A MIXOLOGY EXTRAORDINAIRE SERVES UP INVENTIVE AND FLAVOR-PACKED COCKTAILS AT THIS POPULAR WEST NEW YORK CUBAN RESTAURANT

BY ERIK SCHONING • PHOTOS BY ALEX BARRETO.

Son Cubano is a classic form of Cuban music and dance, known for its infectious rhythm. By the banks of the Hudson, overlooking the Manhattan skyline, premier Cuban restaurant Son Cubano brings the flair and energy of its namesake genre to countless customers each week. Overseeing bar service at the restaurant is Byron Raudales, bar manager and mixologist. Under his steerage, Son Cubano has maintained its reputation for lively, spirited cocktails.

“What I like about this job is you rely on your own creativity,” Raudales said. “It’s like being in a lab. You start playing with flavors and measurements until you hit what people will enjoy. Since we’re Cuban, my focus is always on creating cocktails with uncommon fruits or herbs. Every time we develop a menu, we always keep that in mind.”

This mad-scientist approach has served Raudales well as he’s builds out successive iterations of the cocktail menu. As one would expect, all the cocktails at Son Cubano are a piece of a larger whole, relying heavily on citrus and fruit to complement the Cuban flavors on the food menu. Yet within the menu is an astonishing amount of variety: you’ll find handmade syrups ranging from mint and pineapple to lemongrass, or house fruit purées of passionfruit and charred peach. The common denominator here is an attention to flavor and brightness, and the pairing of spirits with fruity and floral notes.

“We always prepare a menu that will pair with our food,” Raudales said. “Everything has to marry well. For example, we have the Modern Cuban, which is a bubbly drink, and we have the pernil, which has a fatty crackling skin. The cocktail cuts the fat perfectly.”

The Modern Cuban (see next page for recipe) is itself a twist on a classic cocktail, the Old Havana, a fusion of a mojito and a French 75. Raudales elevates it by swapping fresh mint for a duo of housemade mint oil and syrup, and by adding a zingy housemade guava purée.

But the story of the Tour of Oaxaca, a mezcal-based cocktail, is perhaps the best window into Raudales’ process. After visiting a Peruvian restaurant and trying a classic Peruvian cocktail, the Chicha Morada, a purple corn drink finished with spices and fruit, Raudales’ wheels starting turning.

“Chicha is an earthy drink, and mezcal is an earthy spirit,” Raudales said. “People in Mexico do a lot of infusions with hibiscus, and hibiscus also pairs well with mezcal. So I created a molasses with purple corn and also hibiscus.”

By connecting the dots between various cultures, flavors, and ingredients, Raudales was able to invent the most exciting kind of cocktail: one that makes perfect sense, yet comes out of nowhere. The Tour of Oaxaca blends mezcal with a hand-crafted purple corn and hibiscus molasses, fresh lime juice, and agave. When making cocktails at this level, you don’t need a long ingredient list, but everything needs to be added with intention and purpose.

For Raudales, it’s important to be curious and inventive, but it’s even more important to be humble. For every new cocktail, he solicits feedback from his seven-person bar team, as well as from his servers. He is constantly doing research online and trying to learn as much as possible from other mixologists.

“Everything I do is about teamwork,” Raudales said. “The more humble you are, the more you can learn and absorb from other people. And I’ve always liked to get feedback from people, because that’s how you can actually make improvements. At the end of the day, it’s about providing the best experience to every guest. It’s not about you.”

Raudales is always looking for opportunities to up his game. After all, Son Cubano is part of a competitive and thriving culinary scene; in order to stand out, you can’t be complacent. With each new cocktail, Raudales looks to improve. These days, he’s got his heart set on doing in-house carbonations, one of the most exciting trends in mixology. Carbonated infusions are a new frontier for him, and he’s certain a bubblier cocktail menu will make for new and exciting food pairings.

Anyone who’s ever listened to Cuban music knows that when a good song is on, it’s hard not to dance; Raudales works every day to make sure that exciting feeling comes through in every drink he serves.

Son Cubano

40-4 Riverwalk Place,

West New York 201.399.2020 / soncubanonj.com