Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Call For Artists @ "Embracing Our Differences"
"Embracing Our Differences" is a yearly outdoor art show in Sarasota. It consists of dozens of billboard-sized images displayed outdoors. If interested in the show, go here [Link] to download the application and get more information.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The Cuban Sandwich Show, Part XIV: In closing...
This month-long festival is an ambitious undertaking made possible by David Audet and the CSS crews and hosts' enthusiastic energies and attention to detail. The most amazing thing is that with one exception (a cancellation), every event went well. The festival is a little incestuous, showcasing well-established local artists, but it brings artists from as far away as the Carolinas. One suggestion: An emerging artists show.
The thing that struck me about the CSS is that if some of its events were to be condensed into a 5, 7, or nine-day week, it could become a destination festival, one that would present Tampa as an arts-conscious city and show its best arts and locations. Corporate cooperation and sponsorship would be required, but this is doable.
On the right, at the Cuban Sandwich Nursery at Cafe Hey, David Audet, like any Father bursting with pride, is cradling and showing off his wax-paper swaddled newborn, the next Cuban Sandwich Show.
The thing that struck me about the CSS is that if some of its events were to be condensed into a 5, 7, or nine-day week, it could become a destination festival, one that would present Tampa as an arts-conscious city and show its best arts and locations. Corporate cooperation and sponsorship would be required, but this is doable.
On the right, at the Cuban Sandwich Nursery at Cafe Hey, David Audet, like any Father bursting with pride, is cradling and showing off his wax-paper swaddled newborn, the next Cuban Sandwich Show.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Vanishing Point: The Lost Art of Cuban Sandwich Signs
They used to be everywhere one went. Pictures of Cuban Sandwiches painted on restaurant front windows and walls, letting passers-by know that staple of Tampa cuisine was available inside. One by one, they were razor-bladed off windows, stripped off walls, covered over, and done away with. While at the many events of the Cuban Sandwich Show, the idea came to me to go on a little expedition to find and document the ones that are left. Here's what I found that afternoon...
Here's a very graphic rendition of a Cuban, surrounded by Modernist fluorishes. Love the abstraction in the bread crust, and the contents of the sandwich, which are overflowing from the sides, an indicator of proper excess in a Cuban.
On the right you can see the context in which this beauty floats, hierarchically above the mamey shake. All at the Lincoln Spanish restaurant.
At Mi Ranchito, here's a sign indicating the "Best Cuban" is to be found inside. I love the banner's style, and not one, but two halves of a Cuban tantalizing you. Note the de rigueur overflow of meat, and a rather honest rendition of the amount of meat in it. Also, no tomatoes or lettuce to be seen.
The art continues inside, and I went inside because the smell of pork emanating from this place is irresistible.
There they were....the sacred pair, the Adam and Eve of the Chicken World, looking over the Paradise that was their native Cuba...their descendants still prowl, crow and cavort through the Paradise that is Ybor City. On the right is the half of the sandwich that was left by the time I thought of taking a picture. Note the genuine fritas sitting atop the perfectly toasted bread crust. The Mi Ranchito sandwich has the most extraordinary pork ever.
I saw this on the side of a restaurant on Howard or Armenia Note the 8-mile banquet-style length of this one. It has an infinite momentum, & sits in a heavenly cloud, contents overflowing its sides. This one is almost in what I refer to as the "mystic float" composition that used to be the norm for these signs. It Lords over the other food options. What does realism have to do with a Cuban Sandwich, anyway?
This chunky, lettuce and tomato loaded version faces Armenia, I think. They got down to basics here. Hot and Cold Cubans, Newports, and what is that blue thing on the left edge of the frame? Talk about tradition. It's another lost thing, a public phone. Note the compositional transition between the phone box, the larger Newport cig poster/frame, and how it is about as tall as the Cuban is long. It sits in an on-the-table perspective waiting for you.
Last, but not least, is "The Best", a school-bus-size, horizontal, horizon-blotting Cuban floating on what appears to be a prairie, against a blue, nah, make that a Montana blue sky, like a low-flying UFO.
The lateral overflow is a veritable Cuban Cornucopia. This is a symbol of plenty, almost an altar to fulfillment and an icon of culture. Note how right below it sits a mammoth cup of cafe con leche, its steam rising like incense, connecting with the sandwich.
A note of thanks to these restaurants, who in an era of generic paninis, continue to offer the near-sacrament of the Cuban Sandwich, Cafe con Leche, Flan, and more, reminding us: This is who we are.
--- Luis
Here's a very graphic rendition of a Cuban, surrounded by Modernist fluorishes. Love the abstraction in the bread crust, and the contents of the sandwich, which are overflowing from the sides, an indicator of proper excess in a Cuban.
On the right you can see the context in which this beauty floats, hierarchically above the mamey shake. All at the Lincoln Spanish restaurant.
 |
| Close-up of sign on left. |
At Mi Ranchito, here's a sign indicating the "Best Cuban" is to be found inside. I love the banner's style, and not one, but two halves of a Cuban tantalizing you. Note the de rigueur overflow of meat, and a rather honest rendition of the amount of meat in it. Also, no tomatoes or lettuce to be seen.
