9/12: Tampa's Ybor City aka World's Cigar Capital

From where we were staying at our friends' home in Hudson, Florida, Steven and I jumped on the freeway to hop down to Tampa for the day. We stopped in Ybor City, known as Tampa's smoking-hot cigar city, first. Founded by Don Vicente Martinez Ybor in 1886, Ybor moved his Key West cigar manufacturing business to the Tampa area in order to escape political and labor unrest from the Cuban Freedom Movement. Producing millions of cigars each year, Ybor City became the Cigar Capital of the World until the cigar industry waned in the 1960s, due mostly to the embargo of Cuban tobacco.

This site was constructed in 1888 for a cigar company that changed hands several times. After the Ybor City fire of 1908, the original Florida wood structure was transformed into a more fire-retardant building using imported wood. (I couldn't help but wonder how rebuilding with imported wood made it more fire-retardant, however!) The building was the only wooden cigar factory still in existence in Ybor City. 

When I was lucky enough to visit Cuba about 45 years ago when it was permitted to do so from my native Canada, I remember seeing signs all over the island nation honoring its national hero, Jose Marti. It was neat, therefore, learning that Marti gave speeches to cigar makers from this building during his seventh visit to Ybor City in late 1892.

This site in Ybor City had been the location of La Joven Francesa Bakery, founded by Sicilian immigrant Francisco Ferlita in 1896. He sold bread for just three and five cents, and often extended credit! When the wooden structure burned down in 1922, this yellow brick building was built around the remaining red brick ovens. When Francisco died in 1931, his five sons continued making Cuban bread until 1973. At the bakery's peak, 33,000 loaves of Cuban bread were made weekly. A plaque said, "Tampa's Latin loaf was leavened with emotion, flavored with tradition, and eaten with a large helping of nostalgia." Ahh, isn't that sweet?

The Immigration Statue was dedicated to the "brave individuals and families who immigrated to America at the turn of the (20th) century and settled in (Ybor City's) Hillsborough County."

Steven and I were certainly in luck that we had chosen a Saturday to visit the Tampa area as the Ybor City Farmers' Market was taking place in Centennial Park. We're always a sucker for markets and this one was especially interesting as you'll see in a moment.

Being a farmers' market, the plea using an animal theme to be safe during the pandemic was certainly in keeping. The sign asked that all stay healthy by social distancing - about five roosters apart!

When was the last time you spotted a booth selling cigars at a farmers' market? It was certainly our first!

Here were some of the roosters that wandered at will throughout the market!

I couldn't help but smile when this sign suggested people stay ten cigars' distance apart!

We then wandered up and down historic Ybor City's main drag, Seventh Ave.

Note the Cuban flag mural on each side. Cuba, by the way, is one of just a few countries I've traveled to and Steven hasn't. 

Naviera Coffee had been a family-owned and operated coffee roasters in Ybor City from 1921-2016. 

A. Fuente was another cigar store but it was closed on that September Saturday morning.

I read that Ybor City was a hopping place especially at night when a lively mix of dance clubs, hookah bars, and drinking holes with live DJs combine to transform the main strip into an outdoor siesta. When we were there, however, it looked like it was an afternoon siesta as everything looked pretty much dead as a doornail.

I don't know about you but I love to read personalized tiles, blocks, and stars on sidewalks! 

Cute, huh!

The Italian Club had a major presence in Ybor City. When Tampa's first Italian-American society was initially organized in 1894, it assisted members through cultural enrichment by providing education, healthcare, and financial aid to the families of deceased members. Since then, it has made a lasting contribution to preserving the colorful ambiance of the Old Country.

I wonder if cigar aficionados prefer Cuban cigars or those from Nicaragua?

The statue honored Ybor, the city's founder.

I don't search out manhole covers by any means but some are so unusual they beg to be photographed. This was one of those. 

Roland Manteiga, 1920-1998, in his weekly column As We Heard It in La Gaceta Newspaper championed human rights and chronicled events and politics that shaped Tampa and Ybor City for more than 40 years. He served as a go-between power-brokers and the powerless and became a legend in his own time as the conscience of the community. 

I forgot to write down the name of this combo cigar store and coffee shop that was open that Saturday, darn it. My first part-time job was about 50 years ago (shh, don't tell anyone!) in the gift shop at the swanky Chateau Laurier Hotel in my native Ottawa located about a block from the Parliament Buildings. I mention that here because one of my responsibilities was selling cigars in a locked case to famous politicians and others. I think that was probably the last time until now I was ever that close to the distinctive aroma of cigars. 

Do you know what's the background with a cigar-store Indian present in tobacco stores? I have certainly seen enough of the statues over the years but had never wondered before this why they were present in the shops.

Even though we weren't smokers, Steven and I enjoyed wandering around the large shop, poking in corners and in the humidor, taking in literally the local flavor and the wonderful artistic displays on the cigar boxes. 

Some time I should include in one post all the amusing social distancing signs we've seen over the course of this past year. Steven liked this one about needing 24 bottles of beer between people to properly social distance!

Next post: Exploring Tampa's eye-popping Plant Museum, home to decorative arts and crafts from the Gilded Age and formerly the luxurious Tampa Bay Hotel.

Posted on April 5th, 2021, on yet another almost record-breaking hot day from our home in Denver. I hope you and your loved ones are healthy and safe and have received the vaccine so you can soon mingle with family and friends near and far.