With the dawn of the 20th century, Havana became an exciting city: new hotels, theaters, museums, restaurants and cabarets boosted its cultural attractiveness, placing it at the level of some of the world’s major capital cities. The movers and shakers of its nightlife were the bars, including Sloppy Joe’s, which was as popular as others located nearby: El Floridita, Habana del Sevilla Biltmore, Bodeguita del Medio, Café El Louvre, and others on Monserrate and Obispo streets.
From 1920 to 1933, Prohibition was in effect in the United States, and bartenders, tourists, and businessmen flocked to Havana to mix and mingle in the forbidden taverns.
On the corner of Zulueta and Ánimas streets, close to the Parque Central and the Paseo del Prado, Sloppy Joe’s became an obligatory stop for visitors. Its owner, José Abeal y Otero, a Spanish immigrant who came to Cuba in 1904, founded the bar in 1918 after having worked for years in New Orleans and Miami bars, and for a brief period in Havana restaurants. He called it Sloppy Joe’s because of the mess and filth that he found when he bought the locale (originally a store selling food and beverages), adding his nickname (Joe for José).
Described by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the most famous bars in the world,” it became a temple for Hollywood stars of the 1940s and 50s: Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Gregory Peck, Ernest Hemingway, Mario Moreno (Cantinflas), and many others enjoyed its splendid cocktail menu – a list of 80-plus. Subsequently, the bar was immortalized by the British writer Graham Green in his novel Our Man in Havana (made into a film starring Alec Guiness).
For many years, the legendary bartender Fabio Delgado worked at Sloppy Joe’s; he was an essential point of reference in his specialty and the creator of well-known cocktails such as the Negroni Especial, Sol y Sombra, Cubanacán and Cuba Bella.
Shut down in the 1960s by a devastating fire, the bar reopened in April of this year after meticulous research and the technical intervention of experts from the Havana City Historian’s Office, who recovered elements of the bar, its architecture, functional structure and ambience.
Now the bar is run by the Habaguanex company. Manager Ernesto Iznaga provides us with details: it has a mahogany bar—the longest in Cuba—that seats 25; a 75-seat lounge; and a menu chock-full of cocktails, snacks and tapas, reinforcing the magnetic appeal of its tradition with the Sloppy Joe’s special (a cocktail and a sandwich).
(by Fernando Fernández Milián)
Author
Redacción OnCuba
Conocí a Fabio Delgado.