Blue Sky Food by the Pound: A Cuban Speaks Out

Used with permission

The popular arroz imperial.

​There are few things in life sadder than a has-been. Once any person, place, or thing has established itself as glorious, it is painful and heart wrenching to watch it fall from grace, akin to imagining Dorian Gray's beauty decay on fast forward. Blue Sky Food by the Pound has suffered a similar decline in stature since it first started multiplying locations across the city in a greedy and ill-conceived attempt to establish itself as a Cuban take-out and catering monopoly.

We remember our joy when Blue Sky Food By the Pound opened. It offered ready to go, well-priced and tasty Cuban food -- what was not to love? There were also large portions -- we remember sharing a plate with our girlfriend during our broke college days at MDC -- remember when there were two Cs in its name?

Since then, it seems more time and effort has been put into expansion than maintenance. Over the years, when location after location sprung up around us, we just stopped visiting. The portions had dwindled, the prices had increased, and worst of all, the one thing that we really couldn't forgive, happened -- the food went from good to mediocre

Used with permission

So-called ropa vieja

We find it funny when people say things like, "Well, a bunch of people still eat there, so it must be good." Or, one of our personal favorites, "It makes a lot of money so it can't be that bad." Really? Are you so bereft of original thought and critical thinking skills?

Unfortunately, this tragedy hasn't been contained to only Blue Sky. A steady decline in the taste and quality of food has happened in Cuban restaurants across the city over the past decade or so. La Carreta has also fallen prey to the syndrome britches tu bigitus. And there are others. As much as we love Cubans (I am one) and their food (I do), we have become too busy running for office and anchoring national news shows to care about running a good restaurant, much less cooking. We like to build up our businesses until we are successful enough to have other people run them for us, so we can finally stay home and relax. Sadly, this robs our clients of what helped build our restaurant up in the first place -- our commitment to quality.