YUCA: The Miami Travel Guide
This guide was produced in collaboration with the Duke Center for International and Global Studies
Miami has an energy unlike the hustle of New York’s concrete jungle and distinct from the dishabille leisure of Los Angeles. The city moves like the salsa, a rhythmic whirlwind, with everyone dancing to the same soundtrack. Evident in the atmosphere, the identity of Miami is closely tied to its Latin-American residents, especially its Cuban immigrants.
Little Havana, the neighborhood that serves as the Cuban heart of Miami, has a unique relationship with its motherland. Overflowing with ties to Cuba, the community has nonetheless established itself as a discrete entity, a reflection of its inhabitants. Being Cuban-American is its own identity, unique from being solely Cuban or solely American. This is a group that has endured exodus, familial separation, and a detachment. They have had to build a new capital for the home they loved and lost.
The creation of many of the establishments featured was a reinvention of a stolen past for future generations, a statement for remembrance, honor, and celebration. They are manifestations of tradition for the family members that never knew the homeland, but can join together in family practices, invoking a central pillar of Cuban culture—family.
Cuban Miami celebrates the music, art, and heritage of the generation of young, urban Cuban-Americans. They brought the essence of their homeland into a foreign land, thriving in the union of two countries and cultures, both equally theirs.
Life House, Little Havana
528 SW 9th Avenue, Miami, FL 33130
Though only two blocks from Little Havana’s famous, buzzing Calle Ocho, the neighborhood is surprisingly quiet. Resident bikers and dog walkers pass through the streets sparingly, and the residences stifle the sounds of the city. Upon the muted guava-pink exterior, the golden brass numerals, 528, denote the new hospitality start-up—Life House, a fresh boutique hotel nuzzled near the heart of Little Havana.
Life House, the tech-backed, year-old venture, is the brainchild of Rami Zeidan. In the age of Airbnb, Life House presents a bespoke reinvention of local hospitality. Rather than homogenizing the surrounding landscape, Life House digs roots, celebrating the communities it has been planted in.
The Little Havana location fuses modern tropical urbanism with hints of the 1920’s Afrocubanismo movement, an ode to the deep history of the building and community. Formerly the notorious Jefferson Hotel, the bones of the building date back to 1925. However, with a fresh coat of paint and new design scheme, the revived façade and renovated interior lead the hotel into a tech-driven era.
Now, deep mahogany millwork, a zebra-print rug, and tropical House of Hackney wallpaper adorn the interior living room. The atrium library, filled with mid-century modern furnishings, evokes respite and exploration—two seemingly opposed forces, skillfully partnered. The guestrooms similarly arouse a tranquil adventure as a thoughtful Le Labo santal aroma drifts from the bathroom. Oatmeal-colored crosshatch fabric embellishes the panels, a small touch that leads the weary traveler to bed. The Parcela Café, named after the plots of lands central to Havana’s urban agricultural movement, greets customers on their ways in and out. The ventanita, the walk-up style coffee counter, offers Cuban cortados and coladas for all visitors and locals to enjoy before venturing into the urban jungle.
Los Pinareños Fruteria
1334 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33135
The long banana-yellow and unripe mango-green walls with wide, garage-like windows disregard the traditional storefront prescription. At Los Pinareños Fruteria on Calle Ocho, arguably Miami’s best-kept secret, there is no distinction between public and private space—all are welcome. A cluster of bananas hangs outside the open door as regulars sit in conversation, the exposed storefront and walk-up coffee counter offering some circulation for the interior. A Spanish radio station rings through the fruteria. Billowing lazily above the cardboard boxes of fruit, a Cuban and an American flag hang side by side.
Los Pinareños Fruteria has been family-owned and operated for over fifty years. Guillermina Hernandez and her husband Angel were both born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, before migrating to the United States. They opened the fresh fruit and flower stand in 1965. Though the original wooden stand burned in 1997, the current concrete structure was constructed soon after. Since, little has changed. Los Pinareños Fruteria doesn’t accept credit cards, and it still occupies a common space on Calle Ocho—one for the community.
The store offers seasonal fruit including papayas, oranges, coconuts, guavas, and pineapples. Additionally, an old bookshelf houses natural pollen and pure comb ‘n’ honey for sale. At the coffee counter, you can order Cuban tamales and the “especialidad en jugos naturales,” or natural juices. The guarapo, or sugar cane juice, is soothingly sweet, but papaya, remolacha, guayaba, and piña juices are additionally available, as the seasons permit.
