Meet Gonzalo Rubino | Crazy Poke Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gonzalo Rubino and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gonzalo, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
The most important lesson my business, Crazy Poke, hast taught me is that there’s always room to create, to innovate, and to re create yourself. I took the decision of coming to Miami to invest in my new business without ever being in Miami before. So first I sold my company in Argentina, two Sushi brands with a total of 7 locations, after that I did a market research by traveling to NY, LA and Miami. Then I create a business plan and get my investors to start this dream come true. Another lesson is to always focus on yourself and don’t look much in the competition, there’s nothing outside that can make you better, is you and your willing to do and success that will take you to a next level.
Last but not least, people come first, if you always take care of your employees there’s nothing to worry on the business. We have been one of the only fast-casual restaurants to never closed even one day during covid. As we also never had to look desperate for new staff, and this happens when you treat your team as you treat your family, with communication, respect and passion from a leader and not micromanagment.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I started at 18 years old working for my father at a retail woman shoe store, while I was studying at university for a degree in Business Management, after a couple of years working for him while studying I realized I was looking for something new, and more, where I can develop all my new skills and knowledge. So there was a night I order sushi delivery from a famous brand and I call to regret about things being wrong, a couple of days later the owner called me saying he would like me to be tester once a week for 8 weeks, so for me was getting free sushi and I said yes lets do it. After finishing those 8 weeks where I have to filled an extensive document on each order, I realized I was giving ideas and knowledge to a company just for free food, that by 19-20 year old its fine, but I said why I don’t start my own sushi brand and implement all this for myself.
So I get with 3 university friend and share this idea they jumped into to start, so I did a 2 month course with a famous sushi chef Iwao Komiyama to know more about the product, after that we create the menu with my friend, did the photo shooting and we were ready to look and rent a store to open. After finding one, there was a recent article in the most important newspapers of the country saying there were closing the exports of salmon from Chile, which is the only salmon you can source in Argentina, so we have to take the decision not to move forward and wait…We postpone the project for a year, and by then everything had change, my friends where working full time at their jobs, so I started with another friend from University and we launch our first delivery brand in Argentina: Sushi MAS, a very successful story.
After a couple of months my friend and partners decided to sell their shares to focus on their jobs, and another friend came into play. We a year in business we bought another sushi company, more focus on downtown quick lunch service called Kiosko Sushi Roll. And we end up have 2 Sushi MAS and 5 Kiosko Sushi Roll.
But then, I feel I was looking for more and something new, Argentina is very taught for business things doesn’t work so good. So I look abroad and found Miami as the place to go to invest and do business. And here Im I!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love traveling and visiting new places, here in Miami a flight of a couple of ours takes you to great destinations. My favorite destinations are NY, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, what to do in those cities is unlimited! My favorite restaurants, wow this is taught and too many. I love sushi and asian food, but lets start:
MIAMI: Makoto, Matsuri, La Birra Bar, Tatore, Blue Ribbon, Komodo, Dragun Gelato and Le Chick. And my fast-casual restaurants: Crazy Poke and Sushi MAS.
NY: Cecconis Dumbo, Katz Deli, Balthazar, Bond St.
Las Vegas: Catch, Bardot Brasserie, Momofuku, Smith & Wollensky.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
This is dedicate to all the people that have believed in me, cause at the end of the story nobody invest in business or projects, they invest in people. And this makes you very proud, and the reason why the core values of being honest, transparent and hard worker pays off. Also this is dedicated to all our Crazy Poke crew members that works every day with amazing attitude creating a friendly environment and great atmosphere that makes customers returns, cause here in Miami the customer service lacks so much that this is very important for any business.
And last but not least to my family that always supported me from this long distance between Argentina and USA.

Website: www.crazypokemiami.com

Instagram: crazypokemiami

Linkedin: Gonzalo Rubino

Twitter: crazypokemiami

Facebook: crazypokemiami

Yelp: crazypoke