A conversation with Rachel Robinson at What’s Good Miami’s new content studio at The Moore, on freedom, family, and the discipline of showing up — every single day, for six straight years. There’s a moment, sitting in any room with Rachel Robinson, when you realize the workout isn’t actually the workout. The sweat is real. The treadmill is real. The 10.0 sprints she calls out by name — yours, mine, the woman in the back — are real. But the thing Rachel is actually doing, the thing that has packed her 9:30 a.m. Monday class on Purdy Avenue for years on end, is something else entirely. She’s having a conversation with herself out loud, and inviting fifty people to listen in. I sat down with Rachel last week at What’s Good Miami’s new content studio at The Moore. The room felt right for it. She came up on reality television, where the cameras turn the room into the performance. She built her business on Instagram Live, where the bedroom is the studio. And she’s spent the last decade teaching one of the most kinetic group fitness classes in the city, where the studio is, in the end, a kind of broadcast. Rachel doesn’t really exist in private. Or maybe more accurately: Rachel doesn’t really make a distinction between the two. The whole point of what she does — and the reason it works — is that there isn’t one. If her name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, it should. Rachel is Miami fitness royalty in the most Miami way possible. Born in the Chelsea Hotel in New York to a photographer mother who, in her own words, “always had a camera on me.” Raised in Miami since she was five. A true OG of a city that has very few of them left. She came up on reality television during the original Road Rules era — the analog days, before social media, before the playbook, before anyone went on the show planning to make a career out of it. She left it behind to live a life, got married to Natalie (the founder of G-Beauty, the family-built skincare and facial studio business that’s expanding into a new flagship in Toronto), had three kids under three, and built the kind of family life that most reality TV alumni quietly envy. Then, after an eleven-year hiatus, she went back. The producers had been calling her for years. The timing finally worked. She returned to The Challenge as an all-star — and won. A literal Cinderella moment for a woman in her late thirties who hadn’t been on television in over a decade. She’ll tell you herself: that doesn’t normally happen. But by then, she wasn’t really a reality TV person anymore. She was a fitness person.

WATCH THE FULL LONG FORM INTERVIEW BY CLICKING ABOVE

“Always Be a Gentleman, and Never Play by the Rules”

A conversation with Ben Pundole at the new Delano, on dreaming, trusting, and the city that finally stopped following.

“As we pulled up to the porte cochère, I remember being thrilled. The entrance to the Delano had a magnitude and energy I’d rarely, if ever, experienced before. The valets were all perfectly dressed in crisp white outfits, the people getting out of their cars were beautifully put together, and the architecture was the perfect combination of classic Art Deco and clean modern lines.

While the arrival alone was magnificent, it wasn’t until I entered the lobby that I was swept away: fifty-foot ceilings, a straight-shot visual hundreds of feet from the entrance to the rear orchard, and charming vignettes of whimsical seating and social areas throughout. The beauty was unmistakable, and the energy was so real you could almost drink it. Every step I took built on the drama of the experience. By the time I exited the lobby and stepped into the orchard, I felt changed, as if my appreciation for what the imagination could manifest had been heightened. I didn’t say a word for ten minutes after I walked outside. I just smiled, completely satisfied by what I had just consumed.”

- The Age of Ideas by Alan Philips (Yes Me :))

There’s a moment, sitting in the new Delano, when you realize the building is doing something quieter than it used to. The old Delano was a statement, flowing white curtains, Philippe Starck swagger, a lobby that felt like the velvet rope of an entire decade. The new one isn’t trying to be that. It’s trying to be something harder: a place you actually want to come back to.

I sat down with Ben Pundole there last week. If that name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, it should. Ben is hospitality royalty in the most British, understated way, “I just happened to be in the room when it all started” kind of way. He came up at the Groucho Club in London in 1992, what he calls his university. He was at the Met Bar when the Met Bar was the room. He spent 23 years orbiting Ian Schrager, the man credited with birthing boutique hospitality as we now understand it.

What I wanted to know was simple: what does that lineage build, and what’s it doing in Miami right now?

