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My father's a fisherman.
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I got huge shoes to fill.
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I sell fish to everybody.
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I have seen the cops and the criminals having lunch here and
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they were like when we're done, you can chase me again.
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We dining in a take out it's real people cooking that we are
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And the she you laugh like your finger is good because we're
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about to see what's good in and later uh will share her slice
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What's good in your hood is about the trail blazers that transform
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a community through their passions.
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And today we're in the 305 Miami to meet a family that's a pillar
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to the city's vibrant river culture.
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We're in Miami at Garcia's seafood grill and fish market.
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It's a legend, dairy Miami spot that sells the freshest seafood
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from Bo to table Luis Garcia and his family are keeping a dream
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alive, started by Esteban Garcia.
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And let me tell you the seafood is next level good.
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Everything is good here because I see it coming in fresh and
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to me the freshest, the better, the way they treat you here
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with Maria get any better.
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If you've never been here before, you have to try to crack con
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You also have to try the salmon with yellow rice and sweet.
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My name is Carlos J.
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I am the mayor of Miami Dade County.
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I've been to Garcia's.
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I can tell you how many times I've been to Garcia's.
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I get different things.
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I'll get the, you know, we call it dolphin down here.
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Sometimes grilled, sometimes fried.
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But uh it's always good right on the ocean.
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There's a rich history of fishing culture and seafood in Miami
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and Garcia's and the Miami River is at the center serving no
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frill seafood since 1966 grilled shrimp caesar salad.
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And that is how you grill shrimp, people.
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These are easily top three.
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No, top two, not guys.
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This is the best conch fr I've ever had Esteban Garcia, a river
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pioneer has left a void since his passing, but he had a dream
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being kept alive by his family.
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My name is Luis Garcia.
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This is Garcia seafood.
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Uh My family restaurant we first started in 1966 and my family
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was actually a fishing family.
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They would fish and then they would sell the fish.
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And so when the revolution started, my dad just said, let's
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get out of here because this is gonna get worse.
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My dad came over here, didn't know what else to do.
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Figured that he was a fisherman.
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So he got near the river.
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Then my father talked to my mom into starting a restaurant
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This was a horrible area.
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I have seen the cops and the criminals having lunch here.
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Put you guys on the map.
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I would say the fried yellow tail, the whole fried yellow tail
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And then of course, the dolphin sandwich was a big thing when
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people asked me, oh, what's your favorite dish?
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And I'm like, why complicate things?
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Forget about sauces, forget about adding this, forget about
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Just get the whole fish fried.
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My dad would be so happy if you just got the whole fish fried
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because that's the only item he really wanted on the menu.
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We're the opposite of fancy.
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We would like for you to be able to come here in flip flops.
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But if you wanna come here in a soup, we like that too.
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Our DNA, you can't fake it.
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There's nothing fake about showing somebody what we are.
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I stopped trying to fight that a long time ago.
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Later, 305 native Amara La Negra will share her slice of Miami
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with us through hard work.
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The Garcias have been able to forge a thriving business, a
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torch lit by the father and proudly being carried by the family
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and the tough as nails.
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Mother Maria Luisa, who after 50 years remains working to
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this day, my father, he got to this country with zero, right
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You didn't even speak English I got huge shoes to fill.
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I didn't really understand what my father was doing.
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I left and, and I only came back when my father was very, very
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Dad passed away how long ago it was 13 years.
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It seems like it was yesterday.
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He was an old school guy with old school kind of principles
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My dad never wanted change.
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He wanted it to be the same.
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They don't complicate things.
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Um Just fry the fish and give it to people.
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They're gonna eat it, they're gonna love it.
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I was more of a punk than I should have been and I, I should have
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been more grateful or I should have been more understanding
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of, of why he wasn't at my baseball game.
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All the credit goes to my mom.
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My mom has fought so hard.
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I'll tell you how tough she is when I was in Little League, she
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was the lady that would put her fingers through the fence and
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be like, hey, grow some balls.
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I just come from the Garcia family and that's how we were raised
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She's incredibly fierce.
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She came from AAA country that got everything taken from them
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So thank you so much as I'm coming to find out there's many different
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sides of Miami that are unknown to the public to get more insight
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I connected with Miami native breakout star and proud Afro
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Latina Negra for a closer look.
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She's actually had three restaurants in the past here in Miami
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I mean, but you grew up with really good food.
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I grew up so busy in my career, you know, modeling, acting,
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singing, traveling, doing all these other things.
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I never really bothered to sit down and be like, ok, I wanna
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Like, no, not to mention that my mom always hated to see me in
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She always felt like if you grow the same passion that I have
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for the kitchen, you're gonna end up being a cook like me and
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So any time she saw me there she's like, like, get out.
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So then I just kind of like, didn't have a calling for it, but
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I have a colleague for eating.
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You have a big boat.
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My mom had four jobs.
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She used to work in a restaurant in the morning, come out of
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that one, go to the next job.
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And then on the weekends she worked in mcdonald's and she cleaned
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houses and I used to go with her and help her clean and she got
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an additional job just to be able to pay for all my singing and
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dance classes and all that stuff.
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And so I'm grateful for that.
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That's why everything that I do, I do it, I do it for her.
