Pan Con Podcast

Robeisy “El Tren” Ramírez is an elite boxer by any measure. He has two Olympic gold medals (which he won with the Cuban national team) and was the WBO featherweight champion between April and December 2023. But it wasn’t until his title defense in July 2023 (in Japan against Satoshi Shimizu) that he became known even to casual fans, especially Cubans in exile. He’d been outspoken a long time about...

Shari Bayer is the author of “ Chefwise: Life Lessons from Leading Chefs Around the World ” (Phaidon Press), a book in which she’s compiled insights, quotes and anecdotes from exchanges with world class chefs like Massimo Bottura, Jeremy Chan, Tom Colicchio, Nina Compton, Wylie Dufresne, Suzanne Goin, Enrique Olvera, Eric Ripert, Clare Smyth, Alice Waters, and past Pan Con podcast guests Jean-Geor...

Adrian López is the wine director at Ariete Hospitality and is a partner at the Miami restaurant group’s Coconut Grove bar/retail concept, The Allocation Room. In 2023, with Adrian at the helm, the wine program at the company’s Michelin-starred flagship restaurant Ariete won an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator. In this conversation, Mike Beltrán talks with Adrian about his development as a...

We last had Lucy López on Pan Con Podcast in 2021. Since then, the former Power 96 radio personality has refashioned her career with (among other things) roles hosting two podcasts — Slate’s Care and Feeding podcast and her own Mamacita Rica podcast. She also had a role in #Graced, a play written by past podcast guest Vanessa García and co-directed by past guest Victoria Collado. In this epis...

Now in its second year with Michelin-Starred restaurants, Miami’s fine dining scene is well into maturity, participating fully on the global restaurant stage. Miami food media, on the other hand, has some catching up to do. Among those doing the work of filling the void is Brenda Popritkin, whose blog, The Whet Palette and podcast by the same name — along with her serious approach to restaura...

Andrew Friedman’s “big break” came in 1997, when he collaborated with chef Alfred Portale on the “Gotham Bar and Grille Cookbook. It won the IACP/Julia Child Cookbook Award for “Best Chef or Restaurant Cookbook,” and got a James Beard Award nomination for “Best General Cookbook.” Though he’s worked on loads of cookbooks since, it’s been a while since Andrew last wrote a recipe. Instead, his attent...

Kush Hospitality founder Matt Kuscher joined Mike Beltrán at El Vecino Cigars & Cocktails in downtown Miami for a smoke and a discussion about his restaurant business, burger toppings, urinal ice, and his work with the Pace Center for Girls. 02:35: Matt Kuscher on the Washington Commanders 07:40: Sebastian Strong Foundation (children's cancer research) 11:52: Abre Camino Collective working wit...

Mike and Nick got together to catch up on what's new at Ariete Hospitality Group. 02:00: Mike has a new dog. 03:30: Eva, Ariete Hospitality Group's new Mediterranean restaurant, is set to open soon. 10:55: El Vecino Cigars & Cocktails is now open. 22:33: The Miami restaurant industry is going through the first real summer slowdown in years. 28:45: Let's talk sports (and Sinead O'Connor). 28:00...

Chris Nolte is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Per’La Specialty Roasters. He specializes in developing, branding and marketing of the company in order to aid in its growth. In this conversation with Michael Beltran, Chris talks about the origins of the brand, the coffee industry, struggles in starting a small business in places like farmer’s markets, and adjusting to Miami Latin cultur...

The first time Robby Ramos was on Pan Con Podcast , he told us about a play he’d written. The script (his first) took its inspiration from stories about Cuba that he’d been told by people like his grandfather, who did time as a political prisoner in three different Cuban prisons before going into exile in the United States. That play, titled “ The Walls Have Ears ,” is now gearing up for its April...

When Mike Beltrán saw his high school friend Jon Jay on the cover of Sports Illustrated, his reaction, as he notes in this episode, was something like, “That’s my fuckin’ dog.” Jon Jay played 12 seasons of baseball in the majors and won a World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011. Now he’s back in his hometown as the Miami Marlins’ first base coach. In this conversation, Mike and Jon talk...

Mike and Nick set up for a podcast at the Pig Pen,  which is what Mike calls the warehouse where he and his car club keep their vintage cars, ATVs, golf carts and electric scooters. We get caught up on a variety of things, from a cancer research benefit car show happening behind Chug's Diner to the coming-sometime-soon opening of El Vecino Cigars & Cocktails to Ed Reed's butting head...

