The story
Casimiro Hernandez opened the Columbia in 1905 as a small cafe serving lunch to the cigar factory workers of Ybor City. He named it after the patriotic song "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean." Wikipedia notes that the business began as Saloon Columbia in 1903 and took the Columbia Restaurant name in 1905, so the sources do not agree on the very first year.
Hernandez ran the place for 24 years. After he died in 1929 his son, Casimiro II, took over, added two large dining rooms and hired a new head chef. During the Depression the Don Quixote Room became Tampa's first air-conditioned dining room. The family held on through Ybor's leaner decades, and the restaurant now has 15 dining rooms, about 1,700 seats and walls covered in tile from Spain. It is billed as the oldest continuously operating Spanish restaurant in the United States.
What's There Now
It is still the Columbia Restaurant, run by the Gonzmart family on the same Ybor City block.
Everything that was here
- 1905–present · still open
Columbia RestaurantRestaurant
A 1905 cafe for cigar workers grew into a restaurant that fills an entire Ybor City block and is still run by the founding family.
See the map in 1906 →
Did you know?
Nearby history
L'Unione Italiana (Italian Club)
Carne Chophouse
The Ritz Ybor
Hotel Haya
Circulo Cubano de Tampa (Cuban Club)
El Pasaje / Cherokee Club
Know something about Columbia Restaurant? An old photo, a date, a memory of what stood here before?
Add it on the map