One Of Tampa's Oldest And Most Interesting Neighborhoods Was Once The Cigar Capital Of The World

There's more to Tampa, Florida, than just the animals and roller coasters of Busch Gardens or the offbeat draw of the city's award-winning airport bathrooms. At one time, Ybor City, Tampa, was considered the "Cigar Capital of the World," outstripping even Havana, Cuba, in its reputation for quality. Now, Ybor City is a National Historic Landmark where you'll find palm-tree-lined avenues, colonial architecture, heritage streetcars, free-roaming chickens, Cuban cuisine, and Florida's oldest restaurant.

Riding the TECO Line Streetcar System, which makes its first four stops in Ybor City, harkens back to a time before automobiles ruled the road in Tampa. Ybor City's electric streetcars, first built in 1892, peaked with the city's cigar manufacturing in the 1920s, as factory workers rode them to their jobs. Today, the streetcars drop tourists off between Ybor City and downtown Tampa, and they remain a free, convenient way to get around town (though fares could be reinstated in 2025). The Centro Ybor City stop will let you off right near a visitor information center that fashions itself as "the world's largest cigar box."

On the 7th Avenue side of the Centro Ybor shopping center, you'll see a statue dedicated to the city's founder, Vicente Martinez-Ybor. He originally planned Ybor City as a cigar-manufacturing town just outside of Tampa, which annexed it in 1887. Together with Tampa Heights and Historic Hyde Park, this city within a city remains one of the oldest neighborhoods in town. Born in Spain, Martinez-Ybor brought immigrants and tobacco from Cuba into his factories to make the finest hand-rolled cigars. These cultural influences helped transform Ybor City into a neighborhood with its own distinct heritage and vibe as Florida's Latin Quarter.

At J.C. Newman Cigar Company's red-brick El Reloj, you can tour the only operational cigar factory left in Ybor City. One interesting facet of the factory's day-to-day operations is that it used to employ lectors to read everything from classic literature to the daily news aloud to workers as they were rolling cigars. The company itself is America's oldest family-owned premium cigar maker, and it's been doing business here since 1895.

The heart of Ybor City is 7th Avenue, where you'll see a mix of Spanish and Italian architecture, wrought iron balconies, and five-globe street lamps. Watch for stray chickens, too, since Ybor City is a place where they walk the street freely, ever since an old city ordinance declared Tampa a bird sanctuary. This eclectic neighborhood is also famous for its nightlife, with USA Today highlighting the dance club the Castle and the live music venue the Crowbar as the two best hotspots in town. The Ritz (formerly the Rivoli Theatre) on 7th Avenue was built in 1917, and it now hosts events like Harry Potter raves and Fatboy Slim concerts.

If you work up a hunger craving with all that raving, the good news is, Ybor City is said to be the birthplace of the Cuban sandwich. However, according to La Segunda Central Bakery, which has been serving the famous sandwich on 15th Street since 1915, Tampa and Miami were simply instrumental in evolving Havana's existing "sandwich mixto" from its current form into the Cubano. Nonetheless, the inclusion of Genoa salami helps set the Tampa-style Cuban sandwich apart, with La Segunda attributing that ingredient to the influence of Ybor City's Italian community.

Despite the bird's protected status on the streets, chicken and yellow rice (arroz con pollo) is on the menu at Ybor City's Columbia Restaurant. Established in 1905, this is Florida's oldest restaurant, and Food & Wine named its Cubano the state's best sandwich. Building off the aforementioned Genoa salami and La Segunda Central Bakery's Cuban bread, each ingredient at Columbia Restaurant represents a different cultural influence. The restaurant has 15 dining rooms occupying one whole city block, and it holds flamenco shows almost every night. The original Cafe Dining Room predates the restaurant, having begun as a saloon in 1903.

If you're looking for a good airplane book on your flight to Tampa, bestselling author Dennis Lehane (known for Boston-set books-turned-movies like "Mystic River" and "Gone, Baby, Gone") moved the story to Ybor City for his Edgar Award-winning crime novel "Live by Night." In typical Hollywood fashion, the film adaptation starring Ben Affleck was shot on a fake Ybor City set in Georgia. However, Lehane, a graduate of Eckerd College in nearby St. Petersburg, Florida, told the Tampa Bay Times that he did a "gangland tour" of Ybor with "Cigar City Mafia" author Scott Deitche as part of his research.

With Tampa Mafia Tours, you'll get the same walking tour led by Deitche or local historian and previous Cigar City Magazine editor Manny Leto. Both Lehane's book and Affleck's film (he also directed) travel to Ybor City by way of Tampa Union Station, where you can head to two Miami-area national parks on an Amtrak train. The drive south from St. Petersburg over Tampa Bay will take you across Florida's iconic but terrifying Sunshine Skyway Bridge.