Michelin-quality food with the atmosphere of a gas station. I don't think there is a better way to…read moredescribe this place. From the outside, it looks like a convenience store you would find on the corner of Alphabet City in New York. The type of place you walk into to buy a bottle of water and some questionable batteries, not to have one of the best meals of your life. But if you can make it past the shelves of miscellaneous goods and work your way to the back, you'll find a food oasis that deserves to be in the same conversation as some of the finest restaurants in the country.
I would never have found this place if it weren't for my family. My grandfather came here, my mother came here, and now I come here. Three generations of my family have been making the pilgrimage to this little slice of heaven, and I fully intend on making it four, so make sure to support. It's family-run to its bones, which is a near extinction around Brickell these days. There is something special about a family serving food to another family for generations. Especially when one of those families is doing all the cooking and the other is just showing up to eat. I think we got the better end of that relationship.
Finding this place must have felt like what Christopher Columbus felt when he first spotted land in the Bahamas. Although, if Columbus had just kept sailing until he reached the mainland and stumbled into this market, I think he would have experienced a level of euphoria previously unknown to mankind. Forget the spices and riches; get this man a pita sandwich. He probably would have abandoned his voyage, sent the ships home, and spent the rest of his life sitting in the back of this convenience store eating hummus.
Now, onto the food. For about $20, you can walk out of here with a sandwich, a drink of your choice, and a few extra bites of whatever catches your eye. I genuinely believe there is no better way to spend an Andrew Jackson. Dollar for dollar, this meal is unmatched. Put this place in a white-tablecloth restaurant, give the waiter a French accent, and charge $85 for the same sandwich, and people would be fighting over reservations. The quality could go toe-to-toe with the Michelin heavyweights.
The staple is the pita sandwich, and I cannot stress enough how important it is that you order one. Everything is homemade, fresh, and absolutely delicious. A little pro tip: ask them to add hummus inside the pita. The hummus takes an already spectacular sandwich and elevates it to a level that really has no business being achieved in the back of a convenience store.
They also have daily specials that always look incredible. Unfortunately, I have never had the balls to order one. Every time I walk in, I tell myself that today will be the day I branch out and try something new. Then I get to the counter, see the pita sandwich, and fold like a lawn chair.
Before you leave, you absolutely must grab a few of the homemade fruit roll-ups. These are not the artificially colored strips of plastic you ate as a kid. These are made from real fruit and are unbelievably good. They are also incredibly nostalgic for me, although probably not for you, because I seriously doubt your grandfather was buying you these exact fruit roll-ups when you were a toddler. Mine was, and every bite takes me right back.
It's gotten to the point where I have to actively prevent myself from going back. I try to save it for special occasions because if I started eating here as often as I'd like, I would need to invest in an entirely new wardrobe of considerably looser-fitting clothes. Financially, the $20 meal is a bargain. The subsequent cost of replacing every pair of pants I own would be devastating.
There are very few places in the world that can make you feel this way about food, and even fewer that can do it while looking like somewhere you might stop to buy a lottery ticket. I love everything about it. The food, the atmosphere, and the fact that it has remained a part of my family's life for three generations. I cannot wait for the day I get to bring my own kids here and introduce them to the same sandwich my grandfather introduced me to. Hopefully, by then, I'll have worked up the courage to try one of the specials, but I wouldn't bet on it.
A very sharp 9.9.
