Pan Con Podcast
142 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 60 ratingsOn Pan Con Podcast, we take on big ideas in conversation with Miami chef Michael Beltran (Ariete, Chug's, Leña, etc.). We'll also bring on guests — many, but not all, from the world of food and beverage. It's a behind-the-curtain look at restaurants, craft, creativity, entrepreneurship and more.It's an opportunity for DADE (DADEmag.com) to bring you a new voice in service of the same old goal: great stories, fresh perspective, from DADE, for all.
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Episodes
Chef Norman Van Aken in our first live episode (plus a special appearance by Rosa María Payá)
August 02, 2021 21:32 - 2 hours - 148 MBPan Con Podcast recorded an episode with a live audience for the first time ever, and we brought in a special guest for the occasion. Chef Norman Van Aken was one of Mike’s early interviewees. He’s also Mike’s longtime culinary mentor and the author of at least one cookbook that changed the course of Mike’s career in food. This episode was recorded at Ariete in front of an audience of other past guests and friends of Pan Con Podcast — Larry Carrino, Josh Pascual, John Falco, Matt Kuscher, Ca...
Catching up: protests in Cuba, tasting menus, and the start of live Pan Con Podcast events
July 13, 2021 12:30 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MBJuly 11, 2021 brought an eruption of protests on the streets of Cuba. Mike Beltrán and Nick Jiménez got together to record some reaction and reflection on those events. Note that this podcast is being released more than 24 hours after it was recorded and the situation in Cuba is changing rapidly. We also talk about changes in Ariete's tasting menus and the beginning of live Pan Con Podcast recording events, which will create an opportunity for you to join us as we record podcasts (and eat an...
Nidal Barake of Gluttonomy on food marketing, Michelin Guides and Miami dining
June 15, 2021 15:24 - 1 hour - 104 MBNidal Barake is the founder of Gluttonomy, a marketing firm specializing in digital strategy for the dining world. As he notes in this episode of Pan Con Podcast, “Big agencies, they don’t know anything about food. They have no clue about what happens at a restaurants, what’s behind the production process, or what drives the consumer.” Nidal, by contrast, is passionate about dining and has leveraged that passion to build a successful firm that the people behind the food he loves can trust. N...
Pablo Zitzmann on his new Asian inspired Coral Gables restaurant, Zitz Sum
June 04, 2021 22:43 - 2 hours - 138 MBChef Pablo Zitzmann was one of our very first guests on Pan Con Podcast in 2019. Nearly two years later, he’s also our first repeat guest (not counting the short interviews we did at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic). This time, he’s here to talk about the success he’s found on the other side of lockdown with Zitz Sum, a new Asian inspired concept he opened in Coral Gables shortly before we recorded this interview. Pablo and Mike talk about the joy and the agony of launching a new venture...
Mike Beltran responds to Washington Post reader comments
May 21, 2021 20:11 - 56 minutes - 51.5 MBA May 8 Washington Post story by Laura Reiley bearing the headline “As his restaurants’ customers return, a Miami chef is missing a critical ingredient: Workers,” examines the widespread difficulty restaurants and other hospitality businesses are having in staffing their businesses to meet the demand of an economy that is recovering — even if slowly — from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions imposed by government. The piece uses Ariete Hospitality (of which our ho...
Restaurateur Nedal Ahmad on Pincho, ghost kitchens, digital food halls, and Marvel versus DC
May 14, 2021 16:02 - 3 hours - 168 MBNedal Ahmad was one of the co-founders of Pincho, the Miami-born fast casual chain we discussed at length on Pan Con Podcast with previous guest (and Nedal’s cousin) Otto Othman. Nedal has since moved on to other ventures, including a healthy meal delivery service and a digital food hall — a term that describes something eerily similar to the ghost kitchen model that’s been a hot button issue on this podcast before (for instance, in Mike Beltran’s conversation with publicist Larry Carrino). ...
Painter and Abuela Mami co-founder Kiki Valdés on art, creativity, and Cuban care packages
April 25, 2021 16:43 - 1 hour - 94.4 MBWhether painting for live audiences at nightclubs, showing his work at galleries or creating hand-drawn covers for the zines he bought from Miami record stores, Kiki Valdés has been making art consistently since he was a kid. His work has been inspired by religion, cartoons, secret societies, and the color characters he encountered while painting at those clubs. Along with his brother, he also created Abuela Mami, a Cuban care package company that’s expanded with its own premium coffee brand...
