The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: The Power of the Cuban Sandwich

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

A pair of luxury realtors led a life of debauchery that has caught up to them. Katherine Kallergis and Sheridan Wall of The Real Deal joins Billy Corben to talk about what led up to the arrests of Tal, Oren, and Alon Alexander, and what happens now. Plus, Daniel Figueredo, the owner of the popular restaurant Sanguich, comes on to tell us how Miami commissioner Joe Carollo tried to destroy his business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That's BetterHelpHELP.com. He looks like a giant toddler and he likes to beat his wife Beat his wife, beat his wife, Chocoroyo beat his wife Beat his wife, beat his wife, Chocoroyo beat his wife I have hit women One time Joe fell off a ladder and broke his lap His wife says it's broken in their sex life DOA, DOA, DOA Joe's sex life is DOA, DOA, DOA Like his wiener ran away

Cookie, cookie little Joey, aka Crazy Joe Gets so mad at meetings that his head just might explode Commissioner, come la mierda Spine this wien a little schmuck Oh, and did I mention that he cannot get it up? Sociopathic bully Joe, el escudo de burrito No one talks to him on Christmas

Cause his daughters hate his guts Hate his guts, hate his guts Both his daughters hate his guts Hate his guts, hate his guts F both his daughters Hate his guts, hate his guts, hate his guts, Feeble, evil, little putz Oh no, my dad's hurting my mom What happened? Oh my dad's hurting my mom

Oh ho ho It's a very Corolla Christmas. Happy holidays to everyone except Miami's biggest bully and most corrupt commissioner. And to you, Roy. Oh, thank you. Happy Hanukkah to you. Shalom. Yeah. Looks like David Sampson was here.

I see the menorah on the desk. Is he in there somewhere? Dave? Crushed by one of the candles. How are you doing, Roy? You're right. Haven't seen you in a minute. Yeah, I've been on vacation all of last week.

So that's why I'm riding the Zamboni around Miramar. What are you doing? Yeah, the Zamboni floats. I was on a ship. Oh, yeah. So really? For about a do? Yeah, that Zamboni floats, I was on a ship. Oh. Yeah, so. Really? For about a week, so yeah.

I'm refreshed somewhat, now I'm tired again. Yeah, it took like, it took four days. It actually took one. You're like, f*** this. Yeah. We have a fun show, it's not really that fun. It's kind of intense. Wait till you listen.

It's a real Bon-bonding. I've actually got one of my favorite entrepreneurs in Miami, the owner of Sandwich Day Miami, the best Cuban sandwich shop in the world. Daniel and his wife Rosa built one of the great Miami brands. I think it's going to be hugely successful if they can only get their next store open in Miami, which it turns out not as business friendly as Mayor Francis Suarez would have you believe. Mayor Crypto World. Also, we are talking first about the Alexander Brothers, who this is an unbelievable story of power and privilege

and now allegedly serial gang rape for the last several decades. I mean, this is a- Fun show. The Miami story for the ages. And if it turns out to be true, they're gonna do a lot of time. But there is a fun show that I can recommend to you. Okay.

What if I told you that a Miami developer and part-time Medicare fraudster by the name of Roberto Antonio Francisco Emilio Rodrigo de Leon. I mean already What's his name again the Kim big muttum Roberto Antonio Francisco Emilio Rodrigo de Leon a Descendant the lion a descendant the lie. Yes. He is the lion of Lincoln Road. He is a descendant, he claims, of Spanish explorer, conquistador, and Florida colonizer.

Colonizer. Juan Ponce de Leon. Well, he said he was searching, the claim was, he was searching for the fountain of youth, but he wasn't, he was here to colonize Florida. Some people say it was a Ponce scheme. I'm waiting for it. So he is planning on demolishing Some people say it was a Ponce scheme. I'm waiting for it.

So he is planning on demolishing the entire 1100 block of Lincoln Road, where the Regal movie theater and the Brito stores and the entire block. And he because he's going to build a 75 story luxury hotel condos. You know, we need housing and these condos start at three million dollars and in addition to world-class entertainment and restaurants, there is going to be a multi-level 180,000 square foot Vegas style casino. The first legal casino in the history of Miami Beach, a place where every hotel used to have a bookie working, you know, semi-secretly.

