One day like today, April 26, but in 1942, Ángel Martínez acquired a bodega named “La Complaciente” located at 207 Empedrado Street in Old Havana, the seed of what would become one of the most famous restaurants in the world: La Bodeguita del Medio.
In 2026, the establishment will celebrate 84 years since its initial opening, although historians debate the exact date: for some, the official foundation occurred on April 26, 1950, when the location adopted its definitive name and was formally inaugurated, also under Martínez's management.
The nickname that would make him famous arose from an architectural peculiarity: unlike traditional Cuban bodegas, this establishment was not located on a corner but in the middle of the block, earning it the popular moniker "La Bodeguita del Medio".
The establishment of the business as a flagship restaurant took place between 1948 and 1950. In 1948, Félix Ayón, director of a nearby Havana publishing house, began organizing meals with clients and friends that were very well received. A year later, Silvia Torres, known as "la china," joined as a cook. Her Creole cuisine—white rice, pinto beans, yuca with mojo, roasted pork, fried pork rinds, and ripe plantains—transformed the business into a resounding success.
The proximity to printing houses and cultural centers in Old Havana attracted intellectuals and artists from all over Latin America. Among its historical visitors are Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Agustín Lara, Nicolás Guillén, and Ernest Hemingway, one of the writers most connected to Havana's gastronomy.
Hemingway is attributed the phrase "My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita," displayed at the venue as if it were his manuscript. However, historians consider it apocryphal: the writer was not a regular visitor of the establishment, although he did frequently visit El Floridita.
After the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, the venue was nationalized and its walls—covered in signatures and graffiti from celebrities—were painted over, resulting in the loss of the original inscriptions. Thanks to Salvador Allende's intervention, the establishment was reopened and partially reconstructed with recovered and donated photographs.
Today, La Bodeguita del Medio belongs to the state-owned company Palmares and its clientele is almost exclusively tourists. Until the 1980s, locals from Havana could visit it occasionally, but after the Special Period in the 1990s, access became virtually impossible for most. A mojito costs around 5 dollars, an unaffordable price for the average Cuban amid the deep economic crisis facing the island.
The brand has expanded with branches in Santiago de Cuba, Varadero since 2014, Holguín, Pinar del Río, and Trinidad, as well as locations in more than a dozen countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Germany, England, and the Czech Republic.
The poet Nicolás Guillén immortalized the place in a sonnet that begins: "La Bodeguita is now the great tavern, / triumphantly waving its banner in the air, / whether it is a great tavern or a small one, / Havana justly boasts of it." It concludes with the line: "I toast for history to repeat itself, / and because it is already the great tavern, / may it never cease to be La Bodeguita."
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