Cafe Grumpy

Cold brew on tap and a cold-brew slushy machine set the tone at this Coral Gables café, the Brooklyn coffee company’s first outside New York when it opened in March 2018. The coffee is roasted in Brooklyn, the pastry case comes from Miami-area bakers, and the room is built for regulars.

Brooklyn roasting, Coral Gables cold drinks

The branch runs on Cafe Grumpy’s Greenpoint roasting programme, which supplied all of its coffee from opening. The lineup covers blends and single origins: Heartbreaker Espresso, Momentum, a decaf Peru, Colombia Esmeralda Reserve and Peru La Vicuña. Momentum is a Central and South American house blend with malted milk chocolate, caramel and orange notes.

Cold coffee is what makes the branch its own. Alongside the New York menu came warm-weather additions: cold brew on tap, a cold-brew slushy machine, turmeric and matcha sodas, and the Wake Up, built from ginseng, coconut water, key lime and cold brew. The bar was equipped for range, with a Synesso espresso machine, Fetco batch brewing and Kalita Wave pour-overs.

A neighbourhood room with local pastry

The room is a WiFi-connected neighbourhood café for coffee, tea, pastry and repeat visits rather than a formal dining room. The company chose Coral Gables for its international, neighbourhood feel, and the branch has since been counted among the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops, noted there for creative seasonal drinks, local artwork, coffee classes and a welcoming atmosphere.

Food centres on local pastry rather than a hot kitchen. The case draws on Miami-area names, Zak the Baker, Bunnycakes and Cindy Lou’s Cookies, which makes it part of the café’s Coral Gables character rather than an anonymous add-on.

What to order

Start with coffee. Heartbreaker Espresso is the signature house blend and Momentum shows the house style; for filter, the bar was built for both quick batch brew and deliberate Kalita pour-overs. The Brooklyn connection is the through-line, since the beans come from the operation that grew out of Greenpoint and roasts on a vintage Probat.

For the clearest branch signature, order cold. Cold brew on tap is the core, the slushy programme was unique to Coral Gables when it opened, and the Wake Up combines ginseng, coconut water, key lime and cold brew. Turmeric and matcha sodas add a non-coffee lane. With any of them, take something from the local pastry case: Zak the Baker, Bunnycakes or Cindy Lou’s Cookies. That order captures Brooklyn roasting, Miami baking and neighbourhood pacing.