{"id":377842,"date":"2026-08-21T21:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T21:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/377842\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T21:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T21:30:09","slug":"roger-duarte-miami-entrepreneur-who-sold-stone-crabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/377842\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger Duarte: Miami entrepreneur who sold stone crabs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Roger<\/p>\n

Roger Duarte was an entrepreneur who created George Stone Crab. He died in a helicopter accident on vacation in Kenya.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of the Duarte Valls family<\/p>\n

Long before he started his wildly successful business of selling stone crabs, Roger Duarte was an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

As a kid of 9 or 10, he decided he wasn\u2019t using his Nintendo anymore and promptly sold it \u2014 to whom or how, his family didn\u2019t know. Shortly after getting his driver\u2019s license as a teen, he overheard a family friend say she needed to sell her car. He asked how much she wanted for it, and she told him. He asked her if he sold it for more than the asking price, could he keep the extra money?<\/p>\n

She said yes.<\/p>\n

He got more.<\/p>\n

And as a young investment banker, he was heading to a friend\u2019s place with takeout stone crabs, riding in the elevator when a man got in and asked what he was holding. \u201cStone crabs,\u201d Duarte said promptly. \u201cI sell them.\u201d He didn\u2019t. The man asked the name of his company. \u201cGeorge Stone Crab,\u201d he said without hesitation.<\/p>\n

There was no George Stone Crab, though there would be. George was his dog, and, apparently, the first name that came to him. And when the man asked him for a card, he said he didn\u2019t have one but asked for the man\u2019s phone number instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a natural entrepreneur,\u201d Duarte\u2019s sister Michelle Duarte Gonzalez said. \u201cThat\u2019s who he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duarte, 42, died Wednesday in a helicopter crash<\/a> during a tour of Mt. Ololokwe in Samburu County in northeastern Kenya. Also killed were Telemundo\/NBC executive Jos\u00e9 Alberto Suarez, pilot Josh Outra and passengers Adam Hlavaty, Henry Parra, Michele Sensi-Contugi and Stephany Hollihan.<\/p>\n

\u2018He had friends everywhere\u2019<\/p>\n

Duarte was the youngest child of Roger Duarte Rodriguez and Denise Ortega de Duarte, brother to sisters Stephanie and Michelle. He was raised in Miami until the age of 11, when the family moved to Monterrey, Mexico. He returned for high school in 1999, attending Gulliver Preparatory School in Pinecrest.<\/p>\n

His friends, though, were spread all across Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though he went to Gulliver, his extended friends went beyond that,\u201d Michelle Duarte said. \u201cHe had friends everywhere. . . . He always treated his friends like family. Everyone he met, he\u2019d say \u2018He\u2019s my best friend.\u2019 There isn\u2019t one person who didn\u2019t make him feel that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duarte attended Barry University and went into investment banking after college. Toward the end of the pandemic, he met Nicole Valls, vice president of operations of Valls Group and one of company founder Felipe Valls\u2019 granddaughters, and they were married in 2021. The Valls family owns Versailles and La Carreta restaurants.<\/p>\n

When their son Roger Felipe \u2014 almost 2 and named for both grandfathers \u2014 was born, Duarte\u2019s heart \u201cgrew exponentially,\u201d Duarte Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they had the baby, he said, \u2018Now I have a best friend.\u2019 Granted, he had 200 best friends, but he kept saying, \u2018This is my buddy,\u2019 \u201d she said. \u201cThere was so much he wanted to teach and share with him. He was still the same person, but now he had this little boy that just filled his cup, and it overflowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The start of a stone crab legend<\/p>\n

As a young investment banker working on mergers and acquisitions, Duarte started to grow frustrated with his career and began to think about starting a new one. In the financially cataclysmic 2008, he launched a business around one of his (and Miami\u2019s) favorite foods: stone crabs. George Stone Crab allowed customers around Miami to order stone crabs online and have them delivered straight to their homes.<\/p>\n

Duarte, of course, made most of the deliveries himself, in a Mini Cooper decorated with crab claws.<\/p>\n

\"Roger Roger Duarte in a Miami Herald archive photo from 2009 after he launched his stone crab delivery business. CARL JUSTE MIAMI HERALD STAFF <\/p>\n

