Opening a restaurant in Miami-Dade County, as you may or may not know, is something of a marathon. The journey is almost always rocky, with the usual potholes littering the path: Permit problems. Delivery delays. Grease trap nightmares.
But surviving a life-threatening health scare is really what makes owners Mario and Maya Palazon value the steady stream of customers coming through the door at their new FreshCo Fish Grill & Market in Downtown Doral.
The plan to expand their Kendall restaurant and seafood market, which was named one of the best in the U.S. in 2024 by Yelp, began more than three years ago. Developer Armando Codina, founder of Codina Partners — which is now overseen by his daughter Ana Codina — came to the Kendall location for a meal after reading about the restaurant in the Miami Herald. The meal eventually led to a plan to build and open the new FreshCo…