Coppelia
Flying-saucer-shaped ice cream palace ringed by a legendary queue, scooping dozens of flavors under a single concrete stem.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Coppelia in Havana opens under the flying-saucer roof built to shelter a queue that could wrap the block on a Sunday in 1966, the year the parlor opened with an almost absurd menu of flavors. It follows two of those flavors into the 1993 film Strawberry and Chocolate, where a buttoned-up student and a flamboyant older artist share a bowl until the wall between them cracks. Listen for how that scene turned a neighborhood counter into a symbol of two very different Cubans sharing a table.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Avenida 23
Sloping Vedado avenue lined with midcentury hotels and a giant flying-saucer ice cream hall.
Chocolate House and Museum
Colonial mansion turned chocolate-tasting spot, serving spiced hot chocolate beside cases of vintage cocoa memorabilia.
La Guarida
Faded mansion apartment turned celebrated paladar, reached by a wrought-iron staircase past neighbors' laundry lines.