At the top of Calle Obispo at Monserrate is the tiny Plazuela de Albear which is one block east of Parque Central. The tiny Plaza is special, not only because it contains a monument to Francisco de Albear who engineered the Malecón, but because on the south-west corner is El Floridita Bar & Restaurant.

 

La Cuna Del Daiquiri (The Cradle Of The Daiquiri) is the famous bar and restaurant haunted by Ernest Hemingway. Inside, a bronze bust (inset) of the legendary author watches over his seat at the dark mahogany bar which is preserved as a shrine.

 

Famous photos of Hemingway with Castro line the walls where he drank frozen daiquiris with such illustrious guests as Gary Cooper, Tennessee Williams, Marlene Dietrich and Jean-Paul Sartre. Hemingway imortalized both the drink and the bar in his novel Islands in the Stream.

 

The restaurant has been at this location since 1819 but it has been fully restored to an art-deco 1930's style for tourist consumption. They've overpriced a frozen daiquiri to $6.00 CUC, but what the hell -- sipping a cold frozen daiquiri at El Floridita is a tourist must!