Photos: Craft’s History & Cigar Cruise celebrates Ybor’s 140th anniversary

Photos from Craft’s History & Cigar Cruise celebrating Ybor City’s 140th anniversary.

Craft’s History & Cigar Cruise celebrated 140th anniversary of first cigar rolled in Ybor City. (Diane Egner)

On April 13th, a special event Craft’s History & Cigar Cruise celebrated the 140th anniversary of the first cigar rolled in Ybor City with a brunch cruise along the Hillsborough River. The two-hour cruise mixed history, food, and waterfront views. The Tampa’s Bay History Center’s Rodney Kite-Powell and J.C. Newman Cigar Company’s Drew Newman provided historical narration and insights to bring Tampa’s robust cigar history to life for the dining passengers.

Passing under Platt Street while traveling up the Hillsborough River downtown. (Diane Egner)
The riverboat tour passes the University of Tampa’s famous minarets. (Diane Egner)
The Norwegian II cruise ship sits at Port Tampa Bay. (Diane Egner)
Water taxis are a common sight on downtown Tampa waterways. (Diane Egner)
Passengers depart the two-hour cruise at Sparkman Wharf in Water Street. (Diane Egner)

Traveling in America’s first open-kitchen river cruiser, guests dined on a brunch prepared in front of them with state-of-the-art gas cooking equipment. Guests enjoyed an entree, dessert, beverage, and a complimentary J.C. Newman cigar.

The menu featured delectable dishes and a complimentarty post-meal cigar. (Diane Egner)
A slice of warmed bread pudding with a toffee drizzle and extra cinnamon. (Diane Egner)
The cocktail selection included the crowd favorite Sparkman’s sangria. (Diane Egner)

Author

Diane Egner is a community leader and award-winning journalist with more than four decades of experience reporting and writing about the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. She serves on the boards of the University of South Florida Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications Advisory Council, The Institute for Research in Art (Graphicstudio, the Contemporary Art Museum, and USF’s Public Art Program) Community Advisory Council, Sing Out and Read, and StageWorks Theatre Advisory Council. She also is a member of Leadership Florida and the Athena Society. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism, she won the top statewide award for editorial writing from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors while at The Tampa Tribune and received special recognition by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists for creative work as Content Director at WUSF Public Media. Past accomplishments and community service include leadership positions with Tampa Tiger Bay Club, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP), Alpha House of Tampa Bay, Awesome Tampa Bay, Florida Kinship Center, AIA Tampa Bay, Powerstories, Arts Council of Hillsborough County, and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Diane and her husband, Sandy Rief, live in Tampa.
 

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