Rum runner

JANET DIAZ-BONILLA, La Marielita Rum

WORK • Thursday Routine

JANET DIAZ-BONILLA • founder and CEO • La Marielita Rum
City you live in: South Miami

It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I’m usually up by 5a. I like to meditate before anyone gets up — by meditate I mean, pray a few Padre Nuestros, Ave Marias, and recite the rosary in Spanish. Then, my husband Luis and I get the kids off to school. My husband makes the best Cuban coffee on earth (he’s Nicaraguan, by the way, and also our VP and CFO). By 8ish, I’m usually checking emails and we go over our day. We’re approaching the weekend, which means we’re prepping for non-stop tastings and events. 

What’s on the agenda for today?
We’re contacting our purveyors and getting them ready for our fourth production in less than two years. Our distillery is in Panamá, our suppliers are all over the world, and we import our rum into the United States, so it’s all about geographic synchronization. Today, I’ll be on the phone with our distillery. We’re also navigating entering new markets in 2025, so we have meetings with a distributor in New York and New Jersey later this afternoon.

Any bar or restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Tonight, we’re headed out to Swizzle Rum Bar & Drinkery, inside the Viajero Hotel in South Beach. It’s a hot spot in Miami Beach and, in my opinion, one of the best rum bars in the world. 

How about a little leisure or culture?
I like spots where I can experience undiscovered talent — there’s so much in Miami. Savage Labs is one of those great places that has curated a beautifully talented community of artists worthy of spending your evening with. I also try to catch my incredibly talented friend and jazz musician Ben Beal at Jass Kitchen or Lagniappe.

Any weekend getaways? 
I can’t think of a better Florida getaway than Key West. (We attended the Key West Rum Festival a couple of months ago.) We also love Naples for a short-distance getaway. It’s got the charm of a small beach town with the velvety vibes of the French Quarter. We love having dinner and drinks at The Vine Room on 5th Avenue South, where mixologist Máté Laurinyecz has curated delicious La Marielita rum cocktails. The rum old fashioned is a must try, and the whole place is one of Naples’s best kept secrets. 

What was your last great vacation?
Costa Rica. Our family took a trip there this summer for the first time. I’m not a high-adrenaline person, but the country beckons it — starting with the airplane approaching the landing strip. Nothing like landing between mountain ranges to get the heart pumping. There was a lot of ziplining, ATV tours to waterfalls, and whitewater rafting. I very much prefer a relaxing vacation, but for my husband and kids I literally threw myself off 6,000-foot cliffs on cable cords. 

We stayed in Escaleras, a small beach town in the south between Uvita and Dominical. It’s in the middle of a forest overlooking the ocean. Aside from all of the large creatures around our terrace and the near-death experiences I was forced to enjoy, the country, its culinary offerings, and its people are absolutely lovely.