Author explores the secrets of the Cuban coffee ventanitas of Miami in this book

Ventanita coffee windows are so popular in Miami that you can find one everywhere from a restaurant to a laundromat.

The ubiquitous ventanitas are on every corner which can often cause us to overlook the unique character of this very Miami invention, perfect for a warm city in more ways than one. We want a colada, we stop at a ventanita. W e want pastelitos and we run there like a moth to a flame.

That’s why Daniela Pérez Mirón, while she was studying for a master’s degree in London, started dreaming of ventanitas that were part of the landscape in the Doral neighborhood where she grew up in a family of Guatemalan immigrants.

At the beginning of the pandemic while she was still in London, she saw the Miami Herald article in April 2020: “Chisme is canceled: This city just banned socializing at ventanita coffee windows .”

COVID put ventanitas in danger, and with them not only the coffee and the snacks, but also the relationships that are formed at the counter. Coffee is an excuse to talk about politics, to fix the world or get free therapy because there is always someone willing to listen to your sorrows at a ventanita.

“Ventanitas prioritize human connection over profit,” says Pérez Mirón.

Businesses are supposed to quickly deliver what the customer orders to sell more, she says. At the ventanitas, however, they ask questions, they want to know who their customers are, how they feel that morning.

Thus, the first challenge arose—how to explain to her fellow London students what a ventanita is, the human warmth that is felt there. “In Europe there is nothing like it. You have to drink your coffee indoors because of the cold,” she points out.

Ventanitas of Miami tell their story

Pérez Mirón turned the topic into her master’s thesis, and then wrote the book “Ventanitas: A Window into Miami’s Coffee Culture,” published by O, Miami, the nonprofit cultural organization that has filled Miami with poetry for 17 years, and that celebrates the O, Miami Poetry Festival annually throughout the month of April.

The graphic designer began by interviewing restaurant and business owners that have ventanitas, collecting testimonials from customers and anecdotes from employees. She interviewed journalist and former Miami Herald food writer Carlos Frías, who became an authority on the Miami ventanitas after reporting about their beginnings from Felipe Valls, the founder of the Versailles restaurant.

“La ventanita was born out of a necessity,” said Felipe Valls in an interview with Frías in 2022.

They appeared in the 1960s due to a confluence of factors, the massive arrival of Cuban exiles, the takeover of Miami by air conditioning and the presence of commercial espresso machines, which Valls sold.

It was at El Oso Blanco, a market on Flagler and 12th Avenue, where the first ventanita was installed as a solution to enjoy the best of both worlds, being outdoors and at the same time close to a space with air conditioning, said Valls, who upon his death in November 2022, left a gastronomic empire and perhaps the most famous ventanita in Miami for five decades, Versailles restaurant.

“The ventanitas are totally from Florida and Miami. I have not seen them in another country in Latin America,” said Pérez Mirón, indicating that they are “an incredible invention and that is why everyone adopted it.”

In her research, Pérez Mirón remembers having consumed about 40 cortaditos. “It wasn’t the most difficult thing, but I was sure I was going to have a heart attack,” says the author, whose favorite is the cortadito with a “pinch” of cinnamon that they make at the Casacuba restaurant in South Miami.

From there she also keeps the stories of the employees, like that of Lili and Marcia, who started working on the same day, in 2002, when the restaurant was still Casa Larios.

“They have a beautiful and special friendship, and the clients love them. They show them photos of their family, of the babies,” said Pérez Mirón. If you ask who her “favorite character” from the Miami windows is, she mentions Guillermina, the owner of Los Pinareños Fruteria , on Calle Ocho and 13th Avenue.

“They call her ‘the granny of Little Havana,’” says Pérez Mirón, who was impressed with Guillermina’s ability to split a coconut with a machete, especially considering that she has had two hip operations.

‘Everything happens in the ventanitas’

“Ventanitas: A Window into Miami’s Coffee Culture,” which comes in English and Spanish, goes beyond the ventanitas that sell coffee. Included are the favorite ventanitas of Miami’s night owls ; chic places that sometimes sell through a ventanita for only a few hours and that are so popular that people line up. There is also a spot to do your laundry, grab a coffee and a bite, like Mary’s Coin Laundry in Coconut Grove.

To complement the stories collected by Pérez Mirón, Miami photographer Gesi Schilling, who has been collaborating with O, Miami for 10 years, captured the world of the ventanitas and their characters with her camera.

“The ventanitas reflect the vibrant culture of Miami. They are open arms to people’s need to connect,” said Schilling, whose favorite ventanita is at a spot near the Miami River where she usually goes with her family.

To gain the trust of the people she wanted to photograph, Schilling always bought a colada to share.

“ Everything happens in the ventanitas . People celebrate, talk about politics, take a break from the day, smoke a cigarette,” says Schilling, who photographed more than 50 places.

Her photos are accompanied by verses from local poets. Concise, heartfelt and at times humorous, each writer makes his or her ode to Miami.

“Life closes a door/And then opens a ventanita,” says Julia del Rivero, with perhaps the most hopeful message.

The book can be purchased at https://omiami.org/shop/ventanitas-daniela-gesi . For more information, www.danielaperezmiron.com .