Drinking Pig BBQ's chef Raheem Sealey hasn't "been so pumped about food in a long time."
Miami chef Raheem Sealey has an impressive résumé, with his most recent restaurant gig as the executive chef at Kyu being the one he’s best known for. Raheem parted ways with Kyu — which he’d helped open about six years ago — a month before this recording. These days, he says he’s as excited about food as he’s ever been.
He’s got projects in the works that he wasn’t ready to talk about publicly. One thing he did say, though: he’s on the hunt for permanent home for Drinking Pig BBQ, the unassuming smoked meat popup that, according to Infatuation editor and past Pan Con Podcast guest Ryan Pfeffer, has “evolved to become the best barbecue in South Florida.”
In this conversation with Michael Beltrán, Raheem talks about his favorite foods, his upbringing in St. Croix, why he chose to move out of the Virgin Islands, and some of the lessons he’s learned about the restaurant business over the years.
In a special Patreon-only extended cut of this episode, Mike and Raheem talk doughnuts, fried fish, and cookies.
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Transcript
Raheem Sealey: I had two full-time jobs and going to culinary school at the same time.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah. I feel that.
Raheem Sealey: I was like, I was getting it. There was times where like, I didn't have 20 bucks to put fucking gas in my car. So I had to be like, okay, what's more important school or work.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah.
Raheem Sealey: I gotta make a decision. Right? So it was like, sorry guys, I can't make it to school today, I gotta go work. Cause I need the money to put in gas so I can get to your school and then get to work.
[theme music]
Michael Beltrán: Welcome to the next episode of Pan Con Podcast brought to you by a bunch of people that are paying us money.
Nicolás Jiménez: You always say it's the next episode. It's the current episode. This time-traveling podcast that you're hosting.
Michael Beltrán: Actually, I'm not time traveling. We are going on strike. The Mike Beltrán union for Pan Con Podcast is going on strike today. We are rioting the streets. Jimenez, for some reason has decided to go to a store, spend 30 or 40 bucks on this cheap light that I'm looking at. That's actually going to probably make the shit look worse.
Nicolás Jiménez: Absolutely not.
Michael Beltrán: And um, and now he's forcing me, forcing me to work under duress.
Nicolás Jiménez: That's correct. Completely under duress.
Michael Beltrán: I am just saying.
Raheem Sealey: Somebody says you're a vampire, so.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah. Who said that? Oh, you did.
Nicolás Jiménez: There's no other reason for you to be so afraid of lights.
Michael Beltrán: I'm not afraid of lights. Don't enjoy them. Right. Like, Winston's here. Winston, how shitty is that light? Thank you. Winston said it's a shitty ass light. I actually, I formally resigned through direct message to Mr. Jimenez. And I said, I'm taking the pan with me.
Nicolás Jiménez: That's what you said.
Michael Beltrán: That's what I said.
Nicolás Jiménez: You said you were resigning as the pan.
Michael Beltrán: Well, yeah, I'm resigning as a pan because you bring the microphone, right? The stolen mic you bring.
Nicolás Jiménez: Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah. Okay.
Nicolás Jiménez: All, all the stolen mics.
Confirmed.
Michael Beltrán: After 10 years of doing this podcast. They are stolen mics. I love that.
Nicolás Jiménez: Welcome to Pan Con Podcast. For fuck's sake. I'm Nick Jiménez and I'm here with our usual, uh, unfortunate host, Michael Beltran, alleged chef and eighth grade basketball MVP. We are joined by special guest chef Raheem Sealey. And I asked Mike to do all this shit because he did such an incredible job with Nick Zayas, and he just refused.
Michael Beltrán: I don't even remember doing that.
Nicolás Jiménez: No, you were on strike.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah 'cause I'm fuckin' on strike.
Nicolás Jiménez: This is where I back out.
Michael Beltrán: Raheem welcome.
Raheem Sealey: Thanks for having me brother.
Michael Beltrán: I think this is our third attempt to do this, right?
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: Just like a quick story. I don't, I don't really totally remember how we met, right?
Raheem Sealey: Here.
Michael Beltrán: We met here?
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. Remember we did that dinner whenever and Ben hosted that dinner.
Michael Beltrán: Oh, Mr. Evan Ben. We did the dinner downstairs for like 12 people.
Raheem Sealey: And it was all of us. Yeah, me, Pushkar (Marathe), Niven (Patel), Nando (Chang). Was pretty dope.
Michael Beltrán: Pushkar too, man.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, it was pretty dope.
Michael Beltrán: That's right. What a gem Pushkar is.
Raheem Sealey: I know he's he's awesome. Big Teddy bear.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah, he is. He's like the nicest guy. What is he now? He's in west Palm beach.
Raheem Sealey: West Palm Beach, yeah. And once in a while I take the drive, you know.
Michael Beltrán: You do?
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. Just to have his food, man.
Michael Beltrán: I mean, yes, I would. I would make that drive too. I feel like West Palm is like in another state.
Raheem Sealey: But it's not that bad.
Michael Beltrán: I hear you're on vacation.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. Permanent vacation.
Michael Beltrán: Permanent vacation. So before we get into everything, I know Raheem here from the chef world in Miami and Raheem is known for his time at Kyu, but now better known for his, uh, smoking of meats.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah man, at Drinking Pig. Drinking Pig BBQ.
Michael Beltrán: Drinking Pig BBQ, um, which I've had the pleasure of going to twice. And it's coming back. You took a small sabbatical also.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. For the holidays, man. You know chefs like we don't ever get the holidays off. Right? Like that's when we work the most.
