The Man Behind the Most Viral Cheese Shop in Miami | Mario Naar

All right. All right. We continue with the chef takeover here on a day in Miami. Guys, I'm excited. Uh this couple of weeks we've had co-host like my co-host. I'm I'm announced tonight and today. Uh before I want to talk about our little hat sponsor here, Gavar Inc. check it out, guys. Construction. These guys are the best. I flow with them now. They're our little sponsor and they're going to be doing something in my backyard that I'm excited about. Guys, remember also before we get started, I forget. Please like and follow, subscribe. It helps the channel. If you have friends at YouTube, you know, support them as well. But please click, follow, and like and comment what you like or what you don't like. All right, let's introduce this guy first.

What's going on?

This is Wen Ortiz from Jealous Fork Guy. Let everybody know who you are.

What's going on everybody? My name is Wen Ortiz. I'm from Jealous Fork, local restaurant tour. Been down here doing it for 20 plus years, man.

Yes. Yes. And he's not our guest today. He's our co-host who's been on the show before on our podcast on location. He was so good. The fans wanted you back and and you know I love you.

Popular demand.

Yeah. So we got the pancake don and then this guy. Tell them who you are.

How you doing? My name is Mario Nar and I'm a owner and founder of Chev Miami.

Chef I like to call him the cheese don. He's also my boy. Such a good friend of mine that I actually have the Kiko Kubano on his menu. Chev. I don't have a kiko pancake. That's kind of messed up.

Maybe we can figure make it happen. How you doing Mario?

I'm doing great man. Doing great.

Oh you know I had to call you on. You know we've done stuff before many years. We've known each other um many years. Uh your spot is the one that calls me. Like you know, you get like an itch. You ever get like a cheese itch chef? Like you're like, "God, I got to take a little trip down France and maybe get some good wine, get some good cheeses, shuderie boards." And that's all good. You've been doing that for a while. But this thing here in front of us, did you bring the most expensive hot dog in the country here?

I did. I had to. I couldn't show up, you know, to your podcast without uh the $100 Golden Goat Gizzy uh that we're launching at the Miami Open.

At the Miami Open.

Mouthful.

We're going to talk about it. I just wanted to tell everybody cuz they're looking at it. Mar, let's start from the beginning. Let's um you you know, you're a guy that has a good social media game. You know, I follow you too. You're an amazing guy. You're an amazing chef as well. A lot of people think you just do cheese, but I know you throw down in the kitchen. Talk to us about the history of Chvet from the beginning. How to get started? Where are your roots from? You know, what other stuff have you done before you decided to take over the world in cheese?

Uh, nothing. Originally from Miami. People think I'm not from Miami, but I was actually born in Miami. Kendall, born in Kendall, then moved to Bickl, went to middle school, Rivera Prep, High School, Lasal.

Oh, seeal. Shout out.

Yeah. Then uh left Miami, went to school in Boston, lived in Madrid for a couple years, then uh went to work with my dad in Panama. uh did not like uh what I was doing in Panama. I was in sales working with my dad. Uh he worked in the cosmetic industry, so always knew I was a good salesman, but I wasn't really passionate about what I was doing. Uh friend of mine um opened up uh he bought a place in Kascojo, which is like the old town. I've been to San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Uh and he's like, "Hey, let's open up a restaurant." And I had no idea what I was doing. Uh but I used to host a lot of people in my house and people had a people had a great time. So, we ended up, you know, putting this uh restaurant uh together called Salvah. Uh there was one that opened up at the height in Midtown. And I want to state that I had nothing to do with that location. The first one was in Panama uh and then the second one was in Colombia, and then I ended up selling my shares. Um and uh in the interim, a really famous cheesemonger contacted me named Carlos Yesas to open up a tree shop in Panama. Uh we ended up opening up the first tree shop in Panama. uh pandemic hit. So, four months into the business, you can imagine how you know after I flew in all the cheeses and I got all the permits and the regulation.

Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't good. Um and I always wanted to come back into Miami. We were we did something really successful in Panama during the pandemic when people were in Zoom and they didn't want to like touch each other because of the whole Corona virus. So, we ended up uh doing these master classes online on Zoom. We'd send you two bottles of wine, little cheese board, and then we'd do a class with cheese and wine pairing. Class started with four people, grew all the way to like 200 people. It was nuts. And during the pandemic, what would happen is that people wanted to like socialize, but they didn't want to see each other. They couldn't leave their house. So, after the class, people would stay on Zoom drinking. So, they would they would open up their liquor cabinet and talking about the scotches and the wines they had. And it just it was completely successful. So, I kind of wanted to do the same thing in Miami, but I didn't have any presence here. So, I called a good friend of mine, Sophia Walver. Shout out to Sophia. I'm like, "Hey, I have this idea. I don't know how I'm going to put this together. I'm going to ship everything to your house. I'm going to open up a social media page and start promoting it." Uh, we opened up I think within the first 3 months, we had like 10,000 followers without even without even having a location here. People thought I was fake. It didn't exist.

