Havana Café

Description:

• Set in Pointe du Bout, amid the densest concentration of tourist hotels and leisure facilities of Martinique, this cafe evokes an idealized version of Cuba in its most decadent period, just before the rise to power of Fidel. Amid a color scheme of bright yellow and blue, and prefaced with a big American sedan, painted yellow, from the early 1960s, a mostly French-born staff serves stiff drinks as well as meal-size salads, burgers, grilled cutlets, and heaping platters of mussels. There's a selection of raw tartars of fish, and a house cheeseburger called a "Havana Burger." And for anyone nostalgic for metropolitan France, there's a short list of des galettes, the buckwheat crêpes endemic to Brittany stuffed, Breton style, with savory or sweet fillings that include ham and cheese or ice cream with chocolate sauce. Some kind of music, either live or recorded, rocks-and-rolls the place every evening between 9:30pm and midnight, during which time it takes on the aura of a holiday maker's singles bar. There's another beachside branch of this place, Havana Plage, at Grand Anse, Anse d'Arlets (tel. 596/69-07-38), with the same menu items, prices, and hours, but the Le Cabestar Café is the more animated of the two.

• © Frommer's 2013