COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / CAFÉ AMID THE CRUMBLE

Searching Havana streets for El Cafe.

Popular Havana Coffee House Defies the Decay 

 By Phil Kupps--Staff Writer Pillar to Post Daily Blog   

Center of Habana Vieja, where colonial balconies sag like tired eyebrows and paint peels from once-grand facades in pastel layers, you’ll find El Café—a modern espresso bar tucked behind a worn wooden door on Calle Amargura. It shouldn't be there, not amid the slow-motion collapse of centuries. 

And yet, it thrives.   

Tourists find it by rumor. Locals come back for the cortado. The floors are original tile, faded but scrubbed daily, and the ceiling fans wobble with noble effort. Inside, it smells like dark roast and hope.   

The baristas wear linen aprons and grind beans by hand when the power flickers. They serve single-origin Cuban beans—rare in a country that exports its best crop and drinks the dregs. 

But here, the coffee is clean, strong, and unashamed of its origins.   

Outside, the street dogs nap in the sun.

 Classic cars with fresh paint jobs roll by on bald tires. A wedding couple takes photos in front of a ruin with no roof. Havana is beautiful in a way that breaks your heart. 

And El Café, with its matte-black La Marzocco machine and reclaimed wood tables, is a paradox: stylish, slow, and oddly eternal.   

A reminder that even in a city where nothing gets repaired, a good cup of coffee still matters. 

Eschew Hemingway's faded haunts discover your own 
like El Cafe #358, La Amargura, Havana Cuba.

"Che, el gato grande y anaranjado"