14 December 25–30, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Built to Last The Daily Creative Food Co. deli is a slice of home in Edgewater. BY YUVAL OFIR W alk into the Daily Cre- ative Food Co. on any given morning, and there’s a hum of activity vibrating behind the long counter. From the staff taking orders up front, to the people working the grills and stations in back, there’s a harmonious symphony of movements and sounds. Regulars filter in, nodding at familiar faces on the team who know their orders by heart. A young profes- sional picks up her to-go bag while an older couple settles into their usual table near the window. Owner Adam Meltzer, the conduc- tor behind it all, is usually spotted darting around to support the team or tucked away in his back office, close at hand if needed. Back in 2006, Edgewater wasn’t yet the glossy corridor of glass towers it is today, and this stretch of Biscayne Boulevard was still rough around the edges. Meltzer remembers unlocking the doors before sunrise, when the neighborhood still bore the marks of neglect: empty storefronts, a few lingering characters from long nights out, streets that hadn’t yet been sterilized by development. But what he saw was potential: “There were good bones here,” he says. “It just needed people who be- lieved in the area.” Born and raised in New York, Meltzer had already spent years running a full-service res- taurant in Manhattan before what he de- scribes as a “partnership divorce” pushed him to start over. At the urging of his brother, a Miami transplant working in construction, he came south looking for a fresh start and a niche to fill. What he found was a gap be- tween the high-end dining rooms of South Beach and the fast-food chains that domi- nated the city’s main corridors. “In New York, you could get great food without the white tablecloths,” Meltzer says. “Here, you either had fine dining or drive- thru. There wasn’t much in between.” So he built that middle ground. The Daily was con- ceived as a hybrid: a blend of Starbucks, your neighborhood diner, and your favorite sand- wich shop. The idea was simple, but novel for Miami: one-stop shopping for everyday food, served quickly, consistently, and with ample portions. The concept caught on with office work- ers and creatives long before the condo boom, and as Edgewater filled in around it, the Daily quietly became one of the neigh- borhood’s built-in staples. A place that felt familiar amid a rapidly changing landscape. “I used to call it an oasis among the fast food,” Meltzer says. What ultimately set the Daily apart wasn’t a clever hook or rapid growth; it was intention. In an industry ob- sessed with hype and rapid expansion, the Daily grew by refusing to chase either. Melt- zer built his business on a simple philosophy: grow slowly, take care of people, and let the quality speak for itself. The biggest challenge, he admits, wasn’t competition, but staffing. “In New York, your employees might be actors, writers, musi- cians,” he says. “They take pride in the job be- cause it lets them chase their dream. In Miami, you don’t get as many of those people. You have to work harder to build a culture.” And work he did. The Daily’s team includes several employees who have been with the restaurant for over a decade; a rarity in any city, let alone one as transient as Miami. Melt- zer credits that longevity to a simple philoso- phy: respect goes both ways. “It doesn’t matter if you’re washing dishes or making food,” he says. “Everybody’s got to be treated with respect. That comes from the top.” That approach, combined with an al- ready established takeout and delivery sys- tem, allowed him not only to survive the pandemic years but also to thrive. While others scrambled to figure out online order- ing and packaging logistics, Meltzer’s team had been perfecting both for years to ser- vice offices downtown and the surrounding area. That infrastructure eventually grew into another pillar of the business: catering. “We’ve been doing catering forever,” Melt- zer says, “but in the last three to five years it’s really taken a turn upwards. We’ve prob- ably more than doubled our catering capac- ity over the past 3–5 years.” Of course, not every experiment worked as successfully. In 2016, he opened a second location on South Beach, which closed three years later. “We picked a bad location off the beaten path, bad parking, lots of snowbirds,” Meltzer says. “We were doing over two mil- lion a year and couldn’t make a dime.” In- stead of continuing to overextend himself, trying to keep it going, he regrouped, trimmed operations, and refocused on the original location. He applied that same willingness to pivot with the dinner service he introduced years earlier. Hoping to maximize the space and meet demand as the neighborhood grew, Meltzer introduced an evening menu that was a bit more upscale and required a more skilled kitchen staff. The food landed well, but the math didn’t. The volume never justi- fied the added labor, overhead, or manage- ment it required. “You have to ask yourself, at what cost?” he says. By the time the pan- demic hit, the answer was clear: nights were essentially breaking even, and stretching the staff across an additional service wasn’t sus- tainable. So he made another decisive shift, cutting dinner en- tirely and adjusting the restaurant’s hours to 7 a.m.–4 p.m., a change that resulted in tighter operations, a sharper focus on what the Daily already did best, and a healthier rhythm for the team. A valuable reminder that longevity often comes from knowing what to let go of. The Daily’s reputation has quietly spread far beyond its neighborhood. Celebrities like Jay Leno, Ben Stiller, Lil Wayne, and members of the Miami Heat have all stopped by, not for VIP treatment, but precisely because there isn’t any. “Nobody makes a big deal out of it here,” Meltzer says. “They order like everyone else, eat, and leave. I think they like that.” One of his favorite memories involves a surprise visit from the University of Kentucky football team. “Two buses pulled up at once: players, cheerleaders, the whole thing,” Melt- zer recalls, laughing. “I downloaded their fight song, cranked it through the speakers, and the place went nuts.” Moments like that may seem spontaneous, but they reflect something essential about Meltzer: he knows how to make people feel seen, welcomed, and part of the place, even if they’re only there for a single meal. Those are the things that have kept the Daily thriving in a city that often forgets yes- terday’s favorites. Meltzer doesn’t discuss branding or social media strategy extensively. He talks about showing up, about consistency, about doing right by the people who walk through the door. Looking ahead, he isn’t rul- ing out expansion, but he refuses to let speed replace intention. “I’m not content with just one location,” he says. “But I’m not going to rush to open another, either. If we do it, it has to be right; the right place, the right people.” As he approaches 57 and prepares to mark the Daily’s twentieth anniversary in January, Meltzer isn’t planning a flashy celebration, though his mother insists he should. Maybe he’ll offer a few giveaways or a thank-you to customers. Maybe he’ll come up with a sou- venir people can add to their collections of Miami ephemera. Whatever it is, it will un- doubtedly be a reflection of Meltzer’s deep- rooted sensibilities and a little bit of sass. In a city that rewards constant reinven- tion, the Daily’s success story is almost radi- cal: a reminder that the real magic isn’t in chasing the latest fad, it’s in doing things the right way, day after day, for 20 years straight. The Daily Creative Food Co. 2001 Biscayne Blvd., Ste. 109, Miami; 305-573-4535; thedaily- food.co. [email protected] Photo by Tommy Braucks For 20 years, Daily Creative Food Co. has anchored Edgewater with no-fuss comfort food, regulars, and a culture built to last. “HERE, YOU EITHER HAD FINE DINING OR DRIVE- THRU. THERE WASN’T MUCH IN BETWEEN.” ▼ Café
