Nightlife Page 2

Delirio Habanero Bar

A great post-theatre, -show or -dinner place. Live bolero and son are played in a cosy and intimate setting with an impressive night-time view on to the Plaza de la Revolución.

Footprint:
A not-to-be-missed Havana experience, the supremely tasteful El Delirio has a fantastic setting with great views over the Plaza. The atmosphere is intimate, the crowd unpretentious and the music uplifting. Thursday and Saturday are when the talented Los Tres Habaneros take centre stage, playing to a mixed-aged crowd of impassioned salsa devotees. The 10 CUC consumo mínimo admission is a great deal with delicious cocktails and attentive waiter service. Good value snacks are served, and if you haven’t reserved a table it’s worth arriving early to stake your claim for the best seats in the house, the squashy red sofas by the windows. If you haven’t had your salsa fill by 0200 head downstairs for a final sweaty hour at Café Cantante.

• Address: Teatro Nacional, Plaza de la Revolucion, Paseo, esquina a 39
• Tel: 335713
• 10 CUC consumo mínimo
• Open: noon-4am daily

Del Oriente Café

Also overlooking Plaza de San Francisco, Café del Oriente is a chill-out favourite. For some strange reason jineteros don't seem to descend on this place, so the pleasures of sipping a mojito and watching the plaza go by can be savoured in peace. Quality bands entertain both inside and out. The swish surroundings of the interior are the excuse for relatively expensive food. Service is excellent.
Air-conditioning. Outside tables.

• Address: Calle Oficios, esquina a Amargura (602917)
• Open: Bar 24hrs daily. Restaurant noon-midnight daily
• Main courses: 12-30 CUC

Diablo Tun Tun (El)

Reopened in November 2002, this establishment is located in the upper floor of "Casa de la Música" (House of music)in Miramar.A very well achieved mixture between piano-bar and a place for live performances that attracts a wide variety of people - from the quiet-well-bred kind of type to the craziest of "salseros" - but all "night-birds". That´s really amazing! The place is always crowded. We definitely believe, without exaggerating, that those who don´t go to the "Diablo Tun Tun" are not living the Havana nights.

• Address: Calle 20 esquina a 35. Miramar. La Habana Tel: (7) 2040447
• Open:

La Dichosa

Opened in 2000, on the popular Obispo street, this graceful and aired café is a nice stop in the walks through the Old Havana. They use to put Benny More’s songs. The waiters are very pleasant and proffesional.This is one of the best places of this part of the city.

• Address: Habana esq. Obispo, La Habana Vieja

Don Giovanni

Footprint:
Nightly from 2300, except Wed. Free. Open-air, live salsa venue popular with Cubans priced out of the dollar clubs and bars and often trying their hand at hustling the drop-by tourists. Free entertainment line-up of jovial music, vigorous dancing and a bloke who has a peculiar talent for being able to spin huge wheely bins. There is a heavy, but not threatening police presence.

• Address: Outside Don Giovanni restaurant.

Dos Hermanos

As befits its location, this is a port-style bar, with the hookers around the back to prove it. It tends to be empty as it's just off the beaten track, but don't let this dissuade you from giving the Two Brothers a go. There's a good selection of reasonably priced cocktails (2.50CUC) and the cheap food is actually rather good. A better-than-average band provides entertainment – shame their ridiculously loud microphones ruin the show. Visitors hoping for a conversation will be leaving at 10.30pm.

• Address: Calle San Pedro #304, esquina a y Sol (no phone)
• Open: 24hrs daily

Degustador Museo del Chocolate

In the inside of this interesting museum, opened at the end of 2003, some few tables are set up where you can taste a cup of delicious chocolate which is exclusively gained out of the famous Baracoa (Guantánamo) cocoa plant. Its difficult to chose between its specialities: the “Traditional” with vanilla or cinnamon, the “Azteca” with pepper and nutmeg. A lot of those walking around in old Havana are joining this place to enjoy and to recover strength. What an exquisite and advisable habit!

• Address: Calle Amargura esquina a Mercaderes. La Habana

Bar del Edificio Bacardí

Keeping its original Art-Decó stile, this half-hidden coffee shop, located in the mezzanine of the admirable Bacardí building is one of the "connaisseurs" favorite corners in Havana.

• Address: Monserrate e/ Neptuno y Empedrado, La Habana Vieja

Escabeche, Casa del

A cosy but often packed little bar, which serves very good mojitos, with live son music from noon to 5pm every day.

• Address: Calle Obispo #505, esquina a Villegas
• Open: 24hrs daily

Café del Hotel Florida

In Hotel Florida, there is one of the most beautiful places in all Havana: this Café. It is quiet and charming, having a bar with tables inside and a patio. Recommended.

