📍Added in April: When I'm at La Natural, I feel like I’m somewhere other than Miami. The interior of the restaurant, with its minimal lime-washed walls and terracotta tiles, tricks me into believing I’m eating in, say, Mexico City. Equally as beautiful are the veg-forward starters, which complement their sourdough pizzas. On a recent visit, I had what I’d consider a perfect meal: a fresh, pink radicchio salad and a white-sauce pizza with scallions and Szechuan peppercorns.

📍Added in April: If you’ve spent time in Miami, you’ve probably been to the original Gramps, a beloved divey music venue and bar. At their new second location, Gramps Getaway, you get all that—except, on the water and with a piña colada instead of a Miller Light. To set the scene: Imagine a bar under a huge palapa. When you get hungry, you head over to the little seafood window, where you’ll find local stone crab and oysters. Yacht rock plays in the background as you overlook the Miami skyline.

📍Added in April: I’m begging you to forget whatever opinions you have about food halls and give Borti Pasta Bar a chance. Because while there are a slew of places in Miami claiming to have authentic Italian food, none get as close as Borti. The pasta alla gricia and bucatini Amatriciana are dishes you rarely find outside Rome, and they actually taste like the ones in Rome. It makes sense: I’ve gotten to know the staff (I eat here a lot!) and they all are very Italian, accent and charm included!

📍Added in April: You have to respect a restaurant that claims to do something so well that they go ahead and put said item in their name. La Esquina De Pan Con Bistec translates to "the corner of steak with bread" and, rightfully so, serves one of the best Cuban-style steak sandwiches in Little Havana. Consisting of a really thin fried steak, sautéed onion, lettuce, tomatoes, and potato sticks, the pan con bistec here is always just the right mix of juicy and crunchy.

📍Added in April: A good brunch is hard to find, and that’s why we’re so lucky to have Rosie’s. Serving modern takes on Southern brunch classics, Rosie’s is that spot I want to go to when I wake up starving on a Sunday morning. You absolutely can’t miss the chicken and biscuits, lemon ricotta pancakes, and the Gulf white shrimp and grits.

If there’s one thing I love, it’s a really good hot dog. Lucky for me, Arbetter's is a Miami institution that’s been around for 60 years serving just that. It’s clear the place has been around for decades—everything looks as if it has gone untouched. I keep my hot dog order pretty simple: onions, both mustard and ketchup (controversial, I know!), and sometimes sauerkraut, depending on my mood. In my opinion, a Coca-Cola and cheese fries are absolutely necessary accoutrements.

I never really thought of fruit salad as a dish to get excited about. Really, what’s there to a bowl of cut-up, usually unripe fruit? I now realize that the problem was that I just hadn’t yet discovered Athens. It’s a simple concept: fruit, in different formats—sometimes blended, sometimes cut up, always perfectly ripe. I love the fruit salad, which contains a medley of bananas, pineapples, and other fruits topped with a fruit nectar I wish I could replicate at home.

Boia De is the kind of place where small plates and good wine—served in a trendy yet casual atmosphere—are the stars of the show. The menu changes from time to time, but I wouldn’t miss the potato skins, the tartare, and the budino for dessert. Unless you know someone who knows someone, it can be really hard to score a reservation (the place is tiny and a favorite among both locals and tourists!), so plan ahead or join the queue just before they open in hopes of scoring a seat at the bar.

Caracas is everything you’d want in your neighborhood bakery: delicious pastries and a menu that features everyone’s favorite all-day café staples, like toasts, egg sandwiches, and the most perfectly scrambled eggs. Menus and vibes aside, what I love most about Caracas is that it perfectly embodies an establishment that feels young and cool while also paying homage to its roots (and Miami’s large Venezuelan community!) by serving traditional Venezuelan pastries like cachitos and palmeritas.

While Chef Creole has a few locations around Miami, the Little Haiti one has a special place in my lunchtime rotation, given its proximity to my flower studio. I love how easy it is to stop by for Bahamian and Haitian classics like griot (fried pork), jerk chicken, and stewed conch, and I love how much food they give you. I rotate between ordering the stewed chicken and the grilled jerk chicken, always with the peas and rice and a side of sweet plantains.