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Ernest Hemingway, Alec Guiness and Noel Coward in Sloppy Joe's Bar Havana Cuba

Places to Visit in Havana Cuba – Sloppy Joe’s Bar Old Havana

Posted on August 17, 2022August 17, 2022 by Robbie

Sloppy Joe’s is associated with at least one legendary hell-raiser – Ernest “Papa” Hemingway

Where to visit Havana Cuba

I am a great fan of the writer and all-around rogue, Ernest “Papa” Hemingway and I have read his books, seen the films and gathered plenty of stories about this larger-than-life character. Hemingway was a great fan of Cuba.

He first visited the island in 1928 on a stopover. Hemingway was later to buy a property called Finca Vigia. “Papa” as he was called was to spend many happy times fishing and writing.

Hemingway also passed the time knocking back the odd “Papa Doble” in Sloppy Joe’s, his favourite haunt in Havana.

There is a fantastic website dedicated to the life and times of Ernest Hemingway that is packed with information hemingwaycuba.com

Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Old Havana

Sloppy Joe's Bar Old Havana Cuba
Photographs from yesteryear; Sloppy Joe’s Bar Old Havana Cuba

Sloppy Joe’s bar was owned in the 1930s by Josè Garcia, a Spaniard who arrived in Cuba in 1904 and was perched on the corner of Zulueta and Animas streets in the Old Havana district of the Cuban capital, Havana.

Sloppy Joe’s was a dump, there would be no other way to describe the place, so much so, that the sandwich there was called “ropa vieja” or “Old Clothes”

Friends of Garcia could not understand why a Spaniard, of all people, would run a bar that was a complete, disorganized mess, Spaniards are famed for running tidy bars, not dumps. The name “Sloppy Joe’s was born and went on to become world famous.

Each year, in Sloppy Joe’s, they have a competition to see who looks most like their most famous client, Ernest “Papa” Hemingway. If you are headed to Old Havana and fancy your chances, then get yourself a white beard and go for it.

There is an excellent website all about this famous Old Havana bar and the famous people who frequented it. Sloppy Joe’s Check out this link.

As a footnote to this post: I moved to Andalucia, Spain, some 20 years ago. One of the first people I bumped into was a grand nephew of old Papa Hemingway himself. Crazy world.

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