Philly queercore favorite The Hirs Collective lands in Ybor City on Tuesday @ The Crowbar
From Creative Loafing https://www.cltampa.com/music/philly-queercore-favorite-the-hirs-collective-lands-in-ybor-city-on-tuesday-16784126
Tickets https://www.cltampa.com/event/hirs-collective-in-tampa-16414930
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Congratulations to the Good Sisters!!! The American Legion, in Tampa, was packed again for their fundraiser. Great job Sisters!!! THANK YOU
Ybor City History Lesson
Thank You Richard Gonzmart for sharing this….
A little history lesson as we prepare to celebrate our 119th Anniversary.
The grand chandelier in the historic Don Quixote dining room at the Columbia in Ybor is decorated for the holidays. For five decades, this elaborate chandelier has graced the room.
Purchased at an auction for $3,000 in 1972 from the Eden Roc hotel in Miami Beach, the chandelier’s worth was appraised in 2004 by an antique and lighting expert at $250,000.
The chandelier has five layers of curved brass arms, each holding a candle-shaped light. The chandelier has 360 small prisms and 105 large prisms that hang from 15 arms. Long sparkling prisms dangle from each candle base like icicles. Others, shaped like sea shells, are worth more than $500 each.
After we discovered this magnificent chandeliers worth, research revealed the chandelier’s story: It was crafted in France in the late 1890s. It took a craftsman close to two years to complete. In 1956, it arrived in Florida, where it hung in the Eden Roc. At the time, the hotel was a luxurious destination for celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Lucille Ball and Ann-Margret.
When the hotel closed for renovations in the 1970s, the Columbia’s my parents, the third-generation owners, Cesar and Adela Gonzmart, purchased the chandelier at an auction for our restaurant.
After the chandelier was brought to Tampa, George Guito, who is like a brother to me, spent nearly four days hanging it in the Don Quixote, which opened as Tampa’s first air-conditioned dining room in 1934.
The chandelier was a natural fit in the Don Quixote room, a large dining room where painted tile artwork dots the walls and flamenco dancers in bright dresses entertain crowds.
In 2005, the chandelier was refurbished in time for the restaurant’s 100th anniversary. Eighty-four of those prisms were replaced at a cost of about $15,000. Six years years ago, the chandelier was removed and cleaned during restoration of the dining room’s ceiling.
HoliGay bar Crwl – GaYbor District in Historic Ybor City
https://www.facebook.com/events/918200799870575/?ref=newsfeed
Tampa Pride
Ybor Misfits Microsanctuary
This past Giving Tuesday the Ybor Misfits raised on $800+. Thank You for all the great work you do in Ybor City. To learn more visit….
https://www.facebook.com/theybormisfits
HP @ PTL
The World-Famous club “The Honey Pot” has reopened every Friday Night in Ybor City at PTL. Congratulations to Steve and his fun crew. Click Here for more photos. https://www.mcfilm.co/category/great-photos/special-events-photos/
Southern Nights
Bradley’s on 7th
Obituary
Good Bye to Miss Cookie
Cookie, John & JB were favorites in Ybor City for many years. Here is the sad new from JB on Facebook this week….
For those in Ybor that knew my friend Cookie, I am sad to inform you that she passed away this morning. Evidently, she suffered a series of mini strokes starting Wed and passed this morning in the hospital in Nashville. We have been best friends for 60 years since high school and she will be missed. Our hearts are broken. RIP my dear friend. 💔😢🫶 Prayers for her family 🙏 My fourth lifelong friend I have lost this year…sad.