FLORIDA BUILDINGS I LOVE: No. 67: Columbia Restaurant, 1903-05, Tampa
2025 E. Seventh Ave., Ybor City. Ivo DeMinicis, and perhaps others, architect
Harold Bubil
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.
But when it comes to enjoying chicken or fish with an enormous mound of yellow rice, black-bean soup, warm Cuban bread with the crumbly crust, and, of course, the olive-laden “1905 Salad,” there’s nothing like the mothership the 1,700-seat, block-long “Gem of Spanish Restaurants” in Tampa.
Each location has delightful spaces, but none of them do more than echo the Ybor City location’s authentic, Spanish-inspired architecture. Each dining room is different, and the nightly (except Sunday) Flamenco music performances only add to the atmosphere.