La Ventanita podcast: Matt Kuscher has advice for anyone coming to Miami to open a restaurant
When the owners of the iconic Brickell dive Tobacco Road wanted to recreate the original vibe in a new location, they turned to Matt Kuscher.
“It’s a theme bar. It’s a Hard Rock Café for Tobacco Road,” he once said.
On the March 31 episode of La Ventanita, we talked with Kuscher about how he reads local culture to create distinctive places. We’ll also asked him to refute that he is, in fact, the Instagram super hero Kaptain Kush, who visits locations around Miami in a green weed-man outfit. You read that right.
He also spoke to us about his support for Pace Center For Girls, which provides girls and young women an opportunity for a better future through education, counseling, training, and advocacy.
Kuscher, the chef turned restaurateur, is known for being able to create Miami vibes in all of his restaurants, plucking culture out of the air and turning it into features that make his guests feel at home.
Among them: Walter Mercado and Hialeah Spider-Man themed bathrooms at his Hialeah restaurant Kush by Stephen’s Deli. The I-95 mural of famously nearly nekkid carpet king Don Bailey recreated at a bar in the Gold Dust Motel in the MiMo District. A botanica-themed waiting room at his Wynwood restaurant Kush.
He creates rooms that transport you to a new place, like the hidden milkshake bar connected to his Coconut Grove restaurant Lokal that is recreated to look like his mother’s 1980s house, complete with a back room with a Nintendo.
We also spoke about:
- My updated dining guide for How to Eat Like a Local in Miami
- The final week to vote in the totally unscientific poll for best croqueta in Miami
Tune in Thursdays at 11 a.m. to watch La Ventanita live on YouTube and the Miami Herald website, comment and ask questions during the interview. Find every episode of La Ventanita at the show page and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Megaphone, Stitcher and MiamiHerald.com.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