And I realized something very early on when cheese on social media when you do like that cheese pull. have one.

It's like uh

Go ahead. Continue.

Oh, before we go, come on. We need a little bubbles, guys. Yeah. You know, we got to have the full chev experience.

Oh my god. Look at this.

I always tell Kiko, you know, when he invites me over, I got to make sure I show up.

Every time, Ever since I've mentioned you, fed me.

There you go. Oh,

first our first champagne toast on a day here in Miami. This is amazing. Thank you, Mario.

You better see anything weird during co of someone who like didn't turn their camera off,

you know? Oh yeah. Remember how

during co there was all these like hot mic moments of people who didn't turn their camera off during

Yeah. Are people walking in the nude?

Yeah. Or the the one that businessman when his when his uh his kids come in the room and the housekeeper comes back and drags the kids out of the back of the room. Cheers.

Cheers guys.

Cheers.

Cheers. Cheers.

So do you have any any stories like that? Cheers y'all.

Any stories like that that you remember from

Oh yeah. I mean when we did the one in Miami again same thing. Word about started. We ended up having about 80 100 people. Miami was a little more open. Panama you literally couldn't leave your house. And this one guy uh can't say well I'll say his name Alex Asion the run for the Miami Beach commissioner he ended up inviting everybody over to his house like that was on Zoom didn't know anybody we were all just stayed on the class and after the class um

after the class everybody ended up going over to his house so it it was cool because we realized that we very early on that we were connecting people through cheese and wine and now you know fast forward to to 2026 I realize that my brand is not about selling cheese or not about selling selling sandwiches. We're more about connecting people. Connecting people that have a passion for,

you know, for quality ingredients, quality stuff, uh, and and, you know, everybody has is a glass of wine, has a drink, and it really, uh, connects people. So, that's kind of where what we've done with the Wow.

with the brand.

So, when you open up this shop, was your what?

We opened up the shop, I think four and a half years ago. I think when I came to Miami, I didn't know what I was doing. I was looking to do a really big restaurant actually across the street here at the Plaza. I remember that. Um, and they wanted me to sign a $2 million personal guarantee. And obviously, I just got married. I, you know, I I couldn't, you know, afford to sign a two, even though you believe in your brand, but there's a lot of risk. You know, when you're on your own, it's one thing. When you have a family that depends on you, it's another thing. So, the deal ended up not happening. You know, I we were here for about two years going out, like if we were making money, but I was basically burning through my savings from what we sold in Panama. And it got to the point where we were maybe like four months uh from having to go back. just we couldn't find what to do and my wife got super pissed at me. She's like, "You took me from Panama. You got to you got to make this happen." So, we ended up opening up this location in Coralway, 350 square ft. Not what I wanted uh initially, but I think it's the best uh decision that we made because we were able to start small. We were able to really understand what it was, what was a Chevro brand. It was a cheese brand before. We didn't have sandwiches initially that came after.

We'll get to that.

Um and we kind of built it off on that. So yeah, it's been about four and a half years now. Now we're three locations, gonna have five by end of 2026. So

All right. All right.

So it's we we did it the right way. I mean, we our first restaurant popup that we did here, we did remember the Cloudy the Fish Guys restaurant. We had four hours to use the kitchen because they would come in for service in the afternoon and they would kick us and we were maybe selling two cheeseboards a week, like losing our ass. I had four employees on payroll. Yeah, we went to the food and wine festival with just a bomb.

We went to the food and wine festival.

Remember that one? We we bought a big block of parmesan cheese and like this cheese that's amazing. It's called like harbison. We ended up winning best bite on the beach.

The harvest cheese.

I was addicted to it.

Yeah. Yeah, we still got it. We still got it. But yeah, everything was pulmon. You know, we we we fought for everything that we have. Um and we did it we did it the right way. We did it organically. Uh, and you know, we always make sure that we try to maintain the best of the best quality in everything that we do.

When uh you and I actually met during COVID, I walked into his place with my wife.

It was you and just one guy, real skinny guy behind the little kind of countertop there

and uh you were building out the back room and you let my wife and I

you let my wife and I into the back room. We had a little sandwich back there. You came behind the bar. you open up some wine and you know

like you you the thing that you said was you're right on point like you're not selling cheese you're selling an experience you're selling something that's beyond the actual product that you're eating and and drinking you're selling the culture and I think you've done that really well

one 100%

yeah you hear a lot of people the experience the experience but one thing is to say the other thing is to actually do it and we we live it we live this is what I enjoy like if I hang out with Kika on the weekend we're building a cheeseboard we're cooking we're drinking wine We're drinking beers. We're throwing a pig back in the barbecue.

