Getting the flavor of … Florida’s Cuban outpost

Until the embargo is lifted, the best way to experience Cuba is to stroll around Little Havana, Miami's neighborhood of Cuban expatriates.

Florida’s Cuban outpost

Miami’s Little Havana is as close as most Americans can get to Cuba, said Bill Brubaker in The Washington Post. Though President Obama has eased restrictions for Cuban-Americans visiting relatives, the country remains closed off to the rest of us. Until the longstanding embargo is lifted, the best way to experience Cuba “without crossing the Florida straits” will remain Miami’s lively neighborhood of expatriates. Stroll down Calle Ocho (also known as Southwest Eighth Street) to get a taste. Versailles, a “meeting place” for exile families for more than 30 years, serves a succulent ropa vieja, shredded beef braised in a tomato Creole sauce. Follow dinner with a “lethally strong cup of café Cubano” before perusing the racks at Ramón Puig’s La Casa de las Guayaberas. The store claims to make the best guayaberas—the classic pleated, four-pocket shirts worn untucked—in the world. You can’t leave without stopping at El Credito, which has sold hand-rolled cigars made with Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco for 50 years.

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