And obviously, Lincoln Road's not a protected landmark. Now here's the thing. Everything I told you is not true. Okay. This is the premise of a new play called Lincoln Road Hustle that is opening this weekend at Miami New Drama on Lincoln Road. And the premise of the show is the audience comes to the ceremonial groundbreaking of this giant casino. So you're right there on the 1100 block of Lincoln Road, and it's like this huge press conference.

And then you put on these headphones and you start to walk around Lincoln Road with tour guides and five little groups. And you hear these different scenes happening around Lincoln Road around this groundbreaking. And it all kind of comes together in this crazy ending. But what's wild is that Lincoln Road is the stage of the play. So people just walking by or people having dinner, they're like in the play. Everybody's just in the play and crazy shit happens.

It's totally unpredictable. On the first night of previews, there was a block party. So like people were just out on our stage basically where the actors are walking and talking and at the movie theater, someone pulled the fire alarm. So the entire theater emptied out onto Lincoln Road where everybody was performing. So I co-wrote the play. It's a lot of fun. It's a fun night out. It's a five drink minimum. It's not just for financial reasons, it also makes the show a little bit better, a little social lubrication.

What do you think? You think comedy clubs have two drink minimums because they wanna make money? It's like, no, they want you to laugh. But it's a lot of fun. If you go to deliowncasino.com, you can learn more and get tickets. It's a great Hanukkah present, and it's playing now through February 16th, so also a nice

Valentine's Day weekend. And I know a guy, so whenever you want tickets, 10% off Roy. 10% off. Not only are you the middle man, you're the first man as well. Prominent real estate brokers with ties to Miami Beach and New York arrested for their involvement in a sex trafficking scheme that dates back over a decade. Power, prestige, celebrity and money is what authorities in South Florida and New York say the Alexander Brothers used to lure women and sexually assault them.

The siblings known for their ties to very high-end real estate. The Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office says three South Florida women in three separate cases have come forward. The twins and older brother, Tal Alexander, are also being charged to New York. The Alexander brothers work together and with others

to repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault and rape dozens of female victims. This is one of the most sensational and salacious stories of power, privilege and perversion to come out of Miami in quite some time, which is quite an achievement, you have to think in this town. How much time are we talking about, like two weeks? Yes, at least in the last two. I would give it two years. But, you know, real estate is the number one industry in Miami. And Miami is the number two, I think, luxury real estate market in the world behind Dubai, if I'm not mistaken.

And the Alexander Brothers and their so-called A team are among the top luxury real estate agents in Manhattan, Miami, the Hamptons, I think London, Colorado for a while. They're all over the place where there is luxury real estate. I think they're ranked like the number one medium-sized realtor teams in the nation for years running. They've done over a billion dollars a year in transactions. Their celebrity clients included Adam Newman, Timbaland, Tommy Hilfiger. They sold Ken Griffin his two hundred and thirty eight million dollar penthouse in Central Park South in twenty nineteen, which was then the most

expensive real estate listing in the U.S. In Miami, they were famously Jared and Ivanka's realtor sold them a twenty four million dollar home in the billionaire bunker next to neighbors like Tom Brady. These were like boy wonders and very well known. And they lived a lifestyle, a high rolling lifestyle that like matched their clientele as well. And so they were very well known. It turns out not all that well liked.

And I will tell you, when this story broke five months ago, it was like nobody in Miami was shocked. It was like Harvey Weinstein. It was like this worst kept secret, it seemed. We have joining us now the journalism team from the Real Deal, the preeminent real estate, periodical, online, and elsewhere. This team are the ones who broke the story five months ago.

So before we get into the breaking news of just this week, which is the indictments, multiple indictments, Catherine Collergis and Sheridan Wall, you broke this story five months ago. And the story at the time was then civil lawsuits by multiple women against some variation of these brothers. There's the twins and then there's another. So give us the lay of the land first on what was the breaking news five months ago before

we kind of catch up to where we are today. We started reporting on this in June. We got a tip that something was going on. And so we searched for lawsuits that had been filed against, you know, any of the brothers, Orin Tall or Alon. And Sheridan found the two lawsuits in New York and they were filed against Orin and his twin, Alon. So Orin is in real estate, Alon is in his family's private security business. And that's kind of how it got started.

