Upstarts: What Might Have Been

High-volume Cuba Libre imagines Cuban cuisine if there were no Castro.

By David Farkas, Senior Editor -- Chain Leader, 4/1/2007

Barry Gutin’s ostensible purpose in traveling to Cuba six years ago was humanitarian. He wanted to learn more about how the relatively few Jews on the Caribbean island practiced Passover Seder under an unfriendly communist regime. “What they cooked for the meal and how it had been influenced,” he recalls.

Yet Gutin’s curiosity about Cuban food extended beyond the ritual meal. The CEO of Philadelphia-based Libre Management also wondered about the extent to which traditional dishes had been affected.

“Cuban cuisine has died on the vine because of the [U.S.] embargo and the Cuban government,” he says. “Castro took chefs out of the kitchen and made them soldiers.”

Cuban Evolution

Today Gutin promotes a popular brand of Cuban-style cooking at Cuba Libre, a high-volume restaurant-bar concept with units in historic Old City in Philadelphia and in the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. Besides being the first Cuban eatery in the City of Brotherly Love, it’s also the first to offer European-style bottle service, he boasts.

“We’re envisioning how Cuban food would have been presented had Castro not come to power, if it had continued to evolve,” Gutin says. Dinner at Cuba Libre, for instance, might include something as traditional as black bean soup with sweet corn arepas (griddle cakes made with cornmeal). Or it might involve something sexier—sugar cane-skewered ahi tuna marinated with guava, soy sauce and rum.

“The important thing is that Cuban flavors are not strange to the American palate,” Gutin explains.

The mojito is certainly no stranger to Americans. Cuba Libre makes the $8 drink with fresh cane juice and a variety of fresh fruits. Juice is extracted in the kitchen using a guarapo, a small machine equipped with rollers through which sugar cane is passed. Gutin, who says he’s sold more than 175,000 mojitos, thought of displaying the extraction process at the bar, but its messiness convinced him otherwise.

The concept features a Colonial-style courtyard that has apparently caught on. “It’s very theatrical, almost like a stage set,” says Marilynn Marter, a Philadelphia Inquirer food writer who has dined at the restaurant and written about its executive chef, Guillermo Pernot. The two units—the first opened in 2000, the second in 2004—make $7.5 million in sales apiece, Gutin claims.

Getting Cheaper

The first Cuba Libre cost $4 million, largely due to individually sourcing building materials and buying antiques. For the Atlantic City site, Gutin trimmed costs by using artisans who made new material look old. “We also need to understand the optimum lead time so as not to impact costs,” he adds.

Gutin expects to open two more Cuba Libres in 2008. Possible sites include Reno, Nev., and New Jersey’s Meadowlands arena. This year, he and his partner, Larry Cohen, are designing a prototype and arranging for a private placement intended to fund growth for the next five years.

“We’re looking at gaming locations, metro-urban sites and unique shopping centers that have entertainment and restaurant venues,” Gutin says. No mention of Havana in the near future.