Pineapple Blossom Tea Room
- 8214 Biscayne Blvd.
- Miami, FL 33138
- 305-754-8328
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- Tea Room
The cozy, brightly painted space is filled with potted plants, books and teapots. Brown chose the spiky-crowned tropical fruit as her emblem because it symbolizes hospitality. Caribbean natives placed pineapples outside the entrances of their dwellings to signal a place of friendship, and Europeans adopted the motif.
Linda Bladholm
Biscayne Boulevard road construction has made the hours a little erratic, but Pineapple Blossom Tea Room remains a sweet island of tranquility amid the dust. Chef-owner Frances Brown has expanded the menu and now serves soups, wraps and salads, but this is the place to come for a full tea service, either traditional or with a Caribbean twist.
The cozy, brightly painted space is filled with potted plants, books and teapots. Brown chose the spiky-crowned tropical fruit as her emblem because it symbolizes hospitality. Caribbean natives placed pineapples outside the entrances of their dwellings to signal a place of friendship, and Europeans adopted the motif.
This is a second career for Brown, who came from Jamaica 20 years ago to attend the University of Miami. After graduation, she worked in banking. When her job took her to Philadelphia, she enrolled in a baking and pastry program, graduating at the top of her class. Back in Miami, she worked at Mark Soyka's Van Dyke Café, News Café and Soyka's before striking out on her own last year.
Brown prepares all the food herself. Her wraps include the Mandevilla, filled with steamed calabaza, chayote, carrots and chickpeas in mildly spiced curry dressing with fig chutney, greens and avocado. Salads, all on a bed of fresh greens, range from the Plumeria (shrimp and avocado with pineapple salsa) to the Ixora (chicken Cobb with Gorgonzola, avocado, tomato and hard-cooked egg). Choose from mustard-lemon caper, sesame ginger, honey mustard or vinaigrette dressing, all house made.
The royal tea service brings an assortment of finger sandwiches (smoked salmon, chicken and cucumber), mini pastries and tarts, fine cheeses, warm scones with clotted cream and apricot jam, and a glass of champagne plus pot of tea (choose from 30 varieties).
The Caribbean service has island-flavored pastries and tiny tarts (coconut, guava, lemon and passion fruit) with fresh ginger or mint tea. Or simply order tea with something sweet -- the pineapple upside cake is a must-try, hard to resist surrounded by all the pineapple cheer.
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Location
- Current 80.6 °F
- It's an indoor fun day
- Head to Bird Bowl
