Cubana Bar & Restaurant London
Cubana is a Cuban bar-restaurant based in London. Cubana's founder, Phillip Oppenheim, and a group of investors travelled to Cuba in 1997 just after the 'special period' when Cuba's economy was affected by the fall of the Soviet Union. They found a pop-up bar in Havana where they first tasted the now well-known mojito cocktail.
Food was in short supply in Cuba at the time, but they found traditional plantation recipes in old cook books which they bought in markets and from pre-revolutionary plantation cooks
Cubana opened in London's lively Waterloo district in 1998 and has grown in size since then, with a new roof terrace planned for 2020.
Cubana is also known for a strong ethical policy, having been the first restaurant to have an 100% free-range meat and eggs policy. Cubana is also plastics-free, pioneering the use of compostable coffee cups and plastics-free cups, takeaway boxes and cutlery as well as straws.
Cubana opened its second site in London's Smithfield in 2015.
Fidel Castro was a shareholder in Cubana when the restaurant launched in 1998.
Phillip Oppenheim has a background in business, having founded an IT magazine, What to Buy for Business, which was sold to Reed Elsevier in 1989. He was also elected as a Conservative MP to the formerly strong Labour coal mining seat of Amber Valley between 1983 and 1997 - he served as parliamentary assistant to the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC and as a minister in several government departments including the Treasury. He fell out with the Conservatives over his opposition to fox hunting and his socially liberal views; he subsequently was a columnist for the Sunday Times as well as writing articles from The Guardian, Independent and Evening Standard. More recently his pro-EU stance led publicly to him support the Lib Dems.
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