Herb Coleman, Miami entrepreneur who served food and his community, dies at 62

Miami Herald

9 hours ago

Kendall entrepreneur Herbert 'Herb' Coleman thrived in the food industry for more than 30 years because of his penchant for finding solutions and connecting with people on a personal level. He had various ventures in the business, from running Nathan's Famous franchises to serving food in a mobile kitchen at the Olympics, before his death last month at age 62.
'He had the type of personality where people would come to him and tell him their whole life story,' Herb's widow, Joya, told the Miami Herald. 'That's the type of spirit that he had about him.'
Joya Coleman, 61, was married to Herb for more than 30 years and worked closely with him as he developed his food empire.
Joya first met Herb when he worked at her parents' North Carolina record store in the '80s. She befriended him and worked alongside him when she came home for breaks from her studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After she graduated in 1986, they started dating.
Herb was born in Miami and returned many times to visit family throughout his childhood after moving to North Carolina in elementary school. But as he prepared to enter the workforce as an adult, he felt limited in terms of pursuing a future career in North Carolina and moved back to Miami.
In Miami, Herb got a job in marketing and promotions at Luther Campbell's Luke Records. Coleman had a talent for working in the community and eventually developed a relationship with marketing reps at Walmart that would provide him with franchising opportunities later in his career.
The Colemans married in 1992 and first began working together as food vendors for Miami-Dade Public Schools. Joya remembers her late husband's brazen attitude in making that partnership happen: Herb had walked into the school district's headquarters and asked to speak to the top person in charge. Joya said she was initially taken aback but appreciated the act when they secured their opportunity.
'He always had that type of confidence about him,' she said. 'It worked, but it used to make me nervous.'
During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Herb worked as a chef catering the equestrian events, and the infrastructure of his kitchen there captivated him. The kitchens were built on 18-wheelers, and Herb began to wonder what it would be like to run his own food trucks.
'He said, 'I wish I had an 18-wheeler kitchen to drop food off and feed people,'' Joya remembered.
Between 2005 and 2009, Herb franchised eight Nathan's Famous restaurants at Walmarts across Florida. From 2009 onward, he continued to hone his entrepreneurial skills and built relationships with Miami leaders like Miami Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel — another connection that would turn into a business partnership later in life.
But first, in 2018, he got another opportunity that was years in the making.
The Miami Veterans Affairs hospital was renovating its kitchen and needed a mobile chef to serve food to its employees and visitors. The Colemans secured what Joya called their 'first big contract.' For two years, Herb finally got to serve food on a large scale via his own mobile operation.
Then COVID hit, and their mobile catering operation was affected. Never out of ideas, Herb quickly found a solution.
When the pandemic began in 2020, he partnered with the Miami Dolphins for the Dolphins Food Fleet. The program utilized minority caterers and mobilized them to serve communities throughout Miami via food trucks.
'They sent us everywhere. That's how our businesses stayed afloat,' Joya said.
While Herb's business acumen continued to sharpen, he dealt with health challenges. His wife said he ate clean but had high blood pressure and often stayed up late doing research.
On May 18, Joya and Herb were in their bed with their 4-year-old granddaughter when something made Joya get up. She yelled Herb's name, but he was unresponsive. Herb had died in his sleep.
Family was extremely important to Herb. He is survived by Joya and three sons, Christopher, 33, Herbert II, 29, and Emmanuel, 27. Herb and Joya's daughter, Jade, 31, has a daughter, Jamia, and is expecting another daughter named Joy with Florida International University assistant football coach Jelani Berassa.
Herb Coleman worked to make sure every employee at his businesses was recognized and appreciated, his wife said. If customers were ever rude, he would tell them that his business didn't need their money. The atmosphere he created didn't go unnoticed, Joya said.
'He used to say that people do business with people they like,' she said.
To her, the impact Herb left on the communities he served proved that he wasn't just liked — he was loved.