This Puerto Rican ‘brunch all day’ spot just opened in Coral Gables

Jan Karlo Ruiz greets customers at the new Bistro Café restaurant in Coral Gables, where brunch is served all day long. The terrace is full. Many diners opt to sit outside to enjoy the cool morning. The restaurant is located one block from the Shops at Merrick Park and you can enjoy the city from the shade.

One of the Bistro Café signature drinks, a work of art with pistachio and white chocolate, arrives at the table to confirm why the Puerto Rico native got that blue check on his Instagram account.

“I bring the coffee from Puerto Rico, it’s Caffetero, but we have created our own inventions. We combine the coffee with the caramel, with the nutella. Every day we are innovating so that the public, every time they come, have something to try,” says Ruiz.

Miami’s first Bistro Café, located near the Arsht Center, was such a hit that customers asked Ruiz to open a location further south because they came from Kendall or Pinecrest to try those ornate coffees with caramel or nutella, the sandwiches, French toast and stuffed avocados.

“When we talk about Bistro Café we cannot forget breakfast. We have breakfast at any time. You can have a coffee at 5 in the afternoon, or a margarita or a mimosa at 8 in the morning,” says Ruiz.

The Coral Gables restaurant is more intimate than the Bistro Café that he opened behind the Adrienne Arsht Center a few months before the pandemic. One of the walls bears an illuminated sign that reads “Jíbaro in the City” and the menu is still extensive, reaching up to 100 dishes, which amazes Coral Gables customers, who are used to fewer options, says Ruiz.

Ruiz’s menu incorporates traditional Puerto Rican flavors and dishes, such as the tripleta sandwich – which is prepared with three types of meat and a mayo/ketchup sauce with a touch of garlic.

The popular Peruvian dish, lomo saltado, comes stuffed in an avocado and there are Greek potatoes with lamb, feta cheese and tzatziki sauce, and huevos rancheros with Cantimpalos chorizo.

“We have many fusions, the essence of Puerto Rico is maintained but blended to please the different palates of Miami,” he says.

As a child, Ruiz helped his father in the bakery and pastry shop that the family has owned for 34 years in Aguada, Puerto Rico. He later he went on to collaborate with his mother, who opened a doughnut franchise.

“I always had in mind to do something like a bakery, but more modern and creative,” says Ruiz. When he opened his first Bistro Bakery in Isla Verde in 2011, he was the one in the kitchen.

“I would leave the kitchen and go see the customers. They could see me cooking, because the kitchen is right there when you enter,” recalls Ruiz, who appreciates “being face to face” with clients and asking them what they think of the food and the service.

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“Having a business is a blessing, something you strive to make it grow,” he says, looking back on how his dream has come true. “All the things that happen on a day-to-day basis serve as learning, to have maturity within what you are doing. But you have to know that not everything is perfect, not everything is rosy.”

Bistro Café’s Instagram says they soon will open another location in Broward and one in Orlando.

Bistro Café Coral Gables

4155 Laguna St., Coral Gables

Open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to 5 p.m.