Columbia Restaurant

The story

The Hernandez family transformed their 1903 Ybor City saloon into the Columbia Restaurant in 1905. Still family-owned, it now fills an entire city block with fifteen dining rooms and seating for up to 1,700 guests. Historic spaces include the original café and bar, the 1935 Don Quixote room and a lofty courtyard lined with arches, balconies, painted tiles and a fountain.

Why Columbia Restaurant is iconic

Scale, continuity and architecture make Columbia exceptional: this is a working Spanish-Cuban restaurant complex shaped over generations, not a modern theme setting, and its dining rooms embody Tampa’s cigar-city heritage.

Selected by Ernst Aben · Information reviewed July 2026