And then we started to hear from other alleged survivors of the brothers, and there was additional reporting in other publications with other accounts, and that's kind of how it got going. Sheridan, what were the allegations being made in these lawsuits, and how far back did they date? So the initial two lawsuits that were filed, the alleged incidents occurred more than a

decade ago. So it was pretty long ago. They were accused of rape in the lawsuits. And then there were two additional lawsuits that were filed like pretty soon after. One of which named tall for the first time in any of these allegations. That one was also about rape. And then another lawsuit named Just Orrin, also alleging that he committed rape.

And was there a, in terms of, I know that the facts are disturbing, but was there, or the allegations were disturbing, did a kind of pattern or practice emerge? Was there an MO here? Did they occasionally diverge from the MO? What did you learn early on about the allegations and how perhaps these alleged predators were praying? Early on the allegations sort of matched what came out in the indictment later, which was that, you know, some of the women alleged that they had been drugged or they felt like they had been drugged prior to any incidents occurring. One woman alleged that she had met Oren on a dating app, which later on the prosecutors in the indictment had mentioned a sort of pattern

that they had created, one of which was to meet women on dating apps through social media. one of which was to meet women on dating apps through social media. Some of the women had met or in a lawn or tall or a variation of the three on the on the scene going out to clubs, some mostly in New York City. So they had kind of met socially or at least, you know, in in the nightlife, if not through other people that they knew. And then later on, more reporting surfaced from other allegations that were not in lawsuits. But, you know, that included a mix of women

who said that they'd met the brothers, you know, some through work as real estate agents. And Catherine, some of the allegations are these women were victimized by one of the men, or one of the brothers. Others claim that there were, I think gang rape is one of the allegations and in fact one of the charges now this week.

What happened? What are the allegations? What is the MO here? And a lot of this happened in Miami Beach, I understand as well, or in and around Miami. Yeah they grew up in in Miami they went to high school here you know the indictment that was filed in the Southern District in New York kind of you know goes back to high school that there were that they allegedly gang raped girls when they were in high school,

it's as recent as in the Miami case, the Miami-Dade state attorney's case, the incidents that they cite allegedly occurred in 2016, 2017, and 2021. So it's a very wide range of time where these alleged allegedly, you know, these alleged attacks occurred, but it's, it's start, you know, it's, it's dating back to high school. And I think the attorneys involved have alleged that as

many as 40, if not more women have come forward with allegations or is that, I mean, and if this does date back to high school, it could be, I mean, multiples of that number. Yeah, exactly. One of the plaintiffs attorneys had said to us early on, you know, that he had heard from I can't remember exactly how many do remember Sheridan, but it was at the time that we had talked to him. It was 28 in addition to the two that had already filed lawsuits. And that was six months ago, right?

Yeah, it was about, yeah, five, six months ago. So that number just kind of increased. So Sheridan, catching up to this week, two things happened. There was an indictment, a federal indictment for sex trafficking in the Southern District of New York. And then there was state charges of rape against two of the brothers and I believe a cousin who was still at large,

and the other brothers were arrested by the FBI in their homes in Miami Beach, and I believe the Miami Beach Police Department as well. Can you kind of parse out what's happened here with the federal versus the state of Florida charges? Yes, so in New York, they are facing a federal charge of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. They will, yesterday at a press conference,

the US attorney, Damian Williams, said that they will work on bringing them to New York to face those charges, but for right now, they're in Miami. They went in front of a judge this morning for a bond hearing. They were denied bail or bond for one on for Orrin for one of the charges. He's facing three in Miami and Alon for the sole charge that he's facing there. So these cases are they are separate, but the US attorney did thank the Miami FBI, the Miami PD

for cooperating. So they are kind of in tandem on this arrest at least. I mean, they are aware of the ongoing cases on each jurisdiction. That is a rough trip without bond. That is the Con Air trip. I think that's a bus and two planes in custody for guys that are used to a very different kind of a lifestyle, not only selling luxury,

but living in luxury in some of the most expensive and beautiful cities of the world. Catherine, what is I guess, what is the difference, just so we understand between the state charges and the state seems to get much more specific federal fields a little broad to me, reading the indictment. Yeah, so the state is more specific because they name, these like incidents with alleged victims, using their initials.

It's interesting because Tal is not facing any state charges. So he is currently in federal custody in Miami. I believe that eventually the federal case will take over. I don't know exactly when that happens. But for now, they went before Judge Mindy Glazer this morning, they'll go back before a different judge tomorrow morning. I just believe that the federal will trump the state charges.

