Havana Harry’s restaurant was just sold. Here’s what it means for this Coral Gables favorite
Havana Harry’s restaurant relied on a careful sleight of hand over the last 27 years.
It never sold itself as a traditional Cuban restaurant, happy to call itself Cuban fusion — twisting flavors from the island to make it familiar to Cubans but accessible to non-Cubans who happily waited for hours on a weekend for a taste.
Oh, and the Harry behind the Coral Gables restaurant? A bit of marketing fiction that the Cuban and American husband-and-wife owners told as an inside joke.
This week, that husband and wife, Arthur Cullen and Nieves Feal, placed that history into new hands, selling the restaurant to the Centurion Restaurant Group, the family-owned company that founded Bulla and Pisco y Nazca. And just as the company has multiple locations of those restaurants, its founder says he hopes to expand Havana Harry’s to other spots, as well.
“Havana Harry’s is doing very well and we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that,” new owner Carlos Centurion said Thursday. “I don’t think diners will see anything different, except Arthur and Nieves won’t be there.”
Like the couple, Havana Harry’s was born as Cuban-American fusion.
The Cuban-born Feal was the chef and creativity behind the restaurant, with the support and business savvy of her American husband, Cullen. Her cuisine was food that would appeal not only to Cubans but to people like her husband. And that’s when Cullen suggested the restaurant’s name should do the same, juxtaposing a fictional Harry next to Havana to cultivate an image, like a culinary Panama Jack.
Havana Harry’s is credited as one of the first, if not the first, to create chicken vaca frita, a lighter version of the iconic Cuban fried, shredded beef dish when the first location on Giralda opened in 1995.
“My husband is americano and he loves Cuban food,” Feal told the Miami Herald in 2007. “Between the two of us we came up with the idea of substituting chicken.”
Their dedication to jostling tradition continued at their current location at 4612 LeJeune Rd.
Their luscious crema de malanga soup, topped with crispy chicharrones, set the standard for decades in Miami. Mariquitas, usually served as round chips, were here instead served cut in lengthwise slices, topped with Spanish sausage and melted cheese.
And recent additions added Peruvian ceviche with aji Amarillo and octopus with garlic shrimp, the menu eager to reflected a changing Miami.
But with three grown daughters, the couple was looking to sell, and Cullen sought out Centurion because he felt his restaurant group — not too big, not too small — could continue the restaurant’s tradition, Centurion said.
“We’re not going to treat it like just another brand,” said Centurion, whose own parents are mixed nationalities, his father Cuban, his mother American from Connecticut.
Centurion said the same staff will remain in place and he met with them April 5 to discuss the sale and tell them about more robust health and vacation benefits they would have under new owners.
As for the menu, he said there will eventually be “small tinkering,” but promises the soul of Harry, whoever he may be, will remain.
