SANTO DOMINGO. – Although it hasn't been that long since it closed, speaking of Maniquí Restaurant evokes memories filled with the aromas of good food and even better wine, enriching conversation, art, laughter, and coffee. Let's remember Maniquí as a delicious three-course meal:
First half – entrance: Bread, memories and a dream
Behind the National Theater, in the Plaza de la Cultura, a paraboloid structure, like an inverted cup, hosted for decades a space where a table was the perfect excuse to sit down, with or without hunger, to talk, dream and savor the cultural experience of the moment, whether it was music, painting, theater or photography.
And the slender figure of Rafaela – Fellita – Caamañoglided among the attendees, greeting everyone by name. She founded Maniquí in 1985 “with her own money and without partners, only with the drive to do something different,” as she once declared, and for decades she garnered culinary awards and cultivated a lasting legacy. Beside her was the ever-remembered Cayetano Minaya – Feyé – her accomplice with a warm and engaging way of speaking.
“Groups of friends met there every week. I particularly remember one group whose hobby was building scale models of airplanes and cars, around 2005 or 2006. Unfortunately, the last stage of Maniquí had nothing to do with that space for cultural gatherings, reading circles, or collectors. I think that was its true distinguishing feature,” recalls Naivi Frías.
It closed in 2016 for renovations and reopened in 2017 under new management. Everything had changed.
(Here we prepare and serve a "dying dream," cold and creamy: evaporated milk, orange juice, sugar, and ice, united in perfect balance. Refreshing like a memory told aloud.)
Second course – main course: flavors and settings
. The food, and the drinks, at Maniquí came out in parallel bursts of culture: rice dishes, meats, seafood, cassava bread, juices, and cocktails, à la carte or at their famous Sunday buffet, accompanied by programs of:
The gastronomic and cultural menu was paired with endless conversations: the country was torn apart and put back together at every table, books were discussed and alliances of all kinds were forged.
One of the most popular dishes wasn't the most sophisticated: fried chicken, which, according to public relations representative Vilma Yolanda Batista, was "the best in the world. La Bohemia in that place was incredible. My last visit was to see The Vagina Monologues, with Honey Estrella and Gaby Desangles."
(Here we paired it with a robust, fresh, full-bodied red wine, like the echo of guitars and voices that still seem to resonate among the columns of the paraboloid.)
Third course – dessert: Nostalgia well served.
The closure came before Christmas in 2023, and the most common, unofficial, explanation is that the Ministry of Culture was going to carry out “renovations” and terminated the contract. Maniquí turned off its lights after almost four decades, but in the surrounding area, you can still hear laughter and the clinking of silverware on porcelain.
Fellita summed up that legacy in a simple and eternal phrase: “Maniquí is part of cultural, bohemian, gastronomic, nostalgic history and, from its name and sociable aesthetic, it is a wonderful portrait of Fellita's dream.”
De Feyé, the newspapers do not record his voice and his death, poorly documented, left a profound silence in that space that he defended so much.
(At this point, a strong and aromatic Dominican coffee, accompanied by guava shells with cream cheese and a shot of guavaberry: simple, authentic and with the memory of Maniquí in every bite and sip.)
Today the paraboloid still stands, but without the two palm trees at its entrance or the bohemian melodies. What remains is a shared memory: the certainty that there was a place where eating was also attending a play, discovering a painter, listening to a troubadour, or toasting a newly published book.
And if you miss her salad cart, designed by Fellita to "teach people to eat healthier," here's the recipe for one of the most popular salads:
Rice salad
Ingredients:
4 cups of cooked rice
1/2 pound of diced cooked ham
1 pound of chopped tomatoes
20 chopped stuffed olives
1 chopped cucumber
1/2 pound of chopped mozzarella cheese
Dressing:
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of finely chopped basil
3 tablespoons of white vinegar
Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and add the dressing. Garnish with parsley and basil leaves.
Enjoy your meal, Maniquí style, a place that was much more than a restaurant: it was a table where Dominican culture was served in three courses.
