Lofty Latte

I had reached Miami Beach quite late. So after checking into my hotel, I ventured out to grab a bite.
I walked up and down the shopping area of 41^st street looking at my options to eat and finally decided to try out this place.
The ambience was quite welcoming. As it was late i didn’t want to order something heavy so I settled for a Caprese panini which was just perfect. A panini with mozzarella, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, fresh basil and olive oil. Loved it .
I also ordered for a caramel apple cider. A fantastic beverage which hit the spot…

DO NOT BE DECEIVED: this is not really a coffee shop. It’s a restaurant, and they serve coffee. And if pressed, they might give you the password for their free WiFi. But you have to have table service (and pay for it), they clearly spend more energy on their food than their coffee, and you won’t feel comfortable settling down to work here with a latte.
If you want a so-​so restaurant in mid Miami Beach, that’s fine, but don’t come here expecting a cozy coffee shop.

What a fabulous little joint! We stumbled across this gem — frankly because the deli we wanted to hit after a tough day at the beach was CLOSED (fail!). Wow. What a huge menu! Everything looks and sounds decadent and nothing dissappointed us. We were being «good-​on-​our-​diet» girls and ordered salads with their dairy-​free frozen yogurt for dessert. Wow. Wow. Very fresh ingredients, served on fabulous plates (very Pottery Barn-​ish I might add) and nice portion sizes, very generous. The staff is VERY FRIENDLY and you can tell they are proud of the restaurant and the food that they serve. Indeed they should be. This will definitely be a go-​to spot for us again while vacationing in Miami. Awesome.

On a recent visit to Miami from Boston, I stumbled across Lofty Latte and I’m sure glad that I did.
This place has a lot of contemporary coffee shop requirements (organic, wi-​fi, nice seats, etc.).
Coffee: The coffee here is damn good. After hearing over and over about the Cuban Coffee in Miami we were surprised to walk away with love for this little Jewish coffee shop.
Food: You name it they have it, from huge salads to crepes to pizza, to subs… everything we had during the week was great and very well prepared.
Ice Cream: It deserves it own category for how great it tasted!
Website: We had a terrible time trying to download a menu on-​line and almost skipped out in this place. Luckily we were feeling adventurously and heeded the glowing review from «Jordan N.».
Service: This where I had to take away one star, they only had one waitress in there and when the place is crowded your food can take quite a while to get to you.
Overall, a great place and I will NEVER visit Miami again without making a stop at Lofty Latte

Miami…
Little did we know that we have another late-​night coffeeshop besides Out of the Blue in Miami. And this one is open even later, offers free wi-​fi, serves fair-​trade organic coffee (no bitter taste synonymous with Starbucks coffee), and is cheaper than Starbucks.
Also, with it being on 41^st street, it’s easier to access by highway than if it was in South Beach. That other Causeway to SoBe should not have ever been considered an interstate with all those traffic lights.
On top of that, it’s two stories — the stairs are in the back. And it doesn’t end there: free parking after 6 PM! Aren’t you sold yet? I am!
You can still get the flavored coffees, the frappes, and tea. And on top of that, they serve crepes, salads, paninis, and ice cream.
While I loved the coffee, I wasn’t that much of a fan of their homemade soft-​serve ice cream.
Since this is a heavily Jewish area, you’ll also find Israeli food, and everything is Kosher. The people and owners reflect that strongly — hence they close early on Friday at 5 pm. The rest of the schedule:
Sunday: 8 am — 11 pm
Monday — Thursday: 7 am — 11:30 pm
Friday: 7 am — 5 pm
Saturday: 1 hour after nightfall (aka 8 pm) to 2 am
Talk about putting on an all-​nighter!
And I’ll definitely return!