Celebrity chef and humanitarian José Andrés cut short his hosting duties at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival this past weekend to fly to Poland. The chef is tweeting from Lviv in Ukraine, where he and his World Central Kitchen are helping feed people inside the country.
On this continent, meanwhile, Ohio, Utah, and New Hampshire, along with Ontario, Canada, have called for the removal of Russian imports on store shelves. Closer to Miami, Jupiter-based Charlie & Joe's restaurant, owned by football hall of famer Joe Namath and his business partner Charles Modica, has banned all Russian vodka from its bars.
Public sentiment aside, the moves are purely symbolic. Newsweek reports that Russian vodka, for example, amounts to a little over 1 percent of all vodka consumed in the U.S., with Russian Standard the best-known import. (Many vodka brands that sound Russian are made in other countries. Stolichnaya, for instance, originated in Russia but is now distilled in Latvia. The company has posted a message of solidarity for Ukraine on its website.)
In Miami, home to a sizable Russian community, stores appear to be divided as to whether to pull Russian products from shelves.
At Matryoshka Deli Food in Sunny Isles Beach, as New Times has reported, Russian and Ukrainian products are sold side by side.
Spirits superstore Total Wine, on the other hand, has removed all Russian imports from its shelves, according to Edward Cooper, vice president of public affairs and community relations for the chain. A recent search for Russian vodka on Total Wine's website returned the Ukrainian flag's colors of blue and yellow, along with a link to a selection of Ukrainian vodkas to purchase instead.
In an email to New Times, Cooper included the following statement: "Total Wine & More has ceased the purchase and sale of Russian-made products including vodka. We have removed all Russian-made products from our shelves until further notice. We are ceasing the purchase and sale of Russian-made products in order to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and to stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine."
Screenshot via totalwine.com
On a recent visit, the Walgreens Liquors in Hollywood was fully stocked with Russian Standard vodka.
Miami-based caviar retailer Marky's Gourmet will continue selling Russian products as long as they remain available.
"There's a large Russian community in Miami and we have to serve them, an employee at the shop on the 79th Street Causeway said in a phone conversation with New Times. (The company's beluga caviar is harvested from a Florida aquafarm.)
