Name:
Stephen

What part of town do you live in?
I live in Coral Gables.

How long have you lived in the gables?
I was born and raised here in the Gables but went away to college and then came back and did law school down here.

Would you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m an attorney. I love South Florida. I’m an avid sports fan and a weekend warrior.

What type of law do you practice?
We help homeowners get underpaid or denied claims honored by people’s own insurance companies. Basically, we help the little guy. It could be homeowners, car insurance, life insurance, disability – anytime an insured person has a contract with their own insurance company, that’s when we step in to keep the insurance company honest. Most of the time it’s homeowner’s stuff like hurricane claims or a pipe breaks in your house and the insurance company tries to give you like a thousand bucks for all the damage.

Do you have advice for people who are purchasing insurance?
That’s a good question. There’s a lot of changes happening right now in the industry, but you want to make sure that you’re adequately covered. You want to make sure that you have enough liability for mold or water damage and make sure there’s no caps on your policy. Sometimes, we’ll have a homeowner come to us and there’s a pipe leak, but there’s a cap of 10K and the damages exceed 90K. Making sure that you get the right coverage at the beginning. It will help down the road.

What tips can you share with us to be smarter consumers?
There’s a Florida law that says that a homeowner does not have to pay attorney fees if they have to go so far as to sue their own insurance company. We do not take a percentage of what’s recovered. We get a separate check directly from the insurance company after the settlement.

How often do you come to the market?
The Gables is our primary market – we try to go weekly. We pop into the Pinecrest market once a month.

How did you discover LNB?
I’m a member of the Stretch Zone, and there’s a refrigerator there with LNB lettering all over it. There were some samples in there and one day I tried it and the Turmeric shot gave me such a boost for the rest of the day that my interest was piqued. I looked you guys up online and the rest is history. We just love the Turmeric and we go pretty hard on it. Now we come to the market to pick it up.

What’s your market ritual like when you come?
It’s nice to get out of the house on a Sunday and just explore a little bit. Sometimes there’s new people and it’s good to see familiar faces. And, we’ll get some shopping out of the way.

What are your favorite things to get from our stand?
The Turmeric Golden Coins and the Turmeric Concentrate. I’ve never had the pleasure of trying the Rainbow Smoothie, but I know everybody else raves about it in these newsletters. I am dying to try it the next time I go.

What have you found with the Turmeric Concentrate?
It’s just a great way to wake up every morning. I’ve had a couple knee surgeries and I found that it helps with inflammation and it’s just refreshing. I take a two ounce shot of it every single morning.

What do you think the market’s missing?
I think music would be nice.

Where do you like to go out for food? Do you have any good restaurant suggestions?
I’m a fan of Hillstone in the Gables. And pretty much any Italian food.

Any favorites in town?
I like a place called Fratelli La Bufala. It’s the most authentic Italian food I’ve found in Miami. I get the pizza napolitana and just a bowl of homemade pasta. If you haven’t been, you’ve got to try it.

(A+W) Sounds great. We’ve been making pasta at home and it’s wonderful. We made turmeric pasta last week and it was delicious. If you want to try it, take a cup of semolina flour, a cup of bread flour, add 200 ml of our turmeric concentrate and a pinch of salt. We use a mixer attachment to make spaghetti. Boil for a min or two and then saute in oil, garlic and herbs for another minute or two.

You mentioned that you’re an avid sports fan. Any secrets about going to games?
Try to wait until the very last minute at the stadium – when the scalpers usually start panicking. Even if the game has maybe started by 30 seconds, they’ll basically give the tickets away at that point.

What’s a worthy splurge for you?
A trip. I’m a big traveler. Japan’s probably number one on my bucket list. I just got back from India about a month ago and it was a great trip.

What’s a good rainy-day activity?
Just drawing the blinds, parking it on the couch, and watching a movie. Or, binging a TV show.

What community or philanthropic groups do you participate in that you might like to share?
Big Brother, Big Sister is an organization that I’ve been involved with for six or seven years at this point. You get paired with a kid and have the opportunity to mentor them, spend time with them, and teach them some things that maybe they didn’t have the opportunity to learn on their own.

I help out sometimes at the Chapman Partnership. They help the homelessness. And, there’s a legal organization that I go to every now and again called Lawyers to the Rescue. I go to give free legal advice to people who can’t afford an attorney.

Would you like to share a pitch about your company?
Sure. The law firm is called Montalto Legal. We’re a father and son law firm located in Coral Gables. We can help any policy holders throughout the State of Florida that are dealing with underpaid or denied insurance claims. We really like to help policy holders when they have to go to battle against their own insurance companies.

Is there a question you might like to ask us?
When can I check out the farm?

(A+W) We’ve been thinking of something soon. What would you like to do on the farm?

Just walk around or even to help out. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. I lived on an organic farm in Ecuador for two months learning about permaculture and sustainability. It would be good to see the earth that your turmeric is grown in.

Do you have any words of advice or a question for our community?
Drink more Turmeric!

(A+W) Thank you Stephen, that was fun.