Name(s)?
Mitch Chefitz

Where do you live?
Coconut Grove

How long have you lived in the area? 
Since 1975

Where are you originally from and what brought you to town?
Originally from Boston. I needed work in a city where my wife could finish her masters degree in Occupational Therapy. F.I.U. was that place, and here we still are. 

Please share about what you do for a livelihood or what keeps you busy during the week?
For livelihood I invest in my children and grandchildren. They pay great dividends. During the week I read and write, pretty much the same thing my grandchildren do.

How often do you come to the market?
I come to the market most every week.

Do you have a market ritual? If so, please describe.
I go straight to the LNB banana stand, without delay, because I’m 
probably late already. I check how Adena has displayed the fruit, make sure I have a towel, that the knife is clean, and that I have enough samples of jack fruit to hand out. 

What’s your favorite thing to buy at LNB Grovestand and why?
A dragon passion smoothie. Especially if the weather is hot. By 11 o’clock I need one. 

What’s your favorite thing to buy at other stands at the market?
Lunch next door at Babe Froman:  Fried egg, maybe turkey pastrami, on soft bread.

I wish the market had:
Air conditioning. 

Favorite market story:
There are a 1000 stories, at least, all of them wrapped in smiles. I harvest the smiles, store them away. Eventually they’ll re-emerge as stories.

For special occasions, I go to: 
The Bookstore in the Grove. Oh no! It’s closed! So sad.

The most romantic spot around:
It was the Bookstore in the Grove. Now I’ll have to find another one. 

Do you own your own business or offer a service? Would you share a pitch about yourself or company with the community?
“I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate / A poet, a pawn and a king / I’ve been up and down and over and out / And I know one thing…” It’s a song lyric, but I’ve been most of those things. At the moment it’s a poet,

If you would like readers to be able to contact you, how should they get in touch?
www.mitchellchefitz.com will connect you to me. I look forward to meeting you.