He went on to work with local partners in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela for home delivery. A Bloomberg profile nicknamed him the \u201cStone Crab King\u201d of Miami.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a roller coaster \u2014 you don\u2019t have a constant cash flow or a bonus at the end of the year,\u201d he told the Miami Herald in 2009. \u201cBut this is my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee Schrager, founder of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, was so impressed with Duarte\u2019s entrepreneurial energy that he nominated him for Forbes\u2019 30 Under 30 in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe impressed me from the day I met him,\u201d he said. \u201cI recognized his passion and his commitment. And whenever I asked him to do something for a charity event, he would. He never, ever said no. He was just always committed. I nominated him because he was doing something different with stone crabs, delivering them fresh to your house and giving people an option besides going to Joe\u2019s or Monty\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duarte, he said, was also never one to shirk a challenge. Earlier this year, Schrager was holding a charity event at his home for The YES Institute, a suicide prevention organization, and he mistakenly gave the caterer the wrong date. When he hadn\u2019t heard from the caterer as the day wore on, he realized his mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called Roger and I said, \u2018Listen, I\u2019m having 80 people here, can you send me 15 dozen cracked crab legs in the next hour?\u2019 \u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

Learning that Duarte was out of the country in Spain, Schrager was immediately apologetic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him not to worry about it,\u201d he said. An hour later, the crabs showed up anyway.<\/p>\n

\"Roger Roger Duarte, a Miami seafood entrepreneur and restaurateur, was Miami\u2019s go-to guy for stone crabs. He died in a helicopter crash while on vacation in Kenya. Roger Duarte\/IG \u2018We had a fantastic run\u2019<\/p>\n

Sam Gorenstein, co-owner of the Mediterranean restaurant Abbale in Miami Beach and Aventura, met Duarte at a launch party for George Stone Crab at The Betsy Hotel on Miami Beach. Duarte, who lived on the Beach then, kept returning to The Betsy, and he and Gorenstein, who was working at BLT Steak (now LT Steak) at the hotel, struck up a friendship.<\/p>\n

In 2012, they launched the fast-casual takeout spot My Ceviche in the tiny kitchen of a hostel on Washington Avenue about a block from Joe\u2019s Stone Crab. It didn\u2019t exactly have seating, but customers could take their ceviche (or burritos or tacos) to the tables in the hostel\u2019s lobby or eat on the beach.<\/p>\n

\"Samuel Samuel Gorenstein (left) and Roger Duarte (right) at their My Ceviche takout window in South Beach. LINDA BLADHOLM\/FOR THE HERALD <\/p>\n

\u201cRoger thought we could do it out of his apartment,\u201d Gorenstein said. \u201cHe had no knowledge of food and beverage then. But one day we found that great spot, with a 220-square-foot kitchen. Luckily that kitchen had an exterior door facing Washington so we could operate separately from the hostel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The business took off, and Gorenstein left his job at The Betsy to eventually open more locations with Duarte.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt we were really changing the game,\u201d he said. \u201cRoger was always a visionary and a go-getter, and he had an extreme drive to get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair went on to open Zuuk Mediterranean Kitchen in Brickell. But eventually their business relationship fell apart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to part ways,\u201d Gorenstein said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t work out, but we had a fantastic run. We were both really proud of the things we were accomplishing. I\u2019ll always remember him and those life lessons I kept from knowing him. It was a sour experience in the end, and I was heartbroken by it, but it hurts that we didn\u2019t get the opportunity to put that behind us and work on the friendship we had before. We had so many positive experiences. I\u2019ll keep those forever and cherish them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The happiest person you would ever meet\u2019<\/p>\n

Despite his passion for business, Duarte Gonzalez says for her brother, family came first \u2014 and friends were always family.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the happiest person you would ever meet, and generous not only with his money but also with his time and his heart,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was someone who wanted to make sure everyone felt heard. I know, because I\u2019m his sister, and we were thick as thieves.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is six years older than her brother, while sister Stephanie is eight years older, and yet she felt that family dynamic started to shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs time passed, it was like there was no age difference, and at a certain point in our life it\u2019s almost been role reversal, almost like he was the big brother instead of the baby brother,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was his nature. He always wanted to make sure everybody was OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published August 21, 2026 at 3:40 PM.<\/p>\n

Connie Ogle loves wine, books and the Miami Heat. Please don\u2019t make her eat a mango.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Duarte was an entrepreneur who created George Stone Crab. He died in a helicopter accident on vacation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-377842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}