Ike Shehadeh on growing Ike's Love & Sandwiches on opposite coasts and his crazy pre-sandwich résumé
April 20, 2021 21:44 - 1 hour - 99.9 MBIke Shehadeh is the founder and face of Ike’s Love & Sandwiches, the San Francisco-based sandwich chain with about 80 locations, known for its extensive menu, unusual flavor combinations and quirky sandwich names. Miami is home to the first Ike’s location on the east coast — a franchise store in Aventura — and Ike says the company has aggressive expansion plans that include another 40 or so locations in Florida. Ike joined Mike Beltran at Ariete for a wide ranging discussion about his fast c...
María Cabré of J. Wakefield Brewing on transitioning from a career in pastry to making craft beer
April 12, 2021 02:47 - 1 hour - 96.1 MBMaría Cabré is the general manager at Miami’s J. Wakefield Brewing. In this conversation with Michael Beltrán, she talks about her experience as a pastry chef, how those skills have served her in a career in brewing, and what it’s been like for her to find success in the beer business as a woman. Also in this conversation: what the COVID pivot looked like for J. Wakefield, Mike’s impression of chef José Mendín, and Mike’s and María’s takes on the Irish goodbye. Become a patron: https://www...
Pincho's Otto Othman on merging Latin flavor and Middle Eastern hospitality in Miami fast casual
March 30, 2021 21:14 - 1 hour - 107 MBPincho — perhaps better known in South Florida by its original name, Pincho Factory — is a distinctly Miami fast casual restaurant brand that’s grown to 10 locations serving kebobs and burgers. Co-founder and CEO Otto Othman joined us on this episode to talk about his own path from marketing to restaurants, how his Palestinian and Brazilian heritage came together with time growing up in Hialeah to inform Pincho’s take on Miamian casual dining (from the Tostón burger, which replaces the bun w...
Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer, the Rising Star chef duo behind Miami's Boia De Restaurant
March 26, 2021 20:52 - 2 hours - 118 MBLuciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer are the chefs behind Boia De, a Miami restaurant that Mike has recommended on Pan Con Podcast numerous times. The two made their long-overdue appearance on the podcast to talk about their respective culinary careers, toast to their being named 2021 Star Chefs Rising Stars, and discuss the wave of New York City restaurateurs that has hit Miami at the tail end of the COVID pandemic. Also, Alex explains why he’s getting his first haircut in a year, Luci recomme...
Exquisito Chocolates founder Carolina Quijano on making chocolate in Miami's Little Havana
March 23, 2021 21:14 - 1 hour - 101 MBBoth in her childhood and her early professional life, Carolina Quijano moved around a lot. “Living on planes” — especially when she was working as a management consultant — led her to all kinds of food. She joined Mike Beltrán on this episode of Pan Con Podcast to talk about how that led to her love of chocolate, how she taught herself (with some help from YouTube videos) to make her own, and what it took to eventually launch Exquisito Chocolates, a bean-to-bar chocolate factory in Miami’s ...
Kathy Manning & Tung Nguyen on their Vietnamese restaurant Hy Vong & new book, Mango and Peppercorns
March 17, 2021 22:40 - 1 hour - 90.8 MBKatherine Manning and Tung Nguyen and widely regarded as the restaurateur duo responsible for popularizing Vietnamese flavors in Miami at Hy Vong. The two met when Katherine, then a University of Miami grad student, volunteered herself and her home to help resettle refugees after the end of the Vietnam War. Their new memoir, Mango and Peppercorns (published by Chronicle Books), tells the story of their odd-couple friendship, their pioneering restaurant, and a refugee experience that’s as uni...
Cervecería La Tropical's Manny Portuondo on reviving Cuba's first beer brand in Miami
March 04, 2021 16:03 - 1 hour - 72.9 MBIt took 23 years for the brewery Manny Portuondo dreamed of opening to become a reality. It took patience, passion, and some legal battles with the Cuban government, but Cervecería La Tropical — Cuba’s first beer brand — has been revived in Miami with an investment from Heineken. On this episode of Pan Con Podcast, Manny and Mike talk about the history behind La Tropical beer, how the brand’s current form takes cues from and interprets its own Cuban legacy, the brand’s significance to the Cu...
