Sabor Cubano Radcliff Review: Opening-Day Cuban Sandwich

Key Takeaways

• Sabor Cubano opened its brick-and-mortar this morning — Tuesday, ~10:30 AM — at 359 South Wilson Road in Radcliff, the former Fed Up Barbecue building (now painted white). About two years as a Hardin County food truck before this storefront. (270) 723-8822, @SaborCubanoKY on Facebook and Instagram.
• What was ordered: the grilled Cuban sandwich ("brick size," ~$12, feeds two); the Congrí plate (black beans and rice + yuca root vegetable + roasted pork); ham and cheese croquettes with cilantro-lime sauce; and hand-filled empanadas (beef and chicken, homemade dough) at $3 each.
• Standouts: the roasted pork — Britten's "coup de grâce" — and a Cuban sandwich whose pork stays "super juicy, super moist" where most run dry. The croquettes had an unexpected allspice/clove note. The empanadas: "those are both excellent."
• Britten's verdict: the food is "on point" — and the grab-and-go deli line fits a lunch town like Radcliff and the Fort Knox crowd. "They are definitely doing it right — you can tell it's like somebody's mama cooked it."
• For first-timers: Cuban food is comfort food — "like a warm hug" — deep flavors, not heat. If you order the Cuban sandwich, you'd better like yellow mustard. And give a brand-new restaurant a little grace in the opening rush.

Summary

Britten McDowell's video review of Sabor Cubano — anchoring the live-reaction segment solo this week, with Michele tied up on a project — turned out to be the freshest local-business story Hardin Local has run: a couple's first brick-and-mortar restaurant, reviewed on television a couple of hours after it opened. Sabor Cubano took over the old Fed Up Barbecue space at 359 South Wilson Road in Radcliff after roughly two years on a Hardin County food truck, and Nate Bryan had already flagged it in Business Buzz earlier in the same episode.

The food held up to opening-day pressure: a brick-size grilled Cuban sandwich with pork that stays juicy, a Congrí plate (black beans and rice) with roasted pork and yuca, ham and cheese croquettes with an allspice-leaning cilantro-lime sauce, and hand-filled, homemade-dough empanadas in beef and chicken. Britten's bottom line — the food is "on point," the value beats a typical food truck, and the grab-and-go line is built for a lunch town. He paired it with the small-business operator's caution: opening week is chaos, give them grace — and the owners, in his read, have the one thing that breaks a lot of good cooks: the numbers side covered.

Watch this segment: https://youtube.com/watch?v=dUTjJhxLkSc Full episode: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1292842119668042

Full Article

Rachel Brantingham set it up: "You were at Sabor Cubano's opening this morning — the Cuban and Puerto Rican spot at 359 South Wilson Road in Radcliff, in the old Fed Up Barbecue building — and Nate just flagged it in Business Buzz. Roll the video and walk us through it."

Britten gave the backstory first. He and Michele got a call last Friday — the owners asked them out to sample the menu, see the facility, and tour the space ahead of the opening. The owners, Britten said, immigrated directly from Cuba — "they started out in Florida, and then they had some family up here." He named two relevant skills they brought: the husband "is a refrigeration HVAC guy," and the wife — "Phil, you'll appreciate this — she's like an economist and numbers person. They've transitioned to entrepreneurship and food and the American dream." (Note: Britten names the owners in the video voice-over, but the spellings were not confirmed on air — written here as "the owners" pending verification. Have Britten confirm spelling before this is used as published copy.) There's a small language barrier, Britten added — they haven't been in the US long — "but over the last couple of years they've done" the work, and "I was really impressed with the food."

Then the video rolled. Britten opened it from the parking lot at 359 South Wilson: "It's the grand opening of Sabor Cubano. They've put a lot of time and a lot of effort into getting their brick-and-mortar ready. They've been in the food truck for the past two years actually, and they've brought some fantastic Cuban food, Puerto Rican food, here to the Hardin County area." Inside: a deli line, hot Cuban sandwiches ("the grilled Cuban"), a wall dedicated to Puerto Rico and another to Cuba, and a daily-specials case — eat in or take it to go.

The Cuban sandwich came first. "Look — it's huge," Britten said. "This has got roast pork, Swiss cheese, grilled bread, mustard, and pickles." He took a bite with a pickle in it — "that's a good crunch — that's a pretty good sandwich. That's a really good" one. He gave the context that matters: he learned Cuban food the summer he spent serving at a Cuban restaurant in Clearwater Beach during college, and "the key — I was getting ready to say this in the video — is the pork itself being cooked and seasoned correctly. That sandwich right there was 12 bucks, and it would feed two people. I ate a little bit, finished the other half the next day for lunch. Their portion size is very" generous for the value. On the spice question: "Cuban food is a lot like Spanish food — there's a lot of depth of flavor but not a lot of heat. There's a lot of spices, but it's not hot — not like Mexican food or some of your other Caribbean things." The pork verdict: "A lot of times it ends up being dry — but this is not. Super juicy, super moist. It has to do with the way they prepare it. I'm pretty impressed." When Rachel asked whether opening day is when a place is at its best or its most chaotic, Britten flagged it for the conversation that came later.

