Last Call for The Last Carrot

The Grove’s oldest continually operating restaurant needs to move to a new location by November 1.

Michael Compton had just earned a degree in art from the University of Miami and was a serious bodybuilder when he decided to open a health food restaurant in Coconut Grove in 1975.

A lifelong lover of Western movies, Compton named his new venture The Last Carrot. His daughters Meadow and Erin Compton remember him explaining that “those movies were always named The Last Stagecoach or The Last Saloon or something, so The Last Carrot sounded good to me.”

After fifty years, the stagecoach may have reached the end of the trail unless Meadow and Erin, who have owned the restaurant since their father’s passing in 2001, can find a new location by November 1. 

That’s the date Coral Gables-based developer Allen Morris Company has given them to move the business from its address at 3133 Grand Avenue. 

Where veggie burger pita sandwiches and tuna melt spinach pies have been served for half a century, the developer plans to build a five-story mixed-use development consisting of offices, retail space and residences.

Also destined to move from the building site at Grand Avenue and Matilda Street are Coconut Grove Laundry & Cleaners (partners in the project), the Grand 7^th pharmacy and convenience store, The UPS Store, T&K Nails and the restaurant Sapore di Mare.

“We’ve been looking at a lot of relocation options in the Grove, where we want to stay. I see this as an opportunity to grow, and I’m optimistic,” says Erin, who has run The Last Carrot for the past 24 years.

“If a space for us in the new development works out, great. I just can’t wait while construction is happening. We need to continue operating The Last Carrot.”

Adding The Last Carrot to his stable of tenants in the soon-to-be-named development is just what W. A. Spencer Morris, president of Allen Morris Company, says he hopes to do. 

“I’m personally a customer and fan of The Last Carrot and nothing would make me and the development team happier than having Erin be part of the new development and continue her legacy,” says Morris.

For now, it’s business as usual at The Last Carrot, where pita pockets, green juices, fresh fruit smoothies and vegan ice cream sandwiches are big sellers. 

To step inside the restaurant is to revisit the Grove during its hippy days, with orange walls, an old-fashioned lunch counter and founder Michael Compton’s 1970s college art lining the walls. 

“Meadow and I grew up in The Last Carrot, where we worked during middle school every weekend,” remembers Erin. “Except for seven or eight new items, the menu is the same as it was when my father opened the restaurant in 1975. My son Mason and nephew Jiles work on Sundays, representing the third generation of the family at The Last Carrot.” 

Barbara Lange has been a regular customer from the beginning, when she was a college-age friend of Michael Compton.

“I feel like whatever happens, Erin will do the right thing,” she says. “I can’t imagine the Grove without The Last Carrot. I like the spinach pie with cheese and tomato, and the limeade and the carrot cake.” 

Meadow Compton, who co-owns the restaurant with Erin but is the proprietor of her own bohemian lifestyle boutique in Pinecrest called Meadow Collective, is philosophical about the challenges facing The Last Carrot. 

“Life has twists and turns, full of all kinds of surprises, but change can be good too,” she says. “The community support of The Last Carrot has always been there and customers will follow wherever they go. The restaurant is, and will always be, part of the soul of Coconut Grove.”