Sweetbay Coffee

Coffee, tea blends and a pastry on the way past

The counter runs coffee drinks and a tea list broader than a hotel café usually bothers with, made with good beans and paired with pastries and grab-and-go items. Sweetbay Coffee belongs to Hotel Effie in Miramar Beach, the property’s own café rather than a lobby concession, and it gets used two ways: a slow start to the morning with a coffee and something baked, or a fast stop for a cup and a portable bite.

A bright room to sit in or pass through

The room is relaxed rather than formal, with comfortable seating and a lot of natural light, and it works for sitting with a hot drink, meeting someone or getting an hour of work done. Dine in or take away, both are normal here. Because it sits inside a hotel, it draws guests coming down for the first coffee of the day as well as people who would rather not deal with a full restaurant.

What to order

Order coffee and a pastry, the pairing the café is built around, and let the pastry do the work of breakfast when the morning is slow. The tea blends are the thing worth knowing about if coffee is not your drink, since the selection gets more attention here than in most hotel cafés. For anything faster, the grab-and-go shelf covers a coffee and a snack in one movement.