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What is Miami to you when I close my eyes and I think of Miami
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I think of Cuban coffee screaming through the window you
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wanna eat or whatever, whatever going to the flea market was
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a really important part of my life.
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You know what I mean?
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Getting the chicken wings in the corner store, getting on
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the, on the metro rail, whatever hood do you wanna take me to
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Ok, guys don't go anywhere because when we come back, I'm gonna
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learn how to make something.
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Not even on the menu.
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Miami is a vibrant, hotbed for some of the most interesting
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and complex cultures the country has to offer and the Miami
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River is adding to that conversation today, Louis is going
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to show me how to make some Yellowtail and it's not even on the
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It's mango week here in Miami.
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So of course it came to my mind that maybe we should use some
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of these mangoes for our dish.
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Our freshest fish today is a yellow tail snapper.
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What we do is we get a little butter and then we get our seasoning
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It has a little bit of everything and the key is the grill being
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clean, super hot and there you go.
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I promise you, it's gonna be the best fish you ever had in your
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I promise you first of all.
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I cut the mango and then I puree the mango and that's pure mango
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sauce and then the diced mango on top.
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I promise you it will not get any better than that.
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This looks amazing and make sure I get a piece that has a good
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amount of mango sauce on it.
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It's so, so, so good.
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And I mean, the secret here is obviously how fresh the fish
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is and how fresh the mangoes are.
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Let's call it the What's good in the hood special?
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The what's good in your hood special?
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Sounds pretty good to me.
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We can do that and it certainly tastes like what's good in your
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hood for a look at where the family business started.
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Luis took me to the original dock where his dad opened shop
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This is where my father came to set up shop when they got kicked
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out of Cuba and he came to the river and looked for a place that
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he can start fishing again.
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We're literally blocks away from the entrance of the river
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So our fishermen can be out in the ocean within 30 to 40 minutes
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This is the life force of my business because all of these boats
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bring us our seafood on a daily basis.
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The boats pull up and you can just order your seafood as it gets
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So what happens typically is these guys get here at about four
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o'clock in the afternoon and before you know, it, it's three
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or four in the morning and they're back on the boat.
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So they don't even make it back to wherever they live.
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And I appreciate these guys for who they are.
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They're good people.
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Everybody know the river.
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Free funeral home, free any fisherman, die old man.
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He called the funeral home.
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I pay for everybody.
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Um So we're the last of the Breed fishing businesses along
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This is the city of Miami's riverside center is where all the
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politicians have offices.
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People think Miami is just south beach and like half naked
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women and Suntan lotion.
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But it's a lot of really hard working people too.
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This is actually the only Miami that I know.
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I didn't know about that other one.
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I want to go to that Miami.
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I know in boats just like this one.
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But it does bring me a nostalgic feeling when I'm on a boat like
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this respect for these people 100%.
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I love these guys because it's part of my DNA and of who we are
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So this is my hood after some seafood loving at Garcia's, we
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headed to experience a neighborhood just minutes away.
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We're on our way to a and it's predominantly Dominican.
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Um but I sound a little Cuban.
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I'm associated obviously with the African American um community
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but I'm very Latina.
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It's, I guess it can be a little bit confusing to some people
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but I grew up in Miami where there's just so much culture.
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So let's go check out your house.
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Yes, this was your first house in Brownsville.
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Actually it was my mom's first house.
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My mom worked so hard.
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She gathered up some money and she was able to put the down payment
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for this house and she was so proud of it because it was her first
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And why did you move from this house?
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Our house went on for closure and my mom couldn't afford it
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That must have just been so, so, so sad for your mom.
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It really was because my mom worked so hard to have this house
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You know, it was devastating for her.
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But um you know, years later now I, you know, I was able to buy
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my mom a house, be able to buy your momma house.
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I, I just bought her one and I'm working on the second one.
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Obviously, a lot of things have changed.
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There's a lot of fresh paint and a lot of new trees.
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But for the most part, this is it, there's a reason why so many
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talented people come out of these environments because it
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almost forces you to find way out.
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I love being able to come back because it just reminds me of
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my journey and all the things that I had to do to get to where
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I am today and you got out and you're still thriving and doing
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You never been to the Metro.
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Like this used to be like the thing.
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So this is the futures of Garcia.
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What is the war wharf is an outdoor event space.
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We throw events Thursday through Sunday and we have uh DJ S
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Uh We have all kinds of things here.
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The wharf to me seems like it's the evolution of it is, this
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is the raw bar concept that we put together.
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I'm bringing you to the area that years from now will be where
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Garcia started and evolved into and became what my father's
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dream was the Miami River.
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And Garcia is a place to venture if you want to feel and taste
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the hard work of a family that has fought to move forward through
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struggle, loss and towards keeping a dream alive through
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a changing neighborhood.
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Garcia has withstood the test of time like a rise tide, meeting
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The city is catching up to Garcia's vision of the river culture
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Miami can be thankful for a simple fisherman's vision of the
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world offering a simple taste of the ocean to hungry locals
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And that's what's good in your hood next time on what's good
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We're heading to Las Highland Park where we'll explore this
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historic neighborhood's iconic spot with Highland Park
14:50
rapper Reverie and Roxy Diaz L A.
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