About Café La Trova
Café La Trova opened on Calle Ocho in Little Havana in 2018 from cantinero Julio Cabrera — one of the last trained practitioners of the classical Cuban cantinero bartending tradition — and chef Michelle Bernstein. It was named World's 50 Best Bars #10 in 2023 and has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand since 2022.
The bar programme is classical Havana: daiquiris built to the Constante Ribalaigua 1930s formula, El Presidente, Hotel Nacional Special, and a rum list that runs deeper than any other bar in Miami. The food menu, run by Bernstein, is a serious Cuban-classic programme — lechon asado, vaca frita, ropa vieja — executed with an attention to detail that the cantina format usually doesn't reward.
The live-music programme runs nightly — cuban jazz and son-cubano-heavy, occasional salsa — and creates the kind of atmosphere that extends a birthday dinner naturally from dining room to dance floor. The Calle Ocho setting is the point of the restaurant; it is unapologetically Little Havana rather than trying to translate for Miami Beach.
Best Occasion Fit
Café La Trova is a birthday-dinner default for anyone who wants the evening to have music and movement. The combination of world-class Cuban cocktails, serious food, and live music means the restaurant does the occasion's work. Also one of the better first-date picks in the city for the same reasons.
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