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Cuban sandwich born in Tampa, Florida, is now an American culinary classic

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Cuban sandwich born in Tampa, Florida, is now an American culinary classic

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The beloved Cuban sandwich is a delicious all-American culinary creation first served in Tampa, Florida, more than a century ago, according to proud local lore.

It’s a savory, mouthwatering mix — often called a “mixto” — of three kinds of pork, paired with cheese, pickles and mustard, on fresh-baked local bread. No wonder there’s a full day dedicated to it (August 23 is National Cuban Sandwich Day). 

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It’s flavored by an array of cultures that helped build Tampa into a jewel of the Gulf of Mexico. 

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The sandwiches reportedly fueled the hard-working, and often Cuban-born, cigar factory workers in Tampa’s historic neighborhood of Ybor City in decades past. Cuban sandwiches are now served in takeout shops, delis, pubs and restaurants from coast to coast.

“There is a debate over who invented it first, Tampa or Miami,” Tampa food Instagram influencer Kiera Andrews (@thisbabeeats) told Fox News Digital. 

The founder of a Tampa, Florida, restaurant is credited with inventing the Cuban sandwich as it’s known today. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

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Others claim it originated in Havana or Key West. 

Cubans traditionally ate “mixto” sandwiches, but the version known today is a Tampa creation, according to experts.

“I will tell you this,” Andrews said. “I’ve had Cuban sandwiches in other cities. And there’s nothing that compares to a Cuban sandwich in Tampa.”

“There’s nothing that compares to a Cuban sandwich in Tampa.” 

One of the secrets, she said, is the traditional Cuban bread baked at La Segunda Central Bakery, which opened in Ybor City in 1915. 

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It supplies restaurants and retailers throughout the region. 

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Bakeries, restaurants — even the museum of longtime Ybor City cigar-maker J.C. Newman — sport murals and billboards highlighting the global inspirations that make Tampa’s Cuban sandwiches a delicious example of America’s unique culinary melting pot. 

A sign at La Segunda Central Bakery in Ybor City, Tampa, touts the multicultural flavors found in the original Cuban sandwich, with influences from Cuba, Spain, Italy and Germany. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

They boast Cuban pork, Spanish ham, Italian salami, German pickles and mustard and Swiss cheese — all cultures that have a historic presence together in Tampa — served on soft, airy Cuban bread.

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“It represents all the different cultures that make Ybor City such a great place,” Casey Gonzmart Jr., the fifth-generation owner of Tampa dining landmark Columbia Restaurant, told Fox News Digital. 

TAMPA’S BEST CUBAN FOOD

The eatery was founded by his Spanish-Cuban immigrant great-great-grandfather Casimiro Hernandez Sr. in 1905. 

Ybor City is best known for its Cuban-Spanish culture and cigar-making history. 

But it’s also the traditional home of Tampa’s Italian community. 

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“The Cuban sandwich represents all the different cultures that make Ybor City such a great place.” 

The L’Unione Italiana, the Italian Club of Tampa, traces its roots to 1894 and sits just three blocks from Columbia Restaurant. 

“We can’t tell the true history of the Ybor City without paying homage to the Italians,” Gonzmart said.

Casey Gonzmart Jr. is part of the fifth generation of owners of Tampa dining landmark Columbia Restaurant. His great-great-grandfather Casimiro Hernandez Sr. founded the restaurant in 1905 — and is credited by many as the creator of the original Tampa Cuban sandwich. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

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Columbia Restaurant features colorful murals of the sailing ships of Christopher Columbus — the Italian mariner who ventured to the New World on behalf of the Spanish crown. 

Food & Wine Magazine named Columbia Restaurant’s original Cuban the best sandwich in Florida. It even credits Columbia Restaurant founder Hernandez Sr. for inventing the multicultural American delicacy.

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“He hoped it would honor the contributions of the many immigrants who breathed life into the Ybor City neighborhood, where the restaurant was located, and the city of Tampa in general,” Food & Wine wrote in its coronation of the Columbia Cuban.