Funny cuz how we met on on Instagram.

I'm like, "Bro, who the [ __ ] is this guy with the cheese? This [ __ ] looks crazy good. Crazy good." And we literally had an Instagram like relationship like two years before we met face to face. Bro,

you were quartering each other.

He's like, "I'm coming to like when I told him when, bro, he got so much heat."

But you're delayed. You got delayed.

Delayed. People were saying, "Bro, what's the problem with your boy? You know what? [ __ ] the cheese. I don't even want that [ __ ] cheese no more. It takes forever." a Mario.

Well, to be honest, we didn't have a location. We were faking it till we made it, you know. We were faking it till we made it. We knew we had it and we knew we had a following, but we needed a location following had LIKE A MOB OPEN

and in Panama, you know, you pay a couple guys and you're open in like 10 days. Miami is a whole another story of, you know, even like you're the permitting. It's like, man,

opening up the restaurant is the easy part. Getting open is a nightmare. Talking about about permitting,

what have you uh

issues that you might have had cuz I know you're still at Sunset Place with Yeah.

That's how many years already

actually be 10 in July, baby. 10 in July, restaurant years. That's like dog years. We're turning 70. So,

incredible, right? And that's at Sunset Place. And then you have jealous for over there.

Have you had permitting issues and stuff with

You always do. I mean, I think the big thing is that Durm re like restructured all their codes a couple years ago. So, if your grease trap was a certain size based on your menu size, I'm sure you went through the same thing. Like, Durm will hold you forever. Like, you can be ready to go in four months. And Durm's like, "Ha, yeah, right. Here's a year wait because they're going to come out and inspect your grease traps and the walls and the capacity compared to your menu size." Like,

I actually found a solution for that.

Any new restaurant tour that wants to open up a restaurant,

okay,

have the landlord take care of everything that has to do with permitting, construction, everything. You sign the lease, you pay them rent, that's your job, and you provide the experience. They're out there, but you got to negotiate with them because at the end of the day, they they don't really care. You know, they charge their their rent, they kick you out, they keep the space, they bring in a new person.

And these people are signing these terrible leases, terrible deals. They don't open for two years.

I don't get involved in the project until it's my go time. And that's that's what I do. And I tell the developers, if you want to talk to me, you're going to have to pay for my buildout. There's just no ifs, when about it. We know we're a destination play. We know we're an anchor for any development because of what we bring to the table and and you we got to stick to to to what we do. You know what we do earn that

you know you can't go in with that mental well when I came in.

Well when I came in initially that I was going like that they're like who the [ __ ] is this guy you know he's out of his mind but I knew what I had. So like internally I was like this is what I deserve. But you're right you have to kind of earn that and get to that point.

Correct. Yeah. Yeah. There's I mean it's it's negotiating weight. you know, if if you're a AAA tenant with massive figures, they're going to bend over backwards for you because you're going to be an anchor. They want your apples and your gaps and your Publix and like you're 100%,

you know, but being small business, you you really have to fight for for the for the permits to get in there. It's not easy.

100%.

Talking about anchoring or a spot or a corner, talk to me about your newest uh opening now. It looks like a corner, right? Like that sharp corner in the grove. Yeah. So, we another opportunity. We partnered with Alan Morris. They're, you know, they're actually doing

I want you to pronounce the name cuz we've I've written it down a thousand times, but I don't want to mess it up. What's the name of the location?

Ziggurat.

Ziggurat. Can you say that while you're laughing?

I think

Say it. Say it.

Zagat. Ziggurat. I got it. I got it. Zigarat.

You always got to be a smarter person, right?

Ziggarat.

Leave it to the world traveler to make

No, listen. Ziggat. I think that, you know, sometimes there's like a niche in having a a restaurant name that's kind of awkward because it gets people talking about it.

Well, this has nothing to do with our restaurant. So, we partner with Alan Morris company. They're actually building Pawns Park across the street. They're one of the top uh biggest developers here in Miami. They're doing right across the street the Pawns Park uh they're bringing Kintine from Spain that's going to actually open right across the street. and he was uh doing Ziggra which is a project right across the street from from where we're located on Fuller and Grand right next to Beautiful Barracudas. Um and he wanted to do something different. Uh so kudos vision um

to to them for wanting to you know do something different and he basically built a sales center but inside the sales center there's a full chevron market. So it's not like they're presenting their projects and we come.

Is it more market or more restaurant?

It's it's it's a restaurant/market. We still do, you know, all the sandwiches and cheese boards that we're doing. We're adding a couple more menu items to it, but it functions as a full as a full uh sales center. So, they have their meetings, they have their private rooms in the back, and then we bring in our high-end clients that come and are interested in the real estate. Vice versa, their clients are interested in the real estate. They come and we're almost 80% sold out, and it hasn't even been uh beautiful.

4 months. I think there's like four units left. Uh

and then what? You keep the shop down there?

