. I love networking with People are like, why not put some mics in front of us and let's have a conversation, right? Yeah. So just kind of like highlighting some of the things that you maybe already do and just say, hey, get a phone. Like, you know, how we were talking about before, you could shoot a phone footage like in 4K now. Yeah. And it's going to look really good.

Yeah, I film everything on my phone. Yeah. All the videos that people see, it's on my phone. Even if they have a phone and they're like, man, but it doesn't come out that good, that's through practice. Yeah. Through understanding what the lighting is, where it's coming from, what style shot that I'm getting. I used to go to a shoot and record like 15, 20 minutes worth of content now. And then to narrow it down to under a minute.

Wow. Yeah. So I was just overshooting content. I didn't understand what I was shooting. I was going in blind. Like I was like, I'm going to this place. Now you know exactly what to count. Oh, yeah.

Now I leave the place with maybe three minutes in content to narrow it down to 30 seconds to a minute. Right. It's a lot easier for me because I already have the video in my head. It saves me a lot of time. So I know what I need to record when I'm there, and I'm not always on my phone also when I'm there. I'm not like instantly editing and like on my phone while I'm eating, like especially if I'm there with people. I'm getting the shot and I'm putting the phone away. The new dish comes.

I'm getting a shot. Put the phone away. So I try to schedule myself to Mondays and Tuesdays. I try my best to stay in the office and my office and whatever. it's a copy shopper at home, whatever may be. Whatever you got Wi-Fi. Whatever I have Wi-Fi, and I edit the content there. Okay.

And I get it done for the week. I have my, from the week before of my restaurant visits. Content that you're reported before. Yeah, so Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays, I'm going out and shooting content. Okay. But I'm not posting the same day, the same place. Yeah.

If I'm posting that Wednesday from the Wednesday before. Yeah. So that helps me a lot too. to stay scheduled, stay organized on top of things and have a consistent schedule for content, that's kind of like a template. So it's like I know when I need a post.

It keeps me, helps accountable for. Content plan helps tremendously, because then you start getting all over the place. You know, even when you're creating the content, you don't know what content you want to be creating, and then you get there and you're like, this doesn't really make sense.

So, yeah, at least for me, I've seen a huge difference, like when you kind of plan the content ahead of time, you know exactly how you want to release it because then you could like to your point you could be producing all this content but then when it comes to like releasing it on social channels or however you want to leverage it it may not make sense right and now you're just like shoot I just wasted three hours of my day recording this content it didn't make any sense yeah especially when you start getting different brand deals too they have stricter deadlines obviously then you whole have for yourself

so you have to understand what fits best for the brand and tell them all right you know this wednesday is a good day for launch because I don't have like I can move things around because if you might if you if you have a tranquil Tuesday then you know that the brand doesn't have a space on Tuesday that they should wait to Wednesday so you have to understand if you start different series is different ideas to be able to organize yourself properly got you yeah that's really good advice and you touched on like brand deal so let's say you kind of started getting some traction you know and some people don't know how to monetize it, right? Yeah.

How does one monetize their personal brand? You know, what are some avenues where you can actually start to drive revenue to ultimately maybe pursue this, like, as a full-time gig? Yeah, the brand deals are definitely the biggest source of revenue. Again, I don't solicit business. So for some people, for all people, I think the biggest thing is to create a media deck that highlights your target audience, your insights, your followers, the views, the reach, however many people you reach, who do you reach, how old are they, are they male,

female, all those audience insights, any testimonials you may have statistics. So if you know that you posted about a restaurant on a Tuesday, or you don't have to go into this much detail, but I posted this restaurant that had 14,000 followers. Like a case study kind of. Yeah. Have a separate page for that. And, you know, in 24 hours, it reached 16,000 followers. Like having those case studies as well as testimonials, And your rates broken down by content. Okay. So how do you usually set your rates?

It's a sliding scale. There's no like there used to be, no, there's not like sweet spot. It used to be for every thousand followers that you had, was it, $100? I forgot what it was. No, for something like that. Yeah. I forgot what it was. That was back in the day.

