Spending a few days in Tampa? Just happen to love a good stick in a fun city environment, think New Orleans, Las Vegas? Well then, the featured city for Cigar Highway this week has been Cigar City, USA, aka, Ybor City. Okay, that’s the official name, but dang if "Cigar City, USA" doesn’t just stick -- no pun intended.
The following is a suggested itinerary on how to experience this southern gem of a city on a lazy Sunday.
Walk it.
Yessir. Get those pedometers at-the-ready, grab your favorite stick and your fave gal’s hand (or loved one), and like Al Pacino says in Scent of a Woman: perambulate. Perambulate.
The historic district is compact, lively, and filled with cigar shops, bars, cafés, and historic buildings that tell the story of America’s cigar capital going back to the late 1890's. At one point the city was producing 1 million cigars daily.
Here’s a classic Ybor cigar walking route that many a local would recommend to the uninitiated.
Stop 1: It all (usually) starts with a nice cuppa. Joe. Coffee. Latte. Espresso.
Begin at King Corona Cigars Café with a Cuban coffee and a fresh cigar from the humidor. The patio is the perfect place to settle into the pace of Ybor life. A nice mellow stick, maybe a Connecticut wrapper? A chill Davidoff? Coffee with a My Father Connecticut? That’s a decent pairing, right there.
Stop 2: Watch Cigars Being Rolled
Head a few blocks down to Tabanero Cigars, where visitors can often watch skilled rollers crafting cigars by hand — a tradition that dates back to Ybor’s factory era. Cigar number two? Why not a box pressed Maceda Robusto from Tabanero?
Stop 3: Explore 7th Avenue
From here, simply stroll along 7th Avenue. Historic brick buildings house cigar shops, bars, restaurants, and music venues. It’s common to see locals walking the strip with a cigar in hand while chatting with friends or stopping into different lounges. New World Gobernador robusto? Light up and expect a 45 minute stick that can last all the way to stop no. three, viz., walking 7th Ave.
Stop 4: End the Night at a Lounge
Finish the night at Sterling Cigar Lounge or one of its neighbors, where comfortable seating, music, and drinks make it easy to linger over one last cigar. Put on those big boy pants, and find that OpusX or Liga Privada No. 9 and get some food in you to lay a base, then light up as the pro’s do with 3-flame torch that could launch a SpaceX vehicle skyward, casting shadows along the brick walls of the historical city with aplomb.
The Living History of Cigar City
What makes this walk unique is that it isn’t a curated tourist attraction. It’s simply how people experience Ybor City every night. Strolling. Smoking. Sipping. More than a century after the first cigar factories opened here, the tradition continues — one cigar, one conversation, and one block at a time.
Jg. for Cigar Highway