by Lonnie Turner » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:25 pm
Went to Cuba Libre tonight. We never eat at a place that has been open less than 60 hours; we wait a month or at least a couple of weeks. But this is so close to home we had to bite. By 6:00 there was no more parking to be had. Luckily some daytime-hours-only businesses are adjacent with even more parking in the general shared expanse of Highlander Point and we weren't the only ones taking that option. As many people know, this was a Tumbleweed until about a year ago when they moved to other quarters a couple of hundred yards away. The clear division between the bar and dining area is gone. The former is now a cresent moving into a large, open dining space with white ceiling, sunny yellow walls, shiny hardwood floor and ample diffused recessed lighting. With eye problems in middle age, I am acutely aware of lighting and Cuba Libre has a perfect balance. There is plenty of light to read the menu and see quite clearly the entire dining room but it seems very relaxing and intimate with no harsh shadows or glares despite the overall light colors in the restaurant. Maps of Cuba are sandwiched between white tablecloths and clear plastic covering. Decorations with seashells and potted ferns & other plants accent the area. We've not been to Cuba but it reminds us of some places we've been to in Key West, but cleaner. A Gloria Estefan concert played on TVs through the place with the sound system at an unobtrusive level. The bar was OK, fine service throughout, but selections were just serviceable. There are about a dozen typical beers and, interestingly, wine from Huber if you're partial to "eat/drink locally". Plenty of mixed drinks, especially of the Caribbean type, are on hand. A number of pretty good (Bacardi, Beam, Black Label) to very good (Woodford, Maker's, Courvoisier) liquors were on the bar shelves. As time goes by I hope they'll work on the beer & wine options. Still, I expect folks opening a new business can only choose so many battles at first. If for opening week it was between a great beer/wine list and great food, well, they made the right decision. The dinner menu all told is half a dozen pages and promises not only the supper we were there for but also lunch and even breakfast, though options for these were not listed. The breakfast menu is not out yet. We just couldn't get past the appetizers and ended up getting a tapas platter with veggie tamales, empanadas, pork croquettes and something else that I forgot what it is called. To compliment the tray of goodies my wife had a thick soup of mixed plantains and potatoes and I had the black bean soup. Except for the tamales (string tied the corn husk wrapping in four directions), all the selections on the tapas sampler were fried and yet we were amazed there was no greasy food at all. The outer shell of the empanadas (my wife declared them the best she could remember eating), the croquettes and whatever the heck that other thing was all behaved similarly. With a gentle press of the knife the crisp exterior cracked and showed the fried skin to be almost (construction) paper thin. Then the knife almost dropped of its own weight to the plate to shear off a bite filled with moist, delicious filling. A family of six was waiting between the inner and outer doors when we left and I assured them the wait would be worth it.
P.S. - sorry about all the parentheses, I'm not a real writer
P.P.S. - sorry about the P.S., same deal...
