Here we go again.

It’s the annual SunPost 50, in which we list a bunch of individuals who have significantly impacted the place we call home: Miami-Dade County. Within these pages you will see politicians, developers, artists, art collectors, entrepreneurs, activists, mass media types, philanthropists and other interesting and important people who have helped make this area what it is, brought a little extra drama to it and/or played prominently in local events of the past year.

And the 12 or so months since we published last year’s SunPost 50 have been quite eventful, haven’t they? Hurricanes striking at every turn, an ever-changing (and slowing) real estate market, a fixation on where sexual predators live, the suicide of a prominent politician in a daily newspaper’s headquarters, the pending sale of a corporation that owns that daily newspaper, a bizarre first attempt by a city to settle a class-action suit, the muscle-flexing of Miami-Dade’s working poor (or at least the people who represent them). So dynamic was this year that many of the individuals who graced these pages last time just didn’t make it again.

Yes, a lot can happen in 365 days. So many shaped and continue to shape this growing microcosm. There are 2,235,362 people who call Miami-Dade home according to the U.S. census, not counting the millions who visit or do business or invest here. Out of this sea of humanity, we had to pick just 50. For sticklers, we admit there are actually more than 50, as some entries include a pair or more, and this year, like last, we added an honorable mention 51.

As usual, this list is not perfect. We didn’t have specific criteria or use anything as sophisticated as, say, the Richter scale to make our decisions. We sort of went on collective intuition.

No doubt, many of you, our dear readers, will disagree with our choices and omissions, especially those of you who lobbied us mercilessly up until the bitter end. And you know what, you could be right (but most likely you’re wrong). Like all human beings, the SunPost staff has its own biases that surely influenced the composition of the 50 (but we know more than you, so shut up).

For anyone keeping track (as in those who made the 50), we should also mention that the order of the 50 is random, just as it has been every year. So the first person honored is by no means our “Number One” (by the way, Chuck, nice hair cut. Sure it was a factor in helping you get elected). It’s hard enough deciding who to pick. Ranking the 50 would be next to impossible.

Anyway, enough talk. Let’s get on with it. For better or worse, here’s the SunPost 50.

Pasha’s

Antonio Ellek
The Fast Food Pasha

South Florida has a history of birthing popular fast food chains: Burger King, Miami Subs, Pollo Tropical, to name a few. It takes several key ingredients to achieve success in the already-flooded food business in South Florida. Antonio Ellek and his team at Pasha’s have found the secret recipe: vision, oodles of passion, focus and lots of heart. The family, as Ellek endearingly refers to his colleagues, has truly become the pasha of Mediterranean quick cuisine in Miami. (The word pasha stems from a term used during the Ottoman Empire to describe nobility.)

Much like its menu items, Pasha’s was created completely from scratch. What started as a business school project morphed into one of Miami’s rare munchy mainstays. Ellek, who is half Turkish, says that his project review board at Harvard Business School way back in 1995 liked the idea of a health-conscious Mediterranean restaurant. One professor, Myra Hart, advised him and his partner, Nicolas Cortes, to get a feel for the food industry before jumping whole-heartedly into it.

Ellek, 38, landed a job at Yum Brands — the folks responsible for KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell — and worked in virtually every aspect of food management. He also collected tons of business cards.

“Meeting people is just as important as the experience itself,” says the Miami Beach resident over freshly baked simit, the Pasha’s version of a bagel, with yogurt cream cheese and just-squeezed apple juice.

To harness even more success, the menu at Pasha’s is low-carb friendly. Diet guru Arthur Agatston featured the restaurant in his South Beach Diet book. Oh, and did we mention Pasha’s is also inexpensive? A filet mignon wrap ($6.95) and a fresh Mediterranean garden salad ($4.45) puts your lunch bill at less than 15 bucks including tax and tip.

In as few as six years, Pasha’s has expanded from one Lincoln Road location to a total of four restaurants in Miami and North Miami Beach. Ellek talks of adding four more locations within the next year, including one at the upcoming University of Miami’s Medical Wellness Center. And we’ve heard rumors that Ellek may have something brewing with Starbucks coffee king Howard Schultz.

Ellek’s business philosophy is simple: Focus on doing things right and things will happen. He credits that to Professor Hart of Harvard. He also says Pasha’s is about doing good things for people, citing several heartwarming stories like the now-married and expecting couple who met at the restaurant, or the investor who gave her child the middle name “Pashas.”

“With any business plan, we try to follow it as best we can, but that never happens,” Ellek observes. “It’s the human side [of a business] that you can’t put on paper.”