Formerly: Columbia Saloon (1903–1905)
Tampa, Florida · Founded 1905
Ybor City’s Columbia Restaurant, opened in 1905, remains a family-run Spanish-Cuban landmark with 15 dining rooms.
Columbia Restaurant opened in Tampa’s Ybor City in 1905 after the earlier Columbia Saloon began operating in 1903. The flagship has grown from its cigar-worker-era origins into a family-run Spanish-Cuban restaurant complex with 15 dining rooms, a flamenco program, and more than a century of local cultural history.
Business histories say Casimiro Hernandez Sr. helped open the Columbia Saloon in Ybor City.
Source: Columbia Restaurant, “Our Story.”
The Columbia Restaurant begins in Ybor City. Sources describe the 1903 saloon either as transforming into the restaurant or as burning before the restaurant reopened nearby.
Source: Columbia Restaurant, “Ybor City, Tampa”; Columbia Restaurant Facebook post, July 4, 2026; Tampa Magazine, “Columbia Restaurant: A 120-Year Timeline,” 2025.
The Don Quixote Dining Room opens as Tampa’s first air-conditioned dining room.
Source: Tampa Bay History Center, “Columbia Cafe”; Columbia Restaurant, “Don Quixote Dining Room.”
The Siboney Room opens on New Year’s Eve, later becoming a setting for flamenco performances and banquets.
Source: Columbia Restaurant, “Ybor City, Tampa”; Columbia Restaurant, “El Siboney Dining Room.”
Casey Gonzmart Sr. retires as board chairman of the 1905 Family of Restaurants. Richard Gonzmart remains president and CEO, while Casey Gonzmart Jr. and Andrea Gonzmart Williams continue as owner-operators.
Source: Business Observer, “Family legacy at Columbia Restaurant carries to next generation,” September 14, 2025; TBBW, “A torch passed: Columbia's fifth generation steps forward,” October 1, 2025.
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The Columbia is broadly identified as Florida’s oldest restaurant by the business, the Tampa Bay History Center, the Ybor Chamber of Commerce, and recent local reporting. The reviewed sources support its 1905 restaurant origin and long-running operation, but the record assembled here does not independently document every period of continuous operation or fully resolve the 1903 saloon-to-1905 restaurant transition.
The restaurant and institutional partners describe the Ybor flagship as the world’s largest Spanish restaurant. Its 15 dining rooms and seating for up to 1,700 guests are concrete current features, but no independent global comparison or universally accepted measurement standard was identified.
The reviewed record supports Columbia’s role in serving Spanish-Cuban food in Ybor City’s cigar-worker community, but it does not establish that the restaurant invented the Tampa-style Cuban sandwich. The invention claim should not be made without primary culinary or historical evidence.
Recent reporting identifies Richard Gonzmart as president and CEO and identifies Casey Gonzmart Jr. and Andrea Gonzmart Williams as owner-operators following Casey Gonzmart Sr.’s 2025 retirement as board chairman.
The current Columbia Restaurant building opened in 1903.
The 1903 date belongs to the earlier Columbia Saloon. The restaurant dates its own beginning to 1905, and available accounts differ on whether the saloon transformed into the restaurant or burned before the restaurant reopened nearby.
Source: Columbia Restaurant, “Ybor City, Tampa”; Columbia Restaurant Facebook post, July 4, 2026; Tampa Magazine, “Columbia Restaurant: A 120-Year Timeline,” 2025.
The Siboney Room opened in 1956.
Columbia’s own location and Siboney Room histories date its opening to New Year’s Eve 1955.
Source: Columbia Restaurant, “Ybor City, Tampa”; Columbia Restaurant, “El Siboney Dining Room.”
The Columbia has survived by making its family history part of an active hospitality business rather than a static heritage display. The Hernandez-Gonzmart family still operates the company, pairing familiar dishes and formal dining rooms with a long-running Ybor City destination that serves both local patrons and visitors.
Columbia Restaurant began serving diners in Tampa’s Ybor City in 1905. Its history traces back to the Columbia Saloon, which business accounts say Casimiro Hernandez Sr. helped open in 1903; sources differ on whether that saloon transformed directly into the restaurant or burned before the 1905 restaurant reopened nearby. The Hernandez-Gonzmart family has since expanded the flagship into a 15-room Spanish-Cuban restaurant complex.
The Columbia Restaurant is widely recognized as Florida’s oldest operating restaurant and dates its restaurant history to 1905. The Tampa Bay History Center, Ybor Chamber of Commerce, and recent local reporting use that description. However, the source record reviewed here does not independently document every year of continuous operation or fully resolve the transition from the 1903 Columbia Saloon to the 1905 restaurant.
The Columbia Restaurant remains under Hernandez-Gonzmart family ownership and operation. Recent reporting identifies Richard Gonzmart as president and CEO, with Casey Gonzmart Jr. and Andrea Gonzmart Williams serving as owner-operators after Casey Gonzmart Sr. retired as board chairman in 2025.
The Siboney Room opened on New Year’s Eve 1955. Columbia says the room originally included fountains, sculptures, paintings, tapestries, and antiques, and it now hosts flamenco performances and large banquets.
2117 E 7th Ave, Tampa, FL 33605
(813) 248-4961
The Ybor City flagship serves lunch and dinner daily; its current site lists flamenco performances and recommends checking reservations and show schedules before visiting.