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It runs parallel to the boardwalk but in Concordia street it does not break the sea nor do Cubans meet at sunset. It is one of those ways where the facades, in a miracle, seem to whisper shouting that any past time was better. However, the Havana photo must be taken here. More specifically, at number 413, where film directors Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío filmed Fresa y Chocolate , the only Oscar-nominated film on the island.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century there is the Camagüey mansion , better known as La Guarida, one of the city's culinary temples. Although on the outside, as is so often the case with these dilapidated mansions in Centro Habana , no one would suspect that we are in the magical place where Madonna celebrated her 58th birthday.
"Where have you brought me?" Queen Sofia said when she visited him in 1999, according to the story of the Historian of Havana, Eusebio Leal, who accompanied her. The perplexity is understood on the first floor, where white tablecloths lying between chandeliers and marble floors are dried every day by the rays that seep through the balconies.
The picture is completed by the chipped walls, a decapitated statue and aristocratic stairs that push to continue climbing. The Camagüey mansion is today a multifamily building. The third floor is the one that hides the palate they have visited from Mick Jagger to Pedro Almodóvar and from Natalie Portman to the Kardashian sisters, who recorded here an episode of their reality . The roof is essential: all of Havana extends at the foot of this unique corner in the heart of the dilapidated San Leopoldo neighborhood.
La Guarida opened in the summer of 1996, shortly after the Cuban government agreed to legalize palates, the name by which private restaurants are known in Cuba. Then a limit of 12 people was imposed. After the fame of Strawberry and Chocolate , its owners Enrique Núñez and his wife Odeyssi simply decided that this hidden treasure had to be shown.
"Many people felt motivated to visit Havana, after watching the film and in one way or another they always managed to find the address of the place where they longed to touch that piece of film history with their hands. But when they arrived, they found a home, like that of any Cuban family and not the baroque site, full of symbolisms that Diego had in his home. That is how we understood that we should do something to keep the history of Strawberry and Chocolate alive and fill the illusion of those who sought the reality behind fiction, "says Núñez.
More than 20 years have passed since those beginnings. In between, photographer Annie Leibovitz portrayed Rihanna on the steps of La Guarida for the American Vanity Fair . Chanel also held his private party at La Guarida after that presentation in Havana of his Cruise collection that went around the world.
But despite the VIP diners, the palate is still a place to sit at the table and have a papaya lasagna, seafood sprinkle and citrus compote; a piglet confit; or a tuna with sugarcane and coconut glaze, to name three examples of a letter .. Do not forget to book in advance, or climb to that roof to see the whole sky of Havana .
| Address: La Guarida. 418 Concordia, Havana, Cuba. Telephone: +53 7 8669047. Web: www.laguarida.com
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