Beyond the stars: Florida’s classic tables

Florida’s MICHELIN stars are recent, but some of its best evenings out are much older. A corner saloon in Ybor City became a Spanish-Cuban dining room in 1905; a Tampa steakhouse built a wine cellar of half a million bottles; and along the coasts, family restaurants and chefs’ tables have fed the same regulars for decades. These are the classics, listed in each region guide.

Tampa: the Columbia and Bern’s

The Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City began in 1905 and is now run by the fifth generation of its founding family. It fills a whole city block, with 15 dining rooms, and the flamenco show is part of the evening. Across town, Bern’s Steak House has dry-aged its steaks in house since 1956, and its cellar holds more than half a million bottles.

Native-inspired Ulele

On the Tampa Riverwalk, Ulele cooks with ingredients from Florida’s waters and land, once home to many Native Americans, on a ten-foot barbacoa grill. It belongs to the same family as the Columbia.

Palm Beach evenings

Café L’Europe has served French-inspired cooking on South County Road since 1980. At The Breakers, HMF fills the old Florentine Room with cocktails, small plates and more than 2,200 wines, and takes no reservations.

Sarasota and St. Augustine

Michael’s On East has been Sarasota’s fine-dining room for more than four decades, with a piano lounge; Owen’s Fish Camp serves local fish under a banyan that Thomas Edison gave to Owen Burns. In St. Augustine, the Columbia has a tiled dining room on St. George Street, and The Floridian has cooked farm-to-table since 2010.

The Columbia opened in 1905 in a corner saloon whose bar is still in use (Columbia Restaurant).

30A dinners

On the Emerald Coast, Café Thirty-A has served dinner in Seagrove Beach since 1995, and Bud & Alley’s in Seaside adds a roof deck for drinks before dinner.

Our advice: book the Columbia’s flamenco show and Bern’s dessert room well ahead, and keep one evening free for dinner on 30A.