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La Cubana Returns to LA with a New Look and the Same Great Cuban Food

What a long strange trip it’s been for La Cubana restaurant, the Cuban dining gem in Glendale California. A long-time fixture on Colorado Avenue, the popular restaurant closed for nearly a year in 2006 while it underwent extensive remodeling. La Cubana then opened for a few months and then abruptly closed again when a new owner purchased the building.

This was a terrible turn of events for the Fernandez family, who opened their first restaurant in Glendale in 1973 with just $200 in working capital. Finding a new location took the better part of a year, but Fernando Fernandez is a proud and determined man. Together with his wife Eneida and daughter Mari, he has now relocated La Cubana to a space on North Maryland Avenue that was formerly occupied by Maurizio's Italian Kitchen.

La Cubana’s new location on a beautiful, tree-lined brick street fronted with shops and a movie theater is perfect and the restaurant itself is stunning. The dining room features earthy brown floor tiles and dark wood chairs and tables covered with starched white tablecloths.

The restaurant is very open and airy and the sound of classic Cuban salsa music provides a nice backdrop to clinking glassware and quiet conversation.

Glendale was once one of the biggest Cuban areas in California. The city doesn't have a little Havana area as in Miami, but throughout the city, you'll find several Cuban restaurants, bakeries, meat markets, a fish market, and small grocery stores.

The "A" health rating earned by this restaurant is apparent the moment you walk in the door. This is a very clean restaurant maintained with pride by the Fernandez family.

La Cubana is an intimate Cuban restaurant with real, friendly Cubans waiting on the tables. The Fernadez family works from a nicely balanced menu that spotlights the most typical classic Cuban dishes. By focusing on a more compact menu, the kitchen can prepare everything with care. A good lechón asado (roast pork) is one of our touchstones for evaluating Cuban restaurants. If a kitchen can produce a good lechón, they are doing something right. At La Cubana, you receive a very generous serving of tender roasted pork, moist and succulent. In fact, all of the entrees are generously sized, so plan to get a box for leftovers!

Tasajo is dried beef that's been reconstituted and at La Cubana, they cook it with plenty of golden onions. The onions are sweet and tender and give the meat a delicious flavor. The enchilado de camarones is a generous serving of shrimp in a piquant tomato sauce. Boliche (Cuban pot roast) is sliced from tender, slow roasted eye of round.

The fabada asturiana is a rich bean stew with chorizo, ham, and morcilla -- blood sausage. So many restaurants leave out this essential ingredient that really makes La Cubana's fabada sing. All of the entrees come with the standard black beans and rice and plátanos maduros. Diners that are more adventurous will be well served by ordering yuca as a side dish. They don't overcook the yuca here as they do at so many places and the flesh is firm, yet tender. The yuca arrives at the table drenched in a tasty garlic and oil sauce.

The lunchtime crowd still gravitates to the Cuban sandwich and the medianoche, both excellent with real ham and roast pork on real Cuban bread. The machaca de cerdo is shredded pork in tomato sauce and onions. El choripan features Spanish chorizo with ham and Swiss cheese -- kind of like a Cuban without the roast pork.

Desserts here are worth every effort to pace yourself during the meal. All are made in La Cubana’s bustling kitchen. The crème Catalan, the Spanish version of Crème Brûlée is not to be missed -- it is sweet, creamy, and oh-so-decadent with its crunchy sugar topping.

"I hope to continue to entertain our customers for many years to come by letting them experience the same things I love,” says Mari Fernandez. “We serve great cooked-to-order Cuban food that is complemented with great music, great wine and save the best for last, a great dessert with Cuban coffee or cafe con leche."

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Luis Molina Gallery

Gallery Hours: Monday through Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. | Sunday by appointment only

Address:

1634 SW 8th Street Miami, Florida 33135

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305-642-0444

www.molinaartgallery.com

Havana born Luis Molina’s art reflects a deep affinity with Afro Cuban culture with bold interpretations of orishas, guajiros and mulatas. His paintings capture the beauty and mysticism of the Cuban country people.

Molina’s work includes colorful broad stroke highly stylized renditions of both guajiros and saints alike. Many Molina works have mystical meaning to those with a spiritual bent.