Puerto Sagua

Cuban lunch counter opened by Cuban-American exiles in 1962 and still going on the same Collins Avenue corner sixty-plus years later — one of the few genuine old-guard holdouts in a stretch that has been renovated into anonymity a dozen times over. Formica counters, vinyl booths, a three-dimensional Haydee Scull folk-art mural of a Havana street scene painted on the back wall in 1979. The kitchen turns out ropa vieja, masitas de puerco fritas, and the pressed Cubano the way South Beach was eating them before Ocean Drive became a runway.

What to order

Ropa vieja with black beans and sweet plantains, a cortadito to close it out; the masitas de puerco (fried pork chunks) and the medianoche are the other giveaways of a regular. Cash friendly, service brisk rather than warm — that is the style, not a problem.

Hours

Daily 7a–11p