Remember Allen’s Drugs in Miami? Now there’s a new Spanish restaurant and bakery there
Baking has always been in Alberto Garcia’s blood. Flour, sugar, butter. Hands, heart, soul.
His grandfather learned the artistry of the trade on the island of Mallorca off the coast of Spain, returning to Madrid in the 1970s to open his first bakery. His son-in-law, Garcia’s father, eventually took over the business, expanding it to five locations around the city.
Now, Garcia has brought his version of the sweet, savory family business to Miami, along with the classic Spanish pastries that he grew up making.
Now open in a South Miami-Dade landmark — the old Allen’s Drugs building on the busy corner of Bird Road and 57th Avenue — CalaMillor Gourmet Experience is serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s an open, inviting space, with deliberately mismatched chairs, high ceilings and eye-catching tile floors and a menu that highlights Spanish baked goods, meats and cheeses.
The space also includes a long counter for take-out pastries and coffee, plus meat and cheese-stuffed croissants and golden Spanish omelets (tortilla Española being one of the best simple pleasures on this earth). There’s also a gourmet market where shoppers can buy such items as charcuterie, olives, olive oil, chocolate and wine to take home. In the early evenings, the market transforms into a wine bar with happy hour specials during the week.
Far from the tourist magnets of Wynwood and Miami Beach, CalaMillor — named for an idyllic spot in Mallorca — will rely on the interest of locals. Garcia, who had considered opening the restaurant at the somewhat less-iconic Redbird Center across the street, said that he wants the space to transport his neighbors to his home country — and to happy moments in their pasts.
“We try to make the customers feel like we’re in Spain,” he said. “We want to make pastry that makes you remember something.”
CalaMillor serves menu items like Spanish croquetas, patatas bravas and toasts with jamon Iberico and tomato or avocado and salmon, as well as grilled octopus, fried calamari and shrimp in garlic sauce. Though it has swiftly become a thriving lunch spot in the neighborhood, pastries are Garcia’s first love. He started working in the family business when he was around 12.
“My parents said, ‘You’re not going to spend weekends in bed — do something with your life!’ ” he said, laughing. “So that’s what I did. I don’t care about holidays, Christmas. Pastries are part of my life. I feel comfortable with them.”
The pastries at CalaMillor, he said, fall into a somewhat niche category for Miami. So many bakeries here are Cuban or French-style, he said, adding that true Spanish bakeries can be hard to find.
And so, in addition to adapting the croissant in a Miami-friendly way (with guava and cheese inside and a guava glaze on the outside), he makes ensaimadas, a light, sweet, coiled pastry that originated in Mallorca. Also popular in Puerto Rico, the ensaimada is stuffed with whipped cream or creme brulee, kind of like a sandwich.
There is no point in trying to cut one in half, though. Once you start in on it, you’re going to eat the whole thing.
“It’s the jewel in the crown,” Garcia said.
Garcia plans to add outside tables for dining and cafecito-sipping, but not until fall — “it doesn’t make sense in the summer,” he said — but the main credo he plans to follow is simple. Quality, quality, quality, a lesson he learned from the grandfather who spent a lifetime perfecting his pastry.
“We do everything from scratch, and we buy fresh, good quality products,” Garcia said. “My grandfather always told me ‘Never put down the quality.’ If you do, you’re going to close your business.”
CalaMillor Gourmet Experience
Where: 4000 SW 57th Ave., Miami
Hours: 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday; 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday; kitchen opens at 8 a.m. and closes from 4-6 p.m. daily
More information: calamillormiami.com or 305-456-3938
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