Well, we're kind of dating right now, so we'll see what's going to happen. But yeah, I mean I would love to stay in that location. I think that corner of Fuller and Grand and everything. You got, you know, Barracudas which is a you got Chug and the Grove is back.

Take our viewers like through the through the store. Once you come inside to the building, what do you

So you come in to the store um and then you have your very very high-end deli cuz the issue with partnering with such a nice developer is that all my new locations now people are going to expect this Ferrari buildout. I mean our case was like custom made. all the floorings, all the materials. It's like of a $3 million unit. You build it. You got to lay it in the in in the in the unit. So, you have, you know, uh our cheese monger that kind of greets you and salutes you. He gives you a piece of Parmesan cheese right when you walk in. Um then basically we take you through all the menu. We allow you to come and visit, you know, the project, the sales center. Everybody has any questions, explaining to them what's going to be going on in the next three years, showing them the units. We have two amazing brokers, uh from one ses that are there as well, and they can answer any questions and needs. I actually took my real estate license out because I just started selling real estate without even knowing. I'm like, if I can sell cheese, I can fill in your lap.

I can sell real estate. I already have a couple customers that are that are already uh you know uh making some offers on some of the units. So, it's it's been it's been it's been awesome. It's been interesting. Um that location is going to be be different. We're going to offer an evening program where we're going to start doing kind of like we're going to do one dish every two weeks and then kind of change it. Basically, whatever we want to do. We're doing a breakfast menu right now. Uh we're bringing bagels in from New York.

Okay.

Uh we're going to do amazing cuz we're the cheese people. So amazing cream cheese spreads. That's going to start in about 2 weeks. We're going to continue with our classes. We're going to start doing a wine club for all the people that are wine collectors in the grove. Every Wednesdays they're going to come in. They can bring their own wine. And again, this is all about, you know, a social I'm not going to say experiment because it's a already a reality. Uh we're just trying to bring people together, man. and have them do business, have them socialize,

the culture,

have them meet their future wife, you know, or ex-wife, however you want to look at it. But, but that's what we're trying to do.

What's the uh the big picture, you know, 5 to 10 years, where do you want to be?

I mean, I guess right now, you know, we're we're we're starting to scale right now. We're not going to franchise our brand. We, you know, everything we open, we own. Um uh so, you know, we're looking to have probably about 10 to 15 locations by end of 2028. Uh

yeah, buddy. kind of following the Puravid Vida model, the Votech model. We have we have a ton.

We have a ton of people that are asking, you know, to take the brand outside of Miami. Uh right now, we want to focus on, you know, what we have currently in the pipeline. We're building our flagship location here at Douglas Entrance in Coral Gables. It's going to be it's going to be actually it's going to be my first real buildout where I basically built it out from scratch. Uh so, we're going to be opening that probably by end of this year. Uh, we're going to do our first pizza concept inside of that location. Pardon me.

Bro, you've been talking pizza for like five years.

Yeah. Yeah. Cheese is like on everything.

Wait for that pizza, too.

He's busted a couple times.

Yeah. So, we we we've done it. It's different.

What What's What would you like in it to

It's the cheese pool.

So, it's not even that. It's I think when you talk to a pizza pizzaolo is what they call them, it's all about the dough, right? And then whatever you can put on the dough that's kind of interpreted to a chef. own an amazing cheese shop with amazing ingredients. So, I want to use I want to do pizza in a different way. Yeah. You'll have your mozzarella and your stuff like that, but we're going to add some pretty pretty crazy ingredients. And we're working with an amazing Michelin star allstar chef that's kind of going to develop the pizza program for us. And that's something that if it's successful, we can pull it out of Douglas Entrance and kind of be its own thing. But we're only going to do one location for the pizza place. It's only until you got money knocking at your door.

In Miami, we're only doing what?

Okay. in Miami from Palm Beach.

Don't quote him. Don't quote him.

Will you be making Will you be the pull the cheese pool chair?

Oh yeah. We're We're going to have a little window. You're going to see the guys doing the mozzarella.

Have you seen the competitions of the cheese these guys that like try to pull like a pizza? He did a pizza that was Couldn't see the dough.

The deep just crazy cheese and

I think it was like seven m of cheese p. But yeah, I know I've been talking about it for a while but it's coming.

Speaking of that, is is there a line where it's too much cheese? Like are we like is there a line where we're losing? You can't say it to the cheese.

You can't tell me that. That's why Cut that out, man. Don't put that.

No. Let me ask a serious question cuz some people might, you know, like

Yes.

In in cuisine, you know, looking at a cook's perspective, we always talk about balance.

And so, is there not a line where you go overboard in any product?

