Where: Tampa, Florida
When: spring, year-round
If you like: dining and drinks
Why you should go: The details matter in a Cuban sandwich. Here are the original ingredients, according to Victor Padilla: mojo-marinated pork, sweet serrano ham or baked sweet ham, Swiss cheese, Genoa salami, kosher dill pickles, and mustard, all piled on soft Cuban bread, pressed, and sliced diagonally. Ybor City, a neighborhood in Tampa, lays claim to the invention of the sandwich—most folks say it began as the lunch of cigar factory workers in the early 1900s—and Padilla and his wife, Jolie, founded the Cuban Sandwich Festival to honor that heritage in 2011.
On March 29, 2026, the event, which draws chefs from as far as Japan and England, will celebrate its fifteenth birthday with a competition, spin-offs like Cuban sandwich empanadas and sushi, and the construction of a giant, more-than-a-football-field-length Cuban that the festival then cuts up and donates to local charities that feed the homeless. If you can’t swing the fest, that’s okay; it’s worth paying homage to this Southern sandwich all year long. La Teresita, Columbia Restaurant, and La Segunda are the go-tos around town for a great Cuban, Padilla says. “Order a café con leche, too—the milk in the coffee just goes perfectly with the bread and the meat.”
G&G tip: The Cuban Sandwich Festival isn’t the only time to celebrate the city’s diverse heritage. In October, the Taste of Latino Festival, also in Ybor City, offers up empanadas, arepas, and ceviches from Puerto Rican, Colombian, and Mexican chefs.
Lindsey Liles joined Garden & Gun in 2020 after completing a master’s in literature in Scotland and a Fulbright grant in Brazil. The Arkansas native is G&G’s digital reporter, covering all aspects of the South, and she especially enjoys putting her biology background to use by writing about wildlife and conservation. She lives on Johns Island, South Carolina.
