A Little Touch Of Cuba

I continued with my walk around the neighborhood to see what was new and found another place that has only been open for a month or so. And this was a very pleasant find indeed.

963) Café El Cubanito





A very colorful little Cuban restaurant with a decent sized bar on the corner of Henry and Cranberry, not too far from where I live in Brooklyn. The L shaped bar has a pale green tile top and a wooden front painted light turquoise with yellow insets with pink edging. There is a silver rail for your foot. The chairs are dark wood with bright turquoise seats. Behind the bar are black coolers and blue wooden shelves in front of shiny turquoise tiles. Above the tiles the wall is brick and there is a light yellow wooden shelf mounted on it with a shiny tiered shelf holding liquor and a couple of small figurine lamps. Above that is a kind of collapsed in the middle looking picture frame around a mirror backed set of shelves filled with little knick knacks and a variety of salt-and-pepper shakers. There is a mobile of pastel sea-shells hanging off to one side Sitting on the coolers are a couple of large containers of Sangria, white and red, with fruit floating in them. A glass bowl shaped vase of pink flowers and peacock feathers sits at one end of the bar and a black, white, and gold ceramic table lamp sits on the other. A light pink and white striped awning hangs over the bar and the area behind it.

The two side walls are also a combination of turquoise tiles below and brick on top and are covered with colorful 50’s era Cuban travel posters and posters advertising rum and cigars. Little tables with a variety of brightly patterned table cloths and pastel wooden chairs fill up the place. The lights hanging from the lemon yellow ceiling are draped with colorful doily like coverings. The floor is covered in greenish orange tiles.

This is a very colorful and cheery place. The bartender, Steve, was very friendly and we chatted for quite awhile about the neighborhood, his neighborhood, and who knows what else. He is relatively new at bartending so we chatted about drinks for awhile and I gave him some of my advice (always use bitters when making a Manhattan, for example). He had been well trained in making the house specialties though, Mojitos and Caipirihnas. Those were absolutely delicious, made from scratch with plenty of mint. I had one of each before heading on home.