Cuban Revolution Restaurant & Bar Opens Today
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 11:04AMDurham’s newest restaurant, Cuban Revolution, has been generating buzz for months, as curious foodies have awaited the opening.
The anticipation was justified, as not only does the restaurant serve up delicious, authentic food, but it's also unafraid to season its chimichurri with a dash of controversy.
I met with the owner Ed Morabito in the 3,200 square feet American Tobacco district space Tuesday that used to house the Symposium Café, in advance of the new restaurant opening today. I was intrigued by how Rhode Island's Morabito is unafraid to mix politics and food – anathema to most restaurants that pick neutral themes such as Hollywood starlets to complement their menus.
Ed Morabito talks about Cuban Revolution. Photo by Iesha Brown
Morabito, a former Republican-turned-Independent, ignored the advice of experts and decided to plunge headfirst in the realm of food and politics. As you eat your black beans and Maduros, your eyes also have a multi-media diet of Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches interspersed with music, Che Guevara documentaries and murals of the Argintine revolutionary along with former Cuban president Fidel Castro, and American icons such as John Lennon, Malcolm X and JFK.
“We were told by everyone we’d fail, and actually the more radical/ edgy we’ve gotten, [the more we] wear our politics on our sleeve, the more success we’ve had.”
He’s right.
The restaurant has been recognized in Rhode Island, where it has two locations. The Rhode Island Monthly picked it as its best new restaurant in 2008. Morabito says his best sellers there have been the pork platter or the Cuban sandwich. And development leaders here could not be more excited about the buzz it’s sure to bring downtown Durham.
Michael Goodmon, vice president of real estate at American Tobacco, has praised the new restaurant for being “one of the most talked about restaurants in Providence.”
Morabito is open about the sour taste this might leave with some Cuban Americans. He said he has spoken with someone representing the Cuban community here recently and tried to explain the idea behind Cuban food and Fidel Castro murals.
“I told them, ‘We’re not going to agree. I’m not trying to promote Fidel Castro, but rather mark the era that he was in. And you have to admit, he is an icon to many people in the third world and in the United States as well. … “I told them the fact we were discussing this was maybe good.”
“We’re not trying to hurt anybody," Morabito added. "We’re trying to create an environment that is suitable for people to look at our videos, hear our music, and maybe be free to talk about things.”
I have a call out to Duke University to get a hold of some experts there to discuss how Cuban Americans in Durham might perceive the restaurant. If anyone has any thoughts or comments about the restaurant, its food, or its politics, drop me an e-mail at lisarossi@durhammag.com. It will be an interesting one to watch, that’s for sure. 
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Reader Comments (12)
Want a plateful of more Cuba politics, debate, and controversy? Come join me on July 9 at 7:00 p.m. at the Regulator Bookshop just a few blocks away (720 Ninth Street, in Durham) for a discussion and book signing of my defiant new Cuba travel guide, Cuba Information Manual: The Definitive Guide to Legal and Illegal Travel to Cuba. The opening of Cuba Revolution Restaurant and Bar is just one more example of the current shift toward dialogue and improved relations between the U.S. and Cuba. -- Michael Bellows
The food's OK, but...............
Ropa Vieja was more like a soup than a stew.
The flan is a wedge of something resembling tapioca cheesecake, and doesn't resemble real Cuban flan in any way.
The don't even make real cafe cubano. They use "press a button on a machine" standard expresso and then add some sort of syrup. Luckily I didn't have to endure this sacrilege, since the machine was broken.
The food was undewhelming and the service even less so. Save your time, palate and money.
The food was terrible, We waited 1.5hrs to get 7 cuban sandwiches.I don;y like the fotos of castro and che.O have some cubanj friend and there are very upset.
great new addition to the durham foodie scene. nice tapas menu. the decor is more SOHO than durham. some folks have their political noses bent out of shape, but don't speak for all of us.
I hope this place gets kicked back up north where it belongs. The food was aweful and so was the art.
Morabito is a sell-out. Claiming to be "Marxist" while selling $10 dry cuban sandwiches pretty ironic. To understand what this place means to Cubans, who lost everything to a ruthless dictator, imagine a German Restaurant called 3rd Reich with pictures of Hitler, or a Chinese Restaurant Called Mao's Palace which showed pictures of Tianmen square. Not only that, this "Marixst" is quite a jerk when you don't spend enough US dollars in his enterprise--as seen in BullCityRising.com
Durham Cuban, right on! This restaurant is unbelievable. I suggest to the owners of this restaurant to open one of these in Little Havana. But before they do that, why don't they come down here and ask the Cuban immigrants about their experiences under Castro's regime. Oh yeah right, no one thinks to ask those people.
The food was ok if you like tex mex, but the service was flat out awful. Took 2 hours (yes I said 2 hours) to get our food. So many places in the Triangle that are better than this. Also, the entire politcs thing is a joke. I hate counter culture bull crap talk while charging what they do for food.
bull shit, che guevara would burn that place to the ground if he ever saw it.
As a previous comment suggested, but even more creative, If the owner is so bold and likes controversy so much, why does he not open a place called Holocaust Foodies or maybe another called Islamic Munchies where he can have videos of controversial things? No guts of course. He is just one of those pinkos wannabees that can not serve honest food and has to dress it with stuff like that. He should spend a month as a real cuban in Cuba, not as a tourist. Why do all like him just love to live and prosper in the USA while expounding on the marvels of other systems.?
Ah yes! Mr. Kyle: Che Guevara burnt many people to the ground as he was specially fond of shooting the last bullet of already dead innocents, as he did not have the guts to face a real man...
Ah, yes! Cubanito 444, what are you doing even thinking of sponsoring a place like that? Your grandmother probably turned in her grave the minute you walked in.