So, when I opened up one of the elements because you're playing too heavy in one of the others. When we opened up Chevron in Panama initially, when I had still no idea what I was doing,

we decided to put cheese on everything cuz we're the cheese shop. So everything had cheese on it and people were like, "Papy, it's Monday. Like give me a little salad, you know, a little fish, you know, like you're crushing me with like ran in my face on Monday at like 12:00." So yes, there is this thing as too much cheese on everything. Um,

it's a balance like anything, right? It's a it's a balance.

Okay,

let's talk cheese boards. Let's talk chariot. A lot of people do it.

Yeah. So, wait. You got it. So, this is

I've been going through it.

This is kind of our our little menu that we're gonna be destroyed. What What are we eating?

This is the little basically one you had. Um

Yeah. So, this is our menu that we're launching at Miami Open. So, you're we're partnering uh with Piper Heisik Tent. I got tickets for both of you guys to come and visit us.

We're going to have we're doing an amazing uh cheese experience at the Piper Heistic Tent. And then we're going to have a little caviar window where we're going to do our golden gizzy. And then and your first experience when you come and you buy a sandwich, you're you see that little cheese that's right there? Grab it.

Yeah. Yeah, that one. Yeah. Grab one. There you go.

And then Yeah. Pull it. And I'll put a little bit of the marmalade on it.

This right here?

Yeah.

Can I marmalade?

Yeah. Go for it.

Let me marmalade your cheese.

Go for it.

Look at that. No. Put it all on there, bro. You kidding me?

Are you kidding me? There you go. So, this is your first experience at the at the Piper tent. You're going to you're going to eat the cheese and you're going to wash it down with a little bit of champagne and that's how the Chevrolet experience is going to get

started at the Miami.

Bro, bro, you see that this is what I'm talking about. People have everybody has Brie. Everybody has this

Bri. What is an award-winning uh Brie from Normandy? Yeah,

man.

Yeah. So these are these. So we're doing the sandwich and instead of doing the chips,

you get the little brief, bro.

Yeah.

You see what I'm saying? Wagle, this is

Let me tell you,

Jay, you missing out.

You want to this here? Catch.

Come here. No. No. Come get Come get one. Here. Come get one.

If you don't mind biting off mine, I'll give you a little bit.

No. No. Come. Hey, come here. It's okay. Come around. Come around and grab some. I can't have my producer dying out here.

Try this one right here. Give that a shot.

Try that one. But grab some meats here, too, dog.

Oh, yeah. And then and then the star of the show. Um

Okay. Yeah. So, let's get into that.

Yeah. So, you know, I was talking to the Miami Open. You know, Miami is very famous for Versailles Lventanita, your little coffee window. I'm like, we need to do something that's going to put,

you know, our location on the map. I was at the US Open last year. We went and we had the $100 coat caviar chicken nuggets. So, kudos to Simon for being the first guy. Simon is awesome.

Caviar and food, but we wanted to do our own thing. You know, we think that the caviar chicken nuggets has been so played so many times already. McDonald's even did their whole entire thing. So, we wanted to avoid it. So, you know, um my boy Olivier from Facel Bakery, best baker in Florida. Absolutely. He does all of our amazing breads for chev. I told him Oliver, you know, I want to do something different when it comes to the dough of, you know, our our golden gizzy. So, we basically came up with a croissant version of the caviar hot dog. We have an Australian Wagyu hot dog. Tasted over 50 different hot dogs in order to get to like this one that wasn't overpowering the flavor because again people look at it's a $100 hot dog, but it has to make sense. I can't just throw caviar on something and expect it to taste great. So everything has a Y on this dish. We have a mix of mascar pone and creme fresh. Um, and then we top it with a little bit of caviar. Obviously the gold flakes. People are like, "This is a little bit ridiculous." But I mean, if we're going to charge you $100 for it, it is a full tin of caviar. We might as well It is a full tin

as luxurious as possible. Yeah. So, it's our brand. I own a Golden Goat Caviar, which is, you know, an amazing caviar brand. Uh uh I'm not going to say up and coming anymore cuz we're probably servicing some of the best restaurants in the country right now.

Yeah. Very good. My favorite caviar here.

Yeah. Thanks. Shout out to Daniel Roy who uh was my first customer at Delila.

Danny Roy.

I know. She started the caviar company at my store. I wasn't planning on selling outside of our store. Uh partnered with Marcus Draxer, which was one of Danielle Belude's ex major D's for 20 years. So quality of our caviar

is there. There's a lot of

[ __ ] out there. Uh we we again we maintain quality uh service. Um this

is everything that you get with the brand. But yeah, please

what is this? This a reserve like a like a like a strawberry.

Yeah, this is a strawberry marmalade. Uh this amazing jam lady from France, award-winning jam lady that does all these marmalades fresh. You can see the actual chunks of the fruit inside of the jam. So it's none of those ones that you'll buy at the supermarket that's all, you know, processed and filtered. So this is like real deal.

You do a lot of catering as well, right PM? I've seen you do events and stuff.

We're doing a ton of catering right now. One of

talk a little bit about that.

One of the big reasons we're moving to Douglas entrance is because our capacity in our locations does not have enough space. So now we're building an infrastructure. We're building a team. Good problem to have

to be able to start, you know, catering on a bigger scale.

Catering. And you can also do some dinners at Biblotech. Tell people about Bibliotech.

Yeah. So uh again, everybody, you know, thinks that, you know, I'm I'm a chef even though I did graduate from Lord and Blue. I I I I feel I'm more of a curator of of products and ingredients. I like to travel. I like to try new things. So, I always open up any of my restaurants. You know, we've done a ton of collabs with amazing chefs locally here in Miami that, you know, want to come and cook at Chef at Biblotech, you know, or do any type of collaboration. We're super open to it. So, that's something that I enjoy. Having them use my ingredients that, you know, I'm sourcing in my shop and see what they come up with is kind of one of the coolest things that we

What's one of the things you'd like to see? Like what's one of the things that one of your collaborations is like impressed you the most?

Like

we've we've had several. We had Yasu Tanaka uh for me, one of the best sushi chefs in Miami. He did one of our F1s uh things and he did uh this amazing Wagyu Sando with the Wagu that we brought in for him. Uh obviously with the caviar, we've had um uh Chef Carlos from Venezuela um that used to be the chef for Leo. He did some amazing stuff for us as well. Um we've had a lot. We had uh the guys from Mandolin, Robbie at Charetti, come in. Uh he was going to do his own like Turkish style concept. So, it's just cool to see all these people, you know, their creative vibes and coming in and hey, let's do this, let's do that. Um we had the guys from Pasta Basta as well that came in and they were doing all these amazing like crazy pasta dishes. So, that's something I want to continue. I've just been so busy with everything. But, um

maybe a collaboration with Jealous Fork.

Yeah, something crazy like that.

Hey, you do you do crazy

pancakes, creme fresh, crab,

bro? He does some crazy stuff. Savory and sweet. That could be something sweet.

I want 5%. Listen.

Listen. Let's talk now about

what is my favorite thing,

right? He's got to He's got to take a bite into your I've already tried it, chef. So, I want you to try it. Listen to me. Listen to me. This is my show.

Don't try to control me. You're going to hold the You're going to hold the dish

and you're going to take it down the whole way. Jay, let's roll video on this, too.

The whole way. What is this? Is a family podcast here.

Let's get a bite of Chef Ortiz trying this. Hold on one second.

So silly. We're going to go here and because I

No, I thought it was felo. I thought it was like a like a felo. Now you say it's croissant. That makes sense.

Go ahead and try it. This is live.

This is so silly.

On the show right there.

$100. Lizzy walking approved.

I can't tell you.

He loves it. He loves it. He loves it.

That's a bit much. Very nice. All right.

Mind you, it usually comes fresh out of the oven. But, you know,

put it here. I'm going to save it for my boy Jay to try. If you don't want him, I'll put it right here.

But, you see what I mean? It has it has a that element of everything. And I think I think when I first bit into it and had it

salty off the top and then the creme fresh kind of balances it out.

Acidity.

It's a hot dog, bro. I mean, it's not going to give you

I love hot dogs.

You know what I'm saying? It's as good as a hot dog's going to get, I think, in my opinion.

All right, let's talk about these things. And one of the things that I can can relate to are the sandwiches. The sandwiches came out like what a year maybe, right?

I want to say almost two years ago. Year year and a half ago.

Year and a half. Tell us about sandwiches because a lot of people do they know about the sandwich. I mean, you guys are pretty social. You guys have great

content when it comes to showing you especially those Saturday mornings when you hold it up. I know that's your hand.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm like, how far is it again?

Yeah.

What time is it?

Yeah,

brother. Cuz your social media game is strong. But tell people how many sandwiches are on the menu and then of course we'll get to the

We got about eight 10 sandwiches uh on our menu. Every location is going to have its own thing. So Coralway we do our burgers on Wednesday. We only do 20 burgers. You've actually had only 20 burgers.

Why is that?

Amazing.

Because we can't make more than 20 burgers. We don't have the the storage space and the infrastructure and we may have to make them on a George Foreman grill cuz that space wasn't built

space out to do burgers. But you know, we're doing a we're doing uh our version of a Philly cheese steak. Not the only Philly cheese steak in Miami. I'm just kidding.

That was for you. That was for you, Ryan.

That was for Ryan. Uh no. Uh but but we're kind of doing it with a peppercorn and sauce. So taking us to France, putting the palm fruits on it. So we're going to twist it into our own version. So every location is going to have one day where we serve a unique item. And that's kind of it's been working with us with a burger. I mean, our burgers sell out, you know, before like 1:00 on Wednesday. had it.

Um, and then we're going to launch that one in the Grove and then, you know, we'll see what we keep doing at the new locations.

All right, let's talk about the Kiko Kubano.

Kiko Kubano. So,

what's the other ones? Cuz I love my Kikuano. I'm I'm not going to lie, it's a great sandwich, but there's other ones that are like fire.

Yeah.

Spanier. Talk to us. Tell us tell us about the chefs. I don't even think

Yeah. So, you know, we we we import some of the best cheeses from around the world.

Top sellers.

When we wanted to open up a sandwich, I mean, a sandwich shop. I'm like, well, what am I? You know, am I a Spanish sandwich shop and am I Italian sandwich shop? You see all these guys like Alventco and all these like you know Jolanos and everybody has like their own version but I didn't want to be just of one region or one country. I wanted to be a sandwich shop of the world. So you see all of our sandwiches are very genuine you know like the Frenchman is the jambone boret the most famous sandwich in uh in Paris which is basically baguette butter jambone de buret mustard and cornishon. We have the spaniard right when you go to the airport in Spain you know you see a millions of them. Manchego hamon it's in every single corner

and the crystal bread

and the crystal bread. So, every sandwich, every sandwich has every ingredient from each country. And we're super authentic. Here you have the American cuz some people just like some turkey mayo and cheese. But this is

an award-winning tieuk cheddar. We have Japanese mayo on it. So, we kind of

we kind of

tie cheese and [ __ ]

Yeah, we kind of tweak everything a little bit. But again, it's all about the quality of the ingredients. You know, people say, "Hey, it's got sandwiches or 20." Yeah. Because, you know, I got to bring everything in, you know, and the margins. And

do you think that the general public understands that like when restaurants talk about pricing start putting

you know I'm glad you said

initially no when we usually you had your sandwiches that would know like your quiznos and your Jimmy John's and all this 12 to 15 $16 range

how do they know the difference like why why choose that versus

let me tell you what happens with me the other and I don't mean to interrupt you but the way I do it I've been you know I always try to promote you guys and I help you guys I've been pushing him the whole time I was like bro it might be expensive Once you try it, then you're like, "Okay, now I know what it happens with the sandwiches, even with the [ __ ]

everything. It's everything."

It happened because it's hard to get them through there. But then when they see, okay, they know and they feel and you taste it, it's a cut above ingredient wise what everything else is. Like even my Cuban sandwich was $23. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. And it's it's it's obviously, you know, Cuban Kabano River said, they have the best ones.

But it's his version of high-end products and then when you try it, it's like, okay.

Yeah. We make it with Italian porquetta. I use Burgundy Dijon mustard. I use Swiss Miner cheese. I use

saying that to the guests as they come in. Like how do you educate the guests to justify menu pricing as a chef?

I I think we gotten to the point now where people do know us. They know they know they know what they're getting. They know what they're getting qualitywise and they respect it. You know, at the end of the day,

detail too when you post and stuff and he gives a good thorough,

you know, where everything is from. And

I tell people we have the best Cuban in Miami, but you know, be careful with the Cuban community. something like Lacaretas is better

again and I know and there's a lot of guys that you know that sandwich I know there a lot of guys that have amazing Cuban sandwiches but it's our version exactly what it is but when you try it

uh I think man I think the famous there's one there is it

the fiage braz that's not there yeah

which is this one

that's the italana so typical sandwich in Italy you have your meodopio bread made by Sullivan Street Bakery which is like your faucasha style bread sheep's milk ricott we do a homemade pesto

give it a rideuffle honey and then uh the pistachos on top of it. So just a very well balanced sandwich that has everything you really need in the sandwich.

Mhm.

What are you thinking? Pretty good.

Real nice.

All right. Prim.

I love the pistachio. Now the pistachio.

Yeah.

Let's talk about what's on horizon. Miami Open. Formula 1. What are we getting into? What are you doing?

So yeah, we got Miami Open. Uh

about the hot dog.

This is our first big venture outside of Chevre. We did the Precision Drive Club, which is like their private track driving club that they do there. It's pretty cool. Uh Melanie Kabasol that works for for Hard Rock, um Miami Dolphins, so she brought us in. Uh super uh appreciative. Super appreciative. Um and yeah, this is our first time that we're kind of going in a in a national scale because Miami Open Formula 1, it's not just Miami and locals. Now you're you're kind of going global. So yeah, we're excited. Um you know, it's a lot. It's two weeks a first time doing a massive event like that offsite. A lot of logistics there. A lot of logistics. So yeah, where it's two weeks away. So that's, you know, my aame is focused on making sure that that's that's delivered.

You have to hire outside staff or you you go.

So yeah, that's the thing because you got to you got to have the photos and pictures of every employee, but we don't have that many employees in our three locations.

Hey guys showing up.

So we are bringing in some staff right now that we're training that's going to be focused on the event. I'm going to be there every single day. quality control days, man.