South Florida radio icon Lucy López on Miami music, Cuban food and the world's best Taco Bell
February 26, 2021 20:17 - 1 hour - 93.6 MBLucy López has been a Miami radio fixture since she joined Power 96.5 FM back in 1996; she’s been with the station all this time and now hosts Power 96’s morning show. She joined Mike Beltran on Pan Con Podcast to talk about the state of her industry, Miami’s music, and how Miami mayor Francis Suárez’s efforts to lure tech industry transplants to Miami might change the city. The two also discuss brunch, bread service, being Cuban outside of Miami, and past guest Carlos Frías’ takes on sandwi...
Sef "Burger Beast" González on his pioneering food blog & a prank he pulled with Guillermo Del Toro
February 22, 2021 17:21 - 2 hours - 152 MBA chance encounter with a great burger at a Miami pizza joint led Sef González to snap a photo of it on his Motorola Razor. That grainy flip phone photo was the beginning of Burger Beast, one of Miami’s first and best known food blogs. Sef joined Mike on this episode of Pan Con Podcast to talk about food media, his burger museum, his burger book, his events, frita history, skydiving, and the Chug Burger, that Ariete burger that topped Sef’s list of the best burgers in Miami, launching a new ...
Derek Kaplan of Fireman Derek's Bake Shop on the dessert business, pro sports and food television
February 13, 2021 23:29 - 2 hours - 134 MBDerek Kaplan had a decade-long career as a firefighter, but he started honing his dessert skills in high school when, as he told Mike Beltrán on this episode of Pan Con Podcast, he would make pies for himself and his friend when they had the munchies.Today, Fireman Derek’s Bake Shop has two Miami locations and delivers baked goods nationally. On this episode, Derek and Mike discuss the business of dessert, hospitality, food TV, new media, and the cultural value of sports. In the Patreon-on...
Drew Estate's master cigar blender Willy Herrera on tobacco, Nicaragua, and following the recipe
February 07, 2021 22:21 - 1 hour - 73.3 MBDrew Estate is one of the biggest names in premium cigars. And Willy Herrera, the company’s master blender, is the man responsible not only for developing new cigar blends, but also for ensuring that the blends in the company’s portfolio maintain consistency year over year. In this conversation with chef Michael Beltran on Pan Con Podcast, Willy talks about how he got into the cigar business at his family’s Little Havana factory, El Titán de Bronze, his experience moving to Estelí, Nicaragua...
Simon Kim of Michelin-star Korean steakhouse Cote found his calling in restaurants and hospitality
February 01, 2021 15:51 - 2 hours - 123 MBSimon Kim is the restaurateur behind Cote, a one-of-a-kind, Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse in New York City, which is set to open its Miami location in early 2021. In this conversation with chef Michael Beltrán on Pan Con Podcast, Simon talks about how visiting fine dining restaurants with his dad in South Korea and his adolescence in his family’s Korean restaurant in Tribeca led to his falling in love with hospitality and restaurants. Simon and Mike also get into their respective experi...
Miami Herald food editor Carlos Frías on covering restaurants in a pandemic, cultural appropriation
January 25, 2021 13:25 - 1 hour - 96.3 MBCarlos Frías is the James Beard Award-winning food editor at the Miami Herald. Before moving into food at the Herald, Carlos was covering sports at The Palm Beach Post, where he also wrote a series about his first trip to Cuba that would later become the framework for his memoir, “Take Me With You: A Secret Search for Family in a Forbidden Cuba.” He joined Michael Beltrán on Pan Con Podcast to talk about his career in journalism, covering the restaurant industry through the COVID-19 pandemic...
First Round Management's Dave Arvelo on combat sports, the UFC's handling of COVID, slow jams
January 19, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 108 MBDave Arvelo is the director of MMA athlete development at First Round Management, which represents some of the biggest names in combat sports (e.g., Jorge Masvidal, Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson, Yoel Romero), along with a roster of NFL clients. Dave joined Mike (who also happens to be his neighbor) on Pan Con Podcast to talk about about his recent move to Miami, how he got his start in the fight business, the impact of the COVID pandemic on sports, and how his dog got the name Jorge. In the...