There’s a certain kind of confidence you only get from the Northeast. It’s blunt. It’s unapologetic. It usually comes with strong opinions about bread. Ryan McKeown has all of it. We sat down with the Peppi’s Pizza owner in the Design District and within five minutes it was clear, this isn’t another Miami restaurant trying to be “vibey.” It’s a mission. Ryan explained to us in our interview “You know, a lot of places serve what I call a steak and cheese, but have never stepped foot in Philly. For me, it’s not about copying tradition, it’s about understanding where it’s going.” And honestly, that tells you everything you need to know.

If you’ve ever scrolled through the high-energy world of Dr. Miami, you know it isn’t just “a medical practice.” It feels like a world - unfiltered, cinematic, and wildly intentional. It’s the kind of place where the rhythm of the operating room and the radical transparency of the lens feel designed to demystify an industry that was once kept in the shadows. That feeling comes from Dr. Michael Salzhauer. Michael’s story doesn’t start in a Bal Harbour penthouse. It starts in Rockland County, New York, with a kid who walked away from high school early and found his “restart” in a community college classroom. Driven by a childhood dream of surgery and a pivotal moment watching a Park Avenue doctor work magic on his wife’s lip after an accident, Michael realized early on that plastic surgery wasn’t just medicine—it was the “magic” of transformation. In our conversation, Dr. Miami shares how the road to becoming a global brand was paved with the kind of hustle you don’t see on a viral feed. He arrived in Miami for residency and eventually opened his own doors with $30,000 in a brown paper bag and a lot of nerve. Before the fame, he was in the back of a Boca hair salon, personally running a laser hair removal machine on Saturdays just to keep the lights on. He was a board-certified surgeon doing the “un-glamorous” work because his mentor told him the first rule of the game: you do whatever it takes to provide for your family.

In this episode of Miami Minds, we sit down with Daniel Singer, founder of Filthy Foods, the premium drinks and cocktail garnishes brand that turned an overlooked detail into a global business. From hand-selecting olives to building a product trusted by top bars, hotels, and hospitality groups, Daniel shares how Filthy scaled without losing its edge. We talk Miami’s role in shaping his mindset, the difference between trends and standards, and what it really takes to build a brand that lives on bar carts, back bars, and in culture — not just on shelves.

BeyBey is one of those Miami restaurants that’s not just about dinner — it’s about energy. The room, the music, the hospitality, the feeling that you’re stepping into someone’s home… which is literally the point: “Beyte Beytak” — my home is your home. In this episode of Miami Minds, we sit down with Nemer “Tiger” Saliba, the creator behind BeyBey, to talk about building a concept in Miami Beach, what hospitality looks like when it’s actually personal, and why the city’s best spots are becoming cultural spaces — not just restaurants. Plus: a special conversation with Chef Roberto Solís — the Mérida-born chef behind Huniik / Néctar — on technique, identity, and what it means to bring real regional Mexican perspective into a Miami dining room. Subscribe for more Miami Minds — founders, chefs, operators, and the people shaping what Miami becomes next.

In this interview, we sit down with Amanda Pizarro, co-founder of The Salty Donut, the cult-favorite artisanal donut brand that transformed Miami’s food scene and sparked a national craze. Amanda shares how she built a brand obsessed with quality, community, and creativity — from pop-ups and overnight baking shifts to opening multiple locations across the country. She dives into entrepreneurship, brand building, partnerships, and how she continues to innovate while staying true to Salty’s roots. A must-listen for anyone inspired by founders who turn passion into a powerhouse brand.

When you talk about record-setting real estate in Miami and New York, one name shows up again and again: Ruthie Assouline. She has quietly—and consistently—been behind some of the most expensive and culturally significant trades in both cities, from Manhattan townhomes to North Bay Road trophy estates. But nowhere is her impact more visible right now than in Altos del Mar, the crown jewel of North Beach and the only enclave of true beachfront mansions anywhere in Miami Beach south of Golden Beach.

Ruthie has personally closed the two biggest sales in the history of this ultra-rare strip—$37.5M and $36.5M—and now she has brought to market the most expensive listing North Beach has ever seen: a $40 million oceanfront estate, the only true single-family home directly on the sand currently available in all of Miami Beach.