By Kye Saunders
In light of COVID-19, local restaurants are learning how to best cater to guests without having the opportunity to serve them in person. If we can’t go into our favorite restaurants, how, then, can we best recreate that in the safety of our own homes?
Local favorite La Septima Café has cultivated a new way to do just that with family meals and a thriving to-go business. With their dining room closed, the owners of La Septima Café, the Fernandez family, took matters into their own hands and pivoted the focus from delicious food in an authentic Ybor atmosphere to bringing their food safely to their customers.
Not only does La Septima Café offer delivery and take out, but now they offer family meals. Diners can choose from any of the restaurant’s signature dishes, including Ybor classic ropa vieja, slow-cooked shredded flank steak that originates from Cuba and literally translates to ‘old clothes.’
The lore on how the dish got its unique name is that the man who created the recipe was so poor that people upon seeing the dish thought that he was feeding his family torn up old clothes. By ordering in from La Septima Café, you are choosing not only to support a local business but also taste food with a rich and beautiful history.
When the restaurant is set to open back up is “to be determined,” according to La Septima employee Sky Ray.
“When we do open it back up, we want it to be done correctly and safely,” said Ray.
In order to serve customers who can’t make the drive to the restaurant, La Septima has partnered with Mobile Meals and Door Dash to offer delivery. Each family meal comes with rice, the choice of tossed salad or black beans, Cuban bread with olive butter and one 2-liter bottle of Coke, Diet Coke or Sprite.
Each family meal serves four for $39.95 with the exception of the Bistec Milanesa (Cuban breaded steak), which is $49.95. Orders can be made online at laseptimacafe.com or over the phone by calling 685-0502. La Septima is located at 702 W. Lumsden Rd. in Brandon.
