TAP TAP HAITIAN RESTAURANT DRIVER

Night after night, Tap Tap turns out reasonably-priced Haitian fare so authentic it could be served on any family dinner table from Port-au-Prince to Petionville, and even into the countryside, without objection. While it’s a neat thing that Tap Tap showcases Haitian art, music and culture, the most significant thing about the place is its consistently excellent rendering of simple and classic food from the small island nation that shares Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. On Thursday and Saturday nights, Tap Tap features live Haitian folk-jazz, performed by a trio led by “the Woody Guthrie of Haiti,” the singer-songwriter-guitarist Manno Charlemagne-whose popularity swept him to power as mayor of Port-au-Prince during his homeland’s political crisis a decade ago. Tap Tap is also renowned for its Mojito-Cuba’s contribution to classic cocktails.

TAP TAP HAITIAN RESTAURANT DRIVER

On a half-dozen walls, big metal sculptures pay homage to other interesting aspects of Haitian culture, such as agriculture and the arts.įor good measure, an angel stares down from the bar, where you can play dominoes with a Haitian cab driver or European tourist and sip the delicious house cocktail, called a Soley and made with aged Barbancourt rum with fresh passion fruit juice. In the hallway between the front and rear dining rooms, two long tile serpents symbolize elemental voodoo spirits danbala wedo and ayida wedo. In the rear of the restaurant, a “Rara Room” is painted from wall to wall and ceiling to tables and chairs with vivid, joyful images of the Rara festival that takes place in Haiti each spring. In another room, a pair of large portraits by Jude “Papa” Loko-Thegenus humanize two of the most powerful saints in voodoo culture, Ezili Danto and Ezili Freda. In the main dining room, two murals by Wilfrid Daleus loom on opposite walls, One is of a family outside their modest home the other is of a bustling produce market. Part restaurant, part art gallery and cultural center, Tap Tap, founded in 1994 by Haitian documentary filmmaker Katherine Kean, features authentic Haitian “home cooking” and a dazzling collection of culturally interpretive art by some of the island’s most acclaimed masters, who flew to Miami to leave their unique marks on the town for their friend and fellow artist from a different medium.

Perhaps the best among them is Tap Tap Haitian, a cherished local institution located on Fifth Street in South Beach. Through it all, though, a handful of outstanding examples of “indigenous” Miami cuisine, from Cuban to Brazilian to New York deli, have survived all of the society-page hoopla. Precious few establishments-Joe’s Stone Crab, for example-have kept alive the mythology of local food, despite the often terminal contagion of hipness that covers much of the area. In trend-obsessed Miami, where overpriced “see and be seen” restaurants come and go with the regularity of the tides, and not much attention is paid to the rich culinary heritage of this crossroads of the Americas metropolis.

Tap tap haitian restaurant