By Patrick Mould

I love my job! It has some great perks. As a professional chef I will never go hungry simply because I always know from where my next meal will come. I have also been fortunate enough to travel to many parts of the country doing promotional spots on television as chef-spokesperson for Creole Foods, Inc. that produces Tony Chachere’s Original Seasoning.

One occupational hazard, for a lack of a better term, we must endure as a chef is that we can’t travel to another city without checking out the local restaurant scene. You see this can be good and bad. Although I consider myself to be one of the easiest chefs for whom to prepare a meal, sometimes restaurants simply miss the mark. Restaurants can miss the mark a number of ways—whether it’s the food, service or d√©cor. When professional food people venture into an eating establishment we take in all aspects of the dining experience.

I first ran across Ybor City while working on a feature about the royal family of cigar making, the Feuntes. Autero Feunte’s father learned the art of cigar making from his family in Cuba before opening his first factory in Ybor City, which in the early 1900’s was considered the cigar capitol of the world. In the 1970’s the family moved the operation to Nicaragua, however a factory fire and the Sandanista revolution forced the family to re-locate to Honduras where, unfortunately, fire also destroyed that factory. The Dominican Republic is the current base of operations. However signs of the Fuente family still can be felt and smoked in the premium cigars found in the numerous cigar shops in Ybor City.

Naturally when I learned that I would be traveling back to Tampa I decide to set up residence in this unique Spanish section of the city by the Bay. The fact that I enjoy a fine cigar on occasion had nothing to do with my decision. Yea, right

After checking in at the hotel I started to inquire about where to dine and the one restaurant name that kept popping up in the conversation was the Columbia.

The Columbia restaurant in Ybor City (there are a total of 4 restaurants located throughout Florida) is a feast for all the senses. Perhaps one of the most ornate restaurants I have every run across in the Southern United States, it is also one of the few that holds the distinction of having Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders hold fort in the original section of the café built in 1905. Legend has it that during one visit to their favorite Spanish restaurant they rode their horses through the café.

Cuban immigrant Casimiro Hernadez, Sr., founded the Columbia restaurant in 1905. In 1927, Casimiro Hernadez, Jr. took over the reins and enlarged the restaurant to accommodate the Spanish and Italian immigrants of the area who flocked in huge numbers to experience it’s unique cuisine. During the height of the Depression, he took a chance by building the first air-conditioned dining room in Tampa, complete with an elevated dance floor. The Don Quixote room was born.

In the 1950’s Hernandez, Jr. hired his new son-in-law, Cesar Gonzmart, a former concert violinist. Gonzmart had a flair for the artistic, and upon taking over direction of the restaurant, built a large showroom, the Siboney Room. The showroom attracted the top Latin talent of the time. The tradition continues today at the original restaurant in Ybor City, where Spanish flamenco dancers perform six nights a week.

The restaurant is cavernous with 11 dining rooms seating up to 1600 customers. Attractive hostesses who communicate with walkie-talkies orchestrate the seating of guest through this huge “la fonda.” I spent a large portion of time traveling from dining room to dining room enjoying the thousands of ornate tiles that adorn each room.

But this restaurant doesn’t rest on its ornate laurels. The food is not only unique but also tasty. The menu is a combination of Spanish old world cuisine and Haute continental flare featuring dishes such as the traditional rice dish “paella” of Spain and Pompano en Papillote alongside dishes created at the Columbia. Dishes like merluza “Russian Style” an Atlantic fish indigenous of Spain. The fish is breaded with Cuban breadcrumbs, grilled and topped with lemon butter, chopped parsley and egg, and was created in the 1930’s by then chef Francisco Pijuan. Filet Mignon “Chacho” is a grilled center-cut filet topped with a rich sauce of bourbon, shallots, and mushrooms that is flamb√©ed tableside and prepared in the memory of great-uncle Eveliu “Chacho” Hernadez, the youngest son of the founder.

How can you go to a Spanish restaurant and not have tapas? Tapas are a variety of smaller appetizers that allow you to enjoy a number of different dishes. I started off with a Cuban tamale and chorizo, the national sausage of Spain.

The chorizo had a smoky piquant flavor, which reminded me somewhat of smoked Louisiana sausage. The sausage is dry smoked giving it a unique texture. The Cuban tamale a mixture of ground corn flour and cured pork was mildly seasoned that allowed the true flavor of the corn to shine through.

Caldo Gallego, a soup created in the town of Galicia, Spain is a mixture of white beans, smoked ham hock, chorizo simmered with turnip greens and potato whose flavor profile is unmatched. The dry-cured smoky chorizo sausage becomes tender morsels while simmering in the rich bean broth.

The Spanish paella is the precursor to a Louisiana jambalaya. Paella a la Valenciana is prepared in a traditional paella pan, and is chock full of clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, grouper, calamari, chicken and pork, simmered with yellow rice, olive oil, green peppers, onions, ripe tomatoes, garlic, spices and a splash of white wine. Massive in size I could have easily shared the dish with a dining partner. In spite of my gluttonous behavior I still had room for flan, the traditional dessert of the Hispanic culture. Mue Buenos

Considering I was enjoying my meal in the cigar bar caf√© section of the restaurant and considering that it was proclaimed “America’s Original Cigar Bar” by Cigar Aficionado Magazine, the only thing left to do on my list was to enjoy a fine cigar. As I sat there puffing on an Autero Feunte Hemingway Short Story cigar I felt as if I had been transported back in time and at any moment expected Teddy and his Rough Riders to come crashing through the door on horseback.

In this day and age of cookie-cutter corporate food operations it is refreshing to experience a family-run restaurant that hits the mark.

Viva La Columbia Restaurant!
The Columbia Restaurant
2117 E. Seventh Ave.
Tamp, Florida 33605
813-248-4961
www.columbiarestaurant.com

Filed Under: Food Talk