Michael Beltrán: What are the holidays?
Raheem Sealey: I don't know. Exactly. This time I knew. Christmas was off. I was off the day after and a couple of days after that. And then I took New Year's Eve and New Year's Day off. Actually I worked on Nw Year's Day. I did a private dinner for a friend of mine.
Michael Beltrán: Were you like confused. Like those days off, like what do I do?
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, I was, I didn't know what to do. I actually stayed home and did nothing.
Michael Beltrán: Amen. Amen to that.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: That's great. I mean, so if I randomly have like a Friday night off.
Raheem Sealey: I don't know what you're going to do.
Michael Beltrán: And like, I, um, like previously I would take a Friday off and we would go out and I just, I hated it. Cause it was so many fucking people out, right? It's fucking like so many people and I'm just like, why are there so many? And then I realized I'm like, I should be at work right now.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. It's Friday night.
Michael Beltrán: Like, and then you start getting anxiety because you're not at work. Oh, it's such a fucking domino effect for me.
Raheem Sealey: I know. I know what you mean, man. But I actually enjoyed it, man. It was the first time since I moved to Miami that I had New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Michael Beltrán: So let's go back. Let's go back to like the very beginning. Where are you from? Where you grew up, how you got here, the whole thing.
Raheem Sealey: That's a long ass story. So I grew up I'm from the U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Croix. Um, born and raised. Um, I was raised, there, went off school later. I left St. Croix, October 15th, 2007. I remember the date very well.
Michael Beltrán: 2007.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, 2007.
Michael Beltrán: How old were you when you left?
Raheem Sealey: Um, I was 18. Yeah, 18. I had just graduated high school.
Michael Beltrán: Okay.
Raheem Sealey: So, um, you know, part of the reason why I got out of St. Croix, because I had my daughter very young. Um, I was 18 when I had my first kid and I just wanted to, you know, figure out a better way, a better life. Cause St. Croix is pretty cool, right? But there's not a lot of opportunities for, for like young guys that wants to do something. Um, you know what I mean? I see it this way. Like you gotta know somebody that knows somebody that, you know, knows somebody to get you something that you really want.
Michael Beltrán: In St. Croix?
Raheem Sealey: Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: How big is St Croix?
Raheem Sealey: 84 square miles.
Michael Beltrán: 84 square miles?
Raheem Sealey: Very small.
Michael Beltrán: Mr. Jiménez, can you find out the population of St. Croix?
Raheem Sealey: Very small, but, um, it's, it's a beautiful island man. Like I, you know, I think I'm where I am today because of where I.
Michael Beltrán: 41,000 people.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: That's not a lot.
Raheem Sealey: No.
Michael Beltrán: No.
Raheem Sealey: But it seems like a lot when you're there.
Michael Beltrán: Okay.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. It seems like a lot of people when you're there. Um, but you could go from like the east end to the west end and then the car and like 30 minutes.
Michael Beltrán: Is there a lot of tourism?
Raheem Sealey: Uh, yeah, for the most part. Um, You know, since St. Thomas is the capitol they get most of the tourists and stuff, but you know St. Croix does too. We get our fair share of it. Um, but we're more relaxed. I think everybody from St. Croix is just kinda more chill.
Michael Beltrán: You strike me as a chill guy.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. I try to be. For me it's like, what's there to get upset about and shit? Like, just take it easy.
Michael Beltrán: Man.
Raheem Sealey: Like I used to be like that, man. When I first started when I first started cooking, I used to be like that, like the angry chef. I just wanted to get in everybody's face, throw away their prep. And that shit don't take you nowhere. People just start leaving you and start hating you.
Michael Beltrán: Um, yeah, no. I have no comment.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. And so anyways, I grew up there moved. Um, so my first, when I left St. Croix I actually went to work for my uncle doing insulation, not cooking. But previously I was cooking in St. Croix, so, you know, I just kind of fell in love with it.
Michael Beltrán: What was your first job?
Raheem Sealey: Um, I was a dishwasher at a hotel.
Michael Beltrán: Oh.
Raheem Sealey: First I was actually a guy that picked up the seaweed off the beach. So I used to go around with a shovel in a fucking hoe and dig all the seaweed out of the ground from in front of the hotel and put it in a wheelbarrow and then wheel it across a half a mile across the fucking sand to dump in this pile of seaweed. It was the worst job ever.
Michael Beltrán: That was it? That was the whole job?
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. That was a job.
Michael Beltrán: That sounds miserable.
Raheem Sealey: It was fucking miserable. Um, as long as it took for me to get the dishwasher job. So I was like, you know what, fuck this. If I could get this dishwasher job I'm taking it. So I kind of did. I started washing dishes and you know, that, that's what kinda like turned me on to the kitchen, you know, all the noise and the chefs yelling and that type of shit was fun.
Michael Beltrán: It's an environment that's like, um, it's just, what's the word for it? I'm looking for a word and you just, when you're attracted to it, you automatically just get enamored with it and you just want to. Like, that's just where you want to be.
Raheem Sealey: You just want to do it, man. And then, um, so I left St. Croix, uh, went to figure out life, you know, for me and my daughter, family at the time. And I started doing like industrial insulation with my uncle, which was boring as fuck. I was miserable. Um, and you know, I just, I moved, I left, left there and went to work in Orlando at Gaylord Palms Resort for a little while.
Michael Beltrán: In Orlando?
