Experience Cuba’s delights without leaving T.O.
Hometown Tourist is a weekly series for those who would love to travel this summer but can’t get away. Here’s how to experience the world without leaving the city
There’s fever in the air at Havana Style Café.
Humidity, sexy lighting, Espanol — and a trio of suntanned Cubans in open-collared shirts laughing as they throw back strong café and gaze toward the Etobicoke restaurant’s open windows.
Shut your eyes and the rush of traffic speeding along Brown’s Line could almost be the crash of waves against a white sand playa.
“The Canadians, when they come here — they feel like they are in Cuba,” says the Style Café owner and Havana native Iris Tarrago.
“And the Cubans, they say, ‘when I come here I can smell Cuba.’ ”
Is that the scent of slow-roasted lechon simmering in the kitchen? Cuba libre in Toronto! And not just in the ice-filled libations of rum and Coke sold briskly at this popular haunt on Saturday evenings, when Tarrago throws open the back doors of the deceptive space for the weekly fiesta of Cuban music and salsa dancing.
Decades of strangled relations between Cuba and the U.S., which recently came to an end, have helped make Canada home to the world’s third-largest Cuban diaspora. The GTA’s roughly 7,300 residents of Cuban origin have laid roots wherever “they find work,” Tarrago says, chuckling — so Cuban hot spots are spread far and wide.
Seek them out and the reward is a bounty of new flavours, a thriving Afro-Cuban music scene, and hidden retail gems that transport you to the storied streets of Havana City with its heat, history and purpose. Cigars There’s no shortage of Cuban cigar shops in this city — Thomas Hinds Tobacconist, Tabac, Casablanca Tobacconist to name a few — but Frank Correnti Cigars, 606 King St. W., takes the experience to a new level.
Hidden at the end of a narrow cobbled alleyway between Valdez and Buca restaurants, it is secreted still on the second floor of a converted stable.
Step through the doors of this 100year-old building steeped in cigar fumes and go back in time to when men in Panama hats made deals the old-fashioned way. Drift through a museum’s worth of memorabilia, press clippings and photos to where workers hunch over cluttered desks as they hand-roll about 400 cigars a day (from $11to $56 apiece), each in a traditional nine-year-old Claro wrapper.
“We keep it old school on purpose,” says Jeff Miller, whose family owns the century-old business. “One time in here is all it takes and then you’re a customer for life.” Music and dancing Toronto is a Cuban music incubator.
Hundreds of the world’s most celebrated Cuban musicians live locally or have passed through this city to train with the greats, says Jane Bunnet, a Juno-award winning jazz musician who received the Order of Canada for helping unite Cuban and Canadian cultures through music.
Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St. W., is ground zero for Cuban music and the building practically sways to the beats of rumba, mambo and cha cha cha. Since it opened 13 years ago, the event hall has become the place for salsa dancing — a quick lesson kicks off Friday nights when doors open at 9 p.m. Stick around and hear live Cuban bands beginning at10:30 p.m., such as Café Cubano on July 31, Changui Havana on Aug. 7 and Son Ache on Aug. 14.
In celebration of the Pan Am and Parapan Games, the AGO is also offering Afro Cuban Rumba classes on Aug. 8 and 15 conducted by premier Cuban dancer Dailyn Martínez and live music by Cuban percussionist Reimundo Sosa.
And you can dance at the 20th an- nual Toronto-Cuba Friendship Day on Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. at the United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St.
If you’d prefer to learn to shake your hips in private, dancer Albena Assis teaches newcomers and pros alike how to move like a Cuban at AfroLatino Dance Company, 901Yonge St. If the music is calling — rather than the dancing — zip north along Yonge St. to Soul Drums, 5295 Yonge St., for lessons with traditional Cuban instruments, such as the congas, bongos and shekere.
“It’s harder than it looks,” says coowner Doug Sole, as he shakes the traditional Cuban instrument fashioned from an oversized gourd strung with dried seeds and beads. Get solo instruction ($20 to $30 per half-hour) or join a group jam session on Saturday mornings ($10). While there, head downstairs and check out pictures signed by famous Cuban musicians. Religion Many Cubans practice Santeria. Longtime persecution for belief in the mysterious, mystical religion, which originates with the West African slave trade, has sent some practitioners underground to worship in secret — even in Toronto. But for the devout — and curious — there are ways in. Meet Andrew McGregor, owner of the Hermit’s Lamp, 425 Vaughan Rd., and priest of the “oriche” — which means spirit — of lightning. If you’re lucky, he can help unlock the door to local ceremonies. Or, sell you the tools to perform some yourself. Find cascarilla — powdered egg shell — black soap and Florida Water. Comida! From steaming mugs of Cuban coffee to tostones and mojitos, Cuban food is slowly making its way into local gastronomy and each restaurant — they’re peppered throughout the GTA — takes diners on a trip.
Step into La Cubana, 92 Ossington Ave., and into a 1940s luncheonette in central Cuba. With colourful counters, happy music and the promise of warm summer nights, it’s an homage to patriarch Emilio Mozo’s days of owning such a place in Camaguey, says grandson and coowner Pablo Mozo. “It’s an authentic taste of Cuba gone by,” he says. But with modern techniques and a contemporary twist. Think tender beef short ribs smothered in guava sauce.
For an authentic meal of Cuban home cooking, drive west to Havana Style Café, 270 Brown’s Line. Pound back strong — but sweet — Cuban coffees, sip a triga milkshake, made with puffed wheat, and disappear in- to a generous meal of crispy yuca frita and Cuban Canoa. The fried ripe plantain is firm enough to hold it’s own under a pile of braised beef yet its creamy flesh yields to the slightest nudge of a spoon.
Drinking like a Cuban is fun to do at Julie’s Cuban. Hidden amid tall semis at 202 Dovercourt Rd., north of Queen St. W., it’s a quirky eatery decorated like a snack stand. Snag reservations if you can! For Cubancurious home cooks, La Cubana Supermercado Latina, 456 Oakwood Ave., offers all manner of Cuban products.