The brief type: Since 1905, the Columbia Restaurant has actually supported Spanish and Cuban-inspired meals and beverages that represent a long-standing family history. Founded by a Cuban immigrant in Tampa, the Columbia stays a regional favorite because of its conventional foods and friendly solution. Over the years, folks from all over the world attended toward attractive bistro to celebrate engagements, wedding anniversaries, birthdays, along with other monumental moments. Now, the last and fifth generations from the family possesses and functions 13 various restaurants throughout Fl. If you’re looking for good dinner with a good traditional family feel, you can reserve a table in the stunning and passionate dining spaces regarding the Columbia Restaurant.
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For the past thirty years, my family’s favored holiday destination was an oceanfront hotel in Sand Key, Florida. We have eliminated truth be told there over several instances to create sand castles, area dolphins, and consume tasty dinners on patios overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.
We’ve got completely explored town’s cafe selection, looking out the finest regional joints around, nonetheless it only very happens your one cafe we enjoy most is within strolling length of one’s hotel. The Columbia eatery’s white-linen tablecloths, mindful solution, and mouth-watering food succeed our very own go-to spot for supper.
Once we had been kids, my moms and dads would get you a cheddar pizza as they visited this enchanting Spanish cafe alone; but we have now enjoy tapas and wine as much while they would, therefore we’ve started crashing their particular night out â often taking along dates in our very own.
Since 1905, the Columbia Restaurant has wowed clients with Spanish and Cuban meals and an old-world ambiance. Although itis the earliest cafe in Florida, the company is still operate from the descendants of this original president. Every object in the menu provides a tale behind it, and lots of from the meals have now been transmitted from one generation on the Hernandez Gonzmart household to another location. Family members practice is a large part of the Columbia’s selection, record, and approach to solution.
“The staff can be a little like family members,” said Michael Kilgore, the main Marketing Officer the Columbia. “quite a few employees remain for 20 or thirty years. One of the situations we like about our very own party is the length of time they stick with us. They are available here and discover a home.”
You can enjoy this comfortable and inviting environment on the subsequent night out by going to any of the Columbia’s seven different restaurants. The Columbia eatery presently serves guests in Tampa, Sarasota, St. Augustine, Clearwater Beach, and Celebration. Whether you are drinking drink on a picturesque balcony or enjoying flamenco dancers illuminate the stage as you take in tapas, you are sure to have an unforgettable evening at Columbia.
In 1905, a Cuban Immigrant Ran a Saloon That Became a Sensation
The Columbia eatery can locate their history back again to Dec. 17, 1903 â exactly the same day the Wright brothers effectively tested worldwide’s basic aircraft. That was when a Cuban immigrant named Casimiro Hernandez Sr. started working a saloon for an area making organization in Tampa’s Ybor City.
In 1905, the industrious entrepreneur switched the saloon into a prominent 60-seat cafe noted for the real Cuban coffee-and sandwiches. Soon after their success, Casimiro bought a cafe or restaurant nearby and switched it into a gorgeous kitchen. In 1930, his daughter got more than control and operation in the flourishing restaurant.
Throughout the Great Depression, his daughter Casimiro Jr. created 1st air-conditioned dining room in Tampa. The guy hoped the trendy appearance and elevated dance flooring would draw people to the cafe which help them forget about their particular fears for a night. The Don Quixote area ended up being a winner, together with Columbia managed to hold the doors available although different companies folded.
In 1953, Casimiro Jr. passed the Columbia to his only child, Adela Hernandez Gonzmart, an accomplished artist who had satisfied her partner, Cesar Gonzmart, during the Tampa cafe. This theatrical pair introduced entertainment and art with the Columbia, setting up a showroom that managed numerous talented Latin dancers and musicians. Under Adela and Cesar’s authority, the Columbia extended to Sarasota and other areas in Florida.
These days, certainly Adela and Cesar’s two sons has taken the reins and kept their family members’ business heading. Richard Gonzmart is functioning at his family’s restaurants since he was 12 years old, thus he’s intimately familiar with their environment and history. Richard can point out the dining table at Columbia Restaurant where he and his awesome girlfriend had their own basic day significantly more than 43 years ago.
“there’s lots of love here, and then we have actually a fantastic tale,” stated Michael. “significantly less than 15 restaurants in america are family-owned and most a century outdated, therefore we’re in pretty elite organization.”
Florida’s earliest cafe provides a proud and enduring background rooted in food, family, and fun. Michael informed us the 5th generation from the founding household is currently becoming groomed to dominate one day. Richard’s daughters and nephew have chosen to take in energetic administration roles at the restaurants and tend to be prepared maintain the family members practice opting for many more many years to come.
The Columbia might acknowledged with many regarding the greatest honours during the cafe industry, such as induction into country’s eatery News’ “okay eating Hall of popularity,” made the “notable Restaurants of the united states (SiRoNA) Award of Excellence,” Florida Trend’s “Golden Spoon Hall of Fame,” and Wine Spectator’s “better of honor of Excellence.”