The art continues inside, and I went inside because the smell of pork emanating from this place is irresistible.
 |
| The Primordial Chickens |
 |
| The Primordial Sandwich |
There they were....the sacred pair, the Adam and Eve of the Chicken World, looking over the Paradise that was their native Cuba...their descendants still prowl, crow and cavort through the Paradise that is Ybor City. On the right is the half of the sandwich that was left by the time I thought of taking a picture. Note the genuine fritas sitting atop the perfectly toasted bread crust. The Mi Ranchito sandwich has the most extraordinary pork ever.
I saw this on the side of a restaurant on Howard or Armenia Note the 8-mile banquet-style length of this one. It has an infinite momentum, & sits in a heavenly cloud, contents overflowing its sides. This one is almost in what I refer to as the "mystic float" composition that used to be the norm for these signs. It Lords over the other food options. What does realism have to do with a Cuban Sandwich, anyway?
This chunky, lettuce and tomato loaded version faces Armenia, I think. They got down to basics here. Hot and Cold Cubans, Newports, and what is that blue thing on the left edge of the frame? Talk about tradition. It's another lost thing, a public phone. Note the compositional transition between the phone box, the larger Newport cig poster/frame, and how it is about as tall as the Cuban is long. It sits in an on-the-table perspective waiting for you.
Last, but not least, is "The Best", a school-bus-size, horizontal, horizon-blotting Cuban floating on what appears to be a prairie, against a blue, nah, make that a Montana blue sky, like a low-flying UFO.
The lateral overflow is a veritable Cuban Cornucopia. This is a symbol of plenty, almost an altar to fulfillment and an icon of culture. Note how right below it sits a mammoth cup of cafe con leche, its steam rising like incense, connecting with the sandwich.
A note of thanks to these restaurants, who in an era of generic paninis, continue to offer the near-sacrament of the Cuban Sandwich, Cafe con Leche, Flan, and more, reminding us: This is who we are.
--- Luis
Friday, July 1, 2011
The Cuban Sandwich Show, Part XIII: Remember When? @ King Corona Cigar Bar
 |
| View of outside seating and 7th Ave from Inside King Corona. |
We speak and make sense of our world in stories. This Cuban Sandwich Show event, "Remember When?", was all about that, remembering the past, understanding it in the present, and letting its lessons help guide us into the future. The "BS session" Masterclass was held at King Corona Cigar Bar, a tawny aromatic cigar smoking parlor and bar at 1523 E. Seventh Avenue, Ybor City.
 |
| Paul Wilborn regaling us with a great story |
The cast of 'oral historians' included Don Barco, owner of King Corona, Cigar Pro and "Biggest Mangoes in Town" Joe Howden... Musician, reporter and City Liaison to Hollywood Paul Wilborn... the audacious David Audet, original Artists' & Writers' Ball member, HCC dude, artist and Maestro of ceremonies of The Cuban Sandwich Show....
 |
| One of the Famous Three D's... |
This is the historian (on the left) in one of the rare moments when he told us a story. The schoolteacher and her husband are in the background (if anyone knows their names, send them into the comments and I'll insert them ASAP), Wilborn on the right. The talk was eclectic, but centered on Ybor and Tampa, and covered an astonishing range of time and topics. I was thinking that all these people, like me, must be fishermen at heart...
 |
| Don Barco in action... |
I sipped on my huge cafe con leche, listening and ocassionally telling one of my own... There were stories about early Ybor ('twas a swamp), Bolita Kings, the economic heyday of Ybor, The Fall, what life was like (a lot like what actor/poet Pietra tells in his "I am a Cuban Sandwich" one man play), a debt repaid to a child for over seven decades -- in cannolis, the pre-American Union Labor ...
...progressives of Ybor, the Cuban and Italian influences, the ghost-town days where you could have slept on 7th for a couple of hrs without a chance of being run over(!). Speakeasies, where the counterfitting presses are still buried (don't ask!), the days of cheap no-AC apartments populated by artists. Chusmas. Living in huge lofts, big enough to bicycle in, that are now bars. Lofts where artists like Rikk Traweek, Ric Melby and so many other great Tampanians created some of their best works.
These are the dreams on which this city rests
 |
| Paul Wilborn, Joe Howden (with mango) and David Audet |
Joe Howden treated us to one of his Royal Howden of Ybor mangoes, a true rarity, and one-of-a-kind mango tree he has. It's registered with the official Mango er...registry. Having had a lot of mangos in my time, I have to report that Joe's is by far the best ever. Simply exquisite.
The talk drifted to the future of Ybor, Guavaween, and what the future holds. It was a superb, edifying afternoon with a wonderful group of cultured, highly individuated and unusual suspects, one we should definitely do again. And I discovered that a cousin I thought was long departed is still alive at 91 and living in Ybor.
Congratulations to David Audet for an idea well done, to the gracious and cultured Don Barco for hosting the event, to Joe Howden for Best Mango and his great hospitality and generosity, and to all of the participants for the tell, and passing on the pearls. Thank you. We must do this again. The idea of a Salon was mentioned, and for the record, I'm in.
--- Luis
King Corona Cigar Bar 1523 East 7th Avenue, Ybor City, 33605 (map) 813-241-9109 www.kingcoronacigars.com |
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