Yeah. It was like 2017, 2018 that people were like following that, that template. But now it all, it isn't all about followers. It's about engagement and how much impact you have to your target audience or who they Or their marketing how to do this kind of like content marketing now too. Yeah. You know like yeah you may have a hundred thousand followers where you're getting like 50 likes on your post right there. They're going to be like that doesn't add up there right so yeah and and not only that were like the fake followers any of that but it's it's kind of like this case study of you have creator a who has

500,000 followers yeah around the world true like that very geo-focused. Versus a creator who has 80,000 followers, 100,000 followers, but all 80 or 75% of them are in South Florida or the target audience that you as a brand would like. Yeah. So what's more valuable to the brand? Someone who has more followers is going to charge you more.

Or someone that's getting in front of the audience exactly that you want to reach. Exactly. And that engages with it. Exactly. So you have to understand as your personal brand, what value you have for that client. So maybe you feel like you're overcharging them, but if you're very transparent with the brand,

be like, what's your goal? This is what you have in mind. This is what I can provide, and this is why I'm charging this much. Or, you know, if you really like the brand, you undercharge and, like, create a relationship. There's no perfect negotiation tactic for brands and creators. You want to build long, long-lasting relationships with these brands, too, right?

where you don't want to just say, hey, yeah, charge me X amount of dollars, and they might do it, and then you've got to know what your worth is too, right? And then it might take some negotiating, but not only that, like, let's say it's your first deal, you finally land, right? You're going to have no clue really how to price that out. So it's like just start at a reasonable place that makes them feel comfortable, that makes you feel comfortable for the work that you're going to ultimately do. And then from there, you know, okay, this was test one, you know what?

This was actually a lot of work for that much, or it was actually, hey, you know what, this is the right amount of work for that price. and then now other brands may start coming up to you. You may know, okay, hey, you know what? It was worth that. Yeah, and it's also a sliding scale. So, for example, you're not going to charge a local brand the same amount that you're going to charge a national, international mega brand.

True. You know, you understand that their goals are different, the budgets are different. They're reaching out to you for a reason. Yeah. So you have to keep that in mind. You're not going to charge them the same range. Yeah. Yeah. True.

Cool. That was really good. So we're going to get into the fun stuff now. But before we get into the fun stuff, pour a little glass of this. We've got the Stella Rosa Mosado. So I have a little glass here. Go for it. I'm no Somali, so I don't know if I can tell you what it pairs well with, but we can pretend like you're a pro.

No, definitely not. When it comes to wine, definitely not. I drink tequila. Straight up. Yeah. Tequila is your go-to? Tequila is my go-to. Whiskey is up there.

But let's try this out. Cheers. Cheers, sir. Sweet, fruity, easy. It is actually pretty good. Definitely a daytime wine. Yeah, exactly. I was about to say that.

It's kind of warm in here, so it actually is really right now. Yeah. I mean, you could pair that with like a good seafood, I would say, hot day, picnic. Obviously, you could put this in a nice bucket of water, a bucket of ice. Yeah, bucket water. Frozen water. Yeah. It'll be nice.

It's smooth. Definitely something light, something, something during the day. I don't know if something too heavy with that. It would be the sushi. Yeah, yeah, yeah, a little seafood dish. Yeah. Cool. So obviously, Mr. 805 got to ask you some of the spots in Miami, right?

Of course. I'm going to categorize it a little bit by maybe like top food choices in terms of like, what do you call it? Cuisines. Cuisines, yeah, kind of thing. and then maybe you can just give me like a wild card one. But like what do you think is your go-to, like Cuban restaurant? For like sandwiches, lunch, breakfast, dinner. That's a good.

That's a good point. It's true. I would say let's do breakfast and then just sandwiches. Okay. Breakfast is easy for me because I La Canaria was a spot growing up. I mentioned earlier, but the croquettas are the best for me. For like Ventanita, crogetas. It seems like that's the consensus.

