Food History of Tampa

Key eras

Pre-1885, Tocobaga and Spanish contact

Before Tampa became Tampa, the Tocobaga people built shell mounds at the mouth of the Hillsborough River and ate from the Bay's mullet, mangrove crab and palm hearts. Hernando de Soto landed in 1539. Spanish ranches and fishing camps operated along the coast through the 1700s. The Cuban fishing rancheros at Tampa Bay traded smoked mullet to Havana through the colonial era.

1885, Vicente Martinez Ybor's cigar capital

Vicente Martinez Ybor moved his Key West cigar operation to a swampy area east of the Hillsborough River in 1885. By 1900 Ybor City had over 150 cigar factories and was the cigar capital of the world. The workforce was Cuban, Spanish, Italian (mostly Sicilian) and German. They cooked together, ate together and invented dishes that combined every cuisine they brought.

1890s, the Cuban sandwich is born

Cigar workers in Ybor's factories built sandwiches from the bread Cuban bakeries baked daily, layered with roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard and pickles. The Sicilian workers added Genoa salami, which is the line that still separates a Tampa Cuban from a Miami Cuban (Miami's later version omits the salami). The City of Tampa formally declared the Cuban sandwich its signature sandwich in 2012.

1905, the Columbia Restaurant opens

Casimiro Hernandez Sr. opened the Columbia Restaurant at the corner of East Seventh and 22nd Street in Ybor City in 1905. Five Gonzmart family generations later, the Columbia is still Florida's oldest restaurant, running 15 dining rooms across a city block with paella, 1905 Salad and the Spanish bean soup.

1915, La Segunda begins

Juan More opened La Segunda Central Bakery on 15th Street in Ybor in 1915. The bakery bakes long, light Cuban bread with a palmetto frond on top to vent steam, plus pastelitos, quesitos and guava pastries. La Segunda still supplies most Cuban-sandwich shops in Tampa with their bread.

1920, the deviled crab strike

The deviled crab (devil crab) was born during the 1920 Ybor cigar workers strike. Cigar workers caught blue crabs from the Bay and stretched the meat with Cuban-bread crumbs, peppers, onions and a sofrito tomato sauce. The torpedo croquette was deep-fried for portability and traveled with the workers across the strike line. The Sicilian-Spanish-Cuban fusion is the only place in America where the dish exists.

1956, Bern Laxer opens Bern's Steakhouse

Bern Laxer and his wife Gert opened Bern's Steakhouse on South Howard in Hyde Park in 1956. Bern's started the world's largest restaurant wine cellar (now over 500,000 bottles, 6,500 labels) and the dry-aging program for in-house beef. The James Beard Foundation awarded Bern's Outstanding Wine Program in 2016.

2024-2026, Tampa's Michelin moment

Michelin came to Tampa in 2023 with the first Florida guide. Ebbe, Kosen and Koya took one-star ratings; Rocca followed in 2024. Lilac at the EDITION hotel earned a star in 2023 and lost it back to Recommended in 2026. The 2026 Florida Michelin Guide also added a Green Star at Fat Beet Farm Kitchen and Bakery for sustainable cooking, the first Green Star awarded in Florida.

Immigrant influences

• Cuban (Ybor City, post-1885): The Cuban immigrant community brought cigar-rolling, built Ybor City, and invented the Cuban sandwich, the cafecito and the Spanish bean soup. La Segunda Cuban bread since 1915 still holds the cuisine together.
• Spanish (Asturian and Galician): Spanish cigar workers founded Centro Espanol (1888) and Centro Asturiano (1902) social clubs in Ybor. They brought paella, Spanish bean soup and the sangria traditions the Columbia Restaurant cemented.
• Sicilian (Italian): Sicilian cigar workers added Genoa salami to the Cuban sandwich (the Tampa-Miami distinction), opened Alessi's bakery in 1912 with cannolis and Italian pastries, and shaped the deviled crab via tomato sofrito.
• Greek (Tarpon Springs and Tampa): Greek sponge divers arrived in Tarpon Springs in 1905, building the largest Greek-American community in Florida. Tampa's Greek tradition runs through Psomi (Bib Gourmand), Acropolis Greek Taverna and Olympia Bakery.
• Nepalese and Indian (modern Tampa): New Tampa's Nepalese community built up around the Cross Creek Boulevard corridor in the 2010s. Gorkhali Kitchen earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2023 for Himalayan and Nepalese cooking, with momos, thalis and chowmein.

Signature innovations

• The Cuban sandwich with Genoa salami: invented in Ybor cigar factories in the 1890s
• The deviled crab croquette: invented during the 1920 Ybor cigar strike
• The world's largest restaurant wine cellar at Bern's Steakhouse
• The 1905 Salad: ham, Swiss, Romano, olives and garlic dressing, tossed tableside at Columbia
• Cuban bread baked with a palmetto frond on top for steam venting at La Segunda since 1915
• Cigar City Brewing's Jai Alai IPA, Florida's flagship craft beer since 2009