Publicist Larry Carrino on social media, food festivals and his Mike Beltran impression
January 11, 2021 00:38 - 2 hours - 111 MBLarry Carrino, president of Brustman Carrino Public Relations, is the Miami publicist with the stress-inducing distinction of having our host Michael Beltran as his client. Ove the time Larry has been working with Mike, the two have become friends. On this episode of Pan Con Podcast, Mike and Larry talk about food journalism, influencers, social media, food festivals and the ghost kitchens. In the Patreon-only extended cut, Mike poses an extra five questions to Larry. Brustman Carrino Pu...
The "Ask Mike Anything" episode
December 29, 2020 18:44 - 1 hour - 57.9 MBOur "Ask Mike Anything" episode is the last of 2020, and we opened it up to questions from listeners for chef and eighth grade basketball MVP Michael Beltran. There are even more questions and answers in our extended Patreon-only episode. Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DADEmag Follow Pan Con Podcast everywhere: Facebook: www.facebook.com/panconpodcast/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/panconpodcast/ Twitter: twitter.com/panconpodcast Follow Mike Beltran: Instagram: www.instagra...
David Foulquier on Michelin stars, owning restaurants in Miami (Fooq's) & New York (Sushi Noz)
December 24, 2020 05:53 - 1 hour - 76.5 MBDavid Foulquier is the restaurateur behind Fooq’s, a Miami restaurant built on French-Persian cuisine, and Sushi Noz, the Michelin-starred Manhattan sushi restaurant named for its chef, Abe Nozomu. Pan Con Podcast’s last guest of 2020, David joined Mike at the Ariete Patio for a conversation about his culinary influences, the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, how he found his way into the restaurant business, and the significance of having earned a Michelin star. In a Patreon-ex...
Infatuation Miami editor Ryan Pfeffer on food journalism, influencers, manatees and porn stars
December 13, 2020 20:31 - 2 hours - 129 MBRyan Pfeffer of Infatuation Miami joined Michael Beltran and Nicolás Jiménez to talk about his writing career, what he’s learned from covering the Miami restaurant scene and the ethics of freebies. Also on the agenda for the night: butthole tattoos, pasta, and what it might take for Miami to further mature as a food city. Finally, we ask our listeners to give what they can to The Hungry Post’s #FeedTheChain campaign in the memory of a friend of the podcast as the Miami restaurant community b...
More on the protests and repression in Cuba following the arrest of rapper Denis Solís
December 08, 2020 03:11 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MBMike Betrán and Nick Jiménez got together to offer their ham-handed, but hopefully helpful update on the protests and repression that have continued after the Nov. 9 arrest of Cuban dissident rapper Denis Solís and other members of Havana's San Isidro Movement. If you missed our initial discussion of these events, check out this episode from Nov. 30. http://www.dademag.com/features/2020/11/30/pan-con-podcast-cuba-protests-san-isidro-movement-denis-solis Follow Movimiento San Isidro on ...
Marcus Rivero (Soles By Sir) customizes shoes for athletes like Marshawn Lynch and Conor McGregor
December 06, 2020 17:05 - 1 hour - 83.9 MBMarcus Rivero fell into the shoe customization business almost by accident. Nine years after creating Soles By Sir, athletes in every major sport can be seen wearing his work on their feet on a weekly basis. In fact, during that time, every Super Bowl has had at least one pair of Soles By Sir cleats on the field. Marcus joined Mike Beltran to talk about his business, his design process, what it's like to work with elite athletes — from Marshawn Lynch to Conor McGregor — on their custom gear,...
Protests in Cuba, the arrest of Denis Solís and the San Isidro Movement hunger strikers
November 30, 2020 11:14 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MBMike and Nick got together to record this special dispatch to provide a summary of and some clumsy reflections on the protests in Cuba sparked by the arrest of Havana artist Denis Solís and the ensuing hunger strike by his fellow members of the San Isidro Movement. Follow Movimiento San Isidro on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mov_sanisidro/ Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DADEmag Follow Pan Con Podcast everywhere: Facebook: www.facebook.com/panconpodcast/ Instagram: ...
