One of the workers, without even looking up, answers that they’re closed and that “no one knows” when they’ll open again.
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 3 March 2026 — At the corner of 23 and L, where for decades Havana used to line up to enjoy a five-scoop ensalada (‘salad’), this Tuesday the only flavor on offer was the bitter aftertaste of frustration. The Coppelia ice cream parlor in Vedado, once nicknamed the “cathedral of ice cream,” is closed. Not for repairs, not for inventory, not for one of those usual pauses to paint the walls or rearrange the sections. The famous spot is out of ice cream and has no reopening date.
At the main entrance, under the sign that reads “Havana, real and wonderful,” five employees are just sitting around a table killing time. On the surface — instead of sundae glasses, syrups and little spoons — there are several jugs of seco cooking wine. The product, amber-colored with a faded label, seems like the unlikely replacement for the strawberry, chocolate or almond that made Cuba’s biggest ice cream shop famous.
The woman tries to convince the disappointed customer to take a gallon of seco wine
A customer approaches, still hopeful. “Got any ice cream?” he asks. One of the workers, without lifting her eyes, replies that they’re closed and that “no one knows” when they’ll reopen. The woman tries to hype up the disappointed guy, pushing him to take a gallon of that seco wine — the stuff that usually ends up in yellow rice or in a picadillo that has more imagination than meat. But the man isn’t buying it.
Over the next few minutes the same scene keeps repeating. Even though the city is practically paralyzed by the lack of fuel, Habaneros keep showing up with the dream of eating a tres gracias or enjoying a Turquino. They come because even in the worst years of the Special Period, when the scoops got tiny and the flavors kept repeating, there was always something to put in your mouth at that central location. The ice cream might have been watery or scarce, but it existed. Now, not even that.
Translated by GH
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