Centro Lounge and Kitchen opened in the Ybor City Market building at 1600 East 8th Avenue in early March, adding a full-service restaurant to a space that has housed a rotating cast of food vendors and market stalls for the past several years. The 45-seat restaurant occupies a corner unit on the building’s ground floor, with a covered outdoor patio that extends along the 8th Avenue side.
The kitchen is led by chef and co-owner Marcus Rivera, who worked for four years at Mise en Place in Ybor City and for two years before that at a hotel restaurant in Clearwater Beach. The Centro menu is Spanish-influenced with some Cuban reference points, reflecting both Rivera’s culinary background and the Ybor City context. Opening prices run from $14 for small plates to $38 for the whole-fish main.
The Kitchen
The opening menu covers familiar ground for Spanish-influenced cooking — croquetas, a tortilla, a few charcuterie-and-cheese preparations — but the execution on a recent preview visit was more careful than the neighborhood’s casual-dining context might suggest. The croquetas arrived hot and crisped, with a bechamel interior that had been seasoned rather than left neutral. The tortilla de patatas was made in the traditional style, which means the eggs are slightly runny at the center rather than fully set, which is either the correct or incorrect preparation depending on your experience with the dish. Rivera’s version is the correct one.
The whole fish preparