It just didn’t seem to click with Ed Morabito when people told him not mix his food with his politics.

The chief of staff to former Gov. Lincoln Almond, and a 2004 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, Morabito had always thought of restaurants as the kinds of places where the Founding Fathers shared food, drinks and ideas about the American Revolution.

So in 2001, the Republican-turned-independent ignored the naysayers and opened the Cuban Revolution, a hip downtown eatery that featured posters of Fidel Castro and Malcolm X and showed documentaries about Che Guevara and the Bay of Pigs invasion.

On Dec. 26, having grown the business steadily and gained many accolades over the past five years, Morabito and his wife and partner, Mary Morabito, re-launched the Revolution in a larger space at 50 Aborn St. The move more than doubled the restaurant’s seating capacity and added a full bar to the operation.

The restaurant had to move from its former Washington Street location as Kansas-based Lodge Works is preparing to demolish the building and construct a hotel at the site. Talk of the Town and New Japan are also being forced out.

But Morabito said Cuban Revolution had outgrown its old home.

That space, with an atmosphere akin to that of a coffee house, didn’t provide much elbow room for either customers or staff. At 750 square feet, it could seat only 28 diners – a limitation that forced Morabito to turn away reservations and large parties.

The leasing of another 750-square-foot storefront in the same building gave the restaurant room for storage, an office and a small store that sold clothes and DVDs. But it also forced the staff to make trips between the two locations, even in inclement weather.

With the help of the Providence Economic Development Partnership and The Washington Trust Co., both of which were able to provide financial aid to the Morabitos, Cuban Revolution moved into a building developed by Cornish Associates.

The new space gives Cuban Revolution a total of 2,500 square feet, enough to accommodate a cooler larger than the entire kitchen at the old spot. It has also allowed the Morabitos to raise the seating capacity to 65 and still set aside space for a stage and a place to sell merchandise.

Cuban Revolution also has a full bar now, so it can offer mojitos to complement its plates of maduros and Che fries.

The space gives one of the city’s hippest diners a more modern look, in an area the city has been looking at as a potential restaurant “power block.” Gracie’s is next door, and around the corner are the popular Bravo Brasserie and Taqueria Pacifica.

“It’s a healthy mix,” Ed Morabito said. “If you’re going to the theater … you can really sample four very diverse eating establishments.”

He said an official grand opening should come this month.

Beyond that, Cuban Revolution’s future plans could include an expanded menu, extended hours and a second site in The Plant, at 60 Valley St. in Olneyville, where Morabito said he’s in talks with developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse.

But Morabito said he doesn’t anticipate the eatery’s atmosphere to change much. It will retain its edgy décor and 1960s political slant, with DVDs still playing around the clock.

Although it’s there for aesthetic purposes, the décor has also helped encourage political discourse at the restaurant. Morabito said he can recall evenings at the Washington Street location when one end of the bar was discussing the war in Iraq while the other was talking about Che Guevara.

For Morabito, who left the Republican Party after he felt it had strayed from his own beliefs, the exchange of ideas is just as important as offering good food at a good price.

“Everybody seems to take a little bit of something away from the place,” he said. “We don’t try to push it on them, but it’s there for them.”