Yeah, it's always solid. Of course, there might be better croquetas if you're sitting down at like a Michelin Star restaurant that they're serving, you know, Hamoni Beiko, so yeah, yeah, yeah. But for a Ventanita, for $1.25 or $1.50, whatever may be, like, that's my go-to. And they're still my favorite even with all the bougie stuff too. It's just like nice and warm and, like, just feel at home. It's like a home-in-meat-home. Exactly. For sandwiches, that's tough because obviously there's pancone-a-chon, Panguvii.

Yeah, Cuban sandwiches, croquetta prepared. But I love sandwich in Miami on A Street. Yeah. Do you guys still haven't been there? Yeah. It looks, it just looks unreal. It's just consistent. Yeah.

And that can be like the episode, the title, consistency. Yeah. They're just consistent so you know what you're going to get every time you go. And top quality stuff, they made their pickles, sauces. It's just next level stuff that they do there. bread is always on point but there's some hidden gems every here and every you know

throughout Miami there's the butcher shop in Palmetto Bay serves a great bankone it chung there's Mary's coin laundry that's the laundromat on like 27 Jaylon Ramsey was there shout out Alan Narciso he made in the video the hype video

probably is the one that took him to Mary's coin laundry it came out sick they have one of the best Banco It did Different because it's the Palomia. Okay. Whereas Sanguiche, they shave the meat. So it's different. Okay.

I like it, but it's not your traditional. It's not a traditional. Panguite. There's a bunch of Cuban sandwiches in Miami. That's going to be, I do these like top 10 lists. Yeah. I've done pizza. I've done tacos.

I've done coffee shops. Okay. Burger list is almost done. Okay. My burger list, I'm at spot. I'm very curious about that one. I can't. I can't leak anything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm excited about that. I've tried about two. I have the spots written down because I've did my homework on, like, which spots I need to try. Okay. I think I have around 35 spots in the list of what I'm trying. For burgers spots? Just burgers.

I'm a spot like 28. Damn. So only a handful left. Are you any other cush places in there? That I've tried, yes. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. And with these ratings, rankings, whatever you want to call them,

These, I make sure that they have no idea that I'm there. Oh, wow. So you're just going in there. Or I'll bring, you know, someone to come with me order and bring it to the table or bring it like, bring it back to the car or bring it to whatever. Like try to. Like I'm not going to, you know, go crazy and like put a fake mustache and like glasses and a hoodie. Like it's not like that.

They recognize it cool, whatever. But for the most part, I try to keep it as non-biased as possible. Okay. And I try to preach that every time I go to a place, even if they know I'm coming, like, give it to me how you would normally give a normal patron. Don't just treat me differently. Because they know that you're going to read it, review it, and then kind of like. So it's tough because I have times where I have a great experience. But then people comment and like, oh, man, I went.

Like, it wasn't that good. I'm like, dude, I'm sorry. Like, it's not, I had a good experience. Yeah. And I think going back to your point of why sandwich it is so good. it's consistent. Sandwich in Miami. Sandwich in Miami.

Yeah, sandwich in Miami. It's consistent. Yeah, so it's a good spot to send people because I know what they're going to produce. Exactly. Consistency to me is one of the biggest things with the restaurant. Like, if I go there two times and I had two different experiences already there, I'm already like kind of like on the fence if I want to go back. Yeah.

But if I've gone there multiple times and it's automatic, then I'm going to go back. Yeah. So back to the Cuban sandwiches. that is probably going to be the list that I come out with after burgers. But these lists take me about three months. That one's going to take you a while too, I would assume, because there's just so many spots to check out. I think so I'm only going to do Cuban sandwiches,

not panco lechon, not panco wita. Only a Cuban sandwich. I wouldn't even say traditional because people put, you know, a spicy mustard instead of mustard. I'm not going to not try that one because they put a different mustard. I like creativity. Yeah. Off of like traditional meals.

