Havana Cafe in Franklin emphasizes the roots of Cuban cooking
Cooking for others brings Angelina Maholias back to her roots. Sundays were always at her grandmother’s for family meals. Learning from her father, she grew up working in his clubs and restaurants. He owned a number of them over the years, including The Attic in the original location on Second Street. She experienced memorable shows and perfecting the art of interacting with anyone.
Wanting to make her own mark, Maholias opened Tropical Pollo on National Ave. in the '90s, later moving to a space on Sixth and Rogers. That's long gone, but she’s still cooking.
In 2014, she opened Little Havana Express food truck. That’s often booked out a year in advance. After growing a following, she hunted for a space that was the right size and could fit her budget. She landed in Franklin, signed her lease Jan. 1, 2020, and worked on renovating the kitchen. When the pandemic shut things down, she was forced to postpone opening. Havana Cafe, 7119 S. 76th St., Franklin, officially opened its doors in September 2020.
The menu is focused, featuring her best sellers and things she’s learned customers come back for time and again.
Without question, her top seller is the Cubano sandwich featuring the special lime sauce made in-house. Hand-cut yuca fries are another best seller, and one of her personal favorites. While they’re labor intensive the way she prepares them, she thinks cutting them by hand is worth the effort.
Don’t even think about skipping dessert. Maholias prepares all the treats for Havana Cafe herself, including the flan, cheesecakes, cookies, and breads like blueberry crunch and pumpkin chocolate chip.
After walking a tightrope of planning and budgeting to get through the pandemic, Maholias sees inflation creating higher prices while families are spending less when dining out. She works to keep a positive attitude. It’s the people who have sought her out, longtime customers who have followed her from various restaurants over the decades, who still make her day.
Maholias, who lives in West Allis, talks about what she’s cooking these days and what keeps her going.
Food and family
It was always about food. When we would arrive at my grandma’s house when I was a small child, she’s got her Sunday clothes and almost a kimono, an apron with buttons and pockets. All the kids line up. She gives you each a kiss and she smells like garlic. She was always eating raw garlic. She kept it in one pocket. She’d hand each one of the kids this big clove of garlic and you’d have to eat it. In the other pocket she had Juicy Fruit gum. It is probably why she outlived her brothers, sisters, cousins!
Her roots
I grew up on the east side on Marietta and Kenwood. We’re Greek and Cuban. My dad was always in restaurants. Back in the day he opened his first restaurant and nightclub on Second street, The Attic. … It was an exciting childhood, he’d bring in performers, Wayne Newton, Everly Brothers, Blues Brothers. … I always liked the business and liked to go to work with my dad.
Every Sunday was at my grandmother’s house on Lake Drive. You had to wear your best. She was the Greek. They don't write recipes down. You learn by watching, and I was always the one who loved to be cooking and baking.
First recipe she learned
The spinach pie. Then the lamb. By the time you're 10 or 11, you could make a seven-course meal including baklava and avgolemono soup! It is just instilled in you.
Cooking Cuban
When I decided I wanted to open a Cuban restaurant, there was no Cuban restaurant back then in Milwaukee. I kept hearing, “Do Greek.” But those are here. You want to do something no one else is doing. I knew I could.
A moving mural
I’ve had this mural since I had my first restaurant. It is by Juan Flores, a painter who has done so many paintings at Spanish restaurants, the U.S. Bank building, all over. He made this one for the first place I had on National Ave. He only paints right on buildings usually. I said if I move to a bigger spot I want to take it. He said the only way was if I got a big canvas. I ordered a big huge 14 by14 canvas. … He came and put it on the wall and then painted the ceiling so it connected. When I moved, I took it from my first place and took it to my second place. Even now, when my customers come in, they say isn't that the same? Yes. It goes everywhere I go. These ceilings weren't 14 feet high, so we did have to make it fit. It has lasted almost 30 years, which is the nice thing about oil on canvas.
Worth the effort
Usually the yuca frita (yuca fries), you can't use the fancy fry cutters. It won’t work. You have to cut it by hand, steam it, chill it for four to six hours, then cut it into fries.
When I started, I’d have to give the yuca fries away to get people to try them. Now they’re one of my best sellers. We do them all by hand. One year my son got me “the best thing” for Mother’s Day. I said “Tell me you didn’t get me another French fry cutter.” He did. Yuca is too hard, and it doesn't work. My carpal tunnel tells me how much yuca we’ve had to cut over the years.
Best-selling bites
The Cuban sandwich and the yuca fries. The yellow mustard thing, I don’t use it. Americans like yellow mustard on hot dogs, burgers and brats. It should be a homemade mustard sauce if you’re doing it, first of all, or a homemade lime sauce. In my experience, I would always offer the mustard, but it was to the point where people told me I would never eat a Cuban sandwich because I don't like mustard. Try it with the lime sauce. It complements the meat, and I make it in-house. I would say 99% of our customers use the lime sauce. Probably of every 1,000 sandwiches, I get one who wants mustard on it. But even mustard lovers admit the Cuban lime sauce works.
Mustard is one of those things that can take over. It all goes together if you're a huge mustard lover, but all you taste is the mustard. You’re not tasting the marinating of the pork with the mojo, which is garlic and seasonings and olive oil. I marinate my pork for 24 hours. It goes in the roaster for 14 hours. It comes out so moist.
Her specialties
I make pork every night. The same thing with the chicken breast. The Ropa Vieja I make twice a week. The picadillo is similar flavors, but beef roast vs. ground beef. Sometimes we run out of things, like today we have no Papas Rellenas. They’re a specialty, made by hand. I didn’t even have them on the menu when I first opened. I would run them as a special, but they were popular. However, sometimes we run out. They have to be fresh. You can’t freeze those. I use my picadillo, the beef cooked with all the yummy stuff. Sometimes I make them the way my grandkids like them: filled with smoked ham and velveeta cheese. When you cut it open it the cheese is just like a lava. If I make beef stew, we will always whip those up. You can make them vegetarian, you can do anything, but typically Papas Rellenas have beef.
Misconceptions about Cuban cooking
A lot of people when they come in ask “How spicy is it?” Some people assume all Spanish food is spicy. We don’t use hot sauce here. We keep it to the roots.
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email psullivan@gannett.com.
Sign up for our Dish newsletter to get food and dining news delivered to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Havana Cafe in Franklin emphasizes the roots of Cuban cooking
