El Cuban Diner opened late last year in the heart of Calle Ocho in the space that once housed local favorites El Santo taquería and the Spanish restaurant Casa Panza. The concept is a marriage of the quintessential American diner and the 1950s Cuban cafeteria, which was created as a tribute to classic American diners.
At first glance they might seem the same, but they are not. There is the decor —red with black and yellow accents— and the neon lights, that evoke the carefree “Happy Days” era.
But El Cuban Diner aims to channel the cafeterias of Vedado in Havana during their heyday: like the two Carmelos (the one on Calzada and the one on 23rd Street), Wakamba, El Potín and El Jardín. These were more glamorous and cosmopolitan than an American diner, where you could order a sandwich — the kind we now call “cubano” in Miami (which in Cuba was simply a sandwich).
Inspired by Havana
At El Potín or El Jardín diners had a view of Línea Street, but at El Cuban Diner customers watch tourists in shorts and floral dresses passing by with shopping bags on Calle Ocho…