In Miami, croquetas sell themselves. But one cafe is getting a MAGA boost

There are plenty of places to find croquetas in Miami, but Alberto Madruga’s Bird Road cafe may be the only one bearing Donald Trump’s name.

Just over a week ago, Madruga and his wife Aida replaced the sign on their namesake cafe with a banner bearing an image of the former president flashing a thumbs up, with an American flag in the background and “Trump Croquettes” spelled out in capital letters large enough to see from the street.

Since making the change, Madruga says, business has been good.

“I just created the sign for Trump — to show support for him,” Madruga, 65, said after slinging cafecitos out a ventanita.

The homage to the former president and likely 2024 GOP nominee goes beyond signage. The inside of the shop features a collection of Trump-themed merchandise: a life-size, made-for-Instagram cutout of Trump, a red “make America great again” ballcap hanging on a beverage cooler, a bobblehead of the former president. Trump placemats are next, Madruga says.

The makeover — and the new clientele it has attracted — is representative of the support that Trump has built in Miami-Dade, a majority-Hispanic county that hasn’t voted Republican in a presidential election since 1988 but has increasingly embraced Trump’s acerbic politics.

FOUR YEARS AGO: Trump beats Biden in Florida after winning over Hispanic voters in Miami-Dade County

It’s also indicative of the cult of personality built around Trump, and the sense of community that he has created among his supporters.

“I like this. I like that they’re not afraid to support who they want to support and I like supporting people like this, because I’m not a quiet guy,” Matthew Montenegro, a 30-year-old tire-shop owner, said on Friday as he visited the Madrugas’ cafe for the first time. “I like to be vocal about who I support, who I choose to do business with.”

Trump, who’s seeking a second term in the White House after losing reelection in 2020, is among the most divisive figures in American politics.

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether his role in stoking the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol is grounds for Colorado to block him from the November ballot. He’s facing multiple civil and criminal cases, though efforts to try him in court have only bolstered his support among Republicans, many of whom feel he’s being persecuted.

“I see that everybody wants to punish him,” Madruga says. “And I said, ‘Well, we have to do something for Trump,’ because he knows how to run the country. Everything was better when he was president of the United States.”

Asked what it is about Trump that he finds so compelling, Madruga didn’t mince words: “Everything.”

‘We have this from family’

Madruga says that business has been booming since he put the sign up, with people coming in to take photos with the Trump cardboard cutout in the back of the shop before placing their orders. On Thursday, Madruga says that he and his wife — the restaurant’s only employees — sold about 200 croquetas.

The Trump branding has also helped drive attention online. It caught the eye of an operative with Turning Point USA who stopped into the cafe last week to meet with Madruga about the group’s organizing efforts in South Florida.

But he says his motivation wasn’t to draw in new customers.

“Most of the people that come in, they like it,” Madruga said. “Some people? No. But I don’t care.”

Technically, it’s still Madruga’s Cafe. The name is painted along the side of the storefront and on the beverage cooler, and Aida Madruga, 58, is serving up the same croqueta recipe that she learned from her mother years ago.

She’s quick to point out that the fried finger foods for sale at the Bird Road establishment aren’t “Trump croquetas,” but a family recipe that she guards closely.

“We have this from family,” she says.

The couple opened the storefront at 6895 Bird Rd. nearly 12 years ago. The couple first arrived in Miami from Madruga — the town in Cuba with which they share their name — as part of the Mariel Boatlift, the five-month span in 1980 that saw 125,000 emigres from Cuba arrive in the U.S., primarily Miami.

Alberto Madruga said that he worked for about 30 years as a truck driver before briefly moving to Costa Rica.

Aida is a talented cook, he says, so they decided to come back to Miami and open their own restaurant.

The hours are long. The cafe is open from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, but the couple often stays much later than that. Madruga says that on Thursday night, he worked until about 10 p.m.

“I’m tired, believe me,” Madruga says. “Sometimes in the morning, I don’t want to wake up. But, you know, I love it.”

Madruga says that the reactions have been mixed. Some customers complain, while others are thrilled, he says. One woman marched into the shop on Friday morning to take a photo with the cardboard cutout of Trump. Madruga says he has also gotten support for the new sign from other nearby business owners.

Montenegro, the tire business owner, says that he believes that more businesses should follow Madruga’s lead.

“It’s about time,” he says. “People got to stop being afraid of supporting who they want to support.”

Madruga says that the change in signage is permanent; he’s keeping it up regardless of whether Trump wins or loses in November.

“Whether he becomes the president of the United States or not, I’m going to continue,” he says.

UPDATE: Madruga told the Miami Herald on Tuesday that the “Trump Croquettes” sign had been taken down and destroyed, but said he plans to replace it. It’s unclear how the sign was removed.