Dig In! A Delectable Menu of Sharable Tapas & Indulgent Desserts
The Columbia Restaurant sets a lavish dining table and provides a delightful escape from every day life. It seduces your senses as soon as you walk in the doors. You are in the middle of greenery, h2o fountains, and artwork since noises of laughter additionally the smells of fresh seafood dishes waft through the environment. Before my purchase actually gets to myself, my mouth area is watering with anticipation. Thank goodness, each guest gets their own recently made loaf of Cuban bread, so I have something to please my taste buds while I wait.
The 14-page selection is full of good food but in addition provides simple conversation starters for daters just getting to know each other. Each entrée, appetizer, and dessert includes an enticing explanation along with fascinating background info. By way of example, the restaurant’s coconut frozen dessert was a well liked of ice-cream business owner Gustavo Hernandez, the third boy in the initial Columbia founder, and today this sweet meal is served inside the respect.
From veggie paella (Spanish grain combined with satisfying veggies) into shrimp great (shrimp covered with wafer-thin bacon), the meals on Columbia tend to be bursting with taste. The shareable plates, also known as tapas, make this cafe suitable for partners on a romantic date because you will come closer with each other by sharing tiny dishes of empanadas, sliced chorizo, croquetas, or stuffed peppers. It is possible to make a budget-friendly meal by purchasing some of the appetizers with each other â remember to save lots of area for dessert!
The Très Amigos churros is a fantastic choice for partners since they are tactile, sweet, and just just a little messy. It is possible to dip the piping-hot churros in candy, caramel, or guava sauce generally there’s something for all. Positive, Columbia’s trademark light Chocolate Bread Pudding is an indulgent treat excellent for splitting with a date that a taste for white candy and rum sauce.
In 2017, the Marriott Traveler blog site named the Columbia Restaurant among St. Augustine’s leading date-night areas, promoting couples to “start off with Columbia’s well-known 1905 Salad, assembled table-side with a lot panache, right after which discuss an enormous platter of this Paella a la Valenciana, full of shellfish, fragrant grain, and chorizo.”
The romantic evening will be all the greater amount of enjoyable any time you pair with your meal one cup of the Melanie Chardonnay, a rich wine called after Melanie Gonzmart, Richard’s high-school lover and girlfriend.
Plus, from the Columbia Restaurant, the sangria should die for. Honestly, it comes because of the cup but you can in addition split a pitcher of white or reddish sangria with a romantic date to increase the dining knowledge. Generously big cuts of good fresh fruit drift in the wine and infuse it with wealthy tastes. Whether you’re buying this classic sangria or one of many bistro’s family members wines, the high-caliber beverages you should never let you down.
Michael informed us the group makes an effort available inexpensive but top quality wines to whet friends’ appetites. “Our wine selection must certanly be perfectly suited for the meal we offer plus price point,” the guy stated.
Many Couples & households Have Shared particular Moments Here
When i do believe in the Columbia, I think from the evening we decided to have treat for dinner, and my personal moms and dads purchased churros, essential lime pie, mango mousse dessert, white candy loaves of bread pudding, and five spoons. I think of my twin brother trying grouper for the first time on our 20th birthday celebration and claiming excitedly, “just take my personal photo” because he desired to show his gf (who is now his partner) he liked taking in fish everything she did.
In plenty methods, the Columbia feels as though all of our place, but my loved ones is not really the only family members for produced memories only at that restaurant and its six sister locations across Florida. Individuals reach the cafe at all phases of life because it provides a unique atmosphere that sets well with any celebration.
Famously, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio happened to be frequent visitors associated with the Columbia in the early 1950s. The Columbia staff paid tribute towards pair together with enjoying thoughts they contributed at cafe by naming a dish after all of them. The Marilyn & Joe “Salteado” â a sautéed mixture of tenderloin guidelines, boneless chicken white meat, shrimp, and pork â is actually a delicious reminder in the lengthy reputation of love from inside the Columbia’s dining spaces.
Whether you’re taking place an initial big date or remembering a marriage anniversary, you’ll find intimacy and passion flourish in the comfortable candlelight of the Columbia Restaurant.
“It is our targets,” Michael stated, “for folks feel like the Columbia is the perfect place to come to commemorate life’s goals.”
The Columbia Restaurant has Family standards on the Table
The Columbia eatery charms daters with real dishes, divine atmospheres, and personable service. The machines, no less than at our very own Columbia in Sand Key, focus on their own guests and generally are quick to state “Welcome straight back” to dedicated clients which, like my family, find themselves returning to the stylish dining spaces repeatedly.
This long-standing eating establishment provides cultivated and changed through the years, nevertheless hasn’t forgotten about its century-long family members origins. Richard has actually committed intends to offer diners and daters throughout Florida in the years into the future. “the manager doesn’t sleep,” Michael stated with fun. “he is usually dreaming upwards something new.”
The Columbia team plans to start at the very least two brand new restaurants inside the impending decades. One will end up being easily situated right across the street through the initial Columbia in Tampa. Casa Santo Stefano, set to open up in fall 2018, pay respect to limited village in Sicily where a majority of Tampa’s Sicilian immigrants emerged from â the genuine diet plan is designed to deliver these people a delicious note of house.
Suffering authority and top quality types improve Columbia eatery and all of its cousin restaurants genuinely amazing spots in which singles and couples can invest an evening together with those they love greatest.