Brett Romberg on playing football in Miami, stories from 9 years in the NFL, eating like a Canadian
November 24, 2020 15:03 - 2 hours - 133 MBAfter some charcuterie at the Ariete bar, Brett Romberg joined Michael Beltrán on Pan Con Podcast to talk about his time playing football at the University of Miami, stories from nine years as an NFL offensive lineman, the Fort Lauderdale bikini contest that changed his life, and the adjustments he's made since making the move from Canada to South Florida, where — aside from becoming a national champion — married into a Cuban family, dialed in his Miami Spanish. Become a patron: https://www...
Catching up with Mike Beltran on food, business, politics, Star Trek and other stuff
November 15, 2020 19:34 - 2 hours - 115 MBIt had been a while since we recorded an episode with no guest, so we took this episode to get caught up with Mike on a range of things from business to politics to his overpriced CBS All Access subscription. Also, Nick doesn't throw parties, but they would probably be bad if he did. Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DADEmag Follow Pan Con Podcast everywhere: Facebook: www.facebook.com/panconpodcast/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/panconpodcast/ Twitter: twitter.com/panconpodcast ...
Chef José Mendín on the birth of Pubbelly Sushi, his Puerto Rican flag mural battle and Seinfeld
November 07, 2020 14:51 - 56 minutes - 52 MBA native of Puerto Rico, José Mendín arrived in Miami at 19 years old and fell in love with the city. HIs sushi concept, Pubbelly Sushi, was supposed to be a simple fast casual spot, but circumstances led to an elaboration on the idea and it became one of Miami's favorite dining experiences. It also helped make José — now a five-time James Beard Award semifinalist — one of the most celebrated young chefs in the city and catapulted his career as a restaurateur. José is the chef-owner of resta...
Cuban activist Rosa María Payá on her father's legacy and her campaign for a plebiscite
October 28, 2020 08:00 - 2 hours - 122 MBRosa María Payá is the Cuban activist behind Cuba Decide, a campaign to bring change to Cuba through a plebiscite — that is, a direct vote by Cubans on a transition to democracy. Her father Oswaldo Payá was one of the most prominent Cuban dissidents of his generation. He founded the Christian Liberation Movement (or Movimiento Cristiano Liberación), which sought to bring legislation to Cuba's National Assembly through a signature-gathering mechanism laid out in the Cuban Constitution. In 200...
Artist Peter Santa-Maria on printmaking, bootleg superheroes and helping kids realize potential
October 24, 2020 06:49 - 1 hour - 83.7 MBPeter Santa-María, best known for his brand Attack Peter, is a Miami-based printmaking artist whose Japanese-inspired work depicts monsters, superheroes and other characters, including at least one that he’s created himself named Takoro. In this episode, Mike Beltran talks with Peter about their high school alma mater, their shared commitment to old techniques, and the things that motivate and fuel creativity. Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DADEmag Follow Pan Con Podcast everywh...
The Pastelito Papi episode: Gio Fesser finally joins the podcast
October 17, 2020 06:00 - 1 hour - 85.1 MBGio Fesser is best known to Miami diners as the Pastelito Papi (though there's an extra i in Papii on social media). A longtime colleague and friend of our intrepid host chef Michael Beltran, Gio has been there every step of the Ariete Hospitality Group journey, and his pastelitos — traditional Cuban pastries that he's gotten more creative with than Miami thought possible — have caught the attention of everyone from local press to world class chefs like Thomas Keller, helping catapult Chug's...
Re-podcast: chef Pablo Zitzmann (originally published July 5, 2019)
October 12, 2020 19:01 - 57 minutes - 52.6 MB[This episode was first published July 5, 2019] Pablo Zitzmann (of No Name Chinese and the forthcoming Alcalde) joins Mike and Nick in the patio at Ariete to talk about his own journey to food and how he fell in love with Asian cuisine growing up in Colombia. Pablo and Mike discuss the communication of culture through cooking, leading teams, dealing with burnout, and the development of Miami's food community. Follow Pablo Zitmann on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zitzzitzzitz/ Fo...
Mike on Ariete's third Versos Sencillos tasting menu dinner. Also, is Trudeau Castro's son?
