A LOCAL’S GUIDE TO DINING IN THE 305
DINING IN THE 305 – More of us are eating that first meal out. Travelers are returning en masse to South Florida — and in 2021 we are all looking for food that did not come out of our kitchens.
I know this because my phone has started to vibrate again, friends and family asking, “Where should I eat?”
So I’m sharing my list of where I like to eat in Miami. It’s searchable by city and by the type of cuisine you’re craving. My recommendations come from my own experiences as a food writer for the Miami Herald, living in the heart of Miami, and reporting on the people and restaurants that build our culture. They make Miami-Dade County – DINING IN THE 305 one of the most exciting places in the country to eat.
This list is not a best-of and it’s not comprehensive. It’s totally subjective! As new restaurants open, as I discover others’ longtime favorites in my reporting, I add and subtract. And even though I’m a Miami native, I still have a lot more eating to do.
DINING IN THE 305 – We are more than Cuban sandwiches. Eating like a local doesn’t mean eating at the same 10 spots where you have eaten since childhood. It means eating out of your comfort zone, exploring places that are not just new but new to you.
He lost a wine shop but gained a kidney. How Happy Wine’s owner got a second chance at life.
Miami, Florida, August 28, 2019- J.C. (Juan Carlos) Restrepo and his life partner Joanna Fajardo are the owners of Happy Wine on Calle Ocho. In the last year, Restrepo was diagnosed with kidney failure, needed a kidney transplant, and sold his other wine shop in Coconut Grove when he couldn’t keep it up because of his condition. He has his health, and their original store on Calle Ocho, which remains a favorite of locals and Miami wine lovers. JIGLESIAS@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
Inside a shop named Happy Wine, J.C. Restrepo wipes tears from his eyes.
“Everything was falling apart,” he recalls. “I’m sorry. Let me gather myself.”
Around him, diners are laughing, popping bottles and munching on tapas, salsa music playing almost too loud to speak over. He and his longtime partner, Joanna Fajardo, huddle close at one of the high-top tables where stools are homemade from wine crates. When he speaks, his usually booming voice is a raspy whisper.
DINING IN THE 305 – This wine shop and tapas bar they bought together almost 10 years ago usually live up to its name, particularly for the owners. Christmas lights crisscross the ceiling. Bottles of wine, ranging in price for neighborhood abuelitas to connoisseurs, are sorted neatly by region and stacked on shelves made from wooden 2-by-4s. Happy hour starts early, music plays every day of the week and every inch of wall space is scrawled with diners’ messages like, “I got dronk here.”
It’s an open secret and a longtime favorite for Miamians who know you have to use the back door although it’s on busy Calle Ocho.
But the last year has been a test of faith, love, and perseverance for the couple that owns one of Miami’s favorite hidden gems.
This time last year, Restrepo, 52, was diagnosed with kidney failure and told that without dialysis and a transplant, he would die within a week. That came a month after the couple took on an investor in their second Happy Wine in Coconut Grove — and eventually lost the business as they struggled to keep it up. He sold that store and let them use the name to avoid lawyers.
He may eventually have to change the name of his Calle Ocho Happy Wine – DINING IN THE 305.
A pair of lunch regulars pop in to join the jovial atmosphere around them, and Restrepo tries to compose himself when Joanna hurries to greet them.
“I felt the worst for my wife,” Restrepo says, watching Fajardo. “I’m supposed to take care of my family, and I couldn’t do that.”
Restrepo thinks he first developed diabetes in the late 1980s, when he was in his early 20s and working long hours as an undocumented Colombian immigrant in the New York City kitchens where he learned to love wine from some of the greats.
Between polishing off fallen souffle at Jean-George Vongerichten’s or taking sommelier classes while working at Daniel when the eponymous Boulud was still tossing a culinary student’s dish across the room with a four-letter word, Restrepo disregarded his health. A fellow Colombian doctor, unlicensed in the United States but seeing patients out of his apartment in Queens, first diagnosed his diabetes. Restrepo bought medication on the gray market.
“I would have blurry vision. I was tired all the time. But I couldn’t afford health insurance or to go to a hospital,” he said.
It was decades before Restrepo, by then a U.S. citizen took a job that offered health insurance, working as a South Florida sales rep for Southern Wine & Spirits. Happy Wine had been his best account when the former owner offered to sell him the business in 2010.
“The disease had progressed a lot over the years,” he said.
On April 5, a Friday, Restrepo was placed on the organ transplant waitlist. He didn’t have much hope. He had seen a man he was doing dialysis with die while waiting for a kidney.
At 2 p.m. Saturday, while he was receiving dialysis, his phone rang. A 25-year-old who’d had a genetic defect died unexpectedly in North Florida. He was an organ donor.
“J.C. called me crying,” Joanna said.
By midnight Sunday, they were at Jackson Memorial Hospital so Restrepo could receive the kidney. His anesthesiologist and a surgical assistant were both Happy Wine customers.
“I’m on the stretcher going into surgery, and I’m talking to these guys about wine,” Restrepo recalled.
Restrepo takes anti-rejection medication for what he lovingly calls his baby, tapping the spot in his lower abdomen where the donor’s kidney was added.
Since the surgery, he has let go of his other baby — “We had too many babies,” Fajardo tried to joke — the Happy Wine in Coconut Grove. They signed the paperwork on Aug. 1.
“The first day, I felt bitter. The second day, relief,” Restrepo said. “Right now, we are in heaven.”
The couple has refocused its efforts on the original Happy Wine. Restrepo sits at the corner of the bar so he can greet every guest, Joanna runs the books in a side office and oversees a staff that has been with the couple since Day One, keeping the spirit of the happy shop in the name.
“In life, unfortunately, you learn by mistakes,” Restrepo said. “It nearly cost me my life. But now, I get a second chance.”
HAPPY WINE – DINING IN THE 305
5792 SW Eighth St., Miami
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