Dark days followed the shuttering of Alberto Cabrera's Little Bread Cuban Sandwich Co. in late 2015. The ruddy-haired chef who once worked at Karu & Y breathed new life into Miami's galaxy of Cuban sandwiches when his shop opened with offerings like medianoches and Elena Ruzes built with house-made ingredients.
An unlikely couple will soon pick up that standard when Sanguich de Miami (1637 SW Eighth St., Miami) opens inside a converted shipping container in Little Havana this August.
"Everything for years has been done with that awful water ham and pork for too long," says Daniel Figueredo, who, along with his fiancée Rosa Romero, has partnered with the Local's chef Phil Bryant on the project. "The objective here is to do everything in-house."
In the meantime, Figueredo says, they'll source out the Swiss cheese and have Homestead's Cuba Bakery produce the bread using a recipe he developed with Bryant.
Romero and Figueredo have been offering a handful of Cuban and pork sandwiches in the lot where their container will sit. Their Cuban bears the same flavor profile as the classic but boasts small enhancements that anyone who eats them regularly will notice. The bread is a bit richer and denser. The ham is sweeter, and the pork has far more savory, fattier richness than what comes off the griddles at even the city's best sandwich spots.
Romero is a paralegal, and Figueredo has spent much of his career building luxury boutiques for high-end designers like Rolex, Hublot, and Louis Vuitton. Their venture into the culinary world began at home.
"For years, all of my friends used to come over on the weekend for beer and sandwiches, and they kept telling me I had to do something," Figueredo says. "Earlier this year, I woke up and said, 'I'm tired of working for someone else. Let's do this.'"
Sanguich's vast majority of Cuban sandwiches — medianoches, Elena Ruzes, croqueta preparadas — will be priced from $8 to $10. Classic batidos like mamey will cost about $6, and special batidos such as flan, cheese and guava, and buñuelos, will go for around $8.
Once the container is up and chugging, Figueredo hopes to start making bread in-house as well. The day can't come soon enough.