A half-dozen star players from across the South Florida dining scene have for several years made an irregular pilgrimage to a Broward County restaurant to rekindle their friendship and talk shop.
These reunions, which began after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, were organized by Eric San Pedro, co-owner of Palm Beach Meats in West Palm Beach, a purveyor of luxurious Japanese Wagyu beef that earned a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand award earlier this year. He has an eclectic and decorated circle of friends.
San Pedro would often drive a van that also included Caroline McGinley, an award-winning West Palm Beach baker whose La Gringuita Cookies are now available at Whole Foods Market, and Sean Abel, an inventive pizza chef known as Stepdad whose Palm Beach County pop-ups are famous for long lines.
Joining them at the table was San Pedro’s longtime friend, Takeshi Kamioka, once a sushi chef at the exclusive Nobu Miami at the Eden Roc resort, then chef-owner at Wilton Manors’ word-of-mouth hit Gaysha Sushi, now operator of Fort Lauderdale-based Kaminari Ramen, one of South Florida’s favorite food trucks.
The group also included Jason “Jay Rok” Smith, a South Florida food-truck legend who opened brick-and-mortar BMC Smash Burgers in downtown Oakland Park in 2024 and this year was on the list of the Burger Beast’s “10 Best Burgers in Broward.”
Making the drive up from Miami-Dade County was Renata Ferraro, a co-founder of hip Key Biscayne bakery Flour and Weirdoughs. She is now executive sous chef at Michael’s Genuine in the Miami Design District, recently awarded its fourth consecutive Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand.
The destination for this accomplished band of culinary super friends? Humble and remote Skyline Chili.
If you assumed that South Florida’s top chefs spend their downtime dining on foie gras and Champagne, you’d be wrong. All of them have a fast-food crush, a déclassé dining destination that they swing through when no one is looking.
“When it comes to chefs eating fast food, it’s kind of a thing. Everybody knows it.” — Eric San Pedro, Palm Beach Meats
Part of it has to do with timing — by the time dinner service and closing procedures are over at a restaurant, it’s late and there aren’t many dining options.
San Pedro recently did a Wagyu dinner at Michelin-starred Vietnamese restaurant Camille in Orlando, where he has opened a second location of Palm Beach Meats. Afterward, he was stopped in a McDonald’s drive-thru when the driver in the lane next to him honked. It was a chef from the same dinner.
“I had just come from a $400-a-head dinner and we’re at McDonald’s,” San Pedro says. “When it comes to chefs eating fast food, it’s kind of a thing. Everybody knows it.”
But there is fast food — and then there is Skyline Chili, the Cincinnati chain best known for its unusual chili, served on spaghetti under a pile of cheddar cheese, and a variety of Coney hot dogs. It has a single location in South Florida, at 2834 N. University Drive in Sunrise.
When they lived in Coral Springs, San Pedro and wife Meghan became familiar with Skyline Chili as a convenient place to take their young son. Palm Beach Meats and Stepdad once collaborated on a pizza with Wagyu and Skyline chili.
San Pedro acknowledges that the chili at Skyline, with traces of cinnamon and allspice, is divisive.
“Have you had Skyline Chili? You either love it or you hate it. I’m fascinated with Skyline. I would say I’m obsessed,” he says. “I’m not a very fancy person, and I have a deep fascination with working-class food. Cincinnati chili is the story of Greek immigrants. It has very exotic flavors to it. I think Skyline deserves a Michelin star. [Laughs] I think it’s incredible.”
With that surprising statement in mind, we asked other Skyline Chili pilgrims and a few top South Florida chefs to reveal their favorite guilty dining pleasures, where they go and what they order.
Mike Stocker / South Florida Sun Sentinel
Eric San Pedro, of Palm Beach Meats, is an evangelist for Skyline Chili. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel file)
Eric San Pedro
Co-owner, Palm Beach Meats in West Palm Beach and Orlando
“I get the 4-Way (spaghetti, chili, cheddar cheese), no beans, with onions. And you gotta have the Coney. I get the Coney all the way. And there’s a hidden gem there, the Chilito. They put the chili in a tortilla, and the way the cheese melts … There’s always a pound of cheese in everything. The chilito’s kind of a new discovery for me. There’s a woman there, she probably came with the place, she knows everything, doesn’t write anything down. She says you can do whatever you want. We went with Jay Rok and he discovered that you could put the hot dog in the Chilito. … We skipped the dessert. They don’t put chili on the dessert.”
Chef Takeshi Kamioka, who operates popular Fort Lauderdale food truck Kaminari Ramen, with his Coneys at Skyline Chili. (Takeshi Kamioka/Courtesy)
Takeshi Kamioka
Chef-owner at Kaminari Ramen, based in Fort Lauderdale
“[At Skyline], I’d get the little Coneys, with the cheese, chili, onion, either the 3-Way or 5-Way, whatever it’s called. It’s been a minute. They’re small, so you could pound three of those, with a fountain drink and that really cool crushed ice. It was just good friends getting together and hanging. And I’m a sucker for the two-cheeseburger combo at McDonald’s, because that’s what I grew up with. Me and my girl, if we get off late, one little treat for her is Taco Bell. I get the three Taco Supreme Combo. Three hard shell tacos and a coke. At the end of the night after a couple of beers, it’s Taco Bell and the two cheeseburgers from McDonald’s, or pizza by the slice. I have two [pizza spots] by my house that I like: Sassano’s and Pete’s-A-Place, off of Davie.”
