Dishing with Mark n Carrie Don’t miss the Tabernacle of Oddities

THIS SATURDAY & SUNDAY

https://www.facebook.com/Tabernacle.of.Oddities

Barbie at Hollander Hotel

This past Saturday Miss Judy B Goode performed as Barbie! Might have been Barbies Crazy Aunt LMAO

Click here to see all the fun photos

https://www.mcfilm.co/category/great-photos/special-events-photos/

From Richard Gonzmart at the Columbia Restaurant – Ybor City.

PARDON OUR DUST — Visitors this week to the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City will see a different layout as we make improvements to our dining rooms as we continue to operate the restaurants for lunch, dinner and takeout.

At the Columbia Ybor City, a new, more modern air conditioning system is being installed in the historic Don Quixote ballroom. A more modern HVAC system. The new system constantly brings in new, fresh air, instead of recycling the air flow.

The improvements are a sign of our family, now in its fourth and fifth generation of ownership, are reinvesting money back into the operations for the betterment of our customers for further generations. It’s a family tradition.

In 1935, a massive $75,000 loan obtained by my grandfather, Casimiro Hernandez Jr from a friendly banker financed a new state of the art kitchen and the Don Quixote dining room at the original Columbia Restaurant.

My grandfather aptly named the new dining room, the Don Quixote, boasted conditioned air, a bandstand and a dance floor. The A/C was primitive by today’s standards, but was a rare luxury then as Tampa’s first air conditioned dining room. It was the great depression and he thought about how people to escape the heat and their financial woes by visiting the Tampa Theatre in the city first conditioned air theaters.

The expanded and modernized kitchen turned out Spanish food fit for royalty prepared by Chef Francisco Pijuan formerly chef to the King of Spain.

My mother Adela who was 15 years old at the time remember her father questioning his wisdom of such a risky venture in the midst of the Depression. Ybor City’s future was in question. Many of its cigar factories and restaurants had closed down during the mid-1930s. She remembers her dad telling her mother if it didn’t work, he “would have to to shoot himself”.

All of the most obvious signals made no sense and dissuaded expansion. To some, my grandfather Casimiro seemed a like Don Quixote, charging at windmills in a fantasy world, dreaming the impossible dream.

Casimiro sensed that women would not dine out, and for sure not dance in public. After years of Prohibition things had to change, a movement allowing women to dine out. Women were finally able to vote in 1920. The demographics of the Columbia’s patrons had changed. Beside the traditional working men sat ladies, families celebrating, young folks on dates and married couples rekindling romance and dancing to the music played by my father, 15-year old violinist, Cesar Gonzalez-Martinez and the band.

The Don Quixote Room opened to immediate success in 1935. My grandfather, Casimiro’s beautiful Don Quixote dining room designed by Architect Ivo de Mincis brought a cheerful, bright — and more comfortable — atmosphere to a place that had relatively little to be happy about.

Tiles depicting the story of Don Quixote lined the walls and brought splashes of color and a touch of Spanish romance. The finest musicians and orchestras graced the stage with big band jazz. Music brought the Don Quixote to life, when the room alone could make the ladies swoon.

And if they couldn’t get their men on to the dance floor, a few of Bartender Peter Scaglione’s Cuban Manhattans, mojitos or Cuba Libres could do the trick. “State-of-the-art” Conditioned Air relieved the exuberant dancers. The Columbia had the coolest dining room in Tampa, in every sense of the word.

In addition, the Columbia on St Armands Circle is installing new Imported tile floors throughout beginning with the Patio dining room.

Remodeling and expansion at the Columbia Sand Key continues.

Remodeling, and expansion of the kitchen and re-roofing of St Augustine is almost complete.

The Naviera Coffee Mill in Ybor City is moving along and hope to lure a world class 80 year old Italian market from a major northern city to Tampa.

Last but not least, the effort to resurrect and build the once iconic Buccanner Restaurant along the inter coastal water of Longboat Key continues. Inflation of construction cost of 40% plus is more than anticipated, has slowed me down….but I am not giving up.

In Tampa’s Ybor: Wanna buy a century-old red velvet theater seat?