Arts Crafts Dining Buffet Cottage

Ybor City was founded in the 1880s when Vicente Ybor and Ignacio Haya moved their cigar factories from Key West to Tampa. Ybor purchased 40+ acres northeast of Tampa for $5,000. On that land, he built his cigar factory and his city, which including blocks of little cottage-style homes, casitas, which he rented or sold to his workers for $1.50 to $2.50 a week or $400 to $900, respectively. Lured by the promise of good wages and lowpriced home ownership, thousands of immigrants from Spain, Cuba and Italy flooded Ybor City. Over the next 50 years, more and more cigar factories, over 140 in all, formulated more and more cigars until, in 1929, Ybor reached it is peak production, with laborers rolling out more than 500 million cigars in a single year.

The city tumbled into decline after the Great Depression; factories scaled back, closed down or mechanized to the extent that the city was a virtual ghost town by the 1950s. In the 1980s, artists ran into Ybor’s low rent, eclectic facilities, and started out moving in en-masse. By the early 1990s, Ybor was a sea of bars, restaurants and nightclubs; weekends became a nighttime carnival with pedestrian traffic so heavy along 7th Avenue that it was closed to vehicular traffic.

Ybor today, which still attracts more than two million visitor a year, is tardily moving away from it is tawdry reputation; over the last ten years, city planners have been implementing steps to turn Ybor into a family-friendly affair, attracting more shops, restaurants and galleries, as well as to make it beautiful to young pros seeking an urban life style close to downtown Tampa. Most historic buildings have been rehabbed and occupied; and much of Ybor’s vacant land has been residentially developed. The last ten years has likewise seen 200 new businesses move into the area, and one million square feet of space renovated. Future plans call for substantial investment and changes to fetch people, users and quality of life services to the city, including more parks and open spaces, streetscape beautification projects, and further and added parking and wireless Internet in the revitalization districts.

Shopping and Dining in Ybor City

There’s a great deal to taste in Ybor City, which is peculiarly known for it is authentic Cuban and and Spanish dishes. The Columbia Restaurant on 7th Avenue is one of the world’s greatest and Tampa’s oldest, with a two-storied courtyard and 1,200 seats disseminate all around a dozen rooms, including the 1936 Don Quizote Room with scenes by Sergio de Meza. Any trip to Ybor City is not complete without a visit to this Tampa institution.

A stroll down La Setima, the Historic District’s main thoroughfare, brings you within reach of respective cuisines, including Spanish, Cuban, Italian, Greek and French. Enjoy a cup of Ybor’s widely known and esteemed café con leche, or authentic tapas and a pitcher of sangria in a Mediterranean village-style café atmosphere.

Visit Centro Ybor on East 8th Avenue, the city’s latest family-friendly buying goods and amusement center, featuring retailers, restaurants and fun around a palm-lined plaza. Centro Ybor, built around the restored Centro Espanol building, includes a 20-screen theatre, an improvisation threatre, as well as distinguishable boutiques and special line of work eateries, such as the Tampa Bay Brewing Company and Samurai Blue, to name but two. The Tampa Bay Brewing Company is an early American brewery with an outdoor beer garden. Samurai Blue, a sushi and sake bar, calls itself the “coolest joint this side of neo-Tokyo”; it features a 30-foot, tsunami-shaped sushi bar and 40-foot-high vaulted ceilings.

Enjoy yet another taste of Ybor at the Ybor City Saturday Market in Centennial Park on 8th Avenue and 18th Street. Year-round, rain or shine, this ‘fresh market’ brings to residents and visitors similar territorial produce, arts and crafts, and prepared foods like jam, jelly, pastries and bread.

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Arts Crafts Dining Buffet Cottage Pic

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Arts Crafts Dining Buffet Cottage Picture

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Most helpful client reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
good furniture, difficult assembly
By E
Great piece of furniture, very sturdy and heavy. It was a little darker than the picture shows. Assembly of main cabinet was easy, went very well. But, assemblage of 2 drawers was AWFUL!!! The 2 drawers took twice as long to assemble as it did to put together the main cabinet. But, still overall very happy with this piece of furniture.

0 of 0 humans found the following review helpful.
arts and crafts dining buffet
By Ellen Moelle Cook
Absolutely beautiful! Quick delivery. Great quality and craftsmenship. Clear and consice assemblage directions. My husband had no problem. couldn’t be happier!!!

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