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, in Orlando. That was really fun. That kind of got me back into the kitchen again. Then my grandma always had a house in Miami, so she got pretty sick and my aunt needed a hand with her. So I came down here to help out. And when I came down here to help out, um, I didn't know like what direction I wanted to go in my career. I was going to go to the military. Then I was going to go drive a truck. Cause I like big trucks for some reason. Like, I'm very, uh, I had never driven one, but I just liked them.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah. I mean the people who like it like it.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. So, um, you know what I mean? Like I actually got hired by a trucking company and then I turned the job. And I was like, you know, I was talking to a friend of mine, this older guy. And he was like, man, like, what do you love to do? I was like, yeah, I love to cook. He's like, so fucking do that. The money is going to come.
So then I went to Le Cordon Bleu for a little while. Um, got out of there and I staged everywhere for a little bit. And then my first Miami job was with chef Timon Baloo at Sugarcane.
Michael Beltrán: What a legend.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: Timon is a legend. I really loved Balloo when he opened Balloo.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, it was, it was, oh yeah, me too. I actually went like twice.
Michael Beltrán: I think I went two or three times.
Raheem Sealey: I thought it was pretty, I thought it was pretty, pretty, pretty good because I just liked that kind of cooking to, you know, being, being from the Caribbean, like, you know, like he, I think he, he hit the nail on the head and it was pretty good. Um, so yeah, man, and that's how I ended up in Miami. And from then I just started working my way around and doing my thing, you know?
Michael Beltrán: So after Balloo, what was next?
Raheem Sealey: Well, after Sugarcane, Zuma, yeah. Yeah. I actually was doing two jobs at the same time. I was doing Sugarcane in the morning and I was doing Zuma at night.
Michael Beltrán: So many people have been through Zuma. It's a big kitchen. You know, I've never, I've actually never even been to Zuma to eat.
Raheem Sealey: No?
Michael Beltrán: Never.
Raheem Sealey: Ah, man. Um, back in the days when I was there, you know, I haven't been back to eat since I left and that was a long time ago. Um, but when I was there I learned a lot. It was pretty fun. Um, we had a really good chef team.
Michael Beltrán: How many people were in the kitchen?
Raheem Sealey: It was like, shit like 60 people.
Michael Beltrán: In the kitchen?
Raheem Sealey: Like we had, because you had the sushi, like there's like three different types of three different kitchens, right? So you had the sushi counter, then you had the robata. Then you had the, like the hot line and then you had like the, the next hot line, which was like the fryer. And then you had pastry. So it was a big kitchen, man. It was a, that was a machine. I'm not going to lie to you. That's one of the busiest places that I've ever worked in my whole entire career was Zuma at that time.
Michael Beltrán: I mean, do you remember their cover counts that they would do?
Raheem Sealey: Oh man, shit. We're doing like on like a Friday and Saturday night, we're doing like five, almost 600 covers a night.
Michael Beltrán: That's crazy.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. We're turning and burning man. Busy. I have never seen that. It was, it was insane. And that was what maybe eight years ago?
Michael Beltrán: Yeah. They've always been like that. From what I understand, like the numbers there have always been 500 cover nights, 600 cover nights.
Raheem Sealey: I remember for one Art Basel, man, I think it was a Saturday of Art Basel I think we did like 711. 711 covers from 6 to 12.
Michael Beltrán: My body aches thinking about that.
Raheem Sealey: Oh, it hurt. It hurt, but it was fun.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah.
Raheem Sealey: It hurt, but it was fun. Like, I don't know. I just, you know, I guess what's pain for everybody else is kind of fun for us, right?
Michael Beltrán: Yeah, I mean, we're masochists, right? I mean, cooks like, we live in a hot, aggressive, sweaty atmosphere that we chose to make it our career.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. And you know what I mean? Like it pays off, you know, for some of us. Um, I don't want to say the ones that get lucky, but maybe the ones that, you know, just show, show a bit more ambition than others.
Michael Beltrán: There's an extra level. There's another level like, you know, I'm fortunate that I have a good like young chef team at Ariete. And there's like the secondary chef team, the chef and the CDC, and then, uh, two juniors sous chefs. They're young and I always tell them, it's like, you're, you're solid cooks, but you need to work to the next level, which is like a whole other, you're looking for all different things. You're not just working your station. It's like another level. And it's like, you know, working when you're at home, studying other people's foods, studying their menu structures. Then on top of that, like when you're at work it's like how you speak to your cooks and how you go about your day and how you do like it's, it's a whole other thing.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. I think like for me, the easiest, what became easiest is just, you just got to always have to know, you got to know everything.
Michael Beltrán: The smartest thing that somebody ever told me. This is my first sous chef job. I went to a Friday night service. And I thought we had a prep item. We didn't have a prep item. And he told me, he's like, if you don't physically touch it and hold it in your hand, it does not exist.
Raheem Sealey: It doesn't exist.
Michael Beltrán: It's just not, it's a fictitious thing that you made up in your head cause you saw it yesterday or the day before. It doesn't mean that it actually exists.
Raheem Sealey: And I think that's what I became really good at, right? It's like knowing what we had all the time. So like, if a cook comes to me and be like, oh, 86 this, I was like, no, no, no. It was like, oh, I looked in the walk-in and I was like, did you look, or did you scan? Which one? There's a difference? Like you actually dig through and look through everything or you just went, oh man, I'm busy, fuck that, there's nothing, right? And I will go on and be like, come, go grab them. I know exactly where it was, how much we had, uh, I just became good at that man. Always knowing what we had when we had it and knowing more than everybody else. I think that's what helps you get to the next level faster, right? Like if you always know, that just shows that you give a shit.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah.