It's what makes people stand out. Exactly. You know, when you put your own twist on it, whatever may be, and high-quality products and things that you're using. And it's got to make sense because if you start going into like a complete left field, then it's not a Cuban sandwich. Obviously, like if you, yeah, I was going to say if you put some sort of other meat in there, it's not Cuban sandwich, but then Tampa, they add a separate meat.

I forgot what we'll meet to it. They added something. Yeah, who started it. I'm not even going to get into that here. That's not worth it. No, no. It's between Miami-Kee West and Tampa. Yeah, 100%.

There's no other discussion after that. There is a story that the Cubans from Cuba brought it to Key West, and then from there it grew into what it is today. But they were starting on like a very basic level, and then in Miami it fully developed to what it is today. So I think the idea started somewhere, yeah, the idea started somewhere, whatever that may be, and then it finally became a thing when it got to Miami. And that's the story I'm going to go with, just because I got to represent the 305. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a sandwich that's got, I think it's got like, I think it's poured cream cheese and like guava. The Elena Ruth.

Elena Ruth. I had that for the first time a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. So that's like the Cuban spin on it because I think the American version of it doesn't have guava. It has like strawberry jam. So it's cream cheese, strawberry jam, and I think turkey. Yes, that's exactly.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I had one the other day. I didn't even know what it was at first. I'm like, dude, what is this? I started looking it up and I'm like, oh. Yeah. And then I think the way the one with guava is made, it's pressed on like a Medianoche bread. Yeah.

Yes. So it's a little sweet, but a little salty with the turkey. Yeah. It's really good. It's really good. Yeah. It's really good. Yeah.

It's really. Yeah. It's great. It's great. So you have then out right now, you have the pizza list, you said? I have my pizza list, my taco list, and a coffee shops. So pizza, what would you say? Miami slice.

Because that list was only New York style. Okay. So that's the hard part. when it comes to ratings and rankings is that how many styles of tacos are there? Is it just traditional cheese usually that you did? I started doing that, but then there's other, if a restaurant's known for a certain pie, a certain like pepperoni, let's say, then it's hard to take that away from them when that's like their signature slice.

And that's what I normally would. That's what I normally would order. That's when people would normally order. So I based it off of like their signature. What they would order. Yeah. What would go there. And someone would go and order at that spot.

That was just the most like real thing than being like. Yeah, because it's not fair if that cheese is not there. You know, the cheese pizza is not their thing. Which it's the base. You should be rating off of that. But realistically, you're not going to want to just go and get cheese. You're going to want to go and get their specialty pie, whatever that maybe. At least that's how I order.

So I base it off of my own personal thing because that's what I like doing. I'm not going to be fake and like post that, oh, this guy does it only cheese. So I'm going to do it only cheese. Yeah. No. Yeah. And then taco spot? Taco, I gave it to the wolf of tacos.

He's a pop-up, Eduardo. Nice. He makes killer tacos, man. What spots did you try for the taco spots? I tried 40 spots. I tried 40 spots for the taco spots. Only traditional authentic. If you were starting to add like sour cream on top of it, you were not even getting tried.

Oh, okay. And I love those spots. Tacos and tattoos. I went to a homestead and I tried. 12 spots just in Homestead. Wow. And I think three of them out of the 12 only like made it. So even in Homestead where you think, oh, these are the most authentic, these

is, like just because they may feel authentic doesn't mean that they are good. Right, exactly. Because in those places that, yeah, the taco's only a dollar, but then what type of meats are they using? The quality kind of downgrades a little bit on the tortilla, the meat quality. So O'Wardo uses top-notch, top-notch meat. his style was great. He just has a passion for what he's doing. He's a pop-up right now in Jay Wakefield, Dante's High-Fi.

Okay. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, right outside of it. And Miami Music Week just passed. He was at Factory Town in Haileo. They're throwing like a party there too. He was there all weekend. So you just got to check him out on socials and you'll see where he's popping up.

