Renovated West End To Feature Revamped Menu, Facade

Although classes are gearing up and the neighborhood is returning to its school-year habits, one key player is missing from the traditional Columbia scene-the historic West End.

Two months after it closed for renovations, construction complications have delayed the reopening of Havana Central at the West End. It is now scheduled to open on Sept. 20 as a bar with a limited menu, and it will resume full restaurant capabilities on Nov. 1, according to Nora McGeough, who handles the restaurant's public relations.

Havana Central's substantial renovations include moving the kitchen to the basement and expanding the back room, allowing the space to hold 150 people in the front bar area and 300 standing, or 150 seated, in the back. It is an unusually large venue for the Upper West Side.

Owner Jeremy Merrin, Business '00, plans to make Havana Central an even more important part of the Columbia scene than the West End was under its former management. He hopes to host parties and special Columbia events, employ Columbia students, and showcase Columbia student groups, such as jazz bands at Sunday brunch.

"Because of its size and location, it should be the go-to place for the Columbia community," Merrin said.

Some students are eagerly anticipating the return of the bar. "It does bother me that the West End isn't open yet because now there's nowhere for the freshmen to go and stay out of our way," Kimi Traube, CC '08, said.

But bringing back the neighborhood, and a generally older crowd, is one of Merrin's main goals for the new West End, a goal which he hopes to accomplish by adding more upscale options, such as lobster paella and mojitos, to the menu.

"It had become a kind of raunchy college bar and had lost the neighborhood business," Merrin said.

Despite worries from those who fear Havana Central will lose the cheap beer-and-pub-grub feel that has characterized the West End for so long, Merrin's vision includes retaining the inexpensive drafts and burgers Columbia students love.

"I think that at the end of the day, even if it's a great Cuban restaurant, if I don't have good burgers up there ... I'm screwed," Merrin said.

According to Merrin, modeling the new facade after its design of years past is another way he's keeping the West End's newest incarnation in touch with its roots. It will feature arched windows, heavy wood facings and doors, and an awning.

"It's going to be a much more important-looking place," Merrin said.

Merrin also plans to showcase the rich history of the West End by including Columbia memorabilia in the decor of the front room, which will be similar to the old decor, while giving the back room a more Cuban feel.

Since the restaurant closed for renovations in the beginning of July, Merrin has gutted the space-and revealed some unappealing aspects of the West End's long history, such as inconsistencies with renovations and accumulated grime.

Almost every Columbia student has spilled a drink in the back room of the old West End, but apparently those hardwood floors were more than just sticky-there were pools of old beer and mold beneath them, according to McGeough.

Other construction complications revealed themselves in the piecemeal nature of renovations completed over the years. The old West End suffered from tilted floors and soda and beer lines run through the building's boiler room, problems the ownership hopes to have solved by the opening of Havana Central.