Celia Cruz, one of the artistic figures banned by Fidel Castro in Cuba after the Revolution, now presides over the wall of the Antojos restaurant in Old Havana. Flanked by the portraits of Benny Moré and Compay Segundo, in giant size and in full color, a painting of the Queen of Salsa smiles at the diners under the shout that it launched in its performances and that made it famous: Sugar!
“What more Cuban than the image of those three great stars of our country to represent the feeling and art of this island,” says a waitress with admiration when asked about the mural, which, she reports without further details, is the work of “an artist of the patio”.
To the surprise of this newspaper to see in a private business a figure that the authorities avoid talking about – without going any further, the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, when he recently visited the nearby place where the artist was born-, the young woman evades to continue speaking and leaves with a “Imagine!”.
“What more Cuban than the image of those three great stars of our country to represent the feeling and art of this island,” says a waitress with admiration when asked about the mural
Since she went into exile in 1960, Celia Cruz could not be heard on the radio in Cuba until 2012, despite her extraordinary success, and the only point on the island that she set foot on again was the US base at Guantánamo (with a handful of her land asked, before she died in 2003, to be buried).
For the rest, Cravings, it is, like so many palates that have proliferated in Havana in recent years, a nice place. The decoration, between colonial and modern, and the Cuban music, of yesterday and today, give the feeling of being focused on tourists.
There didn’t seem to be any foreign visitors on the day he came. 14ymedio, but the place was full. The shop assistants, all white and most of them female, look like something out of fashion magazines and gym fans.
It was striking that they had a hydroalcoholic gel dispenser: what is found at the entrance of stores, especially state-owned ones, is chlorine, because the alcohol-based solution is much more expensive.
The great attraction of the menu are the croquettes – a sign announces it at the entrance: “Do you want a croquettes?” – and with good reason. Its quality is far from being the usual in Cuba. “They look like the ones in Spain,” says a marveling diner.
The prices, yes, left the smile frozen. A serving of three croquettes, chicken or fish, 200 pesos. The vegetable salad, one of the cheapest on the menu, 250 pesos. The main dishes go between 500 and 700 pesos. And the drinks are not far behind either. Adding the 10% charge for service, a frugal dinner of chicken croquettes, peasant salad and two piña coladas, 1,064 pesos.
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