There's a spot that, I mean, this is nothing with the tacos, but I think you were there the other day. Apocalypse barbecue I played Achilles Have you been And I ate there I forget one of their burgers

I think they I mean dude Everything looks good there Yeah I don't know if you brought back Another burger I think he only has one burger Was there two burgers on the menu

Because he There was one This one didn't classify it Like as a burger Like that one they said burger And then this boss burger The boss Yeah that's the one I try

That's one I really like It's really good With jalapinos right I think I don't know I don't remember I'm pretty sure I had jalapenos

But yeah It was really good Yeah Really good Everything there that they do is good. I know. I mean, they're like your traditional barbecue. Yeah, I might.

And I said that I pose the question, like, is that the best barbecue spot in Miami? Yeah. But you haven't done a full-blown review there yet? Oh, at Apocalypse, yes, but not rating all of the spots that are in Miami. Okay. There's some great ones for sure. I have in mind a top five. So if I do a rankings video, I think I will do only top five.

Okay. for barbecue. Gotcha. So maybe I do that one before the Cuban sandwiches because it's going to be less work. Yeah. There's less spots to visit. There are less spots. And I know the ones that are producing good content and using quality stuff.

Follcos has got a good story too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I don't think it was actual like food truck. It was just like popping up with the smoker at Union beer shop and Winwood. It did Lincoln's a couple, or possibly one of those. I remember I saw him. On scene, I think on scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like in that, like, warehouse space. Yeah, no, it's crazy. He's got a bunch of cool spots that are popping up. Yeah, and another question that I normally get is, aren't you going to run out of spots? Like, it's like what happens when you try all of them. And luckily, if people were to be listening right now and are just following me, I can be posting a spot that I just went to a few months ago,

and they're not going to be scrolling back down. You posted six months ago. If you repost it today, it would drive, a lot of people there too because one not everyone's going to always see your post yeah and just people are always maybe not interested at that time and now they may be inclined to be interested in that i mean you never know but yeah that stuff doesn't die because even if they thought about going and they might have forgotten they haven't gone and they're like oh shoot you remember uh mr eats said at this spot and then and then get people there and there's different ways of making content too

it's it's not just like changing too at these restaurants yeah and and i can do the compilation list of, you know, the best of a certain area, the best of a certain cuisine, yeah, which that one's coming out soon. I have two more restaurants to visit for Best of Gables. You have plenty of content that you could still still do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I have two more to visit just for this segment. Yeah.

You even did something with the heat arena? So, yeah, I posted that one today. We work together a lot, being that I'm an avid sports fan and multiple brands. I know that. I work with the dolphins, the heat, the Marlins. on just letting people know of what to do that what the heat's hosting, whether it's at Miami-Dade Arena

or an activation that they might do a pop-up as. So like letting fellow heap fans know or sports fans in Miami how to follow their team more than just what's on the court because these organizations are doing a lot more for the community. They've got to make a fan experience too

in the stadium. Not only that, and they have an impact well on the community and giving back. So it's making sure that they use me as a voice, and I work with them together to be able to elevate more than just, you know, the sport. Right. When what's on TV.

Okay. Oh, that's cool. I don't know if you can answer this, but I don't know. I take a sip. And the Marlins, who has the best food in the stadium? Could you answer that? I mean, of course I could answer it, whether I want to answer it is a different question. Okay. That's fair.

I think every team has an exciting twist on the experience that they deliver. The Hard Rock has some great benders. At Miami-Dade Arena, they have cool experiences of like inside and outside of the like Plaza area, 6-1 and all that. And then at Lone Depot Park, they just, I don't know if you saw my story, they created a giant Cuban sandwich. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That it's like three. They're going to be selling that at the stadium? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it was just like a thing that they had done. A display, no, no, no. They're going to be selling at the stadium. It feeds like eight people. And it's actually a pretty good deal. It's a massive Cuban sandwich. I think it's like 34 inches. And it feeds eight people.

