Of the many gastronomic and recreation spots coexisting in the city nowadays, OnCuba recommends two that stand out for their interesting and well-thought-out proposal to enjoy with friends and relatives, even better in this beautiful time of the year. Melen Club Photo: Alain L. Gutiérrez Almeida To celebrate and have a good time there isn’t a better place than the Melen Club. It is a modern house in Miramar, decorated and designed in the style of the current trends: ideal for any occasion. Specializing in the fusion of Mediterranean and Japanese cuisine, it is characterized by its exotic preparations: diverse dishes seasoned with more than 10 types of sauces and a variety of cocktails. With a suggestive cultural proposal and excellent service in its multiple spaces, the place stands out for its innovative, bohemian and cosmopolitan spirit, while proposing unforgettable flavors, aromas, textures and sensations. El Biky Photo: Alain L. Gutiérrez Almeida It just celebrated its first anniversary and stands out for its diverse, novel and excellent culinary proposal. In El Biky you can find from a well-stocked shop selling bread and pastry made in the place, to an alluring bar to taste numerous drinks. The restaurant-cafeteria is undoubtedly its...

Fernando Velázquez is a tireless artist. His passion for ceramics was inherited from his father, the noted ceramicist Fernando Velázquez. He is a member of the Cuban artists and artisans’ group, the Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales, and works with a diversity of formats and media. His work has become consolidated, a referent for ceramics in Cuba. For more than a decade, he has created work in which clay continues to be the central element, although iron and wood also play important roles. He also has a more commercial line of furniture and monumental sculpture, which bear his unmistakable hallmark. Photo: Rolando Pujol Murals, paintings, pergolas, and other ornaments feature his allegories and distinct pictorial motifs. His domination of diverse techniques—drawing, sculpture and painting—have been a channel for conveying multiple messages. Themes include values, sentiments, nature, world history, a lack of communication, separation and silence. Nuances, textures, contrasting chromatic ranges and lots of imagination are incorporated into work featuring fish, plants, human figures and landscapes. With language that is simultaneously frugal and lyrical, he revives fossilized animals, presenting them polychromatically in his mosaics, captured in interesting allegorical compositions of everyday life. Fernando is a perfectionist and is never happy with...