Raheem Sealey: Right? You give a shit and you want to be that guy. You want to be the guy that is in charge and making sure everything is getting done. Um, and you know, I have had pretty good success with that. You know, these guys, Michael Lewis actually trusted me to run Kyu, you know what I mean? And, um, and before that I was at the Faena, um, at Pao with, uh, Paul Qui. Um, that was fun. You know, it was before that I was a Scarpetta for a little while and moved around a little bit.
Michael Beltrán: I mean, that's a good, you make, you make it sound like so leisure, but that's like a very good resume.
Raheem Sealey: Okay.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah. Like that was here and it's yeah. It's a great restaurant. I was at that and I was like, yeah, you know, I helped run that one. I was like, yeah.
Raheem Sealey: It was pretty fun. It was pretty fun.
Michael Beltrán: Paul Qui is very good at his job.
Raheem Sealey: One of the most talented guys that I ever got to know.
Michael Beltrán: By far I did a dinner with Paul — fuck man, it been like five years ago now. Yeah. And I mean, he's incredibly talented.
Raheem Sealey: Incredibly talented.
Michael Beltrán: And then, um, we did, I mean, Scarpetta is legendary right? Who was running Scarpetta at that time?
Raheem Sealey: Um, Nina [Compton] had just left and there was this guy. Um, he worked with us at Zuma and that's how I ended up over there, right? He really needed cooks and he needed help. So he was like, Hey, can you come give me a hand? And I had just walked away from Zuma from being a sous chef. And I was like, huh, I don't know. Going back to cooking is gonna be kinda hard. But I was like, all right, well, I was waiting for the project for the Faena to kind of get going anyway. So I was like, well in my downtime might as well just going to make some extra cash. So I ended up doing that for a little while and, um, it was fun. Um, his name was Moreland. Moreland was named
Michael Beltrán: They do big numbers there too, yeah?
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, yeah. The pasta station. Holy fuck.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah. We just both talked about pasta stations.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. That one was the worst. But I had fun, man. I learned a lot. Um, you know, I learned a lot that I took away from that kitchen and it was, I had a great time.
Michael Beltrán: So it was Pao, Scarpetta, and then Kyu?
Raheem Sealey: And then Kyu, yeah. So I left Pao.
Michael Beltrán: Did you open Kyu?
Raheem Sealey: Yes. From day one. Yeah. From day one. We always talk about it. Michael was, uh, he was exec at, um, at Zuma. We just had a great, we just ended up having a great relationship, um, more like family and you know what I mean? Like we just, we always talked about it. He always talked about opening his own spot and you know what I mean? Like for me that was the one that was my guy. So I was like, yo, wherever you go, I'm going, you know what I mean? And like, when he left Zuma, we stayed in touch, we talked about it, we talked about it and you know what I mean, the time came and it was like, Hey, come over to my crib. Let's cook some food for the investors. You know what I mean? And we did it me and him. Um, and we blew 'em away. We got an investment and we opened Kyu and a from day one, it was just me and him. Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: That was six years ago.
Raheem Sealey: Six years ago. Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: Because Kyu and Ariete are very similar in age.
Raheem Sealey: Exactly. Yeah. So we were six years ago and you know what I mean? I've been there. It was fun.
Michael Beltrán: I feel like that was right at the point that like Wynwood was like, you know, uh, a deal.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. But not really. Yeah. Not really like that street that we was on man.
Michael Beltrán: Because it was like Panther was there and it was cool. You know, a couple of other things.
Raheem Sealey: There was what? Wynwood Kitchen, Wynwood Diner.
Michael Beltrán: Alter, I mean, Gramps was there and then, um.
Raheem Sealey: Wood Tavern.
Michael Beltrán: To me that was a time that Wynwood was still cool.
Raheem Sealey: Exactly. That was a time that we would go and hang out.
Michael Beltrán: Like now people ask me to go to Wynwood. I'm gonna be like, no.
Raheem Sealey: I'm good.
Michael Beltrán: I'm like, honestly, the only reason that I, I would go to Wynwood is to go see you at Kyu.
Raheem Sealey: You know and the crazy thing is I thought like for, for, for the barbecue, it's like, man, we gotta get in Wynwood. That's gonna be a spot. And like, we started doing this, pop-up at Veza Sur and it just wasn't what I thought it would be. You know what I mean? Like not, not covers wise, but just like the atmosphere.
Michael Beltrán: It's also the type of clientele that go there, right?
Raheem Sealey: And I'm like, damn, like I actually feel better in the front yard. You know what I mean? Where are we doing our pop-up.
Michael Beltrán: If you asked me, I'm free both days, I want to eat your barbecue either day and you say, okay, I'm doing it in my front yard, which is where I've been or doing it at Veza Sur, I'm definitely going to your house.
Raheem Sealey: You know what I mean? And I had some like regulars that came to Veza Sur and be like, yo, chef, the food is still amazing. But like we we'd rather the front yard better. It's just, it's just a vibe, you know? Um, and like, you gotta, you gotta listen to your clientele, right? Like where they're happy is where you make money. So, for me, it's like, I was like, all right, cool.
Michael Beltrán: I don't know. It's just like, there's a large part of Wynwood now that feels like it has just zero fucking soul.
Raheem Sealey: It doesn't, it doesn't like they;'re putting up all these, like, it's just not what it used to be. The character there for me is gone. Like, you know, the cool thing about Wynwood was like, you know, all the low buildings, all of the garages.
All the artwork.
Michael Beltrán: It was still, it was still tough.
