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The Columbia’s Original "1905" SaladTM selected as “One of America’s Top 10 Best Salads”
The Columbia’s Original "1905" SaladTM was selected as “One of America’s Top 10 Best Salads” by the Salad Guy, Wiley Mullins in USA Today. The Columbia is the only restaurant in Florida named to this list.
Wiley Mullins, author of Salad Makes the Meal: 150 Simple and Inspired Salad Recipes Everyone Will Love, shared his list of favorite places in the United States with Kathy Baruffi for USA Today.
Regarding the Columbia, Mullins says, “The 1905 Salad is famous throughout Florida, and salad lovers travel near and far to enjoy it. No wonder it’s trademarked!” “Tossed and created at your table, this masterpiece of a meal includes the juiciest beefsteak tomatoes you’ve ever tasted, lettuce, tender baked ham, Romano and Swiss cheeses, olives and a deliciously smooth garlic dressing.”
The others places named to the list include Ching’s Table in New Canaan, Conn; City Grocery Café in Oxford, Miss.; Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, NY; Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif.; 84 High Street in Westerly, RI; Café Pasquals in Santa Fe, NM; Firefly in Lenox, Mass.; Hall Street Grill in Beaverton, Ore.; and True in Mobile, Ala.
Link to story: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2008-05-08-10-great_N.htm
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The Columbia Rolls Back Prices on Sunday, September 21st for “1905 Day”
On Sunday, September 21st, Columbia Restaurant will celebrate “1905 Day” to commemorate the 103rd ANNIVERSARY of the family-owned business. As has been the tradition since their 75th Anniversary, the Columbia has developed a special menu with the prices of yesteryear for this day.
“1905 Day” will be in effect at all six Columbia Restaurants in Florida; including Tampa’s Ybor City, Sarasota, St. Augustine, The Pier in St. Petersburg, Sand Key on Clearwater Beach and Celebration, Columbia Restaurant is open 7-days a week for lunch and dinner.
On this day only, reservations are not accepted, and take-out items are not available.
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The Columbia Offers Gluten Free Menu Items
For a list of gluten free menu items, please see list below:
Spanish Bean Soup
Black Bean Soup
“1905” Salad
Lula Mae Salad
Beefsteak Tomato Salad
Chicken & Yellow Rice
Roast Pork
Palomilla
Shrimp Criollo
Paellas
Mahi Mahi Cayo Hueso
Mussels y Chorizo
Queso Fundido
Shrimp Ajillo
Flan
Crema Catalana
Moros y Cristianos
Snapper Bilbao
Filet Mignon
Delmonico Sonny
Pollo Valencia
Snapper Adelita can be made if not dusted with flour, just seasoned and grilled. Topping is okay.
Ternera Isabella can be made if not dusted with flour, just seasoned and grilled.
These Sauces Are Not Gluten Free
Boliche Sauce
Columbia Sauce
Barcelona Sauce
Alicante Sauce
Chacho Sauce
Amontillado Sauce
Mornay Sauce
What is gluten?
Gluten, is a mixture of proteins present in the cereal grains. The long molecules of gluten, insoluble in water, are strong and flexible and form many cross linkages. This gives flour its characteristic chewiness and permits breads and cakes to rise during baking as the gases within expand and are trapped in the gluten superstructure. Various flours have different ratios of gluten to starch (called hardness) and are appropriate for different types of foodstuffs. Thus soft flour is used for cakes, harder flour for pastry, hard flour for bread, and the hardest, or durum, for pasta. The hereditary disease called nontropical sprue is characterized by an inability to digest gluten. In this disease the gluten acts as an antigen (see immunity) and forms immune complexes that cause damage to the mucus lining of the intestine.
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Columbia Restaurant Removes Grouper from the Menu In All of Their Restaurants
TAMPA, Fla., May 1, 2007 - - The Columbia Restaurant has removed grouper from the lunch and dinner menus of its six restaurants in Florida. “We are taking a pro-active response to the difficulty in meeting the demand for authentic Florida grouper by taking all grouper items off of our menu,” said Richard Gonzmart, President and 4th generation family member for the Columbia Restaurant Group.
“We will offer grouper as a special only if we receive the entire fish from our supplier, not just a fillet; this way ensuring that we know we are serving what we say we’re serving,” he said.
