Dark as a pitch, with flies flying over the pizzas on display, nobody wants to have lunch at the Havana restaurant Via Venetto. Located in the central Calle Obispo –ideal for gastronomic businesses, due to the continuous traffic– the former state establishment was leased to private companies for some time, but its bad appearance contrasts with the dynamism of the totally private pizzeria that, always with a queue, it competes right across the street.
Without the apparent ancestry of Via Venetto, everything is dynamism in the rival pizzeria, also privately run but without the ballast of association with the State. Although the place is small and lacks a name, it is well stocked and for a reasonable price you can eat well. A young clerk dispatches the orders at full speed.
The waiters of Via Venetto impatiently look at their watches, go out to smoke, talk and scare, not without reluctance, the flycatcher who comes to eat the pizzas
While, on the other side, the sweaty waiters of Via Venetto look impatiently at their watches, go out to smoke, talk and scare, not without reluctance, the flycatcher who comes to indulge in the pizzas.
“They are flip flops,” diagnoses one of his few clients, who eloquently compares the hard masses with little cheese to the rubber of footwear. It is true that the prices are lower, he concedes, but whoever eats there knows what they are getting at: there is no flavor or quality.
A few steps from there, the young woman with the modest timbriche offers various types of cheese, ham, soft drinks and pizzas that arrive hot at the hands of the buyer, who prefers to eat standing up than sitting in the chairs covered in red mortuary on Via Venetto. “There is no mystery”, settles another of those who is frightened just by passing in front of the establishment, “all the private people who work with the State end up like the crab: walking backwards!”.
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