Raheem Sealey: It was still rugged, but it was still, it still had character. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you know not to walk into a certain street at a certain time.
Michael Beltrán: Right.
Raheem Sealey: But you wouldn't mind going and taking a chance and just hanging out and going to a bar or going to somewhere to eat, right? Like people still loved it. You know? Like the Wynwood Yard. Like they demolished that thing. That was like my hangout. Like I would just go there and chill.
Michael Beltrán: I mean, that's like classic developer work, right? Like, Hey, we're gonna give you this thing on a lease. Like, no, they're just waiting until their permit passes so they could knock this motherfucker down.
Yeah. Which
Raheem Sealey: was, which was super sad, man. And then once all that shit started change, it just literally just started changing man, and I don't know, man, it just got too bougie for me.
Michael Beltrán: Same.
Raheem Sealey: You know what I mean? Like, and Kyu for us, for me too, like when, you know what I mean? Like nothing bad, but it just like, everything started changing, you know, like when Michael, um, Steven, Lizzie and myself, when we decided to open Kyu, it was like, man, like we want anybody to come here, short pants, flip flops. Come in your fucking bikini. You know what I mean? Like, and it just started evolving over the years, which is good. Change is good. But like, it just became the thing that now is like, man, the place is too expensive. We can't go there. We can't do that. And for me it just started to be like, damn, like that's not what we wanted.
Like we wanted it to be cool. We want it to be always be hip, like people from any, any region, any race, any color, just want to want to come there and hang out.
Michael Beltrán: Well, I mean, just. Uh, like up until you left Kyu, the only, like I said, the only reason I would go to Wynwood was to go to Kyu and I've been to a couple other places around there and I'm just kinda like, I have zero fucking reason to come back. You know, obviously Brad's not there anymore, right?
Raheem Sealey: No. Um, that's gone.
Michael Beltrán: You know, Alter's gone and Alter had like a very good history in Miami. I think it was a very important restaurant for Miami as well.
Raheem Sealey: I think, I think that was one of the, one of the reasons why a lot of people started, foodies started going to Wynwood, right?
Michael Beltrán: For sure.
Raheem Sealey: To go see Brad [Kilgore] at Alter.
Michael Beltrán: Right, cool location, cool food, good food. You know, good purpose. Same thing with Kyu a and the same thing with Panther Coffee. I mean, you can't take away like what Panther Coffee did for Wynwood is huge.
Raheem Sealey: For sure.
Michael Beltrán: It was the epicenter of Wynwood. Now there's like several different epicenters, right? Like there is no center, you know, since I'm like a car guy, like I'll go on, I'll hang out. Like a lot of my friends have liked donks and shit, you know, there's like, I hang out with my buddy, this guy's like part of a '96 Impala crew or whatever. It's a very different vibe now, you know, and I'll go for that, which I did like three weeks ago. And I was like, I don't recognize this place at all. And then maybe the only other reason that I would go now is for B Side, but B Side is like on the outside, like you don't have to enter, which is fine.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, you could. Yeah. I see what you're saying. Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: You know, and then you can just fucking leave.
Raheem Sealey: If you think about it, like there's a lot of spots in Wynwood that's not fully developed yet either, but like where everybody is, where they're putting all these fucking big buildings and they're ugly, you know what I mean? They don't even have any character.
Michael Beltrán: Like the one across from Kyu, right?
Raheem Sealey: Oh, it's horrible.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah. It's massive.
Raheem Sealey: It's like, I remember when there was a parking lot, you know, we used to park our cars in there and I mean, and that was an empty street. Like you would not walk down on 25th Street unless you were going to Kyu.
Michael Beltrán: Right. Now you got like a Warby Parker down the street.
Raheem Sealey: You got a bunch of shit.
Michael Beltrán: You got a Morimoto [chef Masaharu Morimoto's Momosan Wynwood] down the streets. Which, listen, there's nothing wrong with that.
Raheem Sealey: No, of course not.
Michael Beltrán: There's nothing wrong with that too. But I just feel like it's, and I forget the name of the street, um, in LA that it's like super similar. Um, it's the street that The Butcher's Daughter is on, Angelina, and it's like very manmade, you know, like they want this to be a thing. So they're just going to force the fucking they're forcing the issue, you know, and that's what developers do and it's part of their job. And I get it. It just doesn't mean that I need to entertain it or go, you know? Yeah. Um, and now it's, it's going to be really tough for anyone to be like, Hey, let's go to Wynwood. If, unless there's like old cars involved, it's going to be very difficult to get through. So like, it's just, I don't know. Cause I didn't love it to begin with. I used to love, like I had a romantic involvement with a couple of the coffees that were at Panther coffee. It was very romantic. It was like Panther had a couple like a Chemex pour overs that were like, fucking, they blew my mind. They don't even do that anymore. They don't do Chemex. It's too long of a process. And I get it. I know as someone that owns a pseudo coffee shop, like I get it. We don't do Chemex either. Fuck that. But I don't know. Like I just don't, if I'm going to go to Panther, I'm going to go to the little Haiti location, right? That's a little further north. I'm going to go there and they got a parking lot.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, exactly. And they got the benches outside where you can sit down. It's nice and quiet. You know what I mean? Um, I like, I liked that area too. That Little Haiti, um, Little River, like it's, I think it's very underrated, but it's, it's cool, man.
Michael Beltrán: I mean, there's fucking great food out there. You know, fucking Clive's one of my favorite places. Chef Creole, one of my favorite places to go. To a Imperial Moto, one of the, one of my favorite coffee shops also.