Sure, this question, I guess, last question is for the both of you. You work for therealdeal.com. This is a real estate, periodical, is that still a thing? Do we call things periodicals? I'm not sure if that's right. I mean magazines, right? Yeah, but periodical means it's distributed periodically or released periodically. And now, I mean, real estate- How do you figure that out, Billy? I don't know. I'm just, I'm feeling old. I just

felt really old saying that Periodical anyway, sorry, I digress on a newsstand. Yeah Yes, I'm gonna go down to the newsstand to Hudson News So but this is for both of you So let's talk about the reaction in the real estate community itself because obviously there is is the tragedy of this situation for the accusers and the alleged victims. But I mean, the way I've heard it described down here in Miami is, Shadenfreude is the description I've heard.

I mean, they had a bit of a reputation for ruthlessness in their business. So can you tell us, I guess, Sharon, you could get first and Catherine, you could wrap us up. What has been the reaction from the people that you've talked to who are colleagues, peers, coworkers, et cetera, in the luxury real estate world? So you're right that initially we

had heard from several people who said that they had, you know, that there were rumors circulating about them for years. And what exactly those rumors were, you know, we don't necessarily know. And there's definitely a large difference between the kinds of charges that are being levied against them now, which is really extreme rape and sexual assault,

sexual battery. There's certainly a big difference between that and just womanizing and dating around and being kind of ruthless in business and really being in the party scene and really being around lots of women. So to the extent that like, were those rumors related to things

such as extreme as what is laid out, we don't necessarily know, but it didn't, some of the people we talk to pretty regularly, it didn't necessarily surprise them. Real estate is a business where a lot of agents are all 1099 contract employees. Workplaces don't always function the same way as traditional corporate roles. People rely a lot on relationships and building connections. Your money comes from the business that you do and the connections that you have. And so, you know, kind of, if you're, especially

for agents that are newer or, you know, they're kind of looking at these guys that have made such a name for themselves in the industry and are kind of at the top of the game, it's intimidating to come forward with any kind of, you know, allegations. So certainly, you know, within the industry, it's tough to, you know, stand up for yourself when you're in an environment where all the money you make and all the kind of clout you get just comes from your reputation. Yeah. And I think, too, what was interesting, and I don't know that we necessarily expected

this, was when our first story came out about the two lawsuits in June, our Instagram comments blew up. I don't know if you've seen that, Billy, but they've continued to. It's been a place where people are talking about what they knew, what they'd heard, other alleged survivors were posting. So it was just like, I think that they allegedly operated in a way that in business and personally

where it was very like high pressure and people, in a way people are living paycheck to paycheck and they're living commission to commission. So like Sheridan said, it's different. Like you have to rely on these relationships. And I think by none of this coming out until now, it just kind of like, it fueled itself. Yeah, Justice Delayed is not only justice denied

in a case like this, but it allows the runway for additional praying if that's in fact what happened here. Obviously with the allegations, if they are in fact proven, there were many more victims that perhaps did not have to be victimized because this was like kept on the down low as it was. And I think is proven by the response to your Instagram and in your comments, there may not have been any justice

here at all for these alleged victims, if not for your reporting, because it was the amplification of the story and the publication of the news of the initial lawsuits that that I guess empowered these women to come forward to the state attorney's office in Miami Dade County and and to the Southern District of New York. So thank you for your outstanding work. Keep it up, Katherine Kalurgis and Sheridan Wall, the real deal.com. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Howdy folks, it's Mike.

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I wasn't going to speak but Stephen Meadow did something pretty admirable. He apologized and he apologized for the pain that he had caused our business at the hands of Joe Carollo. You know that that was very big of you so you're forgiven brother. Joe, you once called me a coward on national television. And I'm here in front of you, wearing my shirt. I'm still standing. Karma is cold and it creeps in the bed at night. And I hope you sleep well knowing what you've done to the community of Little Havana and someone like me. Daniel Figueroa and his wife Rosa Romero are two of my modern Miami heroes.