Grouper is a prize catch because diners like its mild flavor and white, flaky meat. Florida is known for grouper because it''s caught in the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean, or from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. In the opinion of Gonzmart, the best grouper comes from the Gulf of Mexico.
Grouper also comes into the state of Florida from all over the world. More than seventy different species of grouper are imported into the United States, including Asian grouper that sells at half the cost of the kind caught in Florida.*1
“On top of that trade, unscrupulous businesses sell cheaper fish under the grouper name”, said Bob Jones, executive director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association, which represents Florida fisheries, importers and exporters.*2
The Florida Attorney General''s Office recently tested fish sold as grouper at 24 restaurants in the Tampa area and found that 17 served a different fish.*3
“We will never compromise our family’s name and reputation by serving our guests any kind of substitute item. If we say it is grouper, it will be grouper caught in Florida,” Gonzmart said.
Gonzmart recently took a grouper sandwich off of The Columbia’s lunch menu and in its place is serving a Mahi Mahi Cubana Sandwich, which is Mahi Mahi seasoned and topped with sautéed onions, mushrooms, green peppers and smothered with cheese on Cuban bread.
He also took Florida grouper off the dinner menu, and is serving a newly created crabmeat dish called Langosta y Jaiba Enchilado, a mildly spicy sauce of Maine lobster meat and blue crabmeat, tomato, onions, green peppers, garlic, oregano, white wine and chili peppers, served over pasta. The Columbia is also working with other fresh fish from Florida and with a variety of fish from around the world for their menus and daily specials.
The Columbia Restaurant was founded in 1905 and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005. Locations include the flagship restaurant in Tampa’s Historic Ybor City, St. Armands Circle in Sarasota, the Historic District in St. Augustine, The Pier in St. Petersburg, Sand Key on Clearwater Beach and in Central Florida''s town of Celebration. All Columbia Restaurants are owned and operated by 4th and 5th generation members of the founding family.
Please see www.columbiarestaurant.com for more information.
Sources: *1, *2 and *3 Florida Times-Union --February 13, 2007
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Longtime Waiter Appointed Columbia Ambassador - Will Lead Free Tours of Columbia Ybor City
Now you can experience a walk through Over 100 Years of Columbia Restaurant History with a guide who has over 50 years of first-hand knowledge.
Joe Roman, 78, started working at the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa’s Historic Ybor City in 1954 at the age of 26. He has always taken great pride in his work and it earned him a good living, on which he raised two sons with his wife of 57 years.
In 2002, after 48 years of work, Joe began to cut back on his hours due to problems with his knees, and then had to retire. He was very distressed that this meant he would not reach 50 years of service.
“We knew how important it was to Joe for him to reach that milestone,” said Gonzmart. “We created a position just for him in conjunction with our 100-year anniversary in 2005. Joe has been named our "Columbia Restaurant Ambassador." In this role, he continues what he does best, greeting guests and sharing the Columbia story with them. He will be giving tours of the restaurant. We don''t have to train him in our history, he lived it first hand.”
You can enjoy your own free tour of Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City with Joe anytime from 12-2 p.m. Monday –Friday. There is no formal sign up sheet, you can let your server know that you’d like to take the tour with Joe, and your server will have Joe visit your table and lead you on the tour at your convenience.
Joe Roman is a favorite among guests because he often spontaneously breaks into song. He earned his nickname, “The Singer Waiter,” in 1962, the year the first song that he sang to guests was released, Tony Bennett’s classic, I Left My Heart In San Francisco.
Joe has built his entire life around working as a waiter. He and his wife have two sons and four grandchildren. He was able to raise his family entirely on his salary as a waiter. He was born and raised in Ybor City, and takes great pride in sharing the history of the area with visitors and locals alike.
Joe has also received other honors for his loyalty and longevity. “For his dedication to his work and to our family, we inducted Joe into our Columbia Restaurant Hall of Fame in 2000,” said Richard Gonzmart, fourth generation owner of the Columbia. “We created our Hall of Fame to honor employees who have contributed to the legacy of Columbia Restaurant.”
In August of 2004 Joe was honored as the recipient of the Iris D. Larson Hospitality Award at the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism held in Orlando, Florida.
The Iris D. Larson Hospitality Award was created to recognize hospitality/tourism industry professionals who exemplify the qualities of selfless spirit of service and leadership in their work experience.
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