florida's oldest restaurant

Last year while we spent a week at Flagler Beach, FL we popped up to Saint Augustine for a day. The city is one of our favorites, though the new bridge saddens us. The old one featuring the lions had such charm, such character. Now there's just the concrete and metal bridge.

That visit I searched for ceviche. Surely a Spanish restaurant served it. But no, the person at the host station at the Columbia said it was not on their menu, nor did they know any other restaurant in Saint Augustine that served it.

We left Columbia, but I can't recall where, or what, we ended up eating that day. All I remember is how inviting the Columbia was. It was cool. Tile under our feet, hand -painted tile decorating the walls.

So Saturday we ate at Columbia. Our waitress was great. She anticipated our requests. She served us Cuban bread along with great scoops of butter at exactly the right spreadable temperature.

My cheap sangria was okay. The trouble with sangria is that I cannot and should not drink a pitcher it alone. Ian enjoys the hard stuff, so fruity wine holds no appeal for him at all. The better sangria was imported and mixed at your table and priced at about $20 a pitcher. I sucked down my $5 glass in no time and then made do with tap water. That's right.

The Columbia is the oldest restaurant in Florida and though it got it's start in Ybor City, surely it is appropriate to operate in Saint Augustine as well. Something else I learned is that its in its fourth and fifth generation of family ownership and operation. The newest restaurant is in West Palm Beach, near where we're staying.

Inside there's a mixture of bright sunlight and delightful shade  to suit any diner. Our table was at the edge of a courtyard filled with light from the skylight overhead. The noise was bearable. The service was quick. Perhaps there was light Spanish music playing in the background, but I cannot exactly recall it.

We studied the menu. We both love plantains and don't get them often enough to suit our cravings for them. I eyed the Paella. I've never had good paella. But as I recalled, it's a large dish. And this was lunch. Something light maybe? I ordered the boliche: "Sliced eye round of beef prepared with chorizo and roasted in a flavorful gravy. Served with white rice, black beans, and platanos."

Yum. My meal was so good. Great flavor. The beef was tender. The chorizo was rather bland though. Didn't have the zing I'm used to from my local taqueria. White rice, black beans, and diced onions were marvelous. They gave me two pieces of plantains. I gave one to Ian and gobbled down the other. Aaaaahhhhhhh, heaven.

Ian chose the black bean soup. They ladle it table-side. A server approached our table and flipped over a small bowl containing rice into a larger bowl. Then she ladled three generous ladles full of black beans out of the blue speckled pot over top of Ian's rice. Sure, it was basic, but it, too, was darn good. All he needed was cornbread, which I didn't see on the menu.

Dessert. Naturally my eyes stuck to the guava cheesecake description. But cheesecake is so ubiquitous that I try not to order it anymore. The two items that I debated between was the flan or the bread pudding. Server said that the flan is the best, if you like flan. I can take it or leave it. Of late, bread pudding floats my boat. So we went with that.

It was unlike any bread pudding I'd ever had. I expected it in a ramekin. But no. It's appearance was more akin to french toast. There were no raisins or nuts. However, two sauces battled for dominance: a rich rum sauce and a white chocolate. The pudding was terribly dense, in only the very best sense of the phrase. It's made with Cuban bread. I asked our server if it was pound cake. And that's when I learned it's true identity. The things that the chefs at Columbia can do with Cuban bread is astonishing. We didn't eat it all. It was far too rich, but quite satisfying.

And there's a cookbook! Didn't buy it though. But maybe next time through Florida's oldest city, I'll stop by the Columbia gift shop and take one home with me. I checked its contents though. That bread pudding recipe is in there. But it calls for Cuban bread, and where exactly shall I find Cuban bread in upper east Tennessee? Not likely.