A visit through the three most iconic places in Havana: La Bodeguita del Medio, El Floridita and Tropicana Cabaret
A good file of photos from a trip to Havana has to have snapshots in La Bodeguita del Medio, El Floridita or the fabulous Tropicana Cabaret.
These are iconic places where you can experience Cuban traditional music, food and cocktails; or to learn more of the nightlife in the island. These place are usually crowded all year-round, but I took the chance to visit them one day and the outcome was superb.
My lunch at La Bodeguita del Medio
On Empedrado street №207, between Cuba and San Ignacio Streets, this famous restaurant-bar stands since 1942 as one of Havana’s antiques. Is a must-visit when we walk around the old town of wonder city, and hundreds of travelers pop in every day, at least to take a selfie under the symbolic yellow sign.
This is why if what you seek is quietness, you will not find it at La Bodeguita del Medio, you will experience instead the warmth and joy of the Cubans, its most authentic music and the Cuban creole cuisine and cocktail choices. A great number of celebrities have never resisted the mystic of the place, and they have left a print of photos, signatures and notes all over the walls, like Hollywood start Errol Flynn, Chilean politician Salvador Allende, Mexican composer Agustin Lara and writers Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda and Nicolás Guillén.
This is one of the places where American story teller Ernest Hemingway became a habanero character. He was seen quite often at la Bodeguita del Medio’s bar, and even one of the walls treasures a note written by him that reads:
“My mojito at La Bodeguita del Medio…and my daiquiri at El Floridita.”
But before going to the latter place mentioned we take the opportunity to have lunch in this unusual place. The menu is very much Cuban and among their delights we can taste starters or jam “picaditos”; white rice with green beans; black beans soup (so thick that they call it “dormant bean soup”); the tender boiled yucca with traditional “mojo criollo”; fried pork chops, or chicken in tomato sauce. We can also mention the roasted pork leg; the fried ripe plantains and the smashed green plantains (also called “tachinos”); the traditional “ropa vieja”, a delicious dish made of shredded beef in tomato sauce.
And to wrap it up, a mojito accompanied by a habano will submerge us in the most genuine Cuban soireé with the performance of a traditional music band.
Eating at El Floridita, the most famous bar in the world
When we are able to leave behind the magnetic rejoicing of La Bodeguita, we start wandering around Old Havana and we rather walk up on the beautiful Obispo Street, full of shops, and bars. The best destination is at the very end of the road, El Floridita, the other place Hemingway mentions in his graffiti in our previous stop.
On this popular street in the number 557, we will find a bar known as the most famous in the world, the cradle of the popular Cuban cocktail Daiquiri. As the evening is still young, we go in the next door Building for Universal Art, part of the Cuban Fine Arts Museum, where an impressive collection will make us wander around for two to three hours.
Then the spirit claims for other type of art, the one achieved by El Floridita’s chefs, who do their best in giving the Cuban cuisine a distinctive hallmark. This place is a traditional reference regarding sea food and international sommeliers, one of Hemingway’s favorite places, he, who somehow is still there thanks to a life-size sculpture that shows him leaning on the counter of this bicentennial bar.
His presence is also at the table represented by the “Papa & Mary” choice, where Hemingway’s and his wife’s favorite seafood and meet choices are combined: lobster in seashell sauce and beef in bearness sauce. They also offer the “Grand Hemingway”, a mix of flavors: lobster, shrimp and fish.
For dessert is highly recommended the “Baked Alaska” made with ice cream and cake combined in layers, covered with meringue as if it were the snow on top of Kilimanjaro mountain. They also add some crème de menthe and 3 years old Havana Club rum to obtain a very exotic, colorful and sweet flavor.
Other amazing choices at El Floridita are the “Shrimps from the Gulf Cocktail”, the “Butterfly Lobster” and the “Colonial Casserole”, very nutritious to go with all the daiquiris that cannot be missed during this meal.
Ending up the evening in a paradise under the stars
To end up the triad of the most iconic places in Havana there is nothing better than to treat yourself with a night at Tropicana Cabaret, where you can go by taking a cab at Havana’s Central Park, very near El Floridita, and that will take you to 72 street, between 41 and 45, in Playa municipality. There, you will enjoy a fascinating show that mixes classical dancing with African Cuban folklore, and the best of the Cuban music and acrobatics.
Since 1939 is on the top list of Havana’s nightlife. The place can host a thousand viewers and the show takes place in an outdoors space where Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Celia Cruz, Bola de Nieve, Elena Burke and many more have performed.
The entry starts at 9:30 pm and the choices vary from 75 to 95 CUC per person depending on the area you wish to be seated. It t includes Cuban rums and appetizers. In the show, that starts approximately at 10 pm, more than 100 artists participate in a whirl of music and colors for 2 hours.
Famous Cuban rhythms are supported by beautiful choreographies, and you will gradually feel energetic for what comes next. Once the show ends the dancers invite the audience to go the “Hall of the Crystal Arches”, where visitors will be able to dance all night long.
It is an impressive thing to move to the live music of the orchestra, and the multi-color frenzy, as if we were in legendary Xanadu.
Visiting the three icons in the city
Havana is a wonderful city and new spaces where we can have fun come to life every time. But the classics are worth their fame, only a few places can offer as much of mystic as La Bodeguita del Medio, El Floridita and Tropicana Cabaret do.
A tour to link these attractions is not precisely cheap, and may be exhausting, but exceptional events need to happen at least once in a lifetime.
Originally published at havanaprivatesuite.com.