The restaurant still makes its Cuban sandwich the same way it has done at least since 1915, including using bread from nearby La Segunda Central Bakery, a company spokesman told Fox News Digital. 

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La Segunda Central Bakery in Ybor City, Tampa, was founded in 1915. Its fresh-baked Cuban bread is considered essential to the perfect traditional Cuban sandwich. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

Tampa Instagram foodie Andrews cites several other can’t-miss Cuban sandwiches in Tampa. 

No-frills, cash-only West Sandwich Tampa Shop “feels like one of the first places that would have served the Cuban,” she said. 

La Segunda, Tampa’s landmark bakery, has a take-out sandwich shop at its original Ybor City location.

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Here, guests can order original Cubans and various versions of the original, along with amazing traditional Cuban pastries and sweets.

The Boozy Pig boasts a delicious Cuban breakfast sandwich served with eggs, while Wicked Oak Barbeque offers a “Que-ban” sandwich made with slow-smoked pulled pork and housemade mustard barbeque. 

La Segunda Central Bakery in Ybor City, Tampa, bakes bread for commercial and retail sale but also has a sandwich and pastry shop selling Cuban sandwiches.  (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

“Miami, for its part, added an innovation: the iron press, which gives the Cubano a thin look and crunchy feel that a lot of people now recognize it for,” NPR wrote in a 2022 interview with the authors of the book, “The Cuban Sandwich: A History In Layers.”

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Cuban sandwiches in Tampa traditionally come only on fresh bread — unpressed yet impressive in flavor and in American culinary lore. 

The Tampa City Council named the Cuban the city’s “signature sandwich” in a 2012 proclamation.

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Southeast

GOP Rep Nancy Mace introduces ‘Death Penalty for Child Rapists Act’

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GOP Rep Nancy Mace introduces ‘Death Penalty for Child Rapists Act’

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Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has introduced a bill to authorize the death penalty as a potential punishment for the sexual abuse of children.

“We have zero mercy for child rapists. Those who prey on our most vulnerable deserve the harshest consequence we can deliver,” Mace said in a statement.

The proposal is aptly called the “Death Penalty for Child Rapists Act.”

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., announces she will run for South Carolina governor during a press conference at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, on Aug. 4, 2025. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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“No predator should be allowed to walk away from the most unthinkable crimes against children,” Mace noted. 

“This bill is simple. Rape a child and you don’t get a second chance, you get the death penalty. We will never apologize for protecting America’s children,” Mace added.

The bill would put capital punishment on the table as an option to punish those who sexually abuse children.

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Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., attends the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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“INTRODUCING: The Death Penalty for Child Rapists Act to amend Title 18 to authorize the death penalty for aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a minor and abusive sexual contact offenses against children. It will also amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to authorize the death penalty for the rape of a child,” she said in a post on X.

“We’ve spent months fighting to expose Jeffrey Epstein’s network of powerful predators. We’ve demanded accountability and pushed for transparency. Now we’re making sure anyone who rapes a child faces the ultimate consequence,” she noted.

Mace has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since early 2021. 

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She is one of the candidates currently running in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary.

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Virginia Democrats talk affordability — and vote to nearly triple their own pay

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Virginia Democrats talk affordability — and vote to nearly triple their own pay

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The Virginia State Senate and its Democratic majority may have voted to nearly triple their pay if a provision inserted into their final budget survives the House reconciliation process and reaches Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s desk.

The development comes as Spanberger has centered her campaign on “affordability,” with Richmond Democrats echoing that they are working to improve their constituents’ personal finances.

Virginia’s legislature itself was founded as a part-time, gentleman’s chamber, where lawmakers would return to their day jobs when Richmond wasn’t holding session.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signs executive orders. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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Proponents of raising the current 1988-established salary of $18,000 for senators and $17,640 for delegates say the structure restricts who can afford to serve as a lawmaker today. Lawmakers also qualify for a $237 per diem, mileage reimbursements, and coverage of office, meeting and other expenses.

Senators’ new salary would be $50,000.

