General manager Gianluca Piccolo at the new Star Burger in Miami, which serves only burgers made from grass-fed beef. Star Burger is owned by the Estrella family of Estrella Insurance.
Photo by Matias J. Ocner
mocner@miamiherald.com
Nicolas Estrella, the founder of Estrella Insurance, opened his business in 1978, eventually expanding it to include more than 200 franchises around the country.
But Estrella, who grew up on a tobacco farm in Cuba, had interests that ranged beyond the topics of premiums and deductibles. He also cared a lot about what he was eating, beef in particular. In the early 2000s, he began to acquire land in Texas with the sole idea of raising grass-fed cattle.
“For many years, he had constantly pushed for us not to consume commodity corn-fed beef,” recalls his son Joey Estrella. “He had read over the years about all of the ills created for the country involving corn-fed beef. It’s not good for you, he’d say.”
Now, the Estrella family has opened its first restaurant, a burger joint that pointedly only serves grass-fed beef, in this case directly from their own sprawling cattle ranch in Mt. Pleasant, Texas.
Cashier Huy Pham takes an order at the new Star Burger in Miami. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com
Star Burger, which opened July 17 on Southwest Eighth Street in Miami, is the first restaurant venture for the family. Joey Estrella says the idea came about naturally when his brother, who was attending a convention, noticed that buying food franchises seemed more popular than buying insurance franchises.
“We said, ‘Why don’t we open a burger restaurant?’ ” says Estrella, president of Star Burger (his father is semi-retired now). “Fast forward a few years, and here we are.”
Star Burger offers a small but customizable menu, with smash burgers like the Rancho, two patties with sweet onions, bacon, pickles and Star Sauce, or, if you don’t care for onions, The Cattleman, with two patties and bacon, pickles and Star Sauce. Don’t worry — there’s a single patty burger, The Lone Ranger, as well as the vegetarian Portobello Smash, a grilled mushroom with pickles and Star Sauce.
Team leader Naybi Pardo prepares an order at Star Burger. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com
Star Burger also offers chili, made from an Estrella family recipe, as well as fries and dillies (fried pickles), both fried in beef tallow. The pickles are even made with gluten-free panko.
The menu is small but deliberate, Estrella says, adding that though big chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King are coming out with a lot of chicken sandwiches because chicken is cheaper than beef, Star Burger has no plans to add that option.
“You’ll never find chicken here, because we can’t raise them the way we want,” he explains. There are, however, plans for creating a 100 percent grass-fed beef hot dog sometime in the future.
The Canes Burger gets a stamp of the “U” on the bun at Star Burger in Miami. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com
Estrella, who grew up in South Miami and attended Gulliver Prep, knows that the smashburger craze is big in South Florida but says the company isn’t worried about the competition. The brand saves money by cutting out the middleman and shipping its meat directly to the restaurant, and it doesn’t have to rent the space because it owns the property.
“It doesn’t faze us,” he says. “So many restaurants are going out of business now because they have to stick to a certain margin to pay rent. The real estate costs have been crushing people. But we own the property here, and that helps. And no one else is offering the 100 percent grass-fed product or doing it the way we’re doing it, ranch to table.”
The family, which also hopes to open a few more restaurants and eventually sell franchises, also has the benefit of decades of lessons from running a successful insurance business, he says. Policy renewals aren’t all that different from luring customers back to a restaurant.
The Rancho Burger with Ranch Hand Chili and fries at Star Burger in Miami. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com
“In the insurance business, you live and die by your ability to retain business and renew policies,” Estrella says. “When you have a good product at the right price, which is something Estrella set out to do, our clients had the best possible price for the best possible coverage. But retention of that client is paramount to success. You work really hard to sell that first policy, and if people don’t find cheaper rates, they stay with you.”
It’s the same for restaurants, he says: You need returning customers to succeed.
“We know what it is that’s going to set us apart from everybody else,” he says. “We don’t want to be the spot that people come in once. We want folks who feel good about what they just ate. If you can’t get folks to come back, you’re going upstream without a paddle.”
Star Burger general manager Gianluca Piccolo outside the new Star Burger in Miami. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com Star Burger
Where: 4901 SW Eighth St., Miami
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m. daily
More information: www.starburger.com or 786-631-9186
Connie Ogle loves wine, books and the Miami Heat. Please don’t make her eat a mango.