But you better lose the mukluks and have your boarding pass in hand, because even if you live in Miami, it's worth the journey to Homestead for a meal at Mario's Latin Cafe. Maybe you haven't heard of it, but the locals sure have, at least judging from the crowds both inside and ensconced on Mario's spacious outdoor patio on a pair of recent visits.
What they've heard is that Mario's serves huge portions of Cuban-slash-Latin food (plus the occasional gringo favorite like pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, and chicken fingers for the kids), food that's full of rollicking good flavor, yet is blessedly affordable. (Most of the twenty or so entrées are under $10; if you absolutely must splurge, the most expensive item on the menu, the New York steak, costs all of $14.99.)
They've heard the place itself is sweet: big and comfortable, with homey little murals on the walls and lots of cozy booths; that it's open for takeout 24 hours a day, and even delivers in selected areas from 10:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night; that the beer is cold and the café cubano can make dead men soar like Dwyane Wade. They've heard the people are sweet too, that service is smiling and friendly, also efficient, that for any hint of 'tude you'll have to go further up the turnpike.
How good is Mario's? Well, as good as the thumb-size, barrel-shape croquetas, packed with chunks of ham and fried to a crisp mahogany. As good as the beef-filled empanadas, triangles of light, flaky pastry encasing deeply flavorful ground beef. (The ham and cheese ones aren't as interesting, though — bland like a plain ham sandwich with hardly any of the advertised cheese.)
Mario's kitchen has a serious love affair with garlic, adding it generously to many dishes and providing tiny plastic cups of it at the table. If much of the Cuban food in this town seems timidly seasoned and dull, prepared by chefs who have barely even heard of salt, Mario's bold spicing and free hand with the stinking rose will make your taste buds sit up and take notice, especially in the shrimp in creole sauce, a ramekin swimming with plump, fresh-tasting shrimp in modestly spicy-garlicky tomato-based broth strewn with sautéed onions and red and green bell peppers.
Masas de puerco shows why Cuban restaurants are to pork what Michelangelo was to painting church ceilings. Fat chunks of pig as big as a baby's fist are slow-cooked to almost teeth-free tenderness, then fried up crusty and presented with a slice of lime and dab of raw, minced garlic to complement their impressively rich, meaty flavor.
An evening's special of arroz con pollo was just as tasty, half a chicken cooked until the meat fell off the bone with the merest wave of a knife on a mound of dusky ochre rice. With the exception of some limp, mealy fries, sides (choice of two per order) were very good; the soupy, cumin-scented black beans were great.
Tres leches cake was damn good too, moist and flavorful, with dollops of caramel-tinged whipped cream piped on top and plenty enough for two, the final reason why even a snow-loving Eskimo should mush on down to Homestead to eat at Mario's Latin Cafe.
1090 N Homestead Blvd, Homestead; 305-247-2470. Open Monday through Friday 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 6:00 a.m. to midnight. Takeout open 24 hours.
