2025 E. Seventh Ave., Ybor City. Ivo DeMinicis, and perhaps others, architect
Editor's note: While Harold Bubil takes some time off, we'll reprise some of his popular columns. This article originally ran on March 28, 2018.
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.
Casimiro Hernandez Sr. started the restaurant on Seventh Avenue in 1905, and the Columbia has been in operation ever since. He expanded the restaurant in 1919.
“The original building was much smaller. We began as a small, 60-seat café in 1905,” said Angie Geml, Columbia Restaurant Group’s marketing and public relations manager. “But we actually started in our original part of the building in 1903, when (Hernandez) opened the Saloon Columbia on Dec. 17, 1903, the same day that the Wright Brothers took flight. In 1905, the Saloon Columbia became the Columbia Café. So the building was there in 1903.”
My most recent meal was in the Patio Dining Room, a grand space with a balcony that wraps around a double-height space, putting diners on two levels. That part of the building was constructed in 1937 under the direction of Casimiro Hernandez Jr., who became the owner when his father died in 1930. He worked with architect Ivo de Minicis of Rimini, Italy.
“Resembling a courtyard like the ones found in Andalucia, the south of Spain, it is surrounded by a balcony, with a colorful mosaic-tiled fountain with the ‘Love and the Dolphin’ statue in the middle,” Geml wrote in an email. “The statue is a replica of a sculpture found in the ruins of Pompeii. A glass skylight was installed, giving the room a wonderful bright and sunny look during the day, and an enchanted glow at night.”
Ivo de Minicis had a broad knowledge of Italian and Spanish architecture, according to a cookbook published by the Columbia. The younger Hernandez had never been in Spain, but “he soaked up photographs and descriptions of Sevilla and its architecture. Of all Spanish cities, it most resembled Ybor City. Casimiro Jr. wanted to create a dining room that resembled an open Sevillano patio, surrounded by a balcony, with a big fountain in the middle.”
Hernandez Jr. added music and Flamenco dancing as he made the restaurant more elegant. He also built the Don Quixote Room, the first air-conditioned dining room in Tampa.
More recently, the Gonzmart family has owned and operated the restaurant. Adela Hernandez, daughter of Carmen and Casimiro Jr. and co-author of the cookbook, married Cesar Gonzmart in 1946, and they took over the restaurant in 1953 from her father, whose health was failing, according to the history on the restaurant’s website. Adela, a concert pianist, and Cesar were professional musicians before becoming restaurateurs.
“Florida Buildings I Love” is the author’s weekly homage to the state’s built environment. E-mail: Harold.Bubil@heraldtribune.com.
https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20190921/florida-buildings-i-love-no-67-columbia-restaurant-1903-05-tampa 2019-09-21 09:52:41Z
0 Comments:
Post a Comment