The Lost Cuban has returned to Cedar Rapids with big plans for Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS — Several years after closing his popular Cuban restaurant, it turns out Jess Streit wasn’t lost — just wandering.

For the first time since a brief appearance in 2021, The Lost Cuban has found a new house in its hometown.

Available only through third-party delivery apps, The Lost Cuban has returned as a ghost kitchen concept in the back of Third Street Market, a bodega-style convenience store opened in April.

The reopening offers Streit’s family recipes to Cedar Rapids for the first time since he briefly took orders through Rock Bar American Grill three years ago.

Where did he go?

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The Lost Cuban’s first iteration in Cedar Rapids, a full service restaurant with a larger menu downtown, was open seven years from 2012 until its closing in 2019.

After closing, Streit pioneered The Lost Cuban as a ghost kitchen concept — a delivery-only restaurant that runs out of a stand-alone kitchen or another restaurant’s kitchen — in Pasadena, Calif. He said the concept grew to about 25 locations in California before he sold it.

With plans to retire young, he thought that would be it. He moved back to Cedar Rapids to be near family, including his grandmother, who wrote his recipes.

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But he couldn’t live a quiet life — not with the popularity of his family’s recipes. In 2021, he restarted The Lost Cuban out of Rock Bar American Grill’s kitchen, but the concept was short-lived.

He needed more space.

“This is a continuation of that concept,” Streit said. “Every time I went out, people would be asking about it. We had quite a following, and people are passionate about it.”

His latest iteration, with more kitchen space, will be a proof of concept he hopes to grow over time. With orders taken only via third-party delivery apps like DoorDash and Grubhub, he plans to do what he did in California: replicate The Lost Cuban in several markets throughout Iowa out of existing retailers’ kitchens.

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In its new downtown location, the one-man restaurant moves about 50 sandwiches a day. Soon, Streit plans to make his more elaborate Cuban dishes available through ready-to-go meal prep packages in Third Street Market’s refrigerator.

The food

With a simplified menu, The Lost Cuban makes it easier to make up your mind. Pick from the Cuban, the Chicken Cuban, the Infidel or the El Pollito.

“It’s pretty easy to keep it simple,” Streit said. “The problem with most restaurants is you get too many items.”

Each one is served on custom bread pressed hot on a panini press. Meats for each vary, but most include a protein marinated in mojo — a sour orange and garlic mixture.

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The Cuban includes lechon asodo (a Cuban roasted pork), ham, housemade pickles, mustard and Swiss cheese. You also can opt for a Cuban with chicken instead of pork.

The Infidel includes picadillo (a traditional ground beef), melted provolone and a crunch of potato sticks. The El Pollito is similar, but with mojo chicken, as the name suggests.

Each sandwich, made in a long-standing family tradition, offers a choice of sauces: the sweet and tangy Dulce de Fuego made with guava-candied habanero sauce, or the spicy Gitmo with a smoky blend of habaneros, ghost chili peppers and chipotle.

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His story

Streit, who followed an ex-fiance to Iowa, comes from a line of displaced Cubans serving good food. His grandparents immigrated to south Florida in 1960 by way of Venezuela after Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba.

The cuisine draws from a rich palate including cumin, oregano, citrus, onion and sour orange. The Cuban recipe he serves today is the same one his grandmother served for years in Venezuela and Miami.

His first location in Cedar Rapids, 209 Third St. SE, filled a vacancy left by Salsa del Rio. Today, it’s home to Taco Gato.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.