Ybor City is a National Historic Landmark District that exists because a cigar manufacturer moved his factories here from Key West in 1886 and Cuban, Spanish and Italian workers followed. You can still eat your way through that sentence.
The old houses: the Columbia opened as a saloon on 17 December 1903, became a restaurant in 1905, and is still run by the founder's descendants. Carmine's has held its Seventh Avenue corner since 1948 and serves the Ybor mix on one menu: Cuban, Italian and Spanish, with the deviled crab croquettes. Bernini has been at Seventh and 17th for more than thirty years.
Buildings with a second life: Casa Santo Stefano is in a 1925 macaroni factory, with tiles the owner went to Caltagirone to choose and photographs lent by descendants of Tampa's Sicilian families. Coppertail brews in a 34,000 square foot industrial building on Second Avenue. BarrieHaus pours Czech side-pull lagers and has two World Beer Cup golds.
The counters: King Corona for Cuban coffee and a cigar since 1998. Al's for Tennessee-style ribs, now inside the soul food shop at 2302 E 7th Ave rather than the old Angel Oliva Senior Street address most guides still print. Mise en Place, one of Tampa's long-running fine dining rooms, moved into the district on Eighth Avenue.
Just north of the district, La Segunda has baked since 1915 and turns out more than 18,000 loaves a day, which is why most of the city's Cuban sandwiches trace back to one address. Everything we track in Ybor City is on the neighborhood page.