Melting pot Tampa refuses to stub out its colourful past

FERAL cockerels rule the roost along La Sétima, Ybor City’s main drag. Pecking around the pavement tables of the Cuban coffee houses. Hoping for a crumb from the pastries accompanying a leisurely cafe con leche. This stretch of Tampa Bay’s traditional cigar rolling quarter, with its fancy scrolled balconies, five-globe street lamps and mosaic tilework, is one of America’s National Historic Landmark Districts and the poultry are very much part of that heritage.

Further waves of immigrants all added to the Cubano filling – the Spanish brought jamon, the Sicilians Genoa salami, Cuba the mojo-marinated roast pork, the Germans and the Jewish the Swiss cheese, pickle and mustard

A local ordinance protects them from being harmed or pilfered for the pot and, of course, their original cockfighting role is consigned to history. There’s a lot of history attached to Ybor, extraordinary Latin enclave inside sprawling Tampa, Florida’s third largest city. To get your head around it I’d recommend three musts: 

Sign up for a history walk – Ybor’s all extremely walkable; book yourself a table at the 120-year-old Columbia, largest Spanish restaurant in the world and Florida’s oldest (1905); join a tour of El Reloj (1910), sole surviving working cigar factory in town, home to JC Newman, America’s oldest family-owned premium producer. 

Cigar capital of the  world

Ybor City was built on cigars. Its back story starts in 1885 when one Vincente Martinez-Ybor purchased 40 acres of swampland and the first settlers were the Cubans and their chickens, to be followed by immigrants from Spain, Eastern Europe and, notably, Italy. Eventually, more than 230 factories were located here, employing 12,000 tabaqueros (cigar makers) and producing over half a billion cigars a year. El Reloq was the largest cigar factory in the world, named after the 1,500 pound bell of that name inside its clocktower, whose chimes measured out the working day. It was restored in 2020 when the Newmans converted 1,750 square feet of the factory into a cigar museum.

Our fascinating (and I write as a non-smoker) group tour took us from the basement where the tobacco leaf is aged for three years in controlled conditions, via a floor, where workers sit at 90-year-old machines stretching tobacco leaves over metal moulds to cut out cigar wrappers, up to to the third storey where small scale serious hand-rolling is still practised. Here they preserve a space where in the early 1900s a ‘lector’ would read texts from newspapers to classic literature to entertain workers. When it threatened to get too political it was suppressed.

Cubano – the melting pot sandwich

Radical past? The fight for Cuban independence was forged here. There’s a park honouring its firebrand leader José Martí on the site of a cabin owned by fellow patriot Paulina Pedroso, where he sought refuge from Spanish assassins. The Pedroso family deeded the land to the Republic of Cuba, which still officially owns it to this day. It contains soil from each of the Cuban provinces and is home to a gaggle of chickens, naturally.

We learned this at the end of our guided tour with the ebullient and knowledgeable Max Herman. Across an afternoon when shade was at a premium we visited the clubs where the descendants of the first immigrants maintain valuable vestiges of the ‘old country’. A red, white and green flag flutters outside the Italian Club; the monumental Cuban Club, rebuilt after a fire in 1916, still hosts weddings in its Grand Ballroom.

Food is a vital link in such lineage. For over a century La Segunda Bakery has turned out authentic crusty Cuban bread. This is the base for the Cubano sandwich, which it seemed entirely appropriate to order in Ybor City. And where else but at the iconic Columbia Restaurant?  The family-run brand has six further locations across Florida but the original at the eastern end of La Sétima (Seventh Avenue) offers the ultimate Columbia experience – 1,700 covers across a maze of dining rooms and courtyards decked out like some transatlantic Alhambra.

Typically, it prides itself on its lavish house salad, but do go for its Cubano. Known as the ‘Mixto’, it was created in the 1890s for the cigar workers as they walked to and from work. Further waves of immigrants all added to the Cubano filling – the Spanish brought jamon, the Sicilians Genoa salami, Cuba the mojo-marinated roast pork, the Germans and the Jewish the Swiss cheese, pickle and mustard. The recipe is still the 1915 original from Columbia founder Casimiro Hernandez, Sr. Worth every dollar of its $15 price. Another huge plus here is the predominantly Spanish fine wine list.

That’s the passion of Casimiro’s great grandson, current head honcho Richard Gonzmart, whose Tampa culinary empire extends to retro burger joint Goody Goody in Hyde Village, where we breakfasted handsomely the next day, but also Ulele, a brewery tap and restaurant in Tampa Heights with art-filled lawns fronting the Hillsborough River. It includes a $5 million restoration of Tampa’s original public water pump house, along with the spring that once supplied the city’s drinking water. It’s at the top end of the Tampa River Walk.

