Ybor City FL

It was a beautiful, sunny, shorts and t-shirt day in Tampa. We moved slowly this morning, finally heading out at 11:30 for Tampa and the Thompson Cigar Store. This is a cigar retail outlet. They don’t make their own cigars, but they carry many good cigars at a good price. The store was well-stocked, and the guys in there were like children in a candy store. Bill made his purchases, and we headed to Ybor City.

First we went to the Columbia restaurant for lunch. We had the special appetizer, lobster croquettes, which were quite tasty, especially with the mojitos we had. I had boliche (Cuban pot roast) with plantains, and black beans and rice. Bill had paella which took a while to fix but was fresh and had lots of good seafood in it. We were too full for dessert. The restaurant is the original Columbia restaurant, and the building is quite beautiful. It was started in 1905, and the building has been added to. Five generations of the family have run the restaurant. It is great food at a really good price.

After lunch we went next door to the Columbia store where an old man was rolling cigars by hand. I had never seen that, so it was very interesting to watch. We wanted on down the main street of historic Ybor City. The history here is very interesting. A man named Ybor brought his cigar making factory to Tampa, was given land, and Ybor became a huge center for cigars. After the depression, Ybor went downhill and is only now coming back. In parts, it still looks rather seedy, but the architecture is very interesting. We went to the Visitor’s Center and saw a very interesting 7 minute movie on the history of Ybor and the cigar factories. What I found really fascinating was that the rollers hired a man to be lector to read to them all day. He read newspapers, novels, etc. These rollers became quite educated after years of listening to the lector while they worked.

The other interesting item was the social clubs that sprung up in the early 1900s. Many ethnic groups, Italian, German, Spanish, built large beautiful buildings where each group gathered to socialize with their own countrymen, speaking their own languages.

We got home about 4:30 and hung out at the RV. The older man next to us stopped by to tell us about his foray to the Strawberry Festival. He went to the George Jones concert but they didn’t buy any strawberries. He is from Missouri and chatted about various things including the weather. He said this global warming was a bunch of bunk. He has been around forever, and he can’t see that the weather has changed that much. I bit my tongue and smiled nicely and changed the subject.

We ate lightly tonight. We are heading to Busch Gardens tomorrow. I want to see the animals! I hope they cooperate. I know that I probably won’t see anything as cute as the 1 month old rhino we saw there 4 years ago, but one never knows.