You can get it at Section 40 and I think it's 50 bucks. Damn. That's great. That is really good. Feed literally like two families and divide it by eight's nuts. Yeah, yeah. When I saw the picture, I thought it was just like a display and then you were just getting the little pieces of the sandwich,

but it's actually for sale. I'm going to opening. opening weekend, because opening day is Thursday of this conversation. On Fridays, the day I'll be there, and I'll most likely try it, even if I'm there with only, like, two people just to see if it's not only, like, quantity, but also quality. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Quality enough for, like, a ballgame experience, because you're obviously not going to

get, like, high-grade, Michelin Star, you know. You have to know what you're going to be getting. Of course, so it's just getting a good. a good meal and being entertained through food, beverage, and the ball games. Okay, cool. So before we wrap up, a question that I love to have, ask everyone. And actually, I'm going to ask you an additional one too. Okay.

Easy question, but for you, what does it mean to stay tranquilo? I think it means to stay level-headed in the sense of, thankfully, I don't really get too stressed out. You know, you take everything day by day. I stay organized, which helps me stay tranquil. Okay. Because when you have everything in line and you have your eggs in a row or whatever, ducks in a row. Yeah, ducks in a row, yeah. You have your ducks in a row, eggs in a basket, ducks in a row.

You're able to have more control over what's in front of you. When you have more control, you're able to be more calm in that moment. That's not how you say it. More tranquil. There you go. There you go. What's the additional part? So the other day, me and my girlfriend were, where, where we, oh, we're in the keys.

I know how this came up. But basically, do you have a dog? Okay. If your dog could request one song in live music, what, what song would it be? That's tough. Yeah, I know. So in this hypothetical, do they want a certain genre? Do they want a certain, like, is it what I listen to or do you think what the dog would like?

It's what you think the dog ultimately would like. Is the cheesy answer who let the dogs out by Bachman? Because. It's the first time I asked this question. It's not serious. I wanted to start asking it because me and my girlfriend were talking about and we're like, dude, that's actually a funny question to ask somebody. And I was sitting there watching the live band playing.

We were in the keys. And I'm like, I don't know what song my dog would ask. But I know the personality that my dog ultimately has. So there is something that people would know. It's really Alex's dog, like my fiance's dog. My dog, and like my family dog, probably some, like, screamo. He's a little shizu, but he barks like a madman, so probably some metal rock type of thing. He'll be screaming at the top of his lungs.

Mine would be listening to some hood, red shit for sure. Yeah, yeah, but Alex's dog, it's a Britney, like, pointer dog, something maybe sophisticated, but, but, yeah, a little feminine. Yeah, she's like, but if I had to pick one song, who let the dogs out by Bahaman, it would be a fun, a fun little response. If I start getting that response all the time, then I'm going to be like, all right. No, that way. Yeah, yeah, that one, exactly. Exactly. That's the first thing you think, just dogs and song.

And that was like, all right, cool. Fair enough. All right, brother. I appreciate it. I appreciate you, man. Thanks for the invite. Thanks guys for listening. And I hope we provided as much value as we could today.

I thought it was an awesome episode. Yeah. And if anyone out there has questions or, you know, need a spot to, like, reach me at, it's mystery, 3.05 on socials. My DMs are always open. I respond to everybody. And if you don't know and you had a question on cuisines, the map is the biggest tool that we're going to be adding photos, videos. You can make reservations on there.

Yes. So that's an awesome tool. That's going to be huge. That's live, but we still need to add the photos and videos. Gotcha. But the filtering, you can book reservations on there. You can do just about everything. And it's filtered through my homework of, you know, the backend stuff that we were talking about.

Awesome. And then my guides on Instagram, Instagram has like three tabs. It has your feed, your reels, your guides, and then you're tagged. My guides book, my guides tab has different cuisines, different areas broken down, and it has the locations of each restaurant. And if you're a visual person, that's where I get the idea from the maps thing, that I'm going to add the photos. That one already has everything integrated, as well as, um,

the business's restaurant. Like their actual Instagram handle, they can follow them immediately. Okay. Damn. Yeah, yeah. So it's pretty cool. So that's where you can find it.

Mystery's 305. Sweet. It's tranquil. So I think people are listening around enjoy it. I hope they enjoy it. And hopefully you guys get some good restaurants out of me. Yeah, man. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you.