Restaurant Led By MCI Alumna Featured In Prestigious Michelin Guide

Rafael Santamarina had a passion for Cuban food.

That love inspired him and his sister, Neli, to open Tinta Y Café, a restaurant that specializes in Cuban sandwiches, pastelitos and cafecito.

Two years after founding the Brickell eatery, Santamarina’s nieces Sachi and Malu Statz and his son Carlos honored his legacy by continuing the establishment after he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Fifteen years later, the business is still booming. 

This summer, the bistro, which relocated to Coral Gables in 2015, was one of 65 Miami-based restaurants featured in the Michelin Guide, a publication that highlights culinary excellence. 

The catalog also awarded Tinta Y Café, a Big Gourmand award for its affordable prices.

“It’s like winning an Olympic gold medal,” said Sachi, who earned an associate’s degree from the Miami Culinary Institute in 2016. “It’s very surreal.” 

Sachi, who grew up consuming episodes of the Food Network and the Cooking Channel, has served as the restaurant’s owner since 2015.

In addition to the quaint location in Coral Gables, Sachi added a second restaurant in Miami Shores in 2017. 

Inside the Coral Gables cafeteria, guests are greeted by a mid-century modern aesthetic accented with old typewriters, vintage cameras, a large collection of art books and minimalist furniture in muted and vibrant colors. 

The decor was influenced by Neli’s love of newspapers, literature, art and European Cafés. To encourage people to socialize, the restaurant doesn’t offer Wi-Fi and has a no-laptop policy. 

“It feels like home,” said Javier Ramos, who has been a customer for the past three years. “When you’re inside it’s very comfortable and sociable.”

Family Cuisine

The restaurant offers more than 20 sandwich options, seven salad choices, two breakfast menus and a daily soup special.

Salads cost about $14 and include Caprese, Mediterranean and Honey Mustard Chicken. The soup of the day can be had for less than $8 and is served from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Sandwich selections range from classics like Cuban, Italian and BLT sandwiches and house specialties such as the Tinta Y Café sandwich, which features pork, manchego cheese and caramelized onions. Cost ranges from $10 to $14.

Orders are created in an open-design kitchen which features a six-burner stove, two panini presses and two separate stations to store vegetables for salads and prepare sandwiches. 

The kitchen is led by Brazilian chef Victor Santos, who met Sachi while teaching at Miami Dade College, where he served as the executive chef at Tuyo—MCI’s fine dining restaurant. 

After being laid off by the Grove Bay Hospitality Group, where he served as head chef, Sachi offered him an opportunity to work at Tinta y Café.

“I have customers who come here every single day,” said Santos, who helps prepare about 100 orders daily. “It’s nice to be part of somebody’s daily routine.”

Love For Coffee

Tinta y Café showcases one of the few coffee ventanitas in Coral Gables. The space includes a commercial espresso machine and a stand for pastries such as pastelitos, croquetas and pandebono. 

The coffee flows at the counter under the direction of Yaima Córdova, who started working at Tinta y Café eight years ago after Sachi took notice of her barista skills at El Arepazo—a local Venezuelan restaurant.

Coffee is in the 41-year-old Córdova’s blood. In her hometown of Sancti Spiritus, her grandmother, Arminda Macias, is known for uniting the community with her strong Cuban coffee. 

“[It] has always been a part of my family,” Córdoba said. “When I wake up in the morning my favorite thing to do is prepare myself a coffee.”

Her love for the craft attracts dozens of customers like Peter Rivero and Eduardo Oropeza. 

The duo visits Córdoba two to three times a week to quench their coffee cravings. 

“It’s very detailed from all the other coffees that I’ve tried,” said Oropeza, whose go-to order is a cortadito. “I love the flavor.”

Tinta y Café’s path to success was not an easy one.

With no prior culinary experience, the family learned to operate a restaurant from scratch.

They transitioned from handwritten orders to allowing customers to order digitally. During the pandemic, Tinta y Café relied on their Coral Gables ventanita to do take-out orders to keep the business alive. 

Today, the bustling restaurant hopes to add a third location—a return to Brickell—within the next two years. 

“Tinta y Café means family,” Sachi said. “That’s what it stemmed from and it’s what we create.”