The scene: The Columbia is the oldest restaurant in Florida and the oldest Spanish eatery in the United States. It's also one of the largest, seating about 1,600 patrons in a dozen different ...

Gonzmart, 69, spoke with the Tampa Bay Times about growing up in the original Columbia Restaurant where a frequent diner was the late Tampa mob boss Santo Trafficante Jr. This is the first part of ...

Columbia Restaurant's original "1905" salad is prepared for a catering order on April 28, 2025. It's one of the restaurant group's signature dishes, and the company sold over 545,000 of them last ...

Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, Florida, was founded in 1905 by a Cuban immigrant Casimiro Hernandez Sr. It remains a beloved landmark dining destination today.

The venerable Columbia Restaurant has locations in Sarasota, St. Augustine, Celebration and Clearwater Beach, and two smaller cafes in Tampa, and I’ve eaten at all but two of them.

Columbia Restaurant voted Florida's best Cuban sandwich by Southern Living. ... "Tampa was like the sandwich, a mixture of cultures and food," Columbia Restaurant once noted on its website.

Inside Florida’s Stunning 110-Year-Old Icon, Columbia Restaurant. Tampa history meets lively dining at Columbia, 5:00pm on Thursday.

Tampa's dining scene is enjoying a renaissance, and the culinary world is sitting up and taking notice. ... Anchored by Columbia Restaurant, Florida's oldest restaurant, ...

For lunch, buttery scallops or fresh banh mi. The Columbia Restaurant is Florida’s oldest continuously operating restaurant, and the largest Spanish restaurant in the world. It boasts 15 dining ...

Tony’s Special. The story of the dish starts in the 1940s with a late-night snacker named Tony Noriega. He worked as a server at several Latin restaurants in Ybor City, including the Columbia.