Cuban Sandwich Festival

For Cuban Sandwich lovers, this is it! The mecca! The place to be! The Grand Olé Opry of ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard and (yes) Salami between two pieces of Cuban bread! No matter how you like, traditional or otherwise, you’ll find it here. Look no further than the streets of Ybor where the sandwich was actually created over 100 years ago by Cuban, German and Italian immigrants who were working in the cigar rolling factories.
I’ve been to 3 of the 4 festivals, and this year was my favorite because I was stone cold maxin’ and relaxin’ in the V.I.P. area. No, we weren’t roped off by red velet and there weren’t bottles of Courvoisier being passed around while people made it rain greenbacks, but we had something better going on. Free samples of every Cuban sandwich that entered the contest, bottled water, plenty of shade and the smell of cigar smoke thick in the air. There were literally so many mini-​Cubans that I eventually had to just get up and leave. The temptation was larger than the max capacity of my stomach.
The contest was blind, as were our samples, so I had a favorite, but unfortunately have no clue who’s sammich it was. A cruel twist of fate for all V.I.P. goers, I guess.
Amongst the Cuban sandwich serfs, far beyond the gates of the V.I.P., tons of sandwiches, empanadas, pinchos and other Latin goodies were being served up. The lines were long, and the aroma in the air couldn’t be duplicated anywhere else on this planet.
Fresh off the heels of a trip to Hawaii and Okinawa, I was happy to find the Aloha To Go food truck because they have a Hawaiian version of a Cuban sandwich, appropriately named after Kamehameha. Ingredients? Kalua pork, SPAM, Swiss cheese, mango pineapple chutney with sriracha mayo on Cuban bread… Absolutely freaking face-​melting. This was the best non-​traditional version of the sandwich I’ve ever experienced in my life.

I love the annual Cuban Sandwich Festival! This is definitely a yearly tradition for me. There are so many delicious looking vendors and I found my favorite sandwich here at the festival last year: the Monte Castro from Docho’s Concessions. Best non-​traditional hands down!

Good music, good weather and the most are good food. I am enjoying this festival with a strong Cuban emphasis. This is more into the Latin cuisine then just Cuban food. I have seen Puerto Rican food there. This year Cuban sandwich winners are Aloha food truck (third place), the Floridian (second place), and the no 1 winner is Trias. Their secrets ingredient is salami.
The Cuban community here is strong and they do hold this festival every year. Latin music playing at the background and people enjoy their afternoon off with family.
We have try Sergio’s Cuban sandwich from Miami. The line to get the sandwich is long. It takes me 30 minutes to line up to order. The price is cheap with whole sandwich for $ 7. I could have just order 10 of them and sell $ 10 to the people line up at the back. The drinks stand that next to the hot the benefits for the people who are in the line. The sandwich is ok. I have tasted better Cuban sandwich at Miami with better mojo pork.
We also order the grilled steak meat from one of the food stand. It was juicy and nice. My wife gets the Puerto Rican food. It has the blood sausage, pig stomach soup, and bacalao fried dough. I like the fried bacalao and the pig stomach. It cooks with yellow bean base. Those are savory.
Love the festival. The organizer pull a lot of heart include donation to the homeless to assemble the longest Cuban sandwich.

Free parking on the weekends. Lots of Cuban sandwiches to try from. My fiancé and I just ended up getting the cheaper one but it was tasty so great deal!

Took the kiddos last weekend. The festival and the Ybor market were all in the square. It was a tight fit, but I think we got there early enough that it didn’t impact our day.
I am seriously disappointed that I wasn’t 1) able to stay all day and be a glutton 2) thinking ahead and bringing friends so I could try a little of everything! The food everywhere looked and smelled fantastic. I had a Cuban from Danny Boys which was huge and delicious. This will have to be a tradition for us. :)

Glad I went and saw the world largest Cuban sandwich. There were vendors and two places selling cubans. They need a bigger space and more activities for people, like a create your own station

Day two of the Cuban sandwich festival. Watching the worlds largest Cuban sandwich being made as we speak. They sandwich is about 80 feet in length! Not a bad day for the event. They have live music as well with a couple small vendors… food trucks, donuts, popcorn, smoothies etc.

Arrived around 2:30 pm and the event was still hopping! Super long lines at most of the vendors. Made the mistake of starting out the adventure with a deep fried Twinkie — so delicious but should have saved for dessert as it limited my Cuban Sandwich capacity.
Tried sandwiches from 2 vendors: Ruebens — good bread, good sandwich, little heavy on the mayo (never had mayo on a cuban — is that a faux pas?). The other was Jay Jay’s (or something like that — can’t find a list of the participants anyplace) — this was my fav of the 2 — had a spicy ham and roasted pork rather than processed sandwich meat pork — very good. Also tried an Arepos — like a grilled cheese with a corn meal pancake instead of bread — not impressed and disappointed because it looked like it would be awesome.
They announced winners of the competition but I could not hear whatever they were announcing — need a better PA system. Great event and will def go to the 2014 event and not eat deep fried Twinkie first thing when I set foot into Centennial ;)

This festival was so fun. There is a farmer’s market, craft show, music, and food. What better than that. There were a number of different Cuban sandwiches and other latin food. we didn’t get to eat though bc we came later and a lot of the food was gone.

This is the second year of the Annual Cuban Sandwich Festival, a fundraiser for Emberlyn Padilla, an 18-​month-​old girl who was born without a diaphragm. I missed last year and was determined to go this year. My family from generations back are Cuban Sandwich afficionadoes. And it is always a heated pleasure to argue who has the best Cuban (of course not anything from Miami!!). We arrived at 11. It was crowded but long lines had not yet formed and some vendors were not yet set up. By 1 PM, there were very long lines at several of the vendors. And it was over half an hour to get to Michelle Faedo’s On The Go. They have been in the Cuban sandwich business for 17 years and won last year and again this year for the traditional and non-​traditional Cuban sandwich title. The organizers said it was a contest to find the best Cuban in Florida and there were 20 restaurants involved. But not all of them had Cubans, and the restaurants that continually are voted the very best in the Tampa Tribune (like the Columbia, Silver Ring, Brocato’s) were not there. ²⁄₃ of the Plaza was occupied by crafts & arts and a ¹⁄₃ by food stalls. There was an outrageous amount of food (not just Cubans! Paella, kabobs, even bacalao, empanadas) all delicious. Go next year. The strategy would be to arrive at 10:30 and hit the Faedo’s food truck first. Then spread out. Dont eat whole sandwiches. Cut them in 1 inch strips so that a 6″ can be tasted by 6 people. That way you might be able to sample 12 vendors. Cost at most vendors was 6″ for $ 6 – 7. Good luck!

A nice surprise… I was not planning on attending this event but decided to see what all the buzz was about. It was a nice afternoon to be outdoors, lots of people, vendors, crafts, arts and of course food. I’m not a Cuban sandwich fan but my friend tried the one from the Ybor food truck and said it was good. I tried the traditional «guineos al ajillo and pincho de pollo» from another vendor… good not great!!!
Overall a fun event with good music and traditional food.

I arrived late in the afternoon after attending an event in Lakeland. Some of the vendors still had extremely long lines at their tents and trucks.
I did sample a Latin treat (the name escapes me) it looked like a round yellow grilled cheese sandwich with mozzarella cheese. It was made with corn meal, and was delicious.
There is something to say about Ybor on a sunny spring afternoon. The smells of the vendors cooking their specialties, the beat of Latin music, and the tell tail smell of cigars all mix in a unique blend of aromas that is Ybor!
Great event, glad that I made the trip across the bridge.