Eating and drinking at the Tampa Heights end of town

The name Ulele (pronounced You-lay-lee) derives from a Native American princess who lived in the Tampa area during the 16th century and saved the life of an early Spanish explorer when her father ordered him put to death. The huge barbacoa grill is a focal point for a menu that prides itself on native inspiration. I‘d recommend a platter of their charbroiled Gulf oysters with garlic butter, grated Parmesan and Romano cheeses, washed down with a tank to table Green Cannonball IPA from their adjacent brewery. Or ask for one of Tim Shackton’s barrel-aged specials.

This veteran brewer is a far remove from the bearded hipster with tats stereotype. So too Joshua Garman at Hidden Springs Ale Works just around the corner on Franklin Street. They specialise in sours; try the Berliner Weisse style Man Child, made with grapes and blackberries. Handily, another contender for top Tampa brewery Magnanimous has one of its two taprooms close by.

No cool American city would be complete without a major street food hall and close to Ulele is Armature Works, a converted historic trolley barn that now houses 12 food outlets. 

Tampa Riverwalk

Armature is easily reached by the Pirate Water Taxi that plies the river parallel to Yampa’s defining regeneration project, the Tampa Riverwalk. The hop on, hop-off fleet also chugs further out to the docks and residential islands in the harbour. That trip was bracing fun but the main purpose is to link the various attractions along the Riverwalk. 

I’d recommend purchasing a Riverwalk Attraction Pass (adult day ticket $55, Pirate Taxi included, with savings of almost two thirds on normal prices). This gives access to seven different venues, including The Florida Aquarium, Art Museum and, our favourite, the History Center. Don’t miss the top floor devoted to all things shipshape and nautical. Pirates explained in depth, historic charts and a fascinating lexicon of terms derived from ‘life on the ocean wave’.

The Riverwalk itself stretches for 2.6 miles along the west bank waterfront, once a neglected wasteland. Mooted for decades, the stylish urban pathway started to take off after the Millennium as museums and restaurants sprung up in the area. Outdoor activities such as stand-up paddleboarding are now a big draw; my favourite stretch is the one looking across at the Gilded Age silver minarets of the former Tampa Bay Hotel, now a university building housing the the Henry B Plant Museum. Plant was a 19th century magnate, who transformed Tampa. 

Across the street and dating back to those glory days, is the Oxford Exchange, kitted out like London club, promoting discussion, cookbooks, craft gifts and a laid-back all day menu.

Michelin and more – Tampa’s restaurant scene is red hot

Tampa’s booming again today. One prime indicator is a fine dining scene as vibrant as the craft beer explosion (110 breweries and counting). Florida gained nine new stars from Michelin this April gone, two of them in Tampa – Ebbe (Scandi-influenced tasting menus) and Kōsen (Japanese/omakase).  

We had a glorious dinner, back in Tampa Heights again, at Rocca, which earned its star in 2023 and has kept it, living proof that Michelin recognition doesn’t go hand in hand with stuffy elitism. Chef patron Bryce Bonsack’s Instagrammable Italian was a gas and, of course, how could we resist Rocca’s theatrical tour de force, the Mozzarella Cart? For $46 (to share) you get a server tableside creating ropes of mozzarella from scratch, then dressing the stretchy warm cheese with aged balsamic, kumato tomato and basil. 

I’ll long remember too freshly made torchio nero pasta all’arrabiata with octopus, bottarga and Calabrian chilli. Bryce’s major inspiration may be Piedmont but the menu and wine list ranges widely.

In contrast, the influences at a sophisticated Tampa newcomer are very much Gallic. Boulon Brasserie and Bakery is on Water Street, but inside it feels like ‘Rue de l’Eau’. It’s hard to reconcile my classic coq au vin and exquisite glass of chilled Chinon with this shiny new neighbourhood, originally a joint venture between Bill Gates and the owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team.

This is Downtown. Our Tampa base was four miles west in Midtown, another smart new 22 acre development. Not a feral chicken in sight, but there’s a Latin flavour to the rooftop of the Aloft/Element hotel. This time it’s a fusion of Spanish and Yucatan Mexican, food and cocktails, in the Sal y Mar restaurant/bar courtesy of chef Johnathan Rodriguez. With sunset views over, appropriately enough, the Gulf of Mexico.

Check out the first leg of Neil’s Florida road trip – Palmy Days in the Realm of Sea Turtles and Spider Crabs