The mountains of North Georgia are not typically where one would expect to find a piece of Cuba. However, nestled snugly within the historic downtown of Clayton, Georgia, The Hush Cuban Kitchen & Bar brings the heat of sun-soaked beaches and pollo a la plancha to the Georgian mountainside.
Originally, The Hush opened in 2019 as The Hush Barbecue, and served American-style barbecue dishes. However, when COVID-19 hit, The Hush Barbecue was forced to close.
After the Hush’s closure, co-owner Alicia Sosa had time to reflect on what she wanted The Hush’s legacy to be. Sosa, who is originally from Florida, grew up surrounded by Cuban culture and cuisine. So when it came time for The Hush to reopen, it did so with an entirely new look and menu.
“We decided just convert it as a Cuban (restaurant) and make it like a homestyle portions. Rice and beans, sweet plantains, empanadas,” Sosa said.
However, the change from American barbecue to Cuban cuisine was a hefty undertaking, one which was met with its fair share of doubt by those within the Clayton community.
“When we started, everybody says, ‘Do you think you’re going to convince these demographics here to eat rice and beans?’ Chef Roberto Rodriguez said. “And when we open the restaurant, they say, this is what we’re gonna do… we hadn’t any doubts of it, you know, whether we’d fail.”
Rodriguez, who has been a chef for nearly 30 years, worked alongside Sosa to turn The Hush Cuban Kitchen & Bar into what it is today. Together, they helped the culture and tastes of Cuba to take root in Rabun County.
“It was nice to change because it identif[ied] more what we are,” Sosa said.
In the years since The Hush’s rebirth, the restaurant has become a cultural staple within Clayton, and a vibrant community has arisen within both the customer base and among The Hush’s staff.
“We treat each other, you know, every day as a family,” Sosa said.
The familial ties within The Hush go deeper than simply a feeling of family. Many of Sosa’s actual family members work at The Hush, including her mother, Alicia Contreras.
“My mom is the one in charge of the desserts. She’s a pastry [chef], you know,” Sosa said, pointing around The Hush to identify which of her family members were currently busy at work.
“I have my daughter over here. She’s a host. And I have my another daughter. She’s come here for vacation time to help me on the restaurant… I have all the family working here.”
And just as family sustains The Hush now, “family” is the foundation from which The Hush was created in the first place, built by both Sosa and Rodriguez.
“We came from very humble backgrounds… for me, at one point, I had no choice, I had to do this. But then… I fell in love with it, and became good at it. So now, if [my daughters] want [to work at the Hush] it is because they fell in love as much as we did, but not because they’re only able to do it. If my daughter said, ‘I fell in love,’ I would never give up on The Hush,” Rodriguez said.
This story was produced by Felix Scheyer as part of the 2025 Woodall Weekend Workshop.
Show Comments (1)
Steve Leeds
The food here is great and the quality of meats is excellent. This restaurant was an outgrowth of the one they had in Dillard, which featured fresh oysters (go figure), which they closed.