If you haven’t noticed, the concept of pop-up restaurants have been on the rise this past year. It’s a pretty clever way to keep things fresh and interesting knowing that these restaurants will vanish in 6- 9 months by design. Some of these pop-up are strictly for an evening only. I can’t help it think, “well, I better catch them before they are gone”. My most recent experience was at the “Eating House” in Miami’s Coral Gables district. I went to their inaugural Wakin’ & Bacon Brunch which was nothing short of innovative and reminiscent of my childhood. It all started with Tang mimosas! Why is it we still get a kick from having our tongues turn orange? The two stand-out items on the menu that day was their cap’n crunch pancakes and a dessert item simply named, “breakfast”.

The cap’n crunch pancakes had the childhood cereal in the batter and even candied on top with a condensed milk cream as the syrup. Add a little vanilla butter and you will find yourself wanting to do a little dance at the table. Word.

The other standout item I was lucky enough to taste was the dessert called “breakfast”. It was a frosted flake mouse, milk panna cotta, candied cereal, topped with house-made coffee salt. It was fun to enjoy the jarred dessert with all its delicious layers. Its almost like they did the work of soaking your cereal and transforming it into a dessert. The Eating House does cater to the creative and possibly hung over crowd for brunch and it seems like a wild success to me.

I remember back when Darden was testing Season 52 here in Orlando and I first came across this concept of mini indulgences. Can I say this might be the best idea ever created? I mean sure it’s not world piece or the cure for some ugly disease but I was in awe of the presentation and how these perfectly-portioned desserts individually all jumped out at me. I swore that one day I would go to Season 52 and tell them to leave the whole dang display of desserts at my tables. Still hasn’t happened but soon enough. Even if not in one sitting, I have tried the carrot cake, pecan pie, mango cheesecake, keylime pie, and rocky road. Not too shabby. It all depends on what you are in the mood for but I am a sucker for carrot cake.  

Since the explosion of these minis, you can find these little beauties all over the place. I am not mad at it though. In this case, imitation is the biggest form of flattery. That, or they are damn copycats! Guess you can’t trademark them.

It was as if we left south beach and teleported to the movie, Alice and Wonderland. The stark white décor inside the Mondrian Hotel’s Cuba de Asia had crazy over-sized chairs and off-scale accessories throughout. A nice meal had been why we came but I can say the entrees out-shined the appetizers and any ceviche (my favorite of the entrees was the sea bass). But onto the happy ending. Dessert was a layered Caribbean carrot cake with cream cheese frosting with lemon grass and black currant ice cream. Perhaps that is what made it a little more Caribbean that regular carrot cake. The portion was average but most likely you will be pretty full and open to sharing. It was indeed a nice way to end the meal along with an espresso to kick back into gear. I can definitely see myself returning during the daytime for a sweet brunch and dip in the beautiful pool.

Another round of dessert brought me to this beauty at downtown Miami’s “the corner”.  This was a sweet ending to a myriad of beers and one offer I could not pass up. In front of me sat a slice of mango pie with cinnamon ice cream on top. It tasted like the kind you would literally have served to you at a family gathering. The crust was definitely not the premade kind you buy at the store and try to pull off as your own. The mango filling was different from all of the common apple, cherry, custard pies we come across. But what I liked most was that mango season is not even in full swing in Miami so the best is truly yet to come. The pie was good but will only get better as Miamian will have mangos coming out of their noses in the summer. As the hotter-er-er months approach, mangoes will only get more flavorful and delicious (if you know the right trees that is:). And the combination of mango with other flavors are endless. I shared this slice of pie and felt optimistic of what was to come in the summer and remainder of the year. Sure, it could have been the buzz talking but hey, I embraced it. Besides, where else can you have drinks followed by homemade pie at 4, 5, or 6 o’clock in the morning (if you are not a baker yourself)? The corner. Now you know.