Jennifer Porciello Tour Guide at Miami Culinary Tours

After receiving exceptional ratings from Zagat since 2002, Jennifer Porciello’s restaurants have been cited among many of the best, right here in Miami. With her husband, Jennifer has owned and operated five Italian restaurants in Miami since 1994. Jennifer moved to South Beach from Manhattan in 1992.

“It was 2 days after hurricane Andrew ” she recalls.

“I saw a city that was in shambles but still had a light burning.   There was a mandatory curfew, minimal power and police presence everywhere.   There was candlelight dining, owners  working as chefs and waiters and the restaurants were throwing lingering clients out by 9 pm, adhering to the curfew. “

In those early days Miami Beach was young again; it was going through another growth spurt.  Restaurateurs from all over the world wanted to be there.

There were clubs, restaurants and hotels popping up everywhere.

Movie stars, basketball players, race car drivers, wealthy investors…everyone wanted in.   Fashion and the arts followed. Those were exciting times. The average age in town was close to 28.  A far cry from the census of 1972, when the average age in Miami was reported as 66.

Jennifer met her Brazilian husband in those early days working in the nightclub scene of South Beach. She remembers those days as long and arduous. They both wanted to have a different lifestyle and a family, and in 1994 they opened their first restaurant off  of Biscayne Blvd on 14th  street  in the greater Miami area.

“We went from coming home at 4am to buying vegetables at 4am. We started so small we had to do everything ourselves” Jennifer recalls.   But by 2000, hard work paid off and their new restaurant  across from the  court house was seating over two hundred clients and serving the lawyers, judges and politicians of Downtown Miami..

Her biggest achievement however are her boys, age 10 and 11, who, speaking English, Spanish and Portuguese, are the embodiment of the Miami. They were born and bred from Jennifer, and her husband’s love of South Beach! Jennifer comes to us with her hard won expertise and passion for food,   her love of the Historic Art Deco District of South Beach and the Greater  Miami area.