Eclectic iconography decorates the store, from crucifixes to chicken statues to antique sewing machines. Boxes of records are out for sale, with antique favorites including José Luis and Ismael Miranda. Out the back, you see an array of wandering, grazing, and crowing roosters, and for a moment, you forget that you are in the center of Miami’s urban landscape. The establishment seems to exist independent of the exuberant Miami spirit. The concrete foundations are unshaken by the transforming Calle Ocho landscape; despite gentrification, skyrise construction, and influxes of new groups to the area, Los Pinareños Fruteria withstands time, crafting its own model for leisurely communal gathering.
La Tradición Cubana
1336 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33135
Situated next to the fruit stand on Calle Ocho, La Tradición Cubana is one of Miami’s oldest cigar manufacturers, founded by Luis Sanchez. The yellow paint blends into the green as the shifting exterior reflects the history of a Cuban cigar owner. The mural by street artist Luis Vitale visualizes the journey of the cigar—from the tobacco field to the curing houses, and finally to become the hand-made cigar itself. Sanchez’s Indian stands near the door as a protective spirit, as is tradition for many cigar shops. Palm trees adorn the bottom of the mural, an ode to José Martí, a Cuban poet and fighter, who once wrote of his country, “las palmas son novias que esperan,” or, “the palms are the lovers who wait.”
Luis Sanchez’s family has been in the cigar business for decades, since beginning operations in Cuba from 1928-1959. The rendition in Miami opened in 1995, dedicated to “the Cuban way.” The emphasis is on craftsmanship—every cigar meticulously wrapped and every blend patiently concocted.
Inside, the store epitomizes the slow pleasure of smoking a cigar. Cuban rocking chairs line the showroom; the cigars are housed in climate-controlled display cases, as much is to be appreciated by observing a cigar. Each display case is lined by label, with the banner bearing the image of relatives. The signature cigar line, La Tradición Cuba, features a Latina woman against the sea blue background, Sanchez’s wife’s great-great-grandmother, while the JML 1902 line bears the image and birthdate of Sanchez’s grandfather.
Sanchez breaks down the anatomy of his Tradición Cuba cigar: first, the outer cedar wrap that infuses the cigar with its aroma. Then, there is the Ecuadorian wrapper—a full tobacco leaf, thinner than a sheet of paper. He nonchalantly unwraps and breaks apart each component, like the “Mad Scientist” that the neighborhood has dubbed him, in “The Lab”, admiring his work. The third component is the Honduran binder, which holds the final component—the Nicaraguan and Dominican filler—together, completing the four-nation blend.
For Sanchez, La Tradición Cubana is about returning to his roots. From the original farm, La Roca, to now sharing the business with his sons, every generation revisits the timeless practice like a route back home. And as the tradition continues, the roots extend deeper.
García’s Seafood Grille and Fish Market
398 NW N River Drive, Miami, FL 33128
For over fifty years, García’s has sat on the bank of the Miami River where the aroma of seafood wafts in and out. Named for the founding brothers, García’s Seafood is at its core about family. The founders’ father, Esteban García, was a fisherman in Cuba, catching not only stone crabs, but also lobster and fish, an unusual feat for one fisherman to accomplish. Upon government confiscation of the fishing business in 1964, the García family made their way to the United States, and following in the footsteps of their father, Sammy and Luis García opened their fish market in 1966.
María Luisa García, more affectionately known as the Garcia brothers’ mami, runs the fresh fish counter, plentifully lined with lobsters and crabs. On the first floor, the kitchen is exposed, cordoned off by the counter—a quick stop for locals to eat, drink, and go. Nautical wooden pegs hold up the window tables as ship wheels and swordfish decorate the walls. Hints of Cuba peek through, as “Rey de Cuba” and “Carmen Flor Fina” cigar iconography embellishes the counter paneling.
Near the kitchen, the window props up a white board menu that display the fresh catch and soup of the day—this time a lobster bisque, so smooth it rivals silk. The fresh catch is carried into the restaurant every morning before noon, caught off Key West. García’s offers yellowtail salmon, Florida-Caribbean lobster, and grouper steak, the last of which Sammy enthusiastically notes extracts more flavor in this form.
In addition to outdoor seating overlooking the nearby marina, the upstairs houses the physical restaurant and bar. The ambience and dark wood furnishings evoke the hull of a sailing ship breached by sunlight. Around the corner, framed pictures of their father, mother, and the García brothers reside. Here, etched in the family portraits, captured in the décor of the restaurant, García’s honors its family legacy.
