Golden hour
Branja, North Coconut Grove listings, Swizzle Rum Bar & Drinkery, Costa Rica, the future of media, best clean eating restaurants, MORE
RESTAURANTS • FOUND Table
Bohemia-adjacent
The Skinny: Only a few blocks from the bohemian, leafy Design District in Upper Buena Vista is one of the best places (that’s not on a boat) to spend golden hour in Miami: Branja. It’s the work of celebrated Tel Aviv chef Tom Aviv, who brought his modern regional Israeli cooking to this airy, eclectic, sun-dappled space when it opened in early 2023.
The Vibe: With lots of exotic potted plants, terrazzo-topped tables, reclaimed synagogue benches, and a patterned floor, the space feels like a hip greenhouse moonlighting as a restaurant. In the daylight, the space glows in amber, gold, and honey, thanks to the stained glass vaulted ceilings. It’s buzzy without being sceney — the perfect place for evening drinks and Israeli tapas.
The Food: Playful and delicious. The mezze platter — Israeli tahini, Moroccan matbucha, olive tapenade, tzatziki, and freshly baked breads and pita — is a natural place to start. For entrees, the Branja kebab blends Lebanese spices with tamarind, while the show-stopping “fishwarma” is a marinated fish mélange roasted to glorious perfection in market spices. It was crispy on the outside and tender and flaky on the inside.
The Drinks: Some cringey pop-culture-inspired drink names notwithstanding, the cocktail program is good. Standouts include the Purple Rain, made with tequila, lime, butterfly pea tea, and za’atar, and the Ocean’s 8 with rum, bourbon, passionfruit, demerara lemon, and a spicy tincture.
The Verdict: A stylish spot for creative Israeli fare in hip, yet delightfully laidback Upper Buena Vista. –Katelin Stecz
→ Branja (Upper Buena Vista) • 5010 NE 2nd Ave • Thu-Sat 5-1030p, Sun 11a-6p • Reserve.
MIAMI RESTAURANT LINKS: Colombia-Caribbean restaurant Cartagena opens at SLS South Beach • Longtime Portuguese spot Old Lisbon adds outpost in Aventura • Motek opens first all-day Sesame Bakery by Motek at SoLé Mia in North Miami • Wynwood’s newest restaurant is literally just called Pasta • Is astrology the next big cocktail bar trend?
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Sponsor
Water & all that we love
Ryan and Arjan here, the co-founders of Jolie, a beauty wellness company focused on purifying the quality of one’s shower water for better skin and hair. We’re both fans and readers of FOUND, which is why we decided to sponsor this newsletter to reach like-minded folks like you.
As much as we love discussing water’s impact on skin and hair, we’re equally enamored by the connection of water to all else that we love in life — art, coffee, surfing, food, oysters, ceramics, and so much more. That’s why we created a fun video series, Water &, which looks at these topics through the lens of water. Some highlights:
We spent an early morning in Montauk with artist Joe Henry Baker who used the salty ocean water to paint with and wet his canvases, resulting in a crystallization in the painting as it dried.
We spent an evening with Esben Piper, the founder of the renowned Danish coffee company, La Cabra, at their Soho location in New York. Did you know that the parts per million of minerals in water (or the water’s “hardness”) made to brew La Cabra’s coffee is finely tuned to extract flavor while not making the coffee taste sour?
We joined designer Cynthia Rowley for a morning surf out east on Long Island, where the water is both a calming force for her and “balance” to her planned out, calendared work days.
We’ve always loved oysters, but we loved them even more once we started spending time with both the Billion Oyster Project and Montauk Pearl Oyster’s Mike Martinsen. Oysters clean the water by filtering water as they eat, removing ecosystem-destroying pollutants such as nitrogen. They also act as a natural storm barrier and help foster biodiversity. (The Billion Oyster Project, our non-profit of choice, is restoring the oyster reefs in New York’s harbors to clean the Hudson and East Rivers. Last we checked, 122 million oysters have been restored in New York’s harbor over the last 10 years.)
You can watch all of our Water & videos on our website here.
We worked with these partners because we think they are the best at what they do. If you are thinking about buying a Jolie, we encourage you to do so via the link below. We are picking five FOUND buyers to gift a year’s worth of La Cabra coffee to make at home.
The role of water is all around us. –Ryan Babenzien & Arjan Singh
→ Shop: The Jolie Filtered Showerhead (Jolie) • available in brushed gold, modern chrome, brushed steel, jet black, and vibrant red • $148.
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
Three for-sale listings in North Coconut Grove that came to market in the last 30 days.
→ 1888 Crystal Terr (North Coconut Grove) • 4BR/3BA, 3237 SF house • Ask: $3.76M • updated with new kitchen and walled garden • Days on market: 2 • Annual taxes: $18,760 • Agent: Riley Smith, Compass.
→ 1721 Espanola Dr (North Coconut Grove) • 5BR/5.1BA, 4470 SF house • Ask: $4.95M • back at it after ‘22 and ‘23 listings • Days on market: 25 • Annual taxes: $31,507 • Agent: Audrey Ross, Compass.
→ 1666 Tigertail Ave (North Coconut Grove, above) • 5BR/5.2BA, 3379 SF house • Ask: $5.995M • gut reno on double lot with sunken spa and putting green • Days on market: 3 • Annual taxes: $44,098 • Agent: Devin Kay, Elliman.
