{"id":27746,"date":"2018-03-01T07:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shescookin.com\/?p=27746"},"modified":"2018-07-10T17:28:36","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T00:28:36","slug":"walking-tour-of-cigar-city-tampas-historic-latin-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shescookin.com\/walking-tour-of-cigar-city-tampas-historic-latin-quarter\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking Tour of Cigar City, Tampa’s Historic Latin Quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"
A historic walking tour of Cigar City in Tampa, Florida, reveals the genius of Vicente Martinez-Ybor, quite possibly America’s first Hispanic entrepreneur who, in 1886, orchestrated the development of Ybor City, now Tampa’s Historic Latin Quarter, and Florida’s first industrial town.<\/p>\n
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Being in Tampa for only three days in early January, in the midst of the chilling “Bomb Cyclone” weather pattern, ruled out visiting a number of the popular outdoor attractions and water sports that Tampa is known for. While researching more indoor type activities, I learned that Tampa has a historic Latin Quarter area called Ybor City, aka Cigar City \u2014 my curiosity was piqued and, with the help of Visit Tampa Bay<\/a>, I was able to meet up with a local historian for a late morning walking tour on my last day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A bronze statue of Vicente Martinez Ybor gazing over 7th Avenue of the city he built was designated as our meeting point. Ybor City comes alive at night, but at 11:00 a.m. the town was barely awake, even on 7th Avenue, the city’s colorful commercial center. Having a few minutes to spare, I walked across the street to watch cigars being hand-rolled at\u00a0Tabanero Cigars<\/a> and \u00a0peeked into\u00a0just-opening\u00a0cafes, gift shops, vintage clothing stores, and a number of bars biding their time until beer o’clock.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ybor City became known as the Cigar Capital of the World in the early 1900’s when an estimated 700 million cigars were hand rolled daily in the 230 cigar factories that populated the town. Immigrants from Cuba, Sicily, Italy, Spain, Germany and Romania came to work in the cigar industry established by Vicente Martinez Ybor. With them, they brought their rich cultures and skills from their homelands, which live on today in Tampa’s Historical Latin Quarter.<\/p>\n At Tabanero Cigars<\/strong>, you can see Cubans hand rolling cigars; step inside and hear the banter and laughter as they speedily roll and repeat, fuel up on dark coffee or sweet caf\u00e9 con leche,<\/em>\u00a0and even smoke a stogie. You can also take a factory tour<\/a> \u2014 sign up 24 hours in advance, tours are at 4:00 p.m.<\/p>\n