Meet the team
The people behind
the Dish.
We're a small team of writers, curators, and Miami obsessives united by one thing: a genuine love for this city and everything it serves up.
Our story
Dish Miami is a curated lifestyle publication covering the restaurants, bars, wellness spaces, hotels, shops, people, and places defining Miami's next chapter.
We are here for what's worth booking, buzzing about, and talking over cocktails — a sharp, stylish edit of the city through the eyes of people who actually live here. Not an algorithm. Not a press release. A real point of view from locals with taste, curiosity, and a deep love for Miami.
From under-the-radar dining rooms to design-forward hotels, beauty destinations, wellness studios, and the people moving the city forward, Dish is where Miami's most discerning locals come first — and where everyone else comes to keep up.
Founder-led · Editorially driven · Proudly local
Our Founder
Erin Lavan
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Erin Lavan is the founder of Dish Miami. With a background in hospitality media and a sharp eye for what's actually worth the hype, she built Dish to feel less like advertising and more like getting a recommendation from the friend who always knows where to go.
She launched Dish during the pandemic as a way to champion independent restaurants when they needed it most — and while local dining will always have her heart, she's now just as giddy covering wellness, fitness, real estate, boutiques, spas, and all of the Miami lifestyle businesses that make it such a vibrant place to live.
A Miami local for over 25 years, Erin is genuinely friends with many of the business owners you'll read about on Dish — and she stands behind everything featured here, from the french fries to the facials.
The newly reimagined Delano, where she's a member. Ask her about it.
Despite having the city's best nightlife at her disposal, her ideal evening has her in bed by 9pm — alarm set for 6am and zero regrets.
Leadership
Caner Kocamaz
Chief Operations Officer
Caner Kocamaz leads the strategy for Dish Miami. Born and raised in Turkey, he spent a couple of years in Miami Beach before settling in Austin, Texas — close enough in spirit to keep a hand in the Miami scene, far enough to appreciate it from a distance.
He's worked alongside Erin since the very beginning, shaping Dish from the ground up: the editorial calendar, the broader strategy, the newsletters, and the web design that ties it all together. If it lives online and has the Dish name on it, Caner had a hand in it.
The Standard Spa for the slow afternoons, and Space for everything after.
He taught himself web design and coding at 15 — a teenage hobby that quietly turned into a career.
The team
Hayley Hawkinberry
Social Media Curator
Hayley is the voice behind the feed at Dish Miami — curating the most coveted reservations, stylish openings, and cultural happenings that define the city right now.
She has led social media and marketing strategy across Miami's hospitality landscape — hotels, restaurants, nightlife, real estate, and lifestyle brands — giving her a front-row seat to what's opening, evolving, and quietly becoming the next big thing. She thinks of social like a living moodboard for Miami: curated, intentional, and always a little ahead of the curve.
South Beach at sunset — oysters on ice, (extra) dirty martini in hand.
Professional over-documenter.
Sofi Restrepo
Partnerships Curator
Sofi Restrepo is Dish Miami's Partnerships Curator and, unlike most people who move to Miami, she's one of the rare ones who actually grew up here. Born and raised in the city, she'll be the first to tell you there's no substitute for knowing a place the way a true local does.
She spent a few years in New York building her marketing career — working on sponsorships and campaigns at Visa, including partnerships with FIFA and the Olympics — and came back with a sharper eye for lifestyle, experiences, and storytelling that actually makes people feel something. Now she channels all of that into connecting Miami's best brands with the Dish audience.
Lido Bayside in South Beach — European beach club energy without the flight. She'll tell you exactly what to order.
Her media diet runs heavy on true crime documentaries and TikTok series.
Our contributors
The voices behind every story
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