Cuba Libre Inspires Ten Years Later

Trey Popp revisits ten-year old Cuba Libre and finds that the kitchen has been reinvigorated as chef Guillermo Pernot has unleashed 25 new menu items.

The surprises began early with a plate of baby octopus unlike any I’ve ever encountered. Center City has no shortage of kitchens offering baby octopuses—Philly excels in the eight-armed-animal department in general—but the specimens passed off as babies everywhere else are great honking sea monsters next to the ones sprinkled like popcorn atop a smoky, spicy, sesame-tinged mound of mashed eggplant that hit the Asian-Caribbean fusion bull’s-eye. These char-edged baby octos could have swum through a child bride’s wedding ring. They could have been served on nickels without blocking the view of Thomas Jefferson’s ponytail. But they could not have been any more addictively delicious.

The Revisit: Cuba Libre [Philadelphia Magazine]

Cuba Libre
10 South 2nd Street
215-627-0666
2 Reviews

Photography by Shane Canyon Walsh