Good night,

Sweet Basil.

That restaurant's

brief return to the southside is over and in its place is Cafe Havana,

a restaurant serving Cuban and Spanish cuisine.

Cafe Havana

is owned by Ayman Amin and Patrice Azzarito, owners of Baci, and Stuart

and Michelle Fail. The group got the idea from a friend who owns Pepe's,

a Cuban restaurant in New York City. The friend gave them some ideas for

a menu and some recipes to try and the rest, as they say, is history.

Cuban cuisine

is known for two different types of sauces: sofrito, a tomato-based sauce

that tastes like a mild salsa, and mojo, a citrus-based sauce. Cuban cuisine

relies heavily on cumin spices as well as garlic, onion and peppers. Spanish

cuisine uses white wine and beer in the cooking and is very different

from Mexican food, which tends to be very spicy and use a lot of cheese.

The building

that houses Cafe Havana was formerly the Break of Day Bakery and the bread

oven is still there. The owners of Cafe Havana are putting it to good

use by baking bread for the Baci restaurants as well as fresh Cuban bread

for the sandwiches on the menu. The oven can bake 65 loaves at a time.

Along with

several styles of Cuban sandwiches, the menu at Cafe Havana also includes

seafood paella (a yellow rice dish chock full of seafood), paella con

verduras (a vegetable paella dish), roast pork, grilled steak, chicken

or fish, black beans, rice, plantains and empanadas, which is puffed pastry

with beef and potatoes. Cafe Havana also serves flan, a homemade custard

dish, and several forms of Cuban coffee.

"The original

idea for the restaurant was to make it an international market, like Harry's,

and sell exotic ingredients and products," said Stuart Fail. "Now,

we plan to incorporate the retial aspect into the restaurant. Customers

can call in an order, pick it up and purchase some side dishes or beverages

to go along with their meal."

Cafe Havana,

located in the Wisdom Pointe Retail Center along with Hangar 74, Baci

and Sushioshi, is open from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Monday-Friday for lunch, 4:30-8:30

p.m., Monday-Thursday for dinner, and 4:30-10 p.m. for dinner on Friday

and Saturday. Phone 770-631-1113 for more informtion.

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