It's going to be long. They already told us that, guys. You're gonna get your ass. But I think at the end of the day, you know, the juice is worth the squeeze. So,

yeah,

I like that. I like that.

Just when you if I can give you, you know, recommend like find where your point of conversion is. One thing is exposure, but like your point of conversion to get them in. Whether that's like a new investor, more people in your restaurant, like always think about like what's your point of conversion. One thing is someone grabbing your food like, "Oh, this tastes so good." But then how do you turn that into a a dollar?

A dollar 100%.

Yeah. And it's it's a tough one, too. Like even like people are like, "So I'm talking to the baker. I'm talking to, you know, the people that are sending me the hot dogs." Like, "Well, how many do you think you're going to sell?"

I I have no idea. All I know is that Rick Ross posted about it. The thing went viral and we're like on grab.com. So like 200, 500. Like I have no idea. I'm like, "Guys, I'm going to order for like the first week and then we kind of go from there and see what happens." So expectations are high. Maybe we sell five hot dogs, you know? So

it'll be interesting.

I think it's going to hit. I think it's going to hit.

It has to.

Yeah.

All right. All right, you ready for the toughest question of your life?

Sure.

Mario Nar the Cheese Dawn, give me your top three restaurants that you like to dine at. Starting with number three and why do you like it?

Number three. Um, okay. Number three, my place that I love to go to. I don't go to it as often as I should just because it's so far away. Barakaya. Barakaya is this little Peruvian ceviche countertop bar restaurant. It reminds me a lot when I used to travel a lot to, you know, Peru, Mira Flores. These little dive bar ceviche bars where you just sit at the counter.

You have a beer. You have to wait in line no matter who you are.

What do you like in there? What do you like to eat there?

Everything. I just walk in. I tell chef, dude, just do do your best. You know,

do your thing.

Do your thing and you have your little beer while you're waiting in line. And it's cool. I've been trying to convince him to open up something local here, even like

maybe in your spot,

even like partner with him. But he doesn't want to let go of his kitchen. I'm like, in order for you to scale, you got to train a second guy to to do what they do.

A lot of weird mentalities like that, young chefs that like want to hold it. You got nothing to grow if you're

Well, I think he had it for a while and then he lost it and then now he came back again. So, everybody, every chef has their reason why. I think when his time comes, he he'll he'll start scaling. But shout out to Barakayo. You guys are awesome.

That's number three. And number two for Mario Nar is

you guys are going to hate this one, but Hillstone.

No, I wouldn't.

Hillstone is when I'm having a bad week

and I just need to blow some steam off, I will go to Hillstone. I'll sit at the bar seat at the bar.

I always get a seat. I'll wait. Okay.

Cuz the way bartenders know me, so they'll give me a, you know, dirty martini to start off with. You crank out that spinach dip and then you're like, should I have the burger or should I have the steak? It's like it just it just doesn't mix and you leave and you leave there with a smile on your face.

I love it.

I'm all about consistency and I think that place is consistent everybody.

I think that every single restaurant in Coral Gables is jealous of them. Every single restaurant the first restaurant from go from uh trading the table to everybody at the same time drop.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know what I'm talking about? The trades back in the day. Now it's all servers.

No, their training is just exceptional. You have no ideality. Good choice.

So the the Douglas entrance space, I'm going to try I'm trying to copy the same bar that they have and it'll stop cuz it's just such a great experience. It's so clean. It just works.

Like and then the thing about the bar is like you go to ask about certain cocktails and they don't have the alcohol that you want. They're so limited. Like they they understood that you they're only going to give you four vodka choices, three whiskey choices. Like they don't have like you go behind you have this huge spectacle of a bar.

I believe it's it's the cheers of our

such a small like portfolio to choose from. And I think there's that's very smart.

Good choice. All right. At number one for Mario Nars is

Chevre. I mean, it's my spot. I I hang out there.

Selling his own parts over here.

I hang I hang there all the time.

You know, if I don't love what I do and I don't love what I'm bringing to the table is the number one.

I like that. He has no ego.

Hey, listen. I'm Mario. You're not promoting your stuff. You're not. What are you doing here?

I love it. I love it.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Um All right, guys. I think uh this wraps it up for us. Maro, let everybody know where they can find you and what you got going on real quick.

All right, guys. Uh you can find us at 1295 Coral Away. You can find us at the Mia Market in Design District. And you can find us at 3065 Fuller Street next to Barracudas. And in two weeks, you can find us at the Piper Heistic Tent at the Miami Open. Let's go.

Wow. Amazing. Marin, I want to thank you as well for being here, buddy. This probably will not be your last time. You always do a great job.

Mario, thank you for the food. drinks. Cheese Don Manny Kabi. There's only one cheese don and that's this guy Mario. Thank you buddy. Thank you guys. That's a wrap. Let's go.