A packed dining room on a recent Thursday morning says a lot about what’s working at Facade, a bakery and café that’s been open for just about a year in Coral Gables— and is already planning its next move.
Located on Giralda Avenue near LeJeune Road, the café has quickly built a loyal following, with every table filled as a mix of first-time visitors and regulars stopped in for breakfast and brunch made fresh in full view of customers.
“The tuna melt, the chicken salad is fantastic,” David Grossman said. “Anything on the breakfast menu, you can’t go wrong.”
Others rave about the savory dishes.
“The mushroom milanesa is to die for,” Christian Arraball said. “I don’t know what Oscar puts in it, but it’s fantastic.”
A Coral Gables bakery and café built on a shared vision
Facade is the brainchild of Chef Oscar Lastra and Creative Director Diana Gonzalez, whose partnership began with a late-night dinner that turned into a shared vision.
“A friend of mine invited me to Friendsgiving dinner because a friend of his who’s a chef was going to cook for us,” Gonzalez said. “When I tried his food it was just so overwhelmingly good. We clicked so well I told him, ‘Do you want to open a restaurant?'”
Lastra said his past experience in high-volume kitchens helped shape the concept.
“I’ve been blessed to work in restaurants that are really busy and I’ve seen what could go wrong and what could go right,” he said. “I’m just so happy to be on the right side of it and make a footprint here in Miami.”
Why Facade’s brunch menu keeps customers coming back
That footprint includes inventive menu items that customers say keep them coming back. One standout is a cornflake matcha made with in-house corn milk, which Gonzalez describes as “a totally different game.” It’s often paired with a tangy açaí bowl featuring non-dairy yogurt, jam, cured papaya, tahini, marigolds and house-made granola.
For something quick, the ham and cheese croissant with shaved Parmesan is light but filling, while the spicy onion toast, sourdough topped with caramelized onions, folded eggs and chili oil, has become a signature item after an improvised kitchen experiment.
“We were hungry,” Gonzalez said. “Oscar was like, ‘I’m just going to slap some caramelized onions,’ and I said, ‘I want eggs.’ I looked at him and said, ‘You need to put this on the menu.'”
Dessert options like an ooey-gooey cinnamon roll paired with a tiramisu iced latte round out the experience, with Lastra saying value is top of mind.
“I understand that right now we live in a time where everything’s expensive,” he said. “So for us it’s like, how can you make that worthwhile?”
Gonzalez said the community response has made the long hours worth it.
“We’re just so grateful to have everyone here,” she said. “Everyone that comes here usually ends up becoming a really good friend of ours.”
Facade is open Monday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a new location planned to open soon in North Miami.
