Ybor City

The granddaddy of them all, Columbia Restaurant bears the distinction of being the oldest restaurant in Florida as well as the nation’s largest Spanish/Cuban restaurant, with 13 rooms extending one full city block. Some of these waiters have been here a lifetime, there are stirring flamenco shows most nights, and owner Richard Gonzmart has an evangelical zeal when it comes to authentic Cuban sandwiches and the tossed-tableside 1905 Salad. The bar scene: Head straight to the glorious bar inside Tampa's most historic restaurant, and order yourself a mojito. If it's not the best you've ever had, it'll be damn close. Stirred with sugar cane and bursting with lime and mint, it'll make you feel like Hemingway in Havana.