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Restauranteur Matt Kush Hugs Hialeah One Treasured Trinket At A Time

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Walk around any of one of Matt Kush's six restaurants, two bars, and an ice cream parlor and you will get more than an eyeful before you even taste a thing.

At his Kush by Stephen's in Hialeah, the oldest Jewish deli in Miami, you'll see Matt's true passion, thrifting.

"Where did that come from, Matt?" asked CBS4's Lisa Petrillo.

"It came from me being really cheap and not having money and so I had to use whatever resources I had," said Kush. "That meant walking my dog and finding a piece of furniture as I'm walking my dog, or just finding trash and finding out how to make it better. It kind of turned me into being environmentally friendly, frugal, and cool and hip, so it's a win-win."

He finds treasures, like the flowered, dated-yet cool couch and the coffee table he has in Kush Hialeah, as well.

"I found it right across the street. This thing cost me $15 and it came with an Elf doll which we put over there," he pointed out to Petrillo.

"This dresser I also got across the street and that was five dollars and they threw in the coasters."

He repurposes too. Old picture negatives from Matt's childhood line the deli bar.

"No one really uses negatives anymore. So, there is some good ones here. You can find me doing fun stuff in high school, as well as, me playing with vintage G.I. Joe's," Kush said.

He also loves pop culture. He has a complete section dedicated to Seinfeld.

"So we play Seinfeld here at the deli and these are for my Seinfeld fans. A lot of those things you're not gonna understand unless you're an avid fan," he explained.

The bar behind the deli is Matt's tribute to his love for Hialeah, including his vintage Hialeah Race Track water pitchers and a bar filled with Royal Dansk cookie tins, he calls "Abuela's sewing kits."

"If you grew up in a Spanish household, your abuela would have a sewing kit inside there. So every person knows that everybody gets disappointed when you open it up and want cookies and it's just a sewing kit," Kush explained while laughing.

Then Matt decided to show Petrillo his passion for thrifting first hand.

"Let's go thrifting, let's do it!" yelled Matt as the two headed out on a Hialeah thrift trip via Kush's 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible.

First stop Leah Vintage, where they find everything from vintage phones to creepy monkeys that move. Also cool couches and fab finds.

"Wow, a Madonna lunchbox. That I did not know," Kush said picking it up.

Here are Matt Kush's top 4 thrifting tips:

#1. Always dress down.
#2. Always be nice.
#3. Always represent Hialeah
#4. Always ask for a better price because the worst they can say is no.

Just next door, at Tropical Thrift, Matt bargains with owner Barbara until they settle on a price.

"Barbara, you got me on this one," he said laughing.

In 5 minutes, he snagged a large yellow palm tree chair and a side table for a bargain price of $50 bucks total.

Back at the restaurant, he shows that he's got quite the deal for thrifters. It's a free drink he calls the "Pata Sucia," along with a free map of the Hialeah thrift stores.

"Once you buy something at any of the thrift stores, you bring your receipt. If you come and bring a receipt, you can pick a glass for free and we give you a punch for free," he explained.

Click here for more info.

You can follow Matt on Instagram here.

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