Basic Cuban Cocktail Tradition Is Thriving in Miami

Congos beat, trumpets growth, and our bodies twirl round a makeshift dancefloor. However it’s the clean-shaven males in crisp white shirts and crimson-lapeled black tuxedo vests who steal the present, utilizing shakers stuffed with Daiquiris as percussion. That is the a hundredth anniversary of El Día Del Cantinero, and their celebration honors these cocktail-slinging whirling dervishes. 

Julio Cabrera, award-winning grasp cantinero and co-owner of Cafe La Trova, places on a masterclass behind the bar. Via deftly executed basic cocktails poured with aptitude, Cabrera introduces revelers to the proud Cuban custom {of professional} bartending. He additionally helps mentor a brand new era of cantineros. 

Cuban bartending tradition

Lengthy earlier than Cabrera got here to Miami, cantinero tradition flourished in Cuba. 

Bartending at all times held esteem in Cuba, however on Might 9, 1924, the career took an enormous step ahead, in line with Jared Brown, cocktail historian and co-author of Cuban Cocktails. On that day, a gaggle of bartenders met within the billiard room at Havana’s Lodge Ambos Mundos to compile rules for a brand new guild of cantineros.

The constitution of El Membership de Cantineros de la Republica de Cuba was authorized by the federal government on June 27, 1924. José Cuervo Fernandez served as president, and Cristóbal Blanco Alvarez was secretary-general.

In six months, the constitution had 121 members. They arrange academic packages and co-wrote greatest practices and a recipe compendium. “Again in its early days, an apprentice cantinero accomplished a two-year course in hospitality, bartending, English, and different points of the enterprise [that] the membership felt essential to the professionalization of Cuban bartending,” says Brown.

When Fidel Castro got here to energy in 1959, he disbanded the group. In 1998, Cabrera and a gaggle of bartenders resurrected it because the Affiliation of Cuban Cantineros, which nonetheless operates in Cuba as we speak.

Cantinero tradition finds roots in Miami

Cabrera has deep roots in hospitality. His father was a cantinero and owned a bar previous to the Castro regime. Nevertheless, he by no means thought he would observe in his footsteps. 

“My entire household labored there,” he says. “I keep in mind being within the bar as just a little child within the ’60s, stealing sweets and candies.” 

When Castro shut down all of the personal properties in Cuba within the Nineteen Sixties, they misplaced the bar. Cabrera went to school and studied espresso and citrus engineering. However orchard work and learning espresso within the mountains didn’t seize his coronary heart. He longed to be surrounded by individuals and music. 

A possibility to enter the resort enterprise in Cuba introduced itself. All these childhood tales drew him again like a magnet. He made his means behind the bar.

A cantinero is famend for his or her bartending method, information of 200-plus basic recipes, and meticulous grooming. However at coronary heart, a cantinero is a grasp of hospitality. 

Cantineros will “throw” cocktails from tin to tin, take a swing on the dance flooring, and serve frosty Mojito Criollos crafted with the very best elements.

“A cantinero has elegant method and is at all times a part of the present,” says Cabrera. “In the event you work behind the bar, you progress with the music, dance with the client. We’re Cuban, and in Cuba, stay music is in each bar, in each place you’re employed, a part of your day. I wished to convey genuine Cuban tradition to Miami.”

Gabriel Urrutia is a fellow Cuban, and a professor and “bevpreneur-in-residence” on the Chaplin Faculty of Hospitality & Tourism Administration at Florida Worldwide College. He remembers Cabrera’s emergence within the Miami cocktail scene in 2007 along with his underground Cuban events. 

“I might present as much as six individuals sitting at a desk on this personal membership in Miami Seaside,” he says. “No one knew Julio, however he’s a residing legend. In the event you stroll the streets of Cuba, individuals know his identify.” 

A father’s legacy

Julio’s son, Andy Cabrera, could not take the standard cantinero route, as Americans are barred from journey to Cuba. As a substitute, he realized below his father, who rigorously examined and challenged him. Via these tutorials, he soaked up his father’s classes about life and bartending.

Recognized for his showy Espresso Martini, Andy loves “…when somebody sits in entrance of me and says, ‘Wow, you’re an artist,’ or ‘You appear to be a magician making cocktails,’” he says. “After I make an Espresso Martini, I put a 360-degree spin on the pour, with the liquid transferring round with out dropping a single drop.”

Like all cocktails at Cafe La Trova, the Espresso Martini has a Cuban aptitude. Nevertheless, as a result of embargo, it doesn’t comprise Cuban espresso. As a substitute, it makes use of Cabrera’s personal espresso mix, named in honor of his father’s espresso store in Cuba, known as Sacrificio. 

“My grandfather named it Sacrificio as a result of it took plenty of sacrifice to open,” says Andy. “He constructed it along with his personal two palms and began with a number of baggage of espresso, which later changed into a bunch of espresso, rum, and a booming enterprise. Now we have an image of it hanging within the bar at Cafe La Trova.”

Recommendation for aspiring cantineros

As a child, Andy hardly ever talked and struggled to make eye contact. The cantinero model of hospitality compelled him to solid apart his shyness and join with individuals. He and his father now take their present on the highway, the place they bring about their model of bartending, music, and basic cantinero tradition to different elements of the world. 

For aspiring cantineros, Andy advises to remain hungry, verify your ego on the door, and discover a good mentor. 

“You are not simply doing it as a result of it’s your profession,” he says. “You do it since you like to see individuals smile, make individuals glad, give a superb expertise. All of the cantineros that work below Julio Cabrera work precisely like Julio Cabrera does. 

“Ten years from now, wherever they’re of their profession, they’ll nonetheless work like Julio Cabrera as a result of it’s how they realized their fundamentals. And that’s a reasonably excessive bar. When my dad got here right here, he pioneered the artwork of the cantinero in Miami. I really like working with him and respect what he has completed.”

On the Tales of the Cocktail convention in the course of the summer time of 2024, a Cafe La Trova pop-up took heart stage, Urrutia floated from group to group as he puffed on a cigar. His Panama hat pulled low, Urrutia’s hips swayed to the La Trova band that traveled to New Orleans for the occasion. 

Regardless of a gradual mist, Andy drew a crowd along with his elegant cocktail-throwing and vast smile. A trombone participant popped up behind the bar, and the semi-soaked crowd got here alive with dancing. The cantineros fell in line to sing and dance with their company, simply as they’ve for a century.

“Julio attaining the American dream conjures up us all,” says Urrutia. “Now, his son, who I watched develop up, works beside him behind the bar, doing an unbelievable job. It makes us all proud as a result of they’re a part of our Cuban household. 

“Andy, like Julio, wears his Cuban delight on his sleeve, whether or not touring the world over, behind the bar at La Trova again house, or at Tales of the Cocktail. Traits come and go, however being basic and hospitable won’t ever die. And that is cantinero tradition.”