Located in the former coach house of a giant mansion on Old Havana’s Plaza of the Cathedral, this tiny twelve-seat restaurant opened under family management thanks to the early reforms of 1991-1992 that allowed small businesses to operate for the first time since Fidel Castro unilaterally ordered the last remaining 52,000 of them shut down in 1968. Although limited to a maximum of twelve customers, this restaurant, like many others (known as paladares) proved wildly successful because of the quality of the food and service available. Foreigners and Cubans alike preferred them because going to a state-owned counterpart almost always meant choosing from a lengthy menu only to be told by waiters that only one or two dishes were available. State restaurants’ food was not only extremely bland but sparsely apportioned because virtually every employee participated in pilfering or outright siphoning of ingredients off for home use or resale, often to privately owned restaurants! This paladar closed in 1998 because while lines formed and reservations were constantly needed, the state-owned restaurant “La Casona” next door—literally located only steps away in the giant mansion itself—often sat entirely empty, an embarrassing testament to the reality behind the state’s carefully crafted image.
