Beehive Natural Foods

5750 Bird Rd. / Miami / 305.663.1300

In business since the '70s in a strip mall on Bird Road, Beehive Natural Foods could be considered the Honey Tree of the South - it's a quaint, unassuming health food store with a kick-ass lunch counter in the back. The dishes are made fresh daily, all vegetarian, mostly vegan and often macrobiotically-friendly too. They're open 10am to 7pm Monday through Saturday but word is that the lunch usually doesn't start 'til around 1pm. Over the years I've had all sorts of meatless delights there - heaping plates of beans and brown rice, seitan/tofu empanadas, tasty soups - yet the best thing about eating here is that everything they serve is just super-duper good for you. The "ambiance" of this tiny lunch spot may be a bit off-putting to people not used to crunchy veggie hangouts but they'll get over it once they visit a time or two. The counter only has a small handful of stools and there are just a few plastic tables outside so the bulk of their business seems to be take-out. I MUST now mention that one of the best items they offer is frozen banana custard, in which they put frozen bananas into this magical machine and it comes out as smooth, creamy, banana soft-serve goodness! They can even add cashews, cinnamon, acai or other fruit to it and it's freakin' delicious and hard to believe that there's no dairy or anything else involved. I'm *this* close to getting one of those machines for my apartment... Of course they also make fresh juices and smoothies, so if you're cruising on Bird and are despairing over all the fast food and steak houses, make a bee-line to Beehive, a local veggie oasis.
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