They risked it all to pursue their dream of opening a small business and making it the world's greatest Cuban sandwich shop. But they nearly lost everything in the process. They personify not only the American dream, but the spirit of the Miami hustle against all odds. They risked everything to build a powerful family business, create a proud local brand from nothing, with their bare hands. All while their own city government waged a war against them, tried to crush their dreams and put them and their beautiful children out on the street with nothing. And not because of anything they did, mind you, but because one petty pathetic man, Miami's biggest bully and most corrupt commissioner, Joe Carollo, had a personal vendetta against

their first landlord, something we've talked about on this show for years. And he was willing to abuse his power and weaponize the city government to violate local and state laws and the Constitution of the United States. But the people of Miami rallied around Rosa and Daniel and their ridiculously hard work. And they overcame all that adversity and not only survived but thrived. Daniel and Rosa won and the corrupt bullies lost. A nice change of pace for the Miami mafia here, who is usually undefeated, as we know. And Miami is better for this. I know I am. Their perseverance inspires me and helps give me the strength to face this f***ery every day. They founded

Sandwich Day Miami in 2015, which has repeatedly, internationally, and accurately been declared the home of the world's greatest Cuban sandwich. I'm partial to the Medellin Oche, the Miami sandwich, if you're into turkey, and their new ham, ham, egg and cheese, Roy, they have breakfast offerings now, that's probably my new favorite.

However, their Cuban is, hands down, the best Cuban sandwich in the world. Yeah, not like that crap in Tampa, I'll tell you that. Yes, you know, with that salami from the famous Cuban town of Genoa. I mean, come on now. Daniel, I'm so thrilled to have, after that introduction, you might just want to say good night, you know, just quit while you're at it. Goodbye and thank you. But I'm so thrilled that you're here. I want to get into some of the kind of logistics of what it takes to be a successful small business owner in Miami, which is like Mission Impossible.

I touched upon it a little bit, but how does this story start? It's you and Rosa, a dream in a shipping container on Kaiocho. Tell us about some of those early headwinds and what the hell happened at the beginning of this adventure. Thank you for the introduction. You know, when Rosa and I decided to leave our careers, we wanted to pursue something like a simpler life. Rosa and I, I was traveling quite a bit.

Rosa was in the legal field and she was doing an ungodly sum of hours for the firm. And we had our first born daughter, our daughter in 2015 and we decided, hey, listen, this is not just a lifestyle that we want to live. So let's do something simpler, right? And it was my bright idea to open up a sandwich shop. So go figure. My idea of being home every day and, I don't know, making sandwiches for the public and having some sense of community was just, you know,

it was very attractive and romantic. So we started chipping away at it and we came across, we obviously started working with Bill Bill Bill offered us a location. This is just for clarity. This is Bill Fuller. Bill Fuller. Yeah. And he's most kind of famously known as a co-owner of Ball and Chain the historic nightclub on Miami's historic coyote show in Little Havana, but also a very prominent property owner in around Miami.

Yeah, and I think it's important to say that one of the things that I admire about Bill is to maintain Cayocho and Little Havana, what it is and what we all enjoy Little Havana to be. And building a brand, I felt, especially the brand that we wanted to build, it would be aligning ourselves with that community was just our secret sauce. I think it was gonna be the best platform for us to succeed.

So Bill came to us and he said, hey, listen, I got this great property here that I think we can do something with and give us some thought. Originally it was gonna be in the Futurama building, but after some due diligence, I said, hey, we probably can, based on the type of zoning laws that we currently have at the time in the city of Miami

and the use of the property and the use of my idea, I think it was executable. So my background has been in design, architecture, engineering. And so I knew that if we did a shipping container, the shipping container would, in private property, afford us the opportunity to exercise our concept. So we got all the appropriate documentation.

We had the use, we got our DBPR health license, and we went to work. So when we opened, it was a huge success. I'm not sure if you have any footage of that, but when we opened, the day we opened, we had over 300, almost 400 attendees just show up at our ventanita and it was a kick in the gut

because here we are, I have no experience in the food industry. And to my surprise and our surprise, the community really rallied behind the brand and took to it. So we had an incredible responsibility to uphold the integrity of the food and the quality of the experience and the brand

in an environment that I felt needed it. Little Havana being Little Havana, I felt that we were just kind of the right fit for the community. And it was a really beautiful time up until Joe Corroyo, won his election and that fateful, I would say it was just, I believe it was November 22nd,

my memory serves me correct, when we all learned that Joe Corroyo was gonna be the commissioner. And honestly, if I can be totally transparent, I don't give a shit about politics. I didn't give a shit whether it was gonna be Joe Corroyo or Alfie Leon at the time I was just like I just wanted to sell sandwiches. That's really was my only focus

And I had no idea that you know the the level of evil that we were gonna be facing with that fateful Tuesday or Thursday, whatever it was when we were bombarded by police and and fire and code enforcement inspectors and what have you to attempt to close us down because they felt that we were running an illegal operation. Which of course you were not. You knew you were not the city.

