This Downtown DC Restaurant Just Wrote the Book on COVID Sanitation Protocol

Looking to be sure your DC-area restaurant is super safe? This popular downtown dining spot may have written the book on COVID-era safety and sanitation.

Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar is taking safety and sanitation super seriously. Prior to re-opening after a three-month hiatus, the Cuban restaurant created and published an extensive 62-page manual on hygiene and operational protocols.

“We spent three months studying the best health and safety practices from countries worldwide that experienced the earliest widespread outbreaks,” said Barry Gutin, principal and co-owner of Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar.  “We used what we learned to develop a 62-page manual, detailing for our managers the most thorough safety protocols, adapted to local conditions and expectations.  These protocols, many of which would have seemed strange pre-pandemic, are critical in helping our guests forget the virus and focus instead, on the Cuba Libre experience… Our mission is to provide an ‘escape to Havana’ and we are doing our best not to break the spell.”

And if this Bunyanesque book isn’t enough to put your mind at ease, know that just as other DC restaurants have expanded their patios and sought permission to create streeteateries, Cuba Libra converted a parking lane on 9th Street into a tropical open-air dining room that can accommodate 80. So you can enjoy all the Yuca Fries and Cuban Flan in fresh air!