We've Found The Best Pan Con Bistec in Miami at This Week's Hidden Gem

Surprise, it's in Hialeah

Photo by Carlos Miller

Hialeah is for lovers. If you just spit out your Cafecito laughing, drive through on a weekday afternoon and see how many people have chosen The City of Progress as the destination for their lunchtime honeymoons, at romantic resorts with names like “Miami Express Motel” and “Your Husband Definitely Isn’t Here With His Intern Lodge.” Then, once you’ve finished your cultural anthropology, delve into another thing Hialeah is famous for: Pan con bistec.

If you don’t speak Hialean, Pan con Bistec is one of the easier items on a Cuban cafeteria’s menu to figure out. Not quite as simple as “Cuban Sandwich,” but still pretty easy. “Bistec” literally means “Beefsteak,” so “pan” could mean “kick in the teeth” and you’d probably still order it, because, really, beefsteak. In its essence, it’s a steak sandwich, usually topped with crispy potato strings, lettuce, tomato, onions, and mayo. Finding the best one in Miami, much less the Cuban-American enclave of Hialeah, might see…