From the Spanish name inspired by a Seinfeld episode to the sparkly throw pillow emblazoned with Betty Paige’s mugshot (the burlesque star was arrested in Hialeah in the 1970s) to the bar lined with the same Danish butter cookie tins many a Cuban Abuela used to store her sewing kit, La Cocina’s charm boils down to its nuance. It’s nostalgic but also funny and, if you didn’t grow up in Hialeah, the bar’s decor is at once fascinating and sort of confusing. Why is there a neon sign lighting the phrase “Ñooo Que Barato,” and a chant to Fidel Castro framed near the entrance? It’s all part of the historically Cuban city’s folklore, and we’re here for it.
What is new to Hialeah is a genuine cocktail bar, and this one is precisely that, slinging craft cocktails created by Miami’s most well-known bartenders and mixologists. There’s the Qué Cute by Derek Stilmann, a gin-based concoction slightly sweetened with guava, the caffeinated Ñooo Que Barato with Havana Club rum and cold brew, and the Kaptain Kush-inspired Pata Sucia, a riff on a bourbon-and-coconut-water drink served in the plazas of San Juan, which you can only sip outside on the patio. Styled after the ramshackle-glam front yards of Hialeah—think wrought-iron bistro sets and a bar built on garbage bins—said patio serves as La Cocina’s entrance and a laid-back space to pick up a mami or hang out with your bros, bro.
