What it was
Danzón Cubano was a Cuban restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It opened on Friday, October 26, 2018, at 1 Carlton Avenue SE, Suite A, in the Fulton Square development. Stefan Nava opened it as his first restaurant, with business partner Brian LaFranboise. The aim, as Nava told Grand Rapids Magazine at the opening, was to show the city the culture, the food, and the music of Cuba, and to teach a cuisine many guests had not yet met.
The name is the danzón, Cuba’s official musical genre and its formal partner dance. The form took shape in Matanzas in the late nineteenth century, descending from the contradanza and the habanera, and it is danced with set figures and deliberate pauses. The room was built in that spirit: the colors of the island, a Cuban flag painted behind the bar, a bar of reclaimed wood, and a plan for live music and dancing.
The kitchen served Cuban staples rather than a Mexican menu with a different flag. The Cubano was mojo-braised pork, ham, and Swiss. The card also carried Cuban paella, oxtail stew, red snapper, plantain dishes, and a quarterly rotation, with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free plates. The bar poured a mojito, an El Presidente, and a Hemingway, with wine from France, Spain, and California, and local beer on tap, including Founders and Bell’s.
In 2021 the house widened the menu beyond Cuba — Mexican soups, a Brazilian bauru, and other Latin plates — and traded as Danzón Cocina, later listed as Danzón Kitchen, at the same address. Public listings now mark that restaurant permanently closed. The domain remains only as this notice.