Staff Report

Is This Miami’s Best Soul Food Restaurant?

In an nondescript strip mall off of busy NW 27th in Miami Gardens is a project worthy of widespread attention.

Inside is a small restaurant with big dreams to save a culture before it dies out forever.

This is the story of the place that wants to save soul food in Miami.

At Miami Soul Cafe, soul food is serious business.

“I was raised up on soul food,” Carrollo Phillips said.

“Soul food kind of deals with the person who’s making it,” Willis Howard said. “Putting you heart into it. We were given a lot of scraps a long time ago and we had to make the best with those scraps.”

Well known Miami political operative Willis Howard has wanted to open a place like this for many years.

Why?

“it is the largest African-American city in the state. Almost 115,000 African-American residents. And there wasn’t really a black staple. We had a lot of other restaurants from Caribbean, Haitian, Bahamian, Jamaican. But not anything dealing with just African-American food.”

But Howard’s dream of a proudly black restaurant in a proudly black city wouldn’t be possible without this man.

Chef Carrollo Phillips.

“And when you taste that, you gonna taste that love. I don’t care what it is. You’re going to taste it.”

Phillips grew up in Miami and was a big time athlete at Miami Northwestern high school.

He was drafted into Vietnam where he got to hone his cooking skills while running mess halls near the front lines.

But he also saw action and was injured.

“It wasn’t no vacation over there brother. No sir. Still had to go out and survive. That’s what I called it. Survive.”

He came home from the war a damaged young man.

But Phillips took some of the love for soul food he had learned cooking with his mom and grandma and the organization skills developed by the army to start a long career as a successful caterer.

That’s how Howard and him would eventually meet.

Miami Soul Cafe has a large menu of southern soul food favorites.

Howard hopes that his place can help remind his community why soul food is so important.

He wants to save it from disappearing forever.

“Chef is amazing,” Howard said. “Just to have him and his presence. It’s his recipes. And I hope that we can foster something that these recipes don’t die out with us. That other folks come in here and see it. He has no problem showing you everything he does. ‘Let me shows you how to make a biscuit. Let me show how to make grits. Let me show you how to do the fish. Because hopefully, you’ll be able to go out and spinoff and make some more of these things. Because if not, our food will be gone. It will be gone.”

IMF Official: Miami Is The True “Hub” Of Latin America

What’s News In This Story?

This interview is part of the “Tomorrow Lives Here” Conversation Series presented by Miami Business School


WATCH:

Alejandro Werner, the Director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called Miami the “hub” of Latin America during a recent interview in Coral Gables.

–”Miami is a bit of a hub for Latin America and for us that’s very important because it is a place where you come and you really address the broad regional interests,” Werner said in the interview. “In contrast to what you find when you go to twenty big capitals in Latin America- after two minutes of talking about the region, you fall back into the country.”

–Werner spoke to Miami Business School Dean John Quelch about the current state of the various economies in the Western Hemisphere and how Miami is positioned in the global market. 

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How To Pull Off A Successful Corporate Merger With RBI’s Heitor Gonçalves

What’s News In This Story?

This interview is part of the “Tomorrow Lives Here” Conversation Series presented by Miami Business School


WATCH:

–A veteran of venture capital, Heitor Gonçalves has been at the center of multiple corporate mergers and turnarounds. 

Gonçalves also worked multiple strategic roles for Anheuser-Busch InBev

He is now at Restaurant Brands International (the multinational who runs Burger King and Popeyes).

–Based in Miami, Gonçalves spoke to Miami Business School Dean John Quelch about the biggest challenges to a successful corporate merger and the biggest differences between the beer and restaurant industries. 

 

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Have a news tip about this topic or something completely different? Send it to [email protected].

Top Cyber Expert: Every Company Is Now At Risk Of Serious Hacking

What’s News In This Story?

This interview is part of the “Tomorrow Lives Here” Conversation Series presented by Miami Business School


WATCH:

–Sandy Goldstein started leading cyber consulting firm Capsicum Group in 2000.

A University of Miami graduate, Goldstein spoke to Miami Business School Dean John Quelch about the threats that businesses face on a daily basis when it comes to hacking and how the Magic City is well positioned to lead in the sector. 

 

RISE NEWS is South Florida’s digital TV news network. Sign up for our awesome email newsletter to make sure you never miss a story!

Have a news tip about this topic or something completely different? Send it to [email protected].

At Miami Business School, BIS Head Defends Globalism And Bashes Bitcoin

What’s News In This Story?

This interview is part of the “Tomorrow Lives Here” Conversation Series presented by Miami Business School


WATCH:

–The head of the Bank for International Settlements, Agustín Carstens defended globalism and bashed bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in an exclusive interview with RISE NEWS

–Carstens is the general manager for BIS, a massive institution that is often called the “bank for the central banks”. 

–Carstens was interviewed by Miami Business School Vice Dean Henrik Cronqvist.

–The former governor of Mexico’s Central Bank, Carstens has earned a reputation as being a strong skeptic of cryptocurrencies.

Don’t Miss:

Lennar’s Stuart Miller Thinks That Miami’s Homebuilding Market Is A “Tale Of Two Cities”

 

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Have a news tip about this topic or something completely different? Send it to [email protected].

These Miami Kids Walked Out Of Class To Send Marco Rubio And The NRA A Message

Miami Shores isn’t normally known for its political activism. But students at Miami Country Day School poured out of class and marched to a nearby park in order to send a message to the gun lobby.

Let’s just say that they didn’t hold back.

 

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Have a news tip about this topic or something completely different? Send it on in to [email protected].

 

Check Out Some More Of Our Stories: 

 

 

The Future Of Haitian Food Is Being Crafted In This North Miami Office Building

 

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Have a news tip about this topic or something completely different? Send it on in to [email protected].

This Gun Loving Miami Teen Is In Jail On A Child Porn Charge After His Dad Turned His Phone Over To Police

What You Need To Know About This Story:


-An 18 year old student at Miami Krop Senior High School is in jail after his father turned over the teen’s phones to police. 

-Sean Mesa was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography and a charge of improper display of a firearm after police were given his phones to look at concerns his father had regarding his gun use. 

The Miami Herald reports that federal and local investigators knew about Mesa before his father turned over the electronic devices because of various social media posts he has made in the past. 

-Mesa’s father was apparently motivated to turn over the phones after the Parkland shooting. 

-From the Herald

“Mesa came to the attention of U.S Homeland Security Investigations’ Violent Gang Task Force, which forwarded his Instagram and Snapchat photos “recklessly displaying firearms and pointing them at the camera,” according to an arrest warrant.

Miami-Dade Schools Detective John Messenger went to Krop High on Tuesday to try to “engage in a friendly conversation to understand what Sean Mesa’s fascination with firearms was.” 

Mesa, however, bristled — telling him ‘he likes guns and it was his right to post on social media whatever he wished.'”

-After the police visited Mesa at school, his father agreed to turn over the phones to authorities. 

-During the search on the phones, the US Secret Service found video of a 10 year child being sexually abused. Mesa allegedly had shared in a group chat. 
Do you know Sean Mesa? Send us a tip to [email protected]

This story is from The Miami Monster, a new brand focused on telling the true stories of what life is like for a young person living in South Florida. Be sure to also follow our founder Joel Franco on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest breaking news in the area.  You can send news tips to [email protected]

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