{"id":228539,"date":"2020-10-05T11:48:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T15:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=228539"},"modified":"2020-10-05T11:48:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T15:48:03","slug":"cuban-coffee-windows-in-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/cuban-coffee-windows-in-miami\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuban coffee windows in Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although there are those who call them windows, the windows are perhaps the Cuban invention that has had the most social impact in Miami. And also in the community life of cities with a large Hispanic population.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are small or medium-sized windows, transformed into counters that usually face directly onto the street. All kinds of sweets, croquettes, small sandwiches and, above all, coffee are served in them. Many liters of coffee throughout the entire day. Some take the opportunity to smoke a little cigar while savoring the \u201caromatic drink,\u201d as it is customary to say in Cuban journalism on the island, because inside you can\u2019t smoke.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the window is also a place for socialization, meetings where friendships are consolidated and new ones are forged. I met my best friend in Miami at the window of the Versailles Restaurant, on the famous Calle Ocho in Little Havana. This is a place also frequented (or did so before the pandemic) by people who coming out of the movies or the theater, sporting events or family parties. \u201cThe Versailles window has an interesting feature in these turbulent times in politics. People disagree as only Cubans know how to do it, but curiously they don\u2019t raise their voices,\u201d says Dionisio Almeida, a Spaniard who\u2019s been living in Miami for 40 years and who from day one made the window into a kind of office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marucha, one of its employees, disagrees. She says she has had to force people to lower their voices because sometimes they raise them and don\u2019t realize it. \u201cBut they aren\u2019t offended, they apologize,\u201d she says. In fact, what she\u2019s liked the most since she arrived from Cuba, via the Mariel sea bridge, is that there are groups that treat each other like a family, of which the employees are part. Many clients, she says, when they go on a trip they always return with a small gift for the employees at the window. The employees in that part of the restaurant, at least in Miami, are almost always women, here in the rest of Little Havana, the center of the city, and even in Miami Beach, where Cuban restaurants have a popularity that catches the attention of many people because these are neighborhoods with mostly Anglo clients.<\/span><\/p>\n

In historical terms, no one knows for sure when the popularity of the windows began. But a few years ago, <\/span>The Miami Herald<\/span><\/i><\/a> did a small study. It interviewed the founder of the Versailles, Felipe Valls, who told how the window was something he invented for his establishments, La Carreta and Versailles, \u201cas a necessity to sell more onto the street. So we sold more coffee,\u201d he explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

The window ended up revolutionizing the coffee industry. At least in Miami and in cities like Tampa and Union City, \u201cCuban coffee\u201d became popular. Of course we are talking about the style of brewing the coffee, not the coffee that comes from the island (the embargo doesn\u2019t allow it). It is served with the sugar already included, after churning it and making a creamy mixture before filling the cup. And very hot. The windows also serve <\/span>other variants<\/span><\/a> such as the cortadito, adding a pinch of milk, and coffee with milk, in which the proportion of the latter is higher. For a group of friends, a brewed pot of coffee is enough for about four or five people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Un cafecito en Miami con JennyLee Molina<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n