WORK • Thursday Routine
Rum runner
JANET DIAZ-BONILLA • founder and CEO • La Marielita Rum
City you live in: South Miami
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I’m usually up by 5a. I like to meditate before anyone gets up — by meditate I mean, pray a few Padre Nuestros, Ave Marias, and recite the rosary in Spanish. Then, my husband Luis and I get the kids off to school. My husband makes the best Cuban coffee on earth (he’s Nicaraguan, by the way, and also our VP and CFO). By 8ish, I’m usually checking emails and we go over our day. We’re approaching the weekend, which means we’re prepping for non-stop tastings and events.
What’s on the agenda for today?
We’re contacting our purveyors and getting them ready for our fourth production in less than two years. Our distillery is in Panamá, our suppliers are all over the world, and we import our rum into the United States, so it’s all about geographic synchronization. Today, I’ll be on the phone with our distillery. We’re also navigating entering new markets in 2025, so we have meetings with a distributor in New York and New Jersey later this afternoon.
Any bar or restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Tonight, we’re headed out to Swizzle Rum Bar & Drinkery, inside the Viajero Hotel in South Beach. It’s a hot spot in Miami Beach and, in my opinion, one of the best rum bars in the world.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I like spots where I can experience undiscovered talent — there’s so much in Miami. Savage Labs is one of those great places that has curated a beautifully talented community of artists worthy of spending your evening with. I also try to catch my incredibly talented friend and jazz musician Ben Beal at Jass Kitchen or Lagniappe.
Any weekend getaways?
I can’t think of a better Florida getaway than Key West. (We attended the Key West Rum Festival a couple of months ago.) We also love Naples for a short-distance getaway. It’s got the charm of a small beach town with the velvety vibes of the French Quarter. We love having dinner and drinks at The Vine Room on 5th Avenue South, where mixologist Máté Laurinyecz has curated delicious La Marielita rum cocktails. The rum old fashioned is a must try, and the whole place is one of Naples’s best kept secrets.
What was your last great vacation?
Costa Rica. Our family took a trip there this summer for the first time. I’m not a high-adrenaline person, but the country beckons it — starting with the airplane approaching the landing strip. Nothing like landing between mountain ranges to get the heart pumping. There was a lot of ziplining, ATV tours to waterfalls, and whitewater rafting. I very much prefer a relaxing vacation, but for my husband and kids I literally threw myself off 6,000-foot cliffs on cable cords.
We stayed in Escaleras, a small beach town in the south between Uvita and Dominical. It’s in the middle of a forest overlooking the ocean. Aside from all of the large creatures around our terrace and the near-death experiences I was forced to enjoy, the country, its culinary offerings, and its people are absolutely lovely.
MIAMI WORK AND PLAY LINKS: Massive new Faena District planned for Miami River • New members club Harbour Club opens in Miami Beach’s Sunset Harbour with three restaurants • With inventory up, South Florida condo sales slump in third quarter • Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten partnering on new 48-story residential tower • Supertall watch: new 81-story tower proposed for Brickell • Rhianna’s boutique Savage X Fenty opens at Worldcenter • Trending on Wall Street: ‘househusbands.’
WORK • Media
Read this pamphlet
I just skimmed NYMag’s “Can Media Survive?” package, which asked and answered the question through interviews with (and glamor shots of) 57 industry’s “most powerful people.” There were some fun bits, like (reportedly for-sale) Air Mail’s Graydon Carter on email:
I hate the name, and somebody’s going to have to come up with something sexier. The term newsletter sounds like something that comes out of a church basement.
Co-sign!
Directionally, here’s what we took away: 1) The industry is indeed fucked, 2) except for its many new and promising outlets, 3) most of which have a targeted focus and 4) are largely subscription-based. Sounds right to us.
But mostly, here at FOUND HQ — on another Thursday of building a media business brick by brick — I tried not to let this exercise in industry navel-gazing pierce my skin (even though the portraits are in black and white!). Yes, media business models are evolving, some organizations are in trouble, platforms are never the only answer, and there will be a new generation of winners. But it’s as true today as it was last decade or the decade before. And tomorrow, at FOUND, we’ll still face these truths head-on in order to make this church-basement newsletter for you. –Josh Albertson
CULTURE & LEISURE • Bright Lights
South Beach Seafood Festival • Multiple locations (South Beach) • Fri-Sun • VIP Weekend Pass, $275 per
Diwali Miami • Miami Beach Bandshell (North Beach) • Fri @ 6-11p, VIP Club Level (6 guests), $450 per
Air • The Fillmore (South Beach) • Sat @ 8p • orchestra center, $202 per
GETAWAYS LINKS: Miami shut out on new World’s 50 Best Bars list • Chef Eric Ripert’s Blue at Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman reopening next month after makeover • American now flying MIA-FDF (Martinique) three days a week • Reservations open on Nov 15 for New York’s new Four Seasons hotel • YOLO drops latest London Black Book.
ASK FOUND
First, a quick primer on how this works: You send us the pressing questions of the day (on dining, services, living in Miami and surrounds). We all put our heads together (us at FOUND, + you, FOUND subscribers, who are also FOUND) in search of truth and beauty.
Today, three FOUND subscriber PROMPTS for which we are seeking intel:
Which new restaurants have wowed you this fall?
What’s your favorite bookstore in Miami?
Which spa are you booking to escape the chaos of the season?
Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or email found@itsfoundmiami.com.
GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
Clean eating
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of Miami’s best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundmiami.com.
Pura Vida (SoFi & multiple locations), for post-workout açai bowls, smoothies, and bagel sandwiches; spreading like wildfire