Friday, November 04, 2016

Requiem for the G Café

Requiem for the G Café / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 1 November 2016 — With the same impulse with which
many vegetarian restaurants were opened across the country at the
beginning of this century, there also arose the concept of a literary
cafe, a place to mix culinary consumption and good reading. With
reasonable prices and with a clientele of regulars, those places have
disappeared without any official announcement to explain their downfall.

The most emblematic of these sites opened its doors in 2005 at the
intersection of 23rd Street and Avenue of the Presidents in Vedado and
was known as the G Café. It barely differed in design from the previous
Tea House that had been very popular in the late nineties. Today, the
building shows signs of abandonment, with no commercial activity on one
of the most important corners in Havana.

When it opened, the place offered both mojitos and daiquiris, although
with the passing of the years it was common to hear the employees say
"there isn't any," and "we're all out." The lack of menu items was
sapping the popular site, condemning to closure this joint initiative of
the Young Communists Union and the Cuban Book Institute.

If, in the early years, the walls of the G Café displayed drawings and
photos by Cuban artists, today they display only dampness and a bad
smell. Some tree branches have been placed to block the entrance and the
neighbors dream that the site will be turned over to a self-employed
entrepreneur or a non-agricultural cooperative to rescue it from the
morass it has become and return it to the crowded and appreciated place
that it was.

Source: Requiem for the G Café / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/requiem-for-the-g-cafe-14ymedio/

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