Sports & Game Day Tampa

Downtown · cuban, spanish

The Hernandez and Gonzmart family put a Columbia on the ground floor of the Tampa Bay History Center, so the Riverwalk has a table serving the recipes the Ybor City original has run since 1905. The patio is canopy covered and sits on the water in the Water Street neighborhood, beside the downtown arena. The menu is the family's Spanish and Cuban standards, the 1905 Salad, Cuban sandwiches, paella, ropa vieja and croquetas, with flan, churros and guava cheesecake after. Dishes are credited to founder Casimiro Hernandez Sr. and to great-grandmother Carmen Hernandez.

Downtown · $ · pizza, italian

Eddie & Sam's has been selling foldable New York slices on the corner of Twiggs in downtown Tampa since 1998. The kitchen's whole argument is the water: it imports New York water for the dough, on the theory that the minerals in it are what give a New York crust its texture. The slices are wide and thin crusted, sold by the slice or the pie, and the room is the downtown lunch counter for courthouse and office workers.

Downtown · american, pub food

Hattricks is the hockey bar of downtown Tampa, an Irish pub and sports room on South Franklin Street that has been there for years and fills before and after everything at the arena. Its own description is the number one spot for Lightning pregame parties, postgame celebrations, and any concert or event at the arena or the convention center. The posted closing time is honest about how that works: eleven in the morning until as late as three, according to volume.

West Tampa · cuban, spanish

La Teresita has been cooking Cuban food on West Columbus Drive in West Tampa for more than fifty years, run by the Capdevila family, who give their name to a page of the site and to the Capdevila Group. The kitchen opens at six in the morning, which is a West Tampa habit rather than a restaurant trend, and the site describes 'delicious homemade Cuban and Spanish dishes'. Alongside the restaurant the family runs a ballroom and a catering operation used for quinces, weddings and parties.

University Area · german, swabian, deli, brewpub

Dunderbak's has been serving Tampa since 1974 and sits in the Oak Ramble Shopping Center on Bruce B Downs, which is a plain strip plaza and exactly the point: this is a German beer hall, brewery, deli and European market behind a strip-mall storefront. It started as one of about 30 franchise locations nationally, and co-owners James and Christina Ellis bought this one in the 1990s; the franchise folded and they turned it into a brewery with a dozen or so house beers on tap, told to That's So Tampa. The kitchen cooks from family recipes, with the potato pancakes made fresh every morning from James's Oma's recipe and the coleslaw from his mother's. Live polka plays on weekends, the beer hall room on the left seats 32 for private bookings, and the site's own parking advice is to arrive by 6pm on a Friday if you want a space.

West Tampa · cuban, sandwiches

The West Tampa Sandwich Shop calls itself the "Home of the original honey cuban sandwich", and the honey is the local argument: a Cuban sandwich of ham, roast pork, pickles and mustard with honey added, pressed on fresh Cuban bread. It opens at six in the morning and closes at three in the afternoon, six days a week, which is a working West Tampa schedule rather than a restaurant one. It sits on North Armenia Avenue in the middle of West Tampa, the other cigar-era neighbourhood, and it is one of the shops That\u0027s So Tampa puts on its list of the top Cuban sandwiches in the city.