RESTAURANTE FLORIDITA. La Habana, Cuba. Coaster

RESTAURANTE FLORIDITA
cuna del daiquiri
La Habana

Coaster.

Floridita or El Floridita is a historic fish restaurant and cocktail bar in the older part of Havana (La Habana Vieja). It lies at the end of Calle Obispo (Bishop Street). The bar opened in 1817 with the name La Piña de Plata (The Silver Pineapple) in the place it still occupies. The Catalan immigrant Constantino Ribalaigua Vert started working in the bar as cantinero (bartender). Constantino, nicknamed Constante, became the owner in 1918. Constante is credited for inventing the frozen daiquiri in the early 1930s, a drink that became linked to the fame of the place. Ernest Hemingway wasn't the only famous customer of the bar: the establishment was frequented by many generations of Cuban and foreign intellectuals and artists as Ezra Pound, John Dos Passos, and Graham Greene.

Traveler's collection.