Raheem Sealey: And I now you got the guys, the boys a Lot Six. Those guys are doing very, very cool shit.
Michael Beltrán: I haven't been to Lot Six since a lot six for those people in Salina, Kansas is the team that has Jaguar Sun, which is very well known cocktail bar that had really, really great food, uh, opened up an open air steakhouse essentially.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. Sunny's.
Michael Beltrán: And they did it during COVID. That's when I went, I went with Alex from Hometown.
Raheem Sealey: Okay. Okay.
Michael Beltrán: Which is just a delight of a human being. Such a delight of a human being.
Raheem Sealey: I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times.
Michael Beltrán: Super talented and knows so much about fucking food. It's crazy. Like he's an encyclopedia about all the old French shit that I love. He knows all of it, which I love. And then, um, yeah, and then they just revived it, right? They brought it back, which is cool. And I love that shit. That's cool. Um, so yeah. There's good stuff happening out there. It feels like to me, the natural progression is like Wynwood, like Kyu was part of that beginning of, well, I would say that Wynwood probably started like four or five years before.
Raheem Sealey: For sure.
Michael Beltrán: Right? But I think what really like picked it up was places like Alter and Kyu opening.
Raheem Sealey: It's crazy. Cause I've never been to Wynwood until we signed the lease for Kyu.
Michael Beltrán: Same. Other than Panther. Yeah. I used to go to Panther when I worked at Cypress. Right. So it was like right down the street. I mean, I dunno, like now I go and it's like, so touristy and so kind of trashy. It feels like, to me, this is the second coming of Ocean Drive.
Raheem Sealey: Heard.
Michael Beltrán: $150 a square foot. Shitty leases, tourists everywhere. Now it's like manufactured art for certain places instead of just like an organic art scene.
Raheem Sealey: But the thing is I don't think the only difference between the beach and between Wynwood is -Wynwood, I don't know, it could die, right? The beach could never die.
Michael Beltrán: That's a good point.
Raheem Sealey: Right? Like the beach will never die. It's gonna, I think from my couple of years that I've been in Miami, I've seen a lot of like, you know, ups and downs with the beach. Like one time was like fucking popping, you know what I mean? And then it's like, nobody goes to the beach and then people go to the beach again. And then nobody goes to the beach again.
Michael Beltrán: I tell you all of that is a lie. It's just our perception because I own a bar on the beach. So I know very well what happens there. It doesn't matter. Like just, I had to do a pop in at our bar. But there's a fuck ton of people there. And it's a Tuesday afternoon, like at 11 and it's fucking, I can't, it took me 45 minutes to find parking, to be in my bar for an hour. And it was like, our idea of Miami, because we're locals here is different than what the rest of the world's idea of Miami Beach is.
Raheem Sealey: True.
Michael Beltrán: They still fucking go.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. Cause the other day a friend of mine came to visit and they were like, oh, we going to South Beach. And I was like, people's going where?
Michael Beltrán: But why?
Raheem Sealey: I was like for what?
Michael Beltrán: But why?
Raheem Sealey: It's like, well, you know, like that's the thing you do when you come to Miami.
Michael Beltrán: Why?
Raheem Sealey: I was like, yeah, you're right. The first time I came to Miami when I was like to the age where I could go drive and do my own shit, I was like, I'm going to South Beach.
Michael Beltrán: So I was in my car cause I, I gave a ride to my director of ops and she she's not from here. And she asked me, uh, this is Brittany Rothwell. She's also a Pan Con Podcast hall of famer. And um, she asked me, she was like, when's the last time you like went to the beach? And I'm like, what do you mean? Like, she was like, yeah, like go to the sand. It must be a decade.
Raheem Sealey: Holy fuck.
Michael Beltrán: Because if I, if I'm going to go to the sand, I'm probably going to Key Biscayne or something. Cause there's just less fucking people there.
Raheem Sealey: Okay.
Michael Beltrán: And it's easier to get in and fucking out of.
Raheem Sealey: That's fair. That's like me. Like I think every single time I went to the beach, it was Hollywood Beach. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I used to go through, so I used to drive down Hollywood Boulevard and it was like when I was younger and I was like, man, I love this fucking neighborhood. Like I want to buy a house in this neighborhood when I can afford it. You know? Um, and like that will just be my route to the beach every time. And like, every time I pass through is like the same thing would pop in my head. I'm going to own a house in this neighborhood. And last December of me and my wife actually bought a house there.
Michael Beltrán: Amazing.
Raheem Sealey: And you know what I mean? Like I thought I would have been fucking going to the beach more because I live five minutes, like walking distance. And like, I actually don't go to the beach anymore and I used to go a lot before I moved that close.
Michael Beltrán: Yeah, no, I'm just like, uh, my equivalent of going to the beach is going to Monty's on the water.
There he is. Danger Dave himself. Destroyer Dave himself. Happy birthday, Dave Arvelo everyone. Dave now turns 936 years old. Congratulations, sir. Huh? Dave is my manager for all my MMA fights and I don't have.
Mr. Jimenez, would you like some, uh, shitty brown liquid?
Nicolás Jiménez: I won't be drinking.
Michael Beltrán: Wow. Wow. Someone has found Jesus.
So when you opened Kyu, I think Kyu was a very important restaurant for Miami and definitely, uh, an important restaurant for that neighborhood. Walk me through that first, like couple of years.