October 08, 2020 13:05 - 1 hour - 64.6 MBAfter Ariete's third Versos Sencillos tasting menu dinner, Mike and Nick (who finally got around to having one of these dinners himself) get together to talk about the experience, how it's developed, the impact it's had on the Ariete team and where it's heading in the future. We run through most of the dishes on this most recent menu, some of the backstories on how they came together, and a bit of the origin story of the experience that was created (led by Ariete director of operations and p...
Zak Stern (a.k.a. Zak The Baker) on his origin story, his business, and living on a sailboat
September 27, 2020 02:42 - 1 hour - 108 MBZak Stern, better known as Zak the Baker, is — as the eponymous business suggests — a baker. Based in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, Zak's bakery makes some of the city's favorite breads. He fell in love with baking even after having initially rejected it as a career path (he pursued a life in cheese first, spending time on a goat farm in Israel). He started his business in Miami baking in a used oven in a friend's garage and selling his bread at farmer's markets until he opened Zak The Baker...
Melanie and Jason Schoendorfer of Babe's Meat & Counter talk butchery, Canada and COVID
September 20, 2020 14:53 - 1 hour - 69.3 MBOur guests on this episode are Melanie and Jason Schoendorfer, the couple behind Babe's Meat & Counter, a butcher shop and sandwich joint in Miami's Palmetto Bay neighborhood. They joined Mike to talk meat, Canada, ketchup chips, and how they've adjusted for the peculiar challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. Visit and follow Babe's: https://www.instagram.com/babefroman305/ http://www.babefroman.com/ Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DADEmag Follow Pan Con Podcast everywhere...
Poet and art critic Ricardo Pau-Llosa on Latin American culture, the Cuban experience, food as art
September 15, 2020 12:55 - 2 hours - 125 MBRicardo Ricardo Pau-Llosa is a poet and art critic whose life's work has centered on Cuba and Latin American art. When his family fled Cuba in 1960 after Fidel Castro's co, he ended up in Chicago, spending years there before heading south to Miami. From Ricardo's own website bio: "His first book of poetry, Sorting Metaphors (Anhinga Press, 1983), won the first national Anhinga Prize,[citation needed]. He published a second book of poetry in Bread of the Imagined (Bilingual Press, 1992). His ...
Tasting menus, Cobra Kai, racism, guns and riots
September 05, 2020 13:38 - 1 hour - 108 MBMike Beltran and Nick Jiménez took this guest-free episode to get caught up on Ariete's monthly tasting menu dinner series and what it's significance has been to Mike and his crew during the strange circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. After that discussion (and a surprise visit from Matt Kuscher), the podcast's attention turned to widespread protests, racism, rampant rioting, and the moral questions we have to confront when armed citizens — including a minor — take it upon themse...
David Verjano, host of Step Into The Sandbox, on branding and the creative process
August 25, 2020 09:00 - 1 hour - 96.1 MBIn this special joint episode, Mike is joined by David Verjano, a branding creative and host of Step Into The Sandbox, a DADE podcast about the creative process. Check out Step Into The Sandbox: http://www.dademag.com/stepintothesandbox Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DADEmag Follow Pan Con Podcast everywhere: Facebook: www.facebook.com/panconpodcast/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/panconpodcast/ Twitter: twitter.com/panconpodcast Follow Mike Beltran: Instagram: www.instagra...
Publicist Mabel De Beunza on Operation Fill The Fridge, a charitable project born in the pandemic
August 21, 2020 16:26 - 1 hour - 100 MBMabel De Beunza is a partner at Deep Sleep Studio, a creative agency in Miami. In her first visit to Pan Con Podcast, we talk about her work, running a business during a pandemic and the correct way to order your steak medium well. Most importantly, though, this conversation starts with a focus on Operation Fill The Fridge, a charitable endeavor that grew organically during the pandemic as an effort to aid families in need in South Florida. We talk about what they do, how they got started, t...
Counter Culture Coffee educator Sandra Walimaki on Miami's coffee culture and migrating from Peru
August 11, 2020 11:00 - 58 minutes - 53.6 MBSandra Walimaki is a regional educator for Counter Culture Coffee, which Mike Beltran serves at Chug's, his Cuban-American diner in Coconut Grove. In this episode of Pan Con Podcast, the two talk about coffee culture, what makes Miami's relationship with espresso unique, and Sandra's experience migrating from Peru (where she has roots in the coffee industry) to the United States, where she's been in the coffee industry for about 18 years. She also tells us about the NPR Coffee Club, a coffee...
