Mari: So, tell me a bit about your story. How many years have you been in the restaurant business, where did you learn, and when did you come to Miami?

Mauricio: Well, restaurants actually came into my life not too long ago. I came to Miami — we came to Miami — in 2014. We’ve been here for 11 years. And when I came here, we really missed Brazilian seasoning, Brazilian food. So I started going a lot to Pompano, getting food in Pompano, groceries in Pompano. The answer is a bit long, but let’s go.
I started bringing things back to Weston, and all our friends… I wasn’t working at the time — Paula, my wife, had been transferred here — and our friends started asking me to bring things for them too. Then we met a couple who are our partners today, Guilherme and Fernanda. They already had a convenience store that was starting to sell Brazilian products in Hollywood. One day, talking to him, I called him at night and said, “Man, I’m thinking about selling Brazilian products in Weston.”
And he said, “Why don’t we do something together?” That same night, I called him and he was already making a spreadsheet to start the business — selling Brazilian food, stocking it in his store, and delivering it to homes. “Let’s do it together, let’s do it together.” So we built a business called Brazil at Your Door, where we delivered — that’s actually how I met Ronaldo, who is our partner today as well.
We started selling food to people’s homes, only in Weston, just through WhatsApp groups in our city. Then slowly we created a website. And there were no restaurants in the city. So it became a restaurant — little by little. People kept asking for food, so we made a lot of food, snacks, everything.
Anyway, this was in 2014 — no, I think 2017 is when we opened the store. Brazil at Your Door started in 2016. In 2017 we opened under the name Remember, and little by little we started adding food and transitioned into a restaurant. And now we have our new location here in Miami — the restaurant is bigger now, much bigger. I don’t know if the answer got too long; if you want…

Mari: And tell me a bit about your story — why did you come to Miami?

Mauricio: Well, Paula was transferred here, and we came… I made the decision that time. She had received some offers before to come here but had never accepted them to move from Brazil. When the offer was for Miami, I said, “Okay, then let’s go.”

Mari: And the last question: what’s your favorite dish?

Mauricio: What I just ate — shrimp bobó.