LEO's Eats with Robin Garr
What’s so Cuban about the front of a ’58 Chevy? Simple: You’ll likely find more American cars from the ’50s still running and on the road in Cuba than anywhere else on Earth.
Thanks to the trade embargo that has existed between the U.S. and Cuban governments since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, Cubans may only buy and sell cars that were already on the road when Castro came to power. According to The New York Times, there were some 150,000 American cars in Cuba when Castro took over, and perhaps as many as 60,000 vintage autos (called cacharros) remain, most of them held together by baling wire and ingenuity.
So when you look into the large shopping center space that houses Havana Rumba’s Middletown branch, don’t be surprised to see a vintage General Motors grill and headlights looking back. It’s not a retro remembrance of a nostalgic malt shop of the rock ’n’ roll era but a salute to the Cuban spirit that remains indomitable after all these years.
If you like the original Havana Rumba in St. Matthews, which has been around since 2004, chances are you’ll like the newer spot in Middletown. It’s located in the modern shopping-strip space that once housed Pig City Barbecue, and just to keep the restaurant news ticker ticking, it’s just down the block from Simply Thai II, which dropped in recently where Mazzoni’s rolled its last oyster some time back.
Havana Rumba has laid down a touch of Cuba over the bones of Pig City, choosing decor that matches the other venue: comfortable leather-and-wood taburetes, chairs made by Cuban-American producers in South Florida; genuine Havana cigar-box labels laminated into the heavy wood tables; and a few tobacco-leaf fans almost lost against the black ceiling high above. Conga drums make stools for the cozy bar, and an energetic musician provided live entertainment with his bongos, vocals and, apparently, a digital Cuban-band backup.
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/cuba- ... vana-rumba
And in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/cuba-and-ca ... vana-rumba
Havana Rumba
12003 Shelbyville Road
244-5375
http://havanarumbaonline.com
Rating: 85