Raheem Sealey: Man. It was just, it was fucking hard. To be honest, it was just like really me and Mike. Right? So like, you know, Mike is a guy and I'm his guy, you know what I mean? Like, and he had just started a family to kind of, you know, like he was getting ready to start a family, right when Kyu opened. So it was like, I was just waiting for that day when Michael was like, guess what? You gotta run the fucking place. Cause I'm having a baby. You know what I mean? And it kind of happened. And it happened like on a Sunday brunch where I was like, what are we gonna do? Um, but figured it out. Like he trusted me to run a spot, so it just went from there, man. And you know what I mean? I had a lot to learn still, but I had the team behind me. You know what I mean? Like, so the team was empowering me to be like, yo, you're the guy. We're going to follow you wherever you go, whatever you do. You know what I mean? Just lead us. Just tell us what you want done. And we got your back.
Michael Beltrán: I can tell you just from like us being friends. Cause I like, I know Mike, but we're not, we're not tight. Um, he's always been like super great. He seems like a great guy, but you would tell me more about things that were happening and the numbers that you guys did.
Raheem Sealey: Holy shit.
Michael Beltrán: You were doing fucking real numbers, man.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah, man. Um, we, we, yeah, I mean like there's, there's uh, there was a time we were doing nothing less than 300 covers a night. Right. And that, that time we had what, 96, 97 seats, you know what I mean?
Michael Beltrán: That's turning the room three times, everyone. And for people who don't know about restaurants, that's not fucking easy.
Raheem Sealey: It's not, right? But I think that was the cool part about the concept that we did. We were just kind of like order fire, like as it comes in and goes out, like, it doesn't matter what course you're on, where you're at. Like, you might get a vegetable before you get a fucking sashimi dish, you know what I mean? And, and that's just the way it is and people understand it.
Michael Beltrán: Uh, like obviously everyone knows I'm very opinionated about food and restaurants in general, but I really do enjoy Kyu a lot. Um, especially when you and Mike were there. How many times did I take my team for lunch?
Raheem Sealey: Oh man. A good, a good amount. And I think you brought your sister for like birthday once.
Michael Beltrán: I did. I brought my sister for her birthday and you know, Uh, and then actually I think my sister celebrated her anniversary without me. She went with her husband and yeah. I mean, it's just like a really enjoyable space. It's a fun space. And I thought like the food was fun, enjoyable, interesting. Super solid. Every time, never once had I had a meal that was like, that was just okay. It was always like, yeah, it was fucking good. It was fucking delicious.
Raheem Sealey: For us, that's what, that's what our, like, our goal was. It's just like, how do you create good food all the time?
Michael Beltrán: All the time.
Raheem Sealey: Right? Like, and that's how all the other spots, like all the big chains or Houston's, or you just take it back to like, McDonald's, right? Like, why does everybody go to McDonald's? Because it's consistent. Right? It's the same shit, all parts of the world. And you know what I mean, for us, it was like, how do we create food like that? And I mean, and I think it was very technique driven. Like people didn't see that part. Like, it seems super simple, but like a lot of the fucking shit that we did was a lot of work prep wise, like heavy prep and small pickup rate, for instance, like we made that duck jus sauce. We had to make a chicken stock and then we take a chicken stock, roast the duck bones. Then we made a brown, brown duck chicken stock. Take that turn around and make a duck jus with it. It was like three days of just fucking sauce making just to make a sauce to go on a plate with a piece of protein, right? And people was like, damn, this shit is really good. But it just seems super simple, right? It seemed like I just took a sauce and put it on the plate, but just the pick up behind that was so much.
Michael Beltrán: I mean, the way that I like to build our concepts is you prep heavy, so pick up as easy.
Raheem Sealey: For sure.
Michael Beltrán: Always prep heavy. So the pickup is.
Raheem Sealey: Super easy.
Michael Beltrán: Even if it's not easy, it's easier.
Raheem Sealey: And I think that's, that's the only way you get to execute a shitload of covers, right? And turn your restaurant multiple times cause like it needs to be "okay, we're putting this on the plate and that's, it is going out. You know what I mean? Not like, oh, I'm trying to fucking cook a whole bunch of shit. Like that part of my career was over at that time. It was just like, for me, it's like, I don't want to do small intricate shit. I just want to do solid food.
Michael Beltrán: I think the biggest, like how you could tell a cook is one super confident, two, educated and three experienced is when there's less is more.
Raheem Sealey: Oh, for sure.
Michael Beltrán: Like every time that we talk about food with, within our team, let's say Ariete, for example, um, we'll sit in a room, collaborate within each other and then I'll, I'll ask them, okay, so now we have a dish. Now can you strip three things off this dish and it still be very good?
Raheem Sealey: Yeah.
Michael Beltrán: Can you execute like all those little like, oh, but what if we did this and what if we added like this and what if we had this little thing and it's like, okay, So what if none of that was needed? Does this dish still hold water with three components? Which is, to me like the best show of like a great chef is I, can you execute with a three component dish that all three can be intricate and be interesting on their own? Do they work well together? And do you need a bunch of other shit to make it make sense?
Raheem Sealey: Exactly.
Michael Beltrán: Which is tough.
Raheem Sealey: I know exactly what you mean. I think honestly, we did that very well at Kyu. It was just all about the protein or whatever it was we were using, the veggies or the fruits or whatever. It was always based on that ingredient. And then a couple of things that followed, right? Not much, I don't need a million things in a sauce. I just needed to keep it super simple and straight to the point. Right? And we made a recipe for everything. What I used to try to tell everyone every day is just taste everything because no ingredient is the same. No tomato is the same. No nothing is the same. Everything comes in different. So no matter if we give you a recipe, that's just a guideline for you to help you be successful, to execute something that we want you to execute. But if you don't know what it tastes like from the jump, if you wasn't tasting it over and over, you're not gonna know if that tomato is too acidic or it's too sweet. Or do you need to add a little more salt? You won't know.