High school football coach Jason Hill on leading kids, being Mike's teammate and longtime savior
August 05, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 74.2 MBMike's old friend Jason Hill had apparently been asking for a Pan Con Podcast invite for months. He finally got one from Mike and the two got together for a few post-service drinks and conversation about finding fulfillment in leading a team of high school football players, lessons from high school and college football, and the impact that being educated by the Marist brothers at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami had on each of them. Also, Jason tells us about the handful of times th...
Josh's Premium Meats' Josh Pascual on getting into the Wagyu game
July 31, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 104 MBJosh Pascual left his career selling medical devices to pursue a business that grew out of a weekend hobby: Wagyu beef. For three years, he's been providing South Floridians with steaks — and, more recently, other proteins — sourced from farms all over the world. His business has grown; earlier this year, he opened his first brick-and-mortar shop and he has plans to expand into e-commerce. Josh joined Mike at Ariete — bearing gifts of some of the best red meat money can buy — to talk about h...
Ariete Hospitality's Brittany Rothwell on life-giving restaurants and fighting to survive a pandemic
July 27, 2020 20:05 - 1 hour - 70.1 MBMike has put a lot of trust in his restaurant group's director of operations, Brittany Rothwell, in whom he sees a lot of the attitude he brings to the company. That kind of relationship is valuable under any circumstances, but it's become indispensable at a time when — like other restaurants — Mike's businesses are in a fight for their lives. In this episode, Brittany and Mike talk about how she ended up with Ariete, her first impressions of Mike, the fulfillment she finds in restaurants, a...
Orlando chef Matt Hinckley on his fancy meats, charcuterie, Andrew Yang and jiu jitsu
July 21, 2020 15:03 - 1 hour - 79.2 MBMatt Hinckley worked in restaurants all over the world before settling in Orlando, where he set up Hinckley's Fancy Meats and took it from a deli case in Orlando's East Market to an online delivery service whose first order came from New York Times food editor Sam Sifton. He eventually moved back into the East End Market and refocused on serving the Orlando area. In this episode, Mike and Matt talk about meat, coronavirus shutdowns, combat sports and politics. Follow Matt Hinckley and Hinc...
Hurricanes hall of famer Joaquín González on football, adjusting to the NFL, leadership in business
July 17, 2020 15:35 - 1 hour - 81.1 MBJoaquín González was a cornerstone of the national champion 2001 Miami Hurricanes football team. The offensive lineman went on to play four seasons in the NFL — three with the Cleveland Browns and one with the Indianapolis Colts. Today, Joaquín is president of the family business he joined after football, Tire Group International, a Miami-based tire distributor. In this episode, recorded via Zoom, he and Mike talk football, leadership, business, and the lessons they've taken from each of tho...
"Doing nothing good" — John Falco on brewing, pizza, coronavirus, Iraq, Donkey Kong
July 07, 2020 15:45 - 2 hours - 112 MBIn an episode that was stretched to unusual lengths by bubbly white wine, Mike and our guest John Falco talk about the coronavirus' continued impact on their businesses, sleeping on rugs, video game documentaries, John's participation in the Iraq surge, parenting, Peter Meehan, and how little either of them actually wanted to show up to record this podcast. Also, we tough lightly on what John does for a living (beer and pizza). Follow all of John's things: https://www.instagram.com/falco...
Documentarian Billy Corben on filmmaking, Miami politics, and making his ESPN 30 for 30 doc
July 01, 2020 19:47 - 1 hour - 75.7 MBDocumentarian Billy Corben (Cocaine Cowboys, Screwball, The U, Dawg Fight)joins Mike Beltran via Zoom for a conversation about his films, his ongoing feud with Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, duck madianoches, and Jimmy Johnson's hair. NOTE: We ran into a technical snag while recording this conversation, so there are a few minutes of audio missing near the end of the call. Don't worry. You're just missing a portion of Mike's rant about Miami Spice. Follow Bil...