By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Prestigious restaurateurs plan to bring the Cuban cocktail, cigar and music experience to London in a big way with an up-market version of Hemingway’s favourite daiquiri bar, the Floridita.
The Boisdale group and Terence Conran designers launched a joint venture with Cuba on Wednesday night to build a 10,000 square-feet (929 square-metre) cocktail lounge and restaurant in London this autumn.
It will include a cigar lounge with the first Casa del Habano shop in London to sell Cuba’s premium cigars, with rum for the cocktails supplied by Havana Club.
"We will be combining Cuban music, cocktails and cigars with contemporary design and high quality restaurants," said Des Gunewardena, chief executive of the Conran Group.
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Conran’s architects have been working with the Cubans to transport the essence of the Floridita bar to London and blend the concept with contemporary design, Gunewardena said.
"It will be a flagship for Cuban culture in Europe, and very up-market," said Andrew Macdonald of Boisdale.
The Floridita, cradle of the frozen daiquiri, was one of American’s writer Ernest Hemingway’s two favourite watering holes when he lived, fished and wrote in Havana for two decades.
The bar created a double strength daiquiri for the hard-living novelist. Other regulars over the years included Al Capone, Noel Coward, Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper and Spencer Tracy.