Michael Beltrán: I mean, and, and salt is definitely the taste.
Raheem Sealey: For sure. You know what I mean? Like we could, we could put a grandma cause like, I want you to know that. Okay. Yeah. If you put eight grams, it's still going to be good, but it's not going to be great if you don't taste the fucking thing and make sure that it tastes like yesterday's.
Michael Beltrán: Right.
Raheem Sealey: Or the day before that, you know?
Michael Beltrán: What was the ideology behind the food at Kyu? Like what was the, the menu like, obviously I know, cause I've eaten there, but like, so everyone understands, it was kind of like barbecue ish, but it was Asian inspired.
Raheem Sealey: To be honest we just did what the fuck we wanted to do, to be honest, you know what I mean? I still don't know how to classify it. Like, we'd say it was Asian barbecue or Asian inspired. Um, and for me, Asian inspired is literally, sometimes we make a dish and there's one Asian ingredient.
Michael Beltrán: We had a little, like, a tablespoon of soy sauce.
Raheem Sealey: Like, but I think that's what made it cool. Like, there was no limits to it. Like, I think when you stop cooking like that, it's like, oh, this is just Italian. Or this is just French. Like, you just cook you cook because you love to cook. Like, I want to put a pound of butter in a fucking sauce. I'm gonna put upon a mother in the sauce.
Michael Beltrán: Amen. Amen to that. That sauce about to get pounded. You know what I'm saying? Put that on a shirt.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. There wasn't any boundaries. We did what we wanted. You know what I'm saying? We didn't, we wanted, and then, you know, we had the, definitely the barbecue aspect to it. Like we did the beef, the short rib, the duck, stuff like that.
Michael Beltrán: Duck was delicious.
Raheem Sealey: Out of the, out of the smoker, which was pretty cool. And that's where I started actually smoking, like, um, you know, Michael taught me how to, how to do that brisket and the short rib and stuff. And we got pretty good at it. And, you know, during the pandemic I was like, fuck it. Like, I'm home doing nothing. Like let's do something, you know?
Michael Beltrán: How was the pandemic for you?
Raheem Sealey: It was actually, I was actually chilling. Like I was like, it was nerve wracking a little bit, right? Because like this virus, nobody knows what's going on. No cure, no this, no that like, so you, you didn't know what was to come, but for me it was like a much needed break. Like I needed a break. And we actually did stuff, you know, like we, you know, deep cleaned the restaurant, um, you know, Michael and Steven being great, great people that they are, kept all of us on payroll. So we were all still getting paid.
Michael Beltrán: That's amazing. Like that's super unheard of. And it's so rare. Like, I just know from like where I sit, because we kept a lot of managers on payroll, decreased salaries, but still we kept 35 managers on payroll. It was tough.
Raheem Sealey: I think we saw one paycheck like decreased, and then went right back to a hundred percent. And it was cool. Like, you know what I mean? Like we did take out, which for me, like, our food is not for takeout, but we still did it because people wanted it, right?
Michael Beltrán: I mean, we had no choice, right?
Raheem Sealey: We still did it. And like a lot of the purveyors were actually very supportive, you know? Um, Mr. Green's for sure. Robert Arthur at the time was there.
Michael Beltrán: We have Mr. Green's as well.
Raheem Sealey: Yeah. They were selling us like a bunch of shit that was, you know, like they can't use. And we were just packing bags and giving them out to the staff. So the staff could have food, you know, like we did the veggies and fruits and stuff like that. So I think it was pretty cool doing that every week we would do that. And then, you know what I mean? I was just going into the restaurant and check everything, hanging out there sometime just fucking doing nothing. Just to get out of the house. Cause I felt like I was just going to go crazy. I think I've cooked more food during the pandemic in my house than I've ever cooked in my whole entire life. I was just making shit.
Michael Beltrán: I bet.
Raheem Sealey: Baking bread. Shit that I don't like to do. I was just doing.
Michael Beltrán: Oh man, I can't do that.
Raheem Sealey: I was like, well, you know what I mean? Like I always say that, you know, I like to bake. I like to, I like pastry. I don't have the patience for it. Now I have no choice. I got nothing to do. So I just did it.
Michael Beltrán: What do you mean? You make all the coconut cakes.
Raheem Sealey: I didn't have a choice.
Michael Beltrán: For those who have not had the coconut cake at Kyu, chef Raheem here throws down a fucking delicious coconut cake.
Raheem Sealey: Thanks to Mike's mom.
Michael Beltrán: That was my mom's recipe?
Raheem Sealey: She hooked it up. She hooked it up. The first time I made it, it was like fucking topsy turvy cake. At that time, it was just the line. You saw like the kitchen, that's all we had. We didn't have anything in the back. We didn't have none of that shit. So pastry came out of garde manger. It was the hardest thing ever. And we would have the coconut cake in a glass case and the shit would just start sliding. You'll see it started shifting. And when you want to cut it, push it back together there and cut it. So, yeah, we took the recipe a couple of times to make sure that it was like, okay, it could work for restaurants. You know what I mean? But Mike's mom sent the base of the recipe and it's a, it's a bad-ass recipe.
Michael Beltrán: Oh man. It's delicious.
Raheem Sealey: Shout out to Mike's mom for sure.
Michael Beltrán: I'll never go to Kyu and not have the coconut cake.