Tasty Tour: Tampa (Ybor City, actually)
By Jeff Burns
One hundred fifty years ago, there wasn’t much to
Tampa Florida. It consisted of a few
hundred people looking to scratch out a living the best way they could. However, in the late 1800s, things started
coming together. Henry Plant, an eastern
railroad magnate saw the potential Tampa had:
a natural harbor and nice climate, so he built railroads connecting the
region to the north. Then, a visionary
named Vincente Martinez-Ybor saw the potential and built the city on
cigars. That’s the story I learned from
taking a history and food walking tour of Ybor City, the core of historic
Tampa. The tour is one of several tours
offered by Ybor City Food Tours
.
Vincente
Martinez-Ybor was a Cuban cigar maker, born in Spain, who purchased swamp land
and transformed it into the world’s largest cigar company and a thriving community that may well have
been the greatest example ever of an American melting pot. Workers and came from around the world and
lived, worked, and socialized in Ybor City. Many think of Ybor City as a Cuban
enclave, but there were not only Cubans, but also Spaniards, Italians,
Sicilians, Germans, Romanians, and Americans, black and white, among others who
built the city.
Our
tour was the Original Ybor City Food Tour, billed as a two-hour tour that
lasted closer to three. Along with
learning the history of Ybor City, we enjoyed special treats in various
restaurants along the route. It’s kind
of like a progressive dinner. We started
with chicken wings at the Tampa Bay Brewing Company, then a huge slice of
cheese pizza at New York, New York Pizzeria, a Cuban sandwich (voted best Cuban
from Miami to Tampa multiple times – and it has my vote), black beans and rice
at Gaspar’s Grotto, and key lime pie from Green Iguana and Cuban coffee at
Nicahabana Cigars, one of a dozen or so traditional hand-rolled cigar shops
still operating in Ybor City. Like most
of the cigar shops, Nicahabana offers Cuban coffee and espressos. (Unfortunately, their machine was out of
order when we were there, so no coffee.) The food was fantastic at every stop,
and we were all more than satisfied.
One hundred fifty years ago, there wasn’t much to
Tampa Florida. It consisted of a few
hundred people looking to scratch out a living the best way they could. However, in the late 1800s, things started
coming together. Henry Plant, an eastern
railroad magnate saw the potential Tampa had:
a natural harbor and nice climate, so he built railroads connecting the
region to the north. Then, a visionary
named Vincente Martinez-Ybor saw the potential and built the city on
cigars. That’s the story I learned from
taking a history and food walking tour of Ybor City, the core of historic
Tampa. The tour is one of several tours
offered by Ybor City Food Tours
.
Vincente
Martinez-Ybor was a Cuban cigar maker, born in Spain, who purchased swamp land
and transformed it into the world’s largest cigar company and a thriving community that may well have
been the greatest example ever of an American melting pot. Workers and came from around the world and
lived, worked, and socialized in Ybor City. Many think of Ybor City as a Cuban
enclave, but there were not only Cubans, but also Spaniards, Italians,
Sicilians, Germans, Romanians, and Americans, black and white, among others who
built the city.
Our
tour was the Original Ybor City Food Tour, billed as a two-hour tour that
lasted closer to three. Along with
learning the history of Ybor City, we enjoyed special treats in various
restaurants along the route. It’s kind
of like a progressive dinner. We started
with chicken wings at the Tampa Bay Brewing Company, then a huge slice of
cheese pizza at New York, New York Pizzeria, a Cuban sandwich (voted best Cuban
from Miami to Tampa multiple times – and it has my vote), black beans and rice
at Gaspar’s Grotto, and key lime pie from Green Iguana and Cuban coffee at
Nicahabana Cigars, one of a dozen or so traditional hand-rolled cigar shops
still operating in Ybor City. Like most
of the cigar shops, Nicahabana offers Cuban coffee and espressos. (Unfortunately, their machine was out of
order when we were there, so no coffee.) The food was fantastic at every stop,
and we were all more than satisfied.
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