‘Inspired by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro,’ a New York restaurant missteps in Miami

A Mexican hangout where the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Che Guevara plotted the Cuban revolution is the inspiration behind a New York City restaurant opening a location soon in Miami.

Miami is having a problem with this.

Café Habana, set to open in Miami in the Spring of 2022, according to its website, opened its first location inside a converted New York diner in 1997. The concept is a fusion of Cuban and Mexican cuisine — with a backstory rooted in communist revolutionary lore.

“Inspired by a storied Mexico City hangout, where legend has it Che

Guevara and Fidel Castro plotted the Cuban Revolution, the flagship Café Habana location was created out of an old-school New York diner in 1997. Eighteen years later, Café Habana remains an institution…” read a description on the restaurant’s website until this week.

That information was scrubbed from the restaurant’s website and Google in the days after people in Miami discovered the restaurant’s backstory.

The Soho restaurant’s website still displays a Brooklyn mural of the late rapper Biggie Smalls, who sang the song “Get Money,” painted as “Comandante Biggie.”

In Miami, a city with a huge Cuban expat population, a restaurant that celebrates the plotting of the Cuban Revolution by the two communist leaders and rebrands American cultural icons as communist propaganda can expect pushback.

Local social media personality Josue Alvarez posted about the restaurant changing its origin story on its website.

“I’m sorry, Sean Meenan, but here in Miami, there’s two things we don’t accept: communism and gringos making croquetas,” he said on his Instagram page, referring to the restaurant’s founder.

The restaurant calls its founder Meenan, a fifthgeneration New Yorker, an “eco-conscious philanthroper [sic] and visionary entrepreneur.”

“Sean Meenan … had a dream. That dream was Café Habana,” the website reads.

The restaurant’s menu is a mish-mash of stereotypical Cuban and Mexican cuisine. Beside grilled corn topped with mayonnaise, cotija cheese and chili powder is a Cuban sandwich the website claims was voted best in New York City. Aside from the traditional ham, roast pork and swiss cheese, it is slathered with chipotle mayo and served on a roll.

Yes, there is guacamole and fried tortilla chips on the menu.

The New York restaurant guide The Infatuation called its Café Habana “a special place” and “one of the coolest restaurants in NYC.”

The restaurant’s website claims the restaurant is opening at at 229 S. Miami Ave. in downtown Miami. But a photo posted on the Brickell Living Facebook group on Feb. 3 showed a “coming soon” sign among window coverings at the Brickell Flatiron building.

Miami has reacted differently to restaurants and owners aligning themselves with the Cuban revolution.

Café Habana is less than a mile north from Brickell’s Nusr-et Steakhouse, where its founder, chef Nusret Gökçe — nicknamed Salt Bae in memes — dressed in honor of Fidel Castro on Instagram. He saw protests outside his restaurant for days.

And it comes just months after the consulting chef at a new South Beach restaurant, HaSalon — from the New York City based Major Food Group — posted a photo of a black bean dish online, lamenting “sincere pain over the Cubans who have passed away and have not been privileged to eat this black beans.”

The Miami Herald messaged the restaurant group through its social media and has not heard back yet.

Carlos Frías: 305-376-4624, @Carlos_Frías