Miami Beach's Rosetta Bakery Plans Massive Expansion Across Miami-Dade

About a block from Lincoln Road, Rosetta Bakery attracts a steady stream of customers via Italian breads, pastries, and small plates. Now the Collins Avenue concept, which opened in November 2015, is set to expand with cafés in Brickell, Aventura, North Beach, and other parts of Miami-Dade County.

"This was our plan all along," co-owner Tommaso Bulfon says. "We wanted to test and establish the concept and then immediately expand."

Within the next year, Rosetta plans to debut seven more bakeries. The first two will be in South Beach, at 1666 Lenox Ave., a few steps from Shake Shack Lincoln Road, and on the corner of Ninth and Collins. A few months later, a third outpost will open in North Beach at 69th Street and Collins.

"We want to cover the entire Miami Beach area," Bulfon says. "That's where a lot of our customers are."

A café will also open at Aventura Mall this winter, along with spaces in two Brickell residential buildings — Brickell Icon and Brickell Heights. The seventh outpost will be a grab-and-go kiosk at CentralFare in BrightLine's Miami Central Station.

"A few friends and I always wondered where we could have a proper breakfast, just a quality croissant and cappuccino," Bulfon says. "That's when we said, 'OK, we'll do it ourselves.'"
Rosetta Bakery is inspired by the café culture in Milan. Instead of using frozen ingredients and mass-producing its goods, Rosetta makes small batches of sweet and savory baked items ($2 to $10), which are neatly displayed in a large glass case.

"We're all about transparency," Bulfon says. "What you see is what you get, and that will be carried to all of our new locations."

All seven outposts will offer menus and decor similar to those of Rosetta's flagship at 1666 Collins Ave. Bulfon notes there will be some changes, such as different meats or pastry items, to better serve each community.

"A lot of our customers are tourists from hotels," he says, "but now we're going into very residential areas, so that will affect the menu."

From croissants, berry tarts, and Nutella-filled cookies to caprese- or prosciutto-filled sandwiches, everything at Rosetta is made by Italian chefs, who are brought to the United States to work at the bakery. It's difficult to explain the nuances of an Italian bakery to someone who isn't Italian, Bulfon says.

"There are so many differences when it comes to how the bread is made or one prosciutto from another. Those are the things that set us apart," he says. "You just cannot run an Italian bakery without an Italian chef."

Though no outpost has a definitive opening date, Bulfon expects Rosetta's South Beach spot on Lenox to debut first, followed by Ninth and Collins, the Brickell Icon, and Aventura Mall. The others will open in early to mid-2018.

Rosetta Bakery. 1666 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 786-641-7738; rosettabakery.com. Opening dates will be announced soon.