14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, 20 September 2024 – Going from hell to heaven – or at least to purgatory – is a question of temperature. This is well know by the habaneros who go from the state run cafeteria Hamburgo to its neighbour, Fress. At the former, customers are welcomed by a massive wave of heat; in the independent establishment the air conditioning is working and the atmosphere is pleasant. This is just one of the many differences between the two premises in Plaza de Carlos III in central Havana.
Hamburgo suffers from every possible problem that a state run cafeteria could have, but its central location and its overheated atmosphere make the ordeal of eating there even more noticeable. In the words of the waitresses – whose ill-humour is even more of a fixture than the daily menu – it’s not that the air conditioning is switched off, but that “it’s on so low that it’s more like a gasp, it’s nothing”. Customers leave the place convinced that even a gasp would be more refreshing than the actual steam that the cooling system puts out.
Fress honours its name, which sort of sounds like the English ’fresh’. The place has fallen on its feet after many ups and downs since it started out, and now it puts Hamburgo in the shade. The bright red decor in the latter contr