• Address: Obispo esq. Cuba, Habana Vieja

Floridita

It is one of the 10 best bars in the whole world. What more to tell? Elegance, tradition and excelent cocktails. Floridita’s daiquirís have a unique taste that can not be found elsewhere. Is this magic?

• Address: Egido esq. Obispo, La Habana Vieja

Bar Los Frailes

Located next to the reception of Hostal Los Frailes, this bar has a decoration that makes it cosy. Here, it usually performs a quartet of clarinets -rare in Havana- that contributes to create a quiet ambience.

• Address: Hostal Los Frailes. Calle Teniente Rey. La Habana

Fresa y Chocolate Café

It is named after the famous Cuban film because of its location: the inner yard of ICAIC (Instituto de Cine) the Cuban Cinematographic Institute. Mostly Cubans use to join this cosy terrace bar (many local film makers, actors and showbiz people) to have a chat, a drink or to assist to some performances given by troubadours, rockers or small alternative groups. Moderate prices.

• Address: Calle 23 entre 10 y 12, Vedado. La Habana.
• Open:
  

Fuente (La)

La Fuente is a secret little garden hideaway tucked around the corner from the busy Avenida de los Presidentes (Calle G). A pleasant pond is the focal point of this very cheap yet dignified open-air café/bar. Spirits start at 30¢ a shot (the same price as a coffee), beers are just 85¢ and cocktails just 2CUC.
Outside tables.

• Address: Calle 13, esquina a Presidentes (G) (662514)
• Open: 8.30am-11.30pm daily

Fundación Havana Club (Museo del Ron)

The Rum Museum in the Fundación Havana Club is a grand setting for a bar, but the location and the prices render it a vacuum. The excellent resident singer deserves a far bigger, more appreciative audience than the cruise-ship passengers who dock across the road once a month. When there's no cruise ship in town, she stands and sings to a near-empty bar, so make the most of a private concert and drop in after the last museum tour at 4.30pm.
Outside tables.

• Address: Avenida San Pedro, entre Sol y Muralla (no phone)
• Open: 9am-midnight daily

Bar Galería del Hotel Nacional

The beautiful terrace of the garden of this hotel faces the Malecón of Havana city. It is one of the most fascinating places for watching the sun sets while you keep a nice conversation and enjoy drinking a coffee or a Mojito.

• Address: Hotel Nacional. O esq. 21, Vedado. La Habana

Bar Restaurante El Galeón

A quite unpretentious and even modest place, even if its situation, in front of the Havana Malecón, couldn’t be better. It is provided with a restaurant where you can have sea food and chickpeas for cheap prices but we definitely prefer its bar and the pleasure of enjoying the nightly fresh air, sitting at its little terrace while having a mojito or a Cristal beer.

• Address: Malecón #403. La Habana

Gato Tuerto (El)

The One-Eyed Cat used to be the place where young intellectuals and artists hung out in the 1970s and early '80s. It reopened recently after 12 years of closure, restored, revamped and redollared with pleasant, post-modern decor. Filin and bolero are still the main genres to be heard here. There's also a restaurant upstairs.

Footprint:
A 50s bohemian haunt, the sleek, post-modern, One-Eyed Cat is a fashionable medley of swaggering Cuban nouveaux riches and hip funksters, bordering on pretentious. The musical line-up swings heavily towards filín and boleros performed by local legends including Alina Torres. Elena Burke frequently received star billing here before her death in June 2002. An intimate stage set up with audience participation encouraged, so choose your seat with care!

• Address: Calle O #14, entre 17 y 19
• Tel: 552696/662224.
• 5 CUC consumo mínimo
• Open: noon-6am daily

Gran Palenque (El)

Every Saturday at 3pm the Gran Palenque outdoor bar/café hosts a live rumba show on Saturdays (Sábado de la Rumba) by the fantastic Conjunto Folclórico Nacional de Cuba. If you're into Afro-Cuban rhythms and dance, this is an event not to be missed. The Conjunto also offers dance and percussion classes.

Footprint:
On Saturday afternoons at 1500, the peaceful courtyard of this open-air, laid-back café/bar is taken over by the acclaimed Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba for an upbeat rumba show. For percussion, salsa, and singing classes with Conjunto professionals.

• Address: Calle 4 #103, entre Calzada y 5ta
• 5 CUC
• Open: 10am-10pm daily

Habana Café

The café has a 1950s wannabe air to it. It's decorated with American classic cars (a Chevy, a Pontiac and a Buick), pictures of Hemingway and loads of pre-Revolutionary memorabilia. Live traditional music is played here on and off all day long and there's a show at 10pm from Monday to Saturday. Sunday nights feature first-rate bands such as Azur Negra, NG La Banda and Los Van Van. (These concerts usually start around 11pm.) Due to the high cover charge, this is pretty much a non-Cuban environment. The food is trying to be Hard Rock.

