Third Generation
Cesar Gonzmart and
Adela Hernandez Gonzmart
Casimiro Jr. and his wife, Carmen had one child, Adela Hernandez.
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Called, “Ybor’s Matriarch” and “the gem of Ybor," Adela Hernandez Gonzmart was the granddaughter of the Columbia Restaurant’s founder, Casimiro Hernandez, Sr.
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A child prodigy, she went on to train as a concert pianist at Juilliard and tour the United States and Cuba. She married concert violinist Cesar Gonzmart, a concert violinist and handsome showman. They traveled throughout the United States while Cesar performed in famous supper clubs during the early 1950’s.
In 1953, Adela’s father, Casimiro Jr., was in failing health, so the young couple returned to Tampa. They divided the business duties of operating the restaurant and raising their two sons, Casey and Richard. The family persevered in keeping the restaurant open during the late 1950s and all thorough the 1960s when Ybor City was dying. Urban renewal cut the heart from the Latin Quarter. More families moved out. Businesses closed. Cesar Gonzmart realized they had to do something to bring people back to Ybor City.
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Cesar had a flair for the artistic and flamboyant. Some of the top Latin talent during that era came to perform in this large showroom. The Columbia survived those lean years and came back stronger than ever.
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Cesar learned the business quickly, and he and Adela began to have input in the decisions of the Columbia. In 1956, they convinced Adela's father, Casmiro, to build another large room, the Siboney dining room, named after a town in Cuba where American forces landed in the Spanish–American War (also the name of a song by a Cuban composer).
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The couple had two sons, Casey and Richard Gonzmart.
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