Republicans were quick to criticize the final budget, with the Virginia Senate Minority Caucus saying in a statement that “teachers got a 3% raise, but Democrats give themselves 300%.” The actual increase would be closer to 178%, though one could say the new salary would be 300% of the original. 

“The affordability hoax just gets worse and worse,” the caucus said, adding that the chamber’s majority killed a repeal of the car tax — something GOP gubernatorial nominee Winsome Sears ran on — while increasing the state budget by $1 billion overall.

Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham, told WVTF it is the “wrong time” to address lawmaker pay.

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 “It’s supposed to be affordability for working families across Virginia, not members of the General Assembly,” he said.

Virginia’s legislature — the oldest continuous legislative body in the New World — has been making laws since its inception as the House of Burgesses in Colonial Williamsburg, where Spanberger gave the Democratic Party’s State of the Union response.

In her speech, she claimed President Donald Trump is the one “enriching himself, his family and his friends” and said Republicans are the ones “making your life more expensive.”

“I traveled to every corner of Virginia, and I heard the same pressing concern everywhere: costs are too high. In housing, healthcare, energy, and childcare,” she said.

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“Americans deserve to know that their leaders are focused on addressing the problems that keep them up at night.”

“Democrats across the country are laser-focused on affordability — in our nation’s capital and in state capitals and communities across America,” Spanberger said Tuesday.

The pay raise could be moot if the Democrat-controlled House of Delegates does not amend its own budget proposal to include the provision.

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The House’s budget includes $137 million for expanded childcare access, a minimum wage increase to $13.75 in 2027 and $15 in 2029, and a $20 million appropriation for state employees’ and home health care workers’ collective bargaining, according to Washington’s ABC affiliate.

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Fox News Digital reached out to the governor, as well as the House and Senate minority leaders, for further comment.

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Virginia murder suspect in bus stop stabbing had lengthy criminal history, multiple dropped charges

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Virginia murder suspect in bus stop stabbing had lengthy criminal history, multiple dropped charges

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A Virginia murder suspect accused of fatally stabbing a woman at a bus stop earlier this week has a lengthy criminal history filled with multiple arrests, but was let back onto the streets nearly every time. 

Abdul Jalloh, 32, is charged with the Monday night killing of Stephanie Minter, 41, of Fredericksburg, at a bus stop shelter, the Fairfax County Police Department said. 

Minter was found by officers with stab wounds to her upper body and pronounced dead at the scene, police said. 

Abdul Jalloh, 32, is accused of killing Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop.  (Fairfax County Police Department; provided)

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Jalloh, 32, who was seen on surveillance cameras exiting the bus with Minter at Richmond Highway and Arlington Drive, was arrested the next day. 

He was arrested at a liquor store after an employee called 911. At the time, officers arrested him for allegedly shoplifting. Investigators linked him to the murder a day later. 

Authorities were still trying to determine a motive for the killing and what led to the deadly stabbing. 

A search of online court records revealed Jalloh has more than a dozen arrests in northern Virginia, including on charges of petty larceny and malicious wounding. 

In most of the cases, prosecutors dropped the charges, FOX D.C. reported. 

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Abdul Jalloh seen on a bus in Virginia.  (Fairfax County Police Department)

Laura Birnbaum, the chief of staff for Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, said Jalloh was known to the district attorney’s office and was “acutely aware of the risk he posed to the community.”

“That is why we convicted the defendant of a 2023 malicious wounding charge, and have since made every effort to hold him accountable each subsequent time that he has come in contact with the criminal justice system, including asking him to be held in custody whenever possible,” Birnbaum said. 

“Unfortunately, the defendant in this case also had a history of selecting victims with no fixed address – some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” she added. “In multiple cases, we were unable to move forward with prosecution because victims could not be located or contacted.”

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Stephanie Minter, 41, was killed on Monday after getting off of a bus in Virginia.  (Provided)

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An obituary for Minter described her as a “happy, jolly” person. 

“A beam of light in dark places,” the obituary states. 

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