Craving Cuban coffee? Beloved Miami bakery to open second Pembroke Pines location
.jpg "CAO Bakery will open its second Pembroke Pines location at 12221 Taft St., the chain announced on June 10.")
Here’s some news to kick off your day, Pembroke Pines — your town is getting a new tried-and-true coffee spot.
CAO Bakery is opening a second location in the southwest Broward city at 12221 Taft St., the Miami-based chain announced in a June 10 Instagram post.
The café will take over the former home of Char-Hut, a family-owned burger restaurant that closed in 2025 following a 30-year tenure in Pembroke Pines.
An opening date has not been announced as of June 11, but customers can “stay tuned” for ventanita favorites, including croquetas, pastelitos, empanadas and coladas.
CAO, which stands for Cuban American Original, opened its first Pines location in 2022 at 2060 N. University Drive and operates 22 locations across Broward, Miami-Dade, Tampa and the Orlando metropolitan area, according to its website.
The Latin café and bakery was founded in 2018 by third-generation Cuban baker Tony Cao as an offshoot of his grandfather’s popular Miami eatery, Vicky Bakery, the founder told GrowBiz in 2021.
Cao and longtime friend Carlos De Varona purchased seven Vicky Bakery locations and converted them into “next-generation” cafés outfitted with Wi-Fi, a fast-casual design and a Cuban-American fusion menu.
One of its most popular unorthodox bites? A “Mediodia” sandwich that takes the traditional guava and cheese pastelito and stuffs it with sliced ham and melted Swiss cheese.
The café also functions as a more streamlined alternative to Vicky Bakery, offering more catering and to-go options than its relaxed, sit-down counterpart.
For more updates and to check out CAO Bakery’s menu ahead of its opening, visit the café’s website and Instagram account.
