Miami Native Serves 1,000 Cuban Sandwiches Weekly in Denver

The Cuban sandwich is a simple stack of pressed bread and meat, but its recipe has sparked a decades-long dispute between Florida cities. This cultural conflict now plays out on Denver menus, where restaurants choose between competing traditions.

Kristy Socarrás Bigelow, a Miami native who opened her first restaurant in 2001, operates six locations across the Denver metro area. Her businesses serve approximately 1,000 Cuban sandwiches every week. To maintain consistency, she ships frozen bread from Miami, where it thaws and rises before being baked in-house daily. Her full-service restaurants hire staff who spend a day with Bigelow learning Cuban food and culture, a process she calls Cubanization.

The primary difference between the two major styles centers on the inclusion of Genoa salami. Tampa residents argue that the sandwich, originally called a mixto, required the Italian deli meat added by local immigrants. Miami natives contend that the dish is authentic only without salami, a view that led Tampa City Council to pass a resolution in 2012 codifying the Tampa style. Bigelow has faced pushback from customers who expect the meat to be present. “I’d say on three different occasions I’ve had someone yell at me that this isn’t a Cuban sandwich because it didn’t have salami,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Are you from Tampa?’”

Other Denver establishments offer variations that blend these traditions. El Bohio Cuban Cuisine in Lakewood serves a Medianoche, which uses a sweeter egg bread similar to challah instead of the traditional pan Cubano. The same restaurant offers an El Criollo sandwich that adds lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise to the classic profile. Tula’s Tapas Food Truck creates a Cuban-inspired sandwich called The Coño, which uses pepperoni instead of salami on a Telara roll.

Jama Miami, led by Enrique Socarrás, is currently on hiatus but will reopen on Nov. 3 in the Eats on the Platte food incubator. Socarrás, the brother of Bigelow, prepares the sandwich with slow-cooked pork belly that is seared until crispy. The restaurant focuses on the foods he enjoyed in Miami during his upbringing.

Sputnik, Oscar’s Eats, and Blackbelly Market also list Cuban sandwiches on their menus in various parts of the city. No single restaurant in Denver currently serves a Tampa-style sandwich with Genoa salami, leaving local diners to choose between the Miami standard or creative interpretations.