On January 15, we hosted a screening of the documentary “Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter.” Guests saw the film while they enjoyed a Charlie Trotter-inspired meal and cocktail pairings created by the culinary team at Ariete Hospitality Group. After the film, we had a discussion with chef Norman Van Aken, who was one of Charlie Trotter’s best friends and who was interviewed...

Chef Andrés Kaifer recently took over Charlotte, North Carolina's Customshop . The restaurant had been around for about 15 years — a feat, to be sure. But Andrés has helped make it one of the best — if not the best — restaurants in Charlotte. In this conversation with Mike Beltrán, Andrés talks about what it's been like to adapt to North Carolina's food culture as a Miami native, ho...

Tom Lasher-Walker has played an integral role in the growth and refinement of Ariete Hospitality Group’s beverage programs. In this conversation with Mike Beltrán, the two talk about classic cocktails, why Mike thought Tom was a good for for Ariete’s company culture, the role of cocktail competition in the growth of cocktail culture, and the differences between bartending and mixology, among many...

Veracruz, Mexico native chef Karla Hoyos made an impression on José Andrés when took time from her job in Indiana to volunteer with World Central Kitchen in Puerto Rico, where the organization was feeding victims of Hurricane Maria. Not long after she was back at her job in Indiana, she was being recruited to join the team at The Bazaar in Miami Beach. What she’d told herself would be a two-year s...

In our third ever Pan Con Podcast Live event, host Mike Beltran sits with guest Jorge Mas (and 15 guests in the audience) for a conversation about business, leadership, legacy and culture. Jorge Mas is chairman at MasTec, an infrastructure engineering and construction company founded by his late father, Jorge Mas Canosa. He talks about the highs of growing that business into the largest Hispanic-o...

This episode was recorded on the same night as our previous release with guest Vanessa García. In that last episode, Vanessa and Mike discussed her new children’s book, “What the Bread Says: Baking with Love, History, and Papan.” In this recording, the two discuss Cuba, human rights, and the whirlwind of protests, human rights campaigns and activism that followed Cuba’s July 11, 2021 protests. By...

The last time Vanessa García was on the podcast in 2019, we talked about Amparo, the immersive play she had created together with director Victoria Collado, her partner at Abre Camino Collective (also on that episode). This time around, Vanessa joins us to talk about her brand new children’s book, “What The Bread Says, Baking with Love, History, and Papan,” which draws on her childhood memories of...

It’s been more than two years since JoJo Tea founder and American Tea Master’s Cup winner Mike Ortiz joined us on the pod. Since then, JoJo has grown its business and broadened its goals. Whereas Mike had once been focused more narrowly on bringing tea to Miami’s restaurant culture, he’s now looking to make tea a part of his customers’ home lives. In this episode, he talks with Mike Beltrán about...

U.K. native Ashley Moncada studied law before making plans to adopt a globe-trotting lifestyle. She and her wife lived in Australia, New Zealand, France, Barbados and North Carolina. But, as Ashley notes in this interview, “you can’t travel doing law.” She was a good cook, though. So she lied about having professional experience to get her first kitchen job in Australia and was off to the races fr...

When Eddie Zamora moved from Miami to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, it was because — at the time — there wasn’t much opportunity for him in South Florida. Over time, twists of fate (including a well timed tweet about Lance Armstrong and some “douchey duck lip” coffee selfies) led him to a career in food media. He’s built an audience of followers (they know him as The Yum Yum Fo...

Growing up in Texas, Alexys Hernández’s restaurant environment was made up largely of chains and Mexican joints. The mom-and-pop-heavy landscape of Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts (or Camberville, as they say in those parts) was something new. What wasn’t was a dearth of great Cuban food, which is what Alexys was raised on at home in a Cuban-American family. In this conversation with chef...

In this episode of Pan Con Podcast, guest host John Falco (co-owner of Fire Pit Hospitality and first-ballot Pan Con Podcast hall of famer) interviews Eric Isaac. Eric is an FIU professor and the pastor of Neighborhood Church Miami, a Presbyterian church that meets every Sunday for services at Lincoln’s Beard Brewery, where this interview was recorded. John and Eric talk about Neighborhood, why it...

Kris Huseby was one of our first guests on Pan Con Podcast back in 2019 . His second appearance comes just after the opening of Ariete Hospitality Group’s newest concept, The Gibson Room , where Kris is the executive chef. In this conversation with Mike Beltrán, the two talk about taking over a restaurant and overhauling it (a first for Ariete Hospitality Group), Kris’ experience settling into his...