‘There’s a buzz in this city’

507 MAGAZINE • www.PB507.com THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2015 9
DINING
FOUR STARS
Big, authentic tastes from Little Havana
By Jay Furst
furst@postbulletin.com
Francisco Corripio has a great story
to tell.
The 59-year-old native of Cuba
fled the country with his family when he
was 3. He lived most of his life in Miami,
where he was a banker for 35 years, but
about 10 years ago he came down with
a rare medical condition — “I’m alive
because of Mayo Clinic,” he says.
So Francisco and his wife of 10 years,
Miguelina, who goes by the nickname,
Mickie, moved here for Mayo reasons last
year, as so many people do. One thing
led to another and now he has a Cuban
cafe tucked away in the First Avenue
Food Court, where he serves the most
authentic Cubano pork, ham and cheese
sandwich in town, as well as genuine
Pilon Cuban coffee.
Francisco’s Cuban Cafe opened a
week ago Wednesday in the food court’s
far corner, which has been a graveyard
for a few other fast food shops, but Francisco
is accustomed to beating the odds.
“I don’t have any restaurant experience
whatsoever,” he says. “I always wanted to
open one in Miami but in Miami they’re
a dime a dozen.”
With help from his daughter Lisette,
who with her husband owns a restaurant
in Jamaica called the Cool Spot, “I
believe this is going to be the first one
... we’re hoping there are more to come.”
They’re already thinking about a full
restaurant elsewhere in Rochester, if this
one goes well.
The cafe is a full-blown family affair.
Francisco, who’s wheelchair-bound,
runs the business, along with Mickie,
who donated a kidney to him during his
medical ordeal. Lisette Nunez is general
manager and an ex-son-in-law, Kevin
Jay Furst / Post-Bulletin
Mickie and Francisco Corripio opened their Cuban cafe in the First Avenue Food Court
last week, with Kevin Zapata at the grill. The fast-food cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Monday through Friday.
Zapata, is in the kitchen. Also helping is
a friend from Miami, Daisy Lara, who
like the others knows the secret of the
Cuban espresso machine.
Another daughter, Denise Nunez, was
in town this week to pursue a residency
in pediatric neurology at Mayo.
Francisco says he got into the cafe
business because he missed the food
he’s always enjoyed in Florida — “and
I figured if I’m missing it, Rochester is
missing it. It was time to give it a try.”
Two weeks ago, I wrote about Cuban
sandwiches in this column and noted
that Francisco was about to open. Now
that his foil-covered sandwich press is
fired up, I can report that the Cubano
sandwich ($6.99) is just what you’d expect
— completely different from others
available locally, and I’ll assume as genuine
as you can get in Minnesota, outside
the metro area.
As with all sandwiches, “it begins with
the bread,” Francisco says. It’s a Cubanstyle
bread, baked on the premises every
morning, crusty outside and fluffy inside.
The rectangular loaf is filled with thinly
sliced ham, pork and Swiss cheese, with a
mild mustard and crispy pickle chips.
“That’s the authentic Cuban sandwich.
It doesn’t have anything else, no salami,
no lettuce, no mayo, nothing.” It’s not
pulled pork, either, which is what other
sandwiches I wrote about last week
featured. Francisco’s uses a thin, coldcut
style piece of pork, and then it gets
grilled and pressed in a counter-top
cooker, which makes it dense, chewy
and textured, plus it’s hot through-andthrough.
Francisco’s is open from 7 a.m. to 6
p.m. Monday through Friday, and they
have a lot more than just the Cubano
sandwich on the menu, including flaky
island pastries, daily specials such as
ropa vieja, Miami-made Cuban pop and,
of course, the intense, smoky, ever-soslightly
sweetened Cuban coffee.
If you’re craving Cuban, there’s another
pressed and grilled version at Fat
Willy’s, the auto-styled bar and grill in
the Shoppes on Maine area, just west
of the Galaxy 14 theaters. They call it
the Ford Fairlane Cuban ($9.99), and it’s
a hearty handful of a sandwich, pressed
in a good hoagie roll and loaded with
seasoned pulled pork and a dash of tart,
house-made Key Lime mustard.
It may not be the way it’s served
in Little Havana, but it’s an excellent
sandwich, with a side of what they call
Backfire Beans.
Regarding the beans — you have been
warned.
Jay Furst is the Post-Bulletin’s managing editor
and writes the
Four Stars dining
out column for
507 Magazine. If
you have tips or
comments, call Jay
at 507-285-7742.
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