Café In Havana

Café In Havana opened its doors on NW St. James Drive in 2023, and in the time since it has become a dependable stop for Cuban breakfast and lunch in the northern part of Port St. Lucie. The restaurant is Latino-owned, and the menu reflects a straightforward commitment to Cuban cooking rather than a watered-down, Americanized version of it: strong Cuban coffee, fresh natural juices, ham croquettes, and classic sandwiches including a proper pan con bistec, the steak sandwich that separates a serious Cuban kitchen from one that is just going through the motions.

The hours tell you something about how the business operates. Monday through Thursday, it runs a straightforward breakfast-and-lunch schedule, open early at 6:30 in the morning for the cafecito crowd and closing by mid-afternoon. On Friday through Sunday, the kitchen adds a second dinner service in the evening, which gives the restaurant a different rhythm on weekends, when it becomes as much a dinner destination as a morning coffee stop. That flexibility, expanding hours specifically for the days people are more likely to go out for a full meal, is the kind of scheduling decision that usually comes from an owner paying close attention to how the neighborhood actually uses the place, rather than an operator working off a corporate template.

The food itself sticks to the fundamentals of Cuban home cooking. Beyond the croquettes and sandwiches, the menu includes heartier plates in the $16 to $20 range, kid-friendly options for families, and a Havana Family Combo built to feed a group, which points toward a restaurant that expects to serve as many family dinners as quick solo lunches. The space is described by the owners as clean and welcoming, and the emphasis throughout the menu and the branding is on freshness, from the juices to the coffee, rather than a lot of unnecessary flourishes.

For a restaurant that is still relatively new, Café In Havana has already carved out a specific role in the neighborhood: a genuine, family-style Cuban kitchen in a part of Port St. Lucie that does not have an oversupply of them. It offers dine-in, takeout, delivery, and catering, so it is set up to handle everything from a solo breakfast on the way to work to catering a bigger gathering.

If you live near St. James Drive in the northern reaches of the city and have been craving real Cuban coffee or a sandwich made the way it is supposed to be made, Café In Havana is worth building into your regular rotation, especially on a Friday or Saturday evening when the dinner service is running and the place has room to show off a fuller menu than the weekday breakfast rush allows.