Footprint:
Havana's answer to Planet Hollywood, Planet Havana loses its soul in favour of polished American 1950s pastiche. The suave New York lounge-style seating area is furnished with a centrepiece replica Air Cubana jet. The tassle-shaking cabaret show kicks off from 2100. The vibe is inevitably touristy, owing to the pricey cover and the crop of Mélia guests not venturing off base. The bar serves overpriced, 6 CUC, poorly executed, cocktails. If money is no issue, Sunday is the best night, 25 CUC cover, when top local bands, including NG La Banda, draw a more impassioned audience.

• Address: Hotel Meliá Cohiba, Paseo, entre 1ra y 3ra
• Tel: 333636
• 10 CUC min
• Open: noon-4am daily

Hurón Azul/UNEAC

The Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC) hosts various weekly cultural events in the patio and garden of its beautiful mansion headquarters. (The name, incidentally, means 'blue ferret'.) Saturday is bolero night (9pm-2am); Wednesdays (5-8pm) alternate between nueva trova and rumba; and Sundays (from 5pm) feature son or rumba. All events can be highly recommended, although the rumba seems to be the most popular. Quite apart from the music, you might want to check out the scene in the Hurón Azul's bar, which attracts an eclectic mix of local artists, intellectuals, tourists and jineteros.

CanalCubano: This is the legendary bar of the Writers and Artists Trade Union of Cuba. It is still animated. It has a tranquil terrace where you can see many culture celebrities.

Footprint:
The headquarters of UNEAC (artists and writers union) is housed in a majestic, colonial mansion. An inviting intelligentsia hang-out, the lovely, welcoming bar hosts regular upbeat afternoon peñas. Wednesdays alternate between nueva trova and kicking rumba, 1700-2000. Sundays feature son or rumba from 1700, and Saturdays get more sultry with bolero 2100-0100. Popular with aspiring local bohos and visiting artistic talent, this is a very civilized spot for the meeting of minds and musical energy.

• Address: Calle 17 #351, entre Presidentes (G) y H
• Tel: 324152
• Free
• Open: 5pm-2am daily

Imágenes Club

A perfect post-theatre, -movie or -cabaret venue. Live traditional and bolero music is played from 11pm onwards and light snacks and drinks are offered in the bar area. More substantial meals are also available in the restaurant.

Footprint:
A chi-chi French restaurant during its pre-revolutionary belle époque, this intimate, classy piano bar is a great place for a low-key evening. Kicking things off on the smooth side, 2130-2300, is local pianist maestro Mario Romeu, followed by nuevo imagen – the showcase for budding musical talent – and call-the-talent-police karaoke until 0130. The raunchy salsa disco until 0300 makes for a fun evening climax. Bargain 1.50 CUC cocktails.

• Address: Calle Calzada #602, esquina a C
• Tel: 333606
• 5 CUC consumo mínimo
• Open: noon-3am daily

Infusiones, Casa de las

An all-female son group and a classical string quartet play on alternate days from noon to 5pm, and there's also often a son or salsa group (at 7pm Tuesday to Saturday, and from noon on Sundays). The Casa de las Infusiones is also known as La Columnata Egipciana (Egyptian Colonnade).

Footprint:
Just off Plaza de Armas, the tea house provides around-the-clock musical beats from old time maestros, and up-and-coming talent, to a happy crowd of tourists and local devotees. With plenty of seating, this is a great, unpretentious and relatively hassle-free place to mingle and relax.

• Address: Calle Mercaderes, entre Obispo y Obrap'a
• Open: 10am-10pm daily

Ipanema Club

If you're looking for a standard club with good air-conditioning, a reasonable cover, decently priced drinks and a good mix of Cuban and other beats, this is where you want to be

• Address: Hotel Copacabana, Avenida 1ra, entre 44 y 46
• Open: 10pm-4am daily

Irakere Jazz Club

In March 2004 the Rio Club-disco gave up its former name and concept to get back to its real vocation: the world of Jazz! Those who visited the island in the seventies might remember a club named Johnny’s dream. Now its program offers again magnificent performances, mainly soloists and group releases which origins swift from national Cubans, international and jazz latino. The afternoon shows are dedicated to promote young talents (countless in Cuba). At night, “jam sessions” are performed by already well established artists. In Havana, Jazz addicts don’t get to sleep!

• Address: Calle 0 nº 314 entre 3ª y 3ª A, Miramar. La Habana. Tel: (7) 293389
• Open: