Cuban Cuisine Is Served At Little Havana

The business is tucked between a fast food giant and an upscale restaurant that closed years ago.

The sign for Little Havana Cuban Cuisine is hidden behind the must larger and brighter KFC sign.

Because Ye Olde Fireside Inn has been closed for a while, people automatically have assumed Little Havana is closed, too.

"We get a lot of people who don't know we're here," said Adriana Hernandez, who co-owns the restaurant with her husband, David.

They know how to keep the customers they do see. They keep seeing them again and again.

"We have the best Cuban food in Hernando County," Hernandez said. "We have signature dishes - pork, yellow rice, black beans."

Another signature special is paella, which includes shrimp, muscles, scallops and rice.

Among the homemade desserts is a coconut flan. Through December, Hernandez also is offering a pumpkin flan, which already has been a popular choice.

Hernandez was born in Cuba. Her husband was born in El Salvador. They met while they lived in Elizabeth, N.J., and Newark, N.J., respectively.

Hernandez's daughter, now 20, insisted on attending college in Florida. Her mother, who had an uncle in Tampa and had always wanted to live in the Sunshine State, didn't object for long.

"She told me, 'With or without you, I'm going to college in Florida,'" she recalled. "I was burned out with my job and I needed a change, so I said, 'Why not?'"

While visiting her uncle, Hernandez and her husband looked at places to live in Spring Hill. They fell in love with the area. Hernando County was affordable, expanding and seemed like a good place to start a business.

David Hernandez worked as a waiter while in San Salvador, El Salvador. That was where he got his first taste of working in a restaurant.

He spends a portion of his week at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Ridge Manor. The rest of the week is spent managing the dining area at Little Havana and fixing whatever is broken, whether it is the ice machine or soda dispenser.

He doesn't like to mess around in the kitchen.

"I make sure the service is right," he said as he sat in the dining room. "I stay in here most of the time."

He chuckled when asked whether he likes to cook. He gladly leaves that to his wife.

"My house was always the place people came to," said Adriana Hernandez. Her flair for cooking was ingrained in her at a young age.

In between living in Cuba and New Jersey, she spent a few years of her life in Spain.

She has been all over the world and learned how to make a variety of cuisines. The regular customers at Little Havana appreciate her.

Hernandez will make rabbit stew for one person, ox tails for another and then might serve a dish of octopus over potatoes for someone else.

"I will cook anything anybody wants," she said.

Owning a small-town establishment allows her to do that.

While she wants more customers, she does not want to lose that one-on-one service she and her husband have cultivated during the past 18 months. They have eight employees, including two who help Hernandez in the kitchen. It is a family atmosphere.

"It's been a challenge being here, but it's been a lot of fun," Hernandez said. "Talk about destiny. I really feel like this is my destiny."

Biz at a glance:

Name of biz - Little Havana Cuban Cuisine

Owners - David and Adriana Hernandez

What it is - Sit-in restaurant that serves Cuban cuisine and other Spanish, Latin food

Where it is - 1147 S. Broad St. in Brooksville

Get in touch - 352-797-7776