HOLY HOG: A WELCOME WEST TAMPA ADDITION


 Holy Hog Barbeque, locat-
ed at 3501 N. Armenia Ave.,
is a departure from tradi-
tional West Tampa cuisine,
but it has managed to entice
many in the area to try out its


Southern barbeque.
 Danny Hernandez, 40, who
says he has a "passion for
the pig" is the owner of the
restaurant.- His father creat-
ed Pipo's Cafe in 1979. That


restaurant, which serves au-
thentic Cuban dishes, has
been incredibly successful
over the decades. Growing up
in the restaurant business,
Hernandez had all the insight


Hog-wild decor


 Southern-style meats from Holy Hog
























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and resources to start a new
business from scratch. Due
to the high concentration of
Latin restaurants in the area,
he came up with the unique
concept of Holy Hogs to bring
more diversity to the area.
 "We've made a major in-
vestment in the neighbor-
hood," he says. "I think we've
earned West Tampa's respect
for that."
 With Southern-style, slow-
smoked barbeque and sides
such as corn fritters, loaded
potato salad and macaroni


and cheese, Holy Hog fills a
niche for West Tampa. Com-
bine its originality with its
savory price point, and it's no
surprise it has gained the suc-
cess that it has.
 "If you can make it in West
Tampa, I think you can make
it anywhere," says Hernandez.
 Saturday, May 14 marks
the restaurant's first anniver-
sary. "The Hog turns one,"
says Hernandez, who guaran-
tees a great party full of good
barbeque, good drinks and
good company.


Cigar Factories: West Tampa's

 Giant Story Tellers


 (Continued frompage 16)
Cigar Company into a sub-
sidiarr with the name Bal-
bin Brothers and Company.
The deal also stipulated that
Gabriel and Benigno Balbin
would resign, while Miguel
Balbin would continue to su-
pervise production for the new
owners. The Tampa-Cuba Ci-
gar Company eventually re-
modeled the old Balbin Broth-
ers factory and consolidated
their manufacturing opera-
tions to a single plant.
 In December 1923, Balbin
Brothers and Company was
dissolved along with other
subsidiaries. Soon after, at
the beginning of the Great De-
pression in 1929, the Tampa-
Cuba Company went out of
business.

 The Y. Pendas &
 Alvarez Company
 The Y. Pendas and Alvarez
Company was the first com-
pany in the United States to


who also trained at La Sulta-
na, and Faustino Lozano.
 Once the firm had estab-
lished their West Tampa fac-
tory, they were operating two
in Tampa, one in New York,
and one in Cuba. In 1897,
Pendas and Alvarez (Loza-
no retired three years prior)
moved operations to a three-
story factory located at 1416
Spring Street in Tampa in
the area known as "Little Ha-
vana". The popularity of the
company's La Mia, Webster,
Farragut, Flor de Y Pendas,
and Alvarez brands ensured
rapid growth, and soon the
company outgrew the factory.
The company decided to build
a four-story building with a
$75,000 clock tower affixed
to it. The clock, the largest in
Florida, became a West Tam-
pa landmark. Today, the clock
is no longer functional.
 Today, the building is on
the national historic registry
and is occupied by two sepa-
rate businesses. Labels and



 J \ .
 \

 \


The Y. Pendas & Alvarez Factory as it currently stands


manufacture "clear" ("claro")
Havana cigars exclusively.
They were also one of the larg-
est Havana cigar companies
in the world.
 Ysidro Pendas was born in
Asturias, Spain in 1844. He
learned the cigar trade at La
Sultana factory in Cuba. He
founded The Pendas-Alvarez
Company in 1867 in New York
along with Miguel Alvarez,


Systems, Inc. was born in the
old factory building and spe-
cializes in the manufacture of
self-adhesive labels such as
those used for product and
package labels, barcodes,
window decals, shipping and
mailing labels, and more.
 The second business, Flor-
ida Umbrella and Cushions,
Inc., relocated to the build-
ing in the early 1990s after
 (Continued on page 18)


LA GACETA/Friday, May 6, 2011/Page 17 Section B


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