Renata Ferraro, executive sous chef at Michelin-acclaimed restaurant Michael’s Genuine in Miami, likes her tacos. (Renata Ferraro/Courtesy)
Renata Ferraro
Executive sous chef, Michael’s Genuine in Miami. (For the record, she “loves” the chili on spaghetti at Skyline.)
“A guilty pleasure for me, something that is fast and casual that I like going out for, is tacos. If I know where the [food truck] Wolf of Tacos is, I usually try to go there. I love his tacos, and he always has something different, so I usually get one of each of whatever he has. I think it’s the time and the dedication, how he marinates his meats, how he does it the right way, like, no shortcuts, great ingredients. It has a comfort-food feel, but at the same time it tastes really good. And if he’s not [convenient], there is a place near my house called Uptown 66 [in Miami], which is great. They have, like, a billion tacos.”
Janine Booth
“Top Chef” alum; James Beard nominee (Rising Star Chef of the Year); former chef and co-founder, with husband Jeff McInnis, of Stiltsville Fish Bar, Yardbird Southern Table & Bar and Root & Bone; currently chef with McInnis at Florida Room at The Fort in Fort Lauderdale.
“We have three kids and we try to always feed them the most nutritious thing possible, but then, you know, we also want them to live a little, too. We go on a lot of road trips, so we do find ourselves eating fast food here and there. Our kids, they love Chipotle. Everybody loves tacos, so Chipotle is definitely, definitely up there. … We go to the beach a lot and just to make things easy, we will pop into like Publix and get a Publix sandwich. They’re always good. There’s nothing better than sitting at the beach and eating a Publix sandwich. I usually do the Boar’s Head turkey, mustard, mayo, all the salads, extra jalapeños, extra banana peppers. That’s my go-to.”
Chef Jeff McInnis with his 11-ounce Double Smash Burger, featuring a double patty, short rib and brisket blend, white American cheese, iceberg lettuce, special sauce, onions, pickles and tallow french fries, at Florida Room in Fort Lauderdale. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Jeff McInnis
“Top Chef” alum; James Beard nominee (Best Chef South), former chef and co-founder of Stiltsville Fish Bar, Yardbird Southern Table & Bar and Root & Bone. (At Florida Room, McInnis and Booth serve a smash burger and a chicken sandwich inspired by a favorite fast-food spot.)
“If I’m going to splurge, [it] would probably be Shake Shack. Obviously, they’ve kind of hit the mark there on the burger. … I just usually go with the basic burgers and fries. Their fried chicken sandwich, though, is amazing, too. What was it, five, six years ago, there was a fried chicken craze with Popeyes versus all these people? [Shake Shack] crushed it. They definitely had the best. They probably had some kind of brine pump on the chicken that really kept it moist and juicy. It was just great. … I think we were in New York, and we got asked to judge the fried chicken sandwich challenge. And it was, David Chang’s [Fuku] versus Popeyes versus Shake Shack versus somebody else. We had to eat them all on this podcast radio station, and … [the winner] was, by far, Shake Shack.”
Mike Stocker / Sun Sentinel
Chef Allen Susser found a hole-in-the-wall ramen shop in Hollywood, thanks to his daughter. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel file)
Allen Susser
Three-time James Beard Award winner (Best Chef Southeast); author (“New World Cuisine and Cookery” “The Great Mango Book” and another on the way in 2026); currently director at Sunness Supper Club in Fort Lauderdale”
“I love ramen, and I go to GoBistro down in Hollywood. It’s a ramen shop, but they also have some other things. I love the short rib ramen. It’s really fulfilling, lots of taste, good, sharp spices. My daughter told me about it. It’s a quiet place, a hole-in-the-wall type of place that serves great food. They have pork buns and some other things, but it’s the ramen I go for.”
Chef Jimmy Everett of buzzy Boynton Beach restaurant Driftwood. (Atlantic Current Media/Courtesy)
Jimmy Everett
Chef-owner at Driftwood in Boynton Beach, who has worked at Michelin-starred New York restaurants Marea and Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50, as well as Valentino Cucina in Fort Lauderdale.
“Fast-food cravings don’t hit me like they used to, but every now and then I get the itch for a really good fried chicken sandwich or a classic burger. I’ll swing by Chick-fil-A maybe once every few months. I’ll do a Wendy’s value menu run once or twice a year. And about every six to eight years, I somehow end up at Taco Bell ordering the most ridiculous thing they’ve put on the menu, strictly for research purposes, of course. But if we’re being real … as a teenager, Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Checkers were basically my entire food pyramid.”
Juan Carlos Peña
Chef de cuisine of Lona Cocina Tequileria at The Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort; resume includes work in Michelin-starred kitchens at Le Jardinier in Miami and Stubborn Seed in Miami Beach.
“McDonald’s. If time is of the essence … I succumb to one of my darkest sins: A Quarter Pounder, large fry and a 10-piece McNugget, just to fill that little space that a quarter-pound of processed meat leaves behind. No special location, just the one closest to home to make sure the fries make it crispy to my couch.”
Tamer Altillawi
A native of Jordan, chef-owner of Sufrat Mediterranean Grill, with locations in Pembroke Pines, Miami Beach and Doral.
“I love Chick-fil-A because they’ve truly mastered the art of doing something simple exceptionally well. The classic Chick-fil-A sandwich is my go-to every time. It’s perfectly seasoned, with a juicy, tender chicken breast and a bun that’s soft but holds up just right. As a business owner, I really admire their consistency, hospitality, and the way they’ve created a culture that treats every guest with care. It’s also a great spot to bring my kids for a quick bite we can share together.”
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on IG: @BenCrandell.