Café La Trova
971 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33130
Café La Trova is a carefully curated scrapbook for an experience through age, space, and place. It delivers a trip through decades and countries, bridging Miami and Cuba in a single establishment. The vibrant teal paint outside provides little indication of the precious capsule inside. As you walk into the restaurant, contemporary Miami fades into a swath of light, and you are welcomed into an homage to Cuba. An ivory chaise lounge draws the eye to an antique display case, overflowing with cocktail bar tools and mixers, and finally a black-and-white photograph of Julio Cabrera, the famed Cantinero and founder of Café La Trova.
Los Cantineros incompletely translates to “bartenders,” but the rich tradition of Cuban Cantineros encompasses much more—an elegance and an art. In fact, the Cantinero bar bears the inscription “Welcome to Café La Trova Miami, el Arte del Cantinero since 1924.” Cabrera and La Trova Cantineros keep the tradition alive in burgundy and black tuxes and clean-shaven faces, delivering an experience. After all, the trade is about the feeling. For Cabrera, being a Cantinero is a family profession; his father owned a bar in Cuba until its confiscation and exile, and Cabrera promised his father to re-open it one day.
Café La Trova is the fulfillment of the promise. The restaurant boasts the Cantinero bar, evoking Prohibition-era confidence, serving classic Cuban drinks like an El Presidente and the Daiquirí. House-made drinks like El Guayabero—a mixture of guava marmalade, tequila, cayenne-agave syrup, and lime juice—present a fresh alternative.
The restaurant itself features a weathered house front façade from Santiago, Cuba. The original numbers, 971, hang on the wall, which serves as a backdrop to the stage. Café La Trova often features la Trova music or Latin jazz. Chef Michelle Bernstein, a recipient of the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award, supplies a host of Cuban foods with a Peruvian influence—ham and cheese croquettes in a bed of fig jam, ceviche with Peruvian yellow pepper and Mexican avocados, empanadas filled with hand-cut steak. The local catch sits in a bed of coconut rice and sweet plantains, while the arroz con pollo is cooked paella-style on a flat top, a mouth-watering combination of Bomba rice, saffron, Spanish beer, and range-free chicken.
As you move through Café La Trova, the walls transition, from Santiago to traditional Cuban advertising, until finally into 1980s Miami. A neon pink “Miami 305” sign illuminates the 80s bar and framed Guns n’ Roses posters. The atmosphere shifts, now reactive and electric. A disco ball reflects a phosphorescent light against the mirrored walls.
Like in a museum gallery, you move freely between the spaces and, by extension, times. Café La Trova is the curator and historian of Cuban arts, cuisine, and music, not only in Cuba but also in Cuban Miami. The restaurant is itself a Cantinero that crafts and pours out the spirit of Cuban culture.
YUCA – Young.Urban.Cuban.American
501 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139
In the midst of the pastel art-deco architecture of Miami Beach, YUCA is modest with its smooth, white mid-century exterior. Yet, the restaurant stands as an icon of a generation—the young, urban Cuban-American.
For those who emigrated from Cuba following Castro’s coup, there was a need to redefine themselves, and thus came the term “Yuca.” Opening in 1989, the restaurant is emblematic of this generation’s new identity. The interior is a tropical call to the homeland, with luscious banana leaf wallpaper enveloping column and wall alike. The bar’s deep cobalt mosaic reflects the Caribbean waters. Antique-inspired frames and light fixtures hang throughout the space as reminders of a time too close to be forgotten but just out of reach.
The food presents the Yuca generation as distinctive from the previous. As the originator of Nuevo Latino cuisine, YUCA embraces Miami’s culture, to which Cuban immigrants are essential. Offering starters such as croquetas, from goat cheese to truffle and serrano ham; beef, cheese, and guava and cheese empanadas; and bacon-wrapped dates, there is no shortage of reinventions of classic Cuban foods. The mojitos rival the vibrant green of the walls, with their mint blended with lime, sugar, and rum, a refresher necessary for the Miami heat. For an entreé, there are few meals that rival the ropa vieja, the national dish of Cuba. The traditional plate features slow-cooked shredded beef, dreamily tender and sweet, over fufu de plátano, topped with crisp breaded onions and peppers.
For owner Janet Suarez, YUCA represents not only the cuisine of the Cuban-Americans, but also the spirit of music, the quintessential lifeblood of Cuban culture. The upstairs of the restaurant holds the YUCA Lounge, where performers like the Grammy-winning Albita first began. Evoking the famous Tropicana cabaret in Havana, the lounge crafts a space for enjoyment and celebration. Here, the fusion of music and meal, of America and Cuba, is evident, clearly coded in YUCA’s DNA.