Next, the Congrí plate — "white rice with black beans cooked in it" — alongside a root vegetable Britten admitted he'd mispronounce ("it smells fantastic") and roasted pork ("my mouth is absolutely watering"). The root vegetable turned out to be yuca / cassava — "it's kind of like a potato, has a little bit different texture, it's seasoned well. Not as firm as a potato. Very smooth, very soft the way they had it prepared." (He mused that whipped, the way you'd make mashed potatoes, it'd be "super silky smooth" — "interesting to see how that would be in some other preparations.") On the black beans and rice: "Black beans and rice are a big thing in Cuban food, and she was saying how they do this special. Look at that — that's good. It's got good flavor. It's seasoned. I like it." And the roasted pork — what Britten called his "coup de grâce": "It's fatty too — well, you know, fat is flavor. Oh, that is good." He also noted the plantains — "I'm not a plantain person, I can't get over the hot banana concept — but I will say their plantains, the ones I tried, were actually very tasty. They executed them very well."

Then the ham and cheese croquettes with what the owner called a cilantro-lime sauce: "That's different than any croquette I've ever had. I've had ham and cheese before — this has got kind of an allspice or a clove seasoning to it. That's really good. It's definitely different." And the part Britten called his favorite — the empanadas, beef and chicken, hand-filled with homemade dough: "This is something I'm a junkie for — I love empanadas, they're basically fried pies. She hand-fills these — it was homemade dough, I saw it. Look at the braid on there — I mean, that's beautiful. It's gorgeous. Very crispy. That's got really good seasoning in it. I really like it." Michele tried the chicken on the show: "I can hear the crunch. That's really good." Britten: "Those are both excellent. I'm going to have to try them too, for sure."

The wrap-up — Britten's parking-lot summary video didn't save, so he gave it live. "The food had great flavor. The value was definitely there — the Congrí plate was under 15, the Cubans under 12, the empanadas three bucks each. For a food truck, their pricing is under your standard norm. I'm very excited for the brick-and-mortar because the grab-and-go works — Radcliff's a lunch town, and for us as business people in town, having a place where I can go in, get it to go, go down the line, pick what I want, and go back to the shop — a lot of our Fort Knox folks, a lot of the people out on post, need that style of food. And they're authentic. You can tell it's like somebody's mama cooked it — and that's always the best kind to get."

He paired it with the small-business angle. Britten said he typically avoids brand-new restaurants — "it takes a bit for them to get in the rhythm" — but flagged that Sabor Cubano is a different case: "they've already perfected the menu, they already know their product — they're just rolling it inside of four walls." Even so, he gave the realistic version: "You're dealing with people, you're dealing with the public, you're dealing with a change in their routine. Anytime you get to be first and go to a place — give them some grace, because they're going to need it. Even the best experts opening their third or fourth restaurant have those challenges." He told the story of his mom's restaurant's soft opening — a hundred-plus seats, she expected maybe 20 lunch tickets, and within 30 minutes the place was full — "I remember the chaos and the panic. You have to prepare for that. But it's very appreciative when people give you grace as you're getting those kinks smoothed out." His read on the owners: "I think they'll do a great job handling the restaurant."

Where he knew they had something: not opening day, but the cultural festival in Radcliff last fall — "they'd only been open about two hours, about halfway through the festival, and they had sold out of a lot of things. I didn't even try to eat there because everything I wanted, they were sold out of. That was the sign they had something special — they were sold out before several of the other trucks." He's eaten with them since at the Optimist Park in Vine Grove on Friday nights — "the food's on point." And the line he kept returning to: plenty of great cooks have opened restaurants and crashed — "there's a lot more to it than just the food: you've got to deal with the people, you've got to have the service, and if you're not a numbers person and don't understand exactly what your margin is, it's going to be tough. That's where" the wife comes in — "she's a numbers gal, she's got that background. She knows down to the cent what it costs to prepare, what the raw materials are, what the labor cost is, and what it's got to go out the door for to be profitable. She knows that."

For first-timers, Scott Lucas asked what to order and what to expect. Britten: "They have pictures up, so that helps. Their plates are a meat and a couple of sides — there's a beef plate, there's a chicken plate, and they alternate those. But what to expect with Cuban food is deep flavors. It's comfort food. It's not going to be exciting as far as a lot of spice or a punch-in-the-mouth bold flavor — it's kind of like a warm hug." The one caveat: "If you go with the Cuban sandwich, you better like yellow mustard, because yellow mustard is the way that goes. When I had their sandwich, you could taste the yellow mustard, but the flavor of the pork and the other things went together very well. They had the proportions right."

Rachel closed it the way she opened it: "Sabor Cubano — 359 South Wilson Road in Radcliff — open as of this morning. Cuban sandwiches, empanadas, rice bowls, and catering for your next event. (270) 723-8822, @SaborCubanoKY on Facebook and Instagram. Go support a brand-new local business on day one — get out there, try it, let us know what you think." She's planning to take her boys: "It'll be a new experience for the family." Britten's note on that: "You can feed all three of you with a Cuban sandwich."