Pizza, Nutella Doughnuts, and Vegan Fare Shine for Breakfast at Alaska Coffee Roasting Co.

Although its location isn't the easiest to stumble upon — wedged behind a vacant retail space in a strip mall on the north end of Biscayne Boulevard — Alaska Coffee Roasting Co. has built a reputation as a serious spot for food and drinks. It boasts the only steampunk coffee machine in the city, which yields easily one of the best cups in town. And the brick oven, imported from Italy, finishes off hand-crafted pizzas with toppings like braised short ribs, pulled pork, and even barbecue sauce.

But behind the glowing embers of the oven and the architectural valves of the coffee machine, the kitchen at Alaska Coffee Roasting Co. also pumps out one of the best breakfasts you probably haven’t heard about.

Since the location opened nearly four years ago, every weekend Karen Tuvia and her team have been pumping out breakfast pizzas that can stand alongside any brunch in the city for quality and flavor. Made to order and topped with everything from fried eggs to Swiss cheese, egg whites, provolone, and a variety of meats, these round classics can be enjoyed for every meal of the day. Oh, and the pies can be topped with vegan cheese too, which Tuvia, a sworn pizza fanatic, swears by.

“When you put Swiss cheese in the wood-fired oven, it changes. You get the minerals from that wood fire, and it really changes the flavors and enhances the breakfast,” Tuvia says. A graduate of the Associazione Verace Pizza, Tuvia is an accredited pizzaiola. Swiss may not be a standard pizza topping, but from innovation comes greatness.

But the breakfast menu at Alaska Coffee Roasting Co. doesn’t stop with pizza. The crown jewel of the counter may be the pastry case, which is full of hand-crafted delights made fresh daily. House-made doughnut holes filled with Nutella? Yep. Rugelach? Yep. Croissants, cronuts, green tea macarons, and cake pops, all made by hand? Yep, yep, and yep.

And yet, after a recent visit to the original store in Fairbanks, Alaska, Tuvia returned to Miami with even more ideas. Her latest creation is a chia seed parfait, made with almond milk, shaved coconut, and fresh berries. Fully vegan, packed with Omega 3’s, and impossibly tasty for how healthful it is, the concoction plays to the suburban North Miami crowd just as much as the carb/dairy/gluten-free crowd of Miami proper.

“Everyone loves it. We have people coming to and from the gym who stop and get the chia. In the Alaska store, they do it with maple syrup and no coconut. But I brought it back here and said let’s make it better” — or, closer to what the market is looking for. Tuvia knows her audience, her city. Now it’s time for the city to get to know another end of Miami.

Even at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, diners can be seen hunched over a sweet treat, a cup of coffee, or something savory to end their day. Breakfast, though, remains the staple at Alaska Coffee Roasting Co. “We have our breakfast sandwiches every day of the week,” Tuvia says. Get your choice of meats, cheeses, or vegetables, in everything from vegan, gluten-free, or whole-wheat wraps and breads.

For the die-hard brunch fanatic, there’s alcohol too. Coffee may be the go-to drink at this diamond in the rough, but when there's fresh-squeezed orange juice and prosecco to wash down a breakfast pie, why not have both? Alaska also serves craft beers and a variety of wines.

Alaska Coffee Roasting Co. serves breakfast Monday through Friday from 7 to 11 a.m. and weekends from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Those are proper brunch hours, in case you weren’t paying attention. If you’re lucky, you’ll find the pizzaiola, Karen Tuvia herself, manning the stoves that she loves to call home. 

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