The city already told you you were not. At one point, the rumors were that I was running a meth lab. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, true story. Listen, those sandwiches are pretty addictive, not gonna lie. Ah, you know, yeah, people thought I was putting crack in the ham.

The harassment was unceasing. You just said the police, like storm troopers. I mean, this is what was, you guys were being raided, all of Bill Fuller's properties and any was how you guys were being raided. All of Bill Fuller's properties and any businesses affiliated with him were being raided. I mean, this was a personal vendetta where the government was being weaponized against legitimate, hardworking small business owners.

Yeah, and I think it's important that I preface this, is that I'm not in politics. I've never been in politics. And so I always felt that there is a formality and I felt that I wanted to extend the olive branch and really introduce myself. So I took it upon myself to go see Joe Corroyo and I sat down with him very early on.

And I really wanna understand why was he trying to pick a fight? And I thought we were in a bridge building economy, right? We wanted to help our fellow entrepreneurs and build relationships in our community. And here he was taking a sledgehammer and destroying an honest family. And honestly, I thought something was gonna come from it

and it just perpetually became worse. That's interesting. You established clearly and honestly that you're apolitical. You don't give a shit about politics. But more importantly here though too, you had no beef with this guy. I don't know that you even knew who this guy was from Alfie or from Adam or from anybody.

I didn't give a shit. I don't care if it was Adam or Paul or Brian or Jamie. Ringo. You represent, at the end of the day you are an elected official whose principal job is to promote and encourage your constituents and your your base and you don't go in there with a fucking you know a wrecking ball and A torch and charcoal and light the whole place on fire

for a personal vendetta, right? I think we're all grown men and there are gonna be many people that are gonna agree or disagree with me, but at the end of the day, my job is to do what's right by my community. When you go to your government and you say, hey, we don't need your help per se,

you're not looking for a handout, we just need you to do what you're here to do, which is to assist business owners and residents with the permitting process, the basic legalities of opening a new small business. And the government not only fails to fulfill their minimum responsibilities to the taxpaying public, but instead they actually proactively work to destroy you.

How bad did it get? I mean, what was the lowest? They nearly nearly bankrupted me. So we spent a considerable amount of money on the build out and obviously everything that goes along with it, the know, the architectural, the building, the, you know, the establishment, the food, the employees. And to have the rug pulled from underneath you was, it was a very sharp moment in our, in our,

in our existence as a brand and as a family. So here I have two young kids, they're one and two and we're just obviously, Rose and I were very successful in our academic careers. And so we didn't have to do this. I didn't have to do that for like 12 bucks an hour, right? At the time. And when that was basically ripped from our grips,

it put us in a financial spiral. And Rose and I were on food stamps for a little over six months. My kids got on their Medicare plans. And at one point I remember asking my neighbor as I was building out the second location, I remember asking my neighbor, I was like, hey, listen, can you do me a favor? I'm running out of cash and would you be able to buy some milk for my kids? You now have four locations, by my count, if my count is correct.

So this is definitely a story with a happy ending. But I want to play something for you and ask you a quick question. Yeah, go ahead. I think it can be what I call the capital of capital, a place where if you want to build a business, if you want to innovate, there is no better place. We've streamlined the process

by reducing unnecessary processing of additional special permits and creating additional opportunities for projects. Permit applications are now able to access and download their certificate of occupancy through the internet. We've enabled Miamians to request after hours of fire inspections online. Local businesses are now able to download their certificates of use and business tax receipts.

Fancy way of saying we've made it easier. We've made it easier says Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. The head of the business prevention district. The business prevention. Oh, no, the BPD. Francis Suarez has been the biggest cheerleader for Miami, as we know, all over the world. How can I help? For years now. And all I keep hearing and that was a very tiny sample of just,

you know, him going on ad nausam on every national and international platform saying Miami is business friendly. We are deregulating. We are streamlining the permitting process, making it easier for entrepreneurs and small businesses to open up their shops and be successful. You have all the tools in Miami is business friendly, business friendly, business friendly. You had that experience now times three in Miami, once in the city of Coral Gables,

which is a different city, but in Dade County. What has your experience been with how business friendly Miami is? It's the antithesis of that, quite honestly. You know, it's very difficult to kind of cut through the bureaucracy of our municipality and Understand what we need to do to open a restaurant like for instance space I took me three years and it's 500 square feet three years

Yep, to open a 500 square foot restaurant. Yeah, three years. Were you paying rent during that time? No, thankfully no. Thankfully I had an abatement period until I negotiated that once we were able to open it's when our rent commencement began. But nevertheless, you know, it takes a toll on a big financial picture of a business because you've got all this expense tied into a location that isn't generating any income. And that's not 100% at fault of the municipality,

but also Miami-Dade County with their DERM and their processes and other like, endless amount of paperwork and bureaucracy and hurdles. And unfortunately, if you don't know anybody here in the city of Miami, it's very difficult for you to get anything done. So I've been, unfortunately, I hate to say it, but you know, as, as you start to grow your, your economy of scale here, you really get to know people and you can pick up the phone and say, Hey,

like what the f**k is going on? Can you help push this along? And that shouldn't, that shouldn't happen. I think everyone who wants to come into the city of Miami or anywhere that wants to open up a business, it should be a real clear course to completion. Um, and it's not. I remember, I'll tell you, I'll tell you this. I had, I was building up this commissary and Billy, you've been here to our commissary in our office and outstanding. I've been, I've been very fortunate to kind of cut through all the bullshit and grow my business, despite all the impediments that we've been, we've, we faced, but I had, I had an inspect, it was a reviewer once

that I was sitting down and really needing some clarity in some of these comments, because these comments just kept dragging on endlessly, right? Everyone's trying to cover their ass and there's just too much liability at stake and there's a lot of fear going on and people are walking on eggshells. So I'd sit there and I'd talk to this guy and ask him,

hey, you know, I really need clarity here. I've been in this project now for eight months and I need to finish this by two months. And he looked me dead in the face and he said, oh, you're eight months? This is incredible, man. You should consider yourself lucky. This process usually takes two years.

And I was floored. I was like, how dare you speak to me like that? Because you sit here on the other side of this table, and you have your you have your salary, your salary, you're you're working on your pension, and you don't have a lot of disruption, you get to get you get here at eight o'clock and you check out at four, you take an hour and a half lunch, you take your seven day in two week vacations, right? While people like me

are stimulating the economy, people like me are investing in a process. It's important that I open up, not just for my sake, but for those that are working for me, I'm contributing to the ecosystem of our of our of our city. You're preventing me from opening my f**king doors. And you think it's cute by saying, oh, you're ahead of yourself. And I think that's the idea that's happening all across the board. You don't just contribute economically, you contribute culturally to this, to this, to this community and, and three years to open a 500 square foot restaurant. It takes nine months to make a baby for crying out loud.

I'm sorry. It takes a woman nine months to make a baby. It takes a man about 30 seconds. It's a very expensive 30 seconds. I'll have you know. But Daniel, I can talk to you all day about this and I wanna talk more in the future about how to solve these problems since the government here in Miami is clearly

not working to do it regardless of what they tell the world on television. It's not just a hard work. It's just a superior product. That's why everybody who tries it goes, holy shit, this is just the best. It's incredible. Listen, I'm not in politics, but every time I talk to an entrepreneur, I was like,

if all these entrepreneurs took leadership positions within their city, I think we can really turn it around. Because we see things through different optics. And I would say that one of the major impediments of the city, obviously, is the building department. It needs a massive overhaul. It's that theory of change that needs to happen and it needs to happen principally there.

And I think once you do that, you have conversation with the business community on what we can do better and really open up that pathway. I think there can be real change, but so long that we're all in this self-serving, you know, stage of politics, I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. In the city of Miami, the government doesn't work for the people. The people work for the government. And that is just back-ass words. But you heard the mayor, he's fixed the building department, so don't worry about it.

If you put garbage in, you're going to get garbage out. Daniel Figueredo, Sandwich Miami, my best de Rosa and the family. Happy holidays, my friend. Thanks, brother. Have a good one, man. Howdy, folks, it's Mike. And guess what? It's Miller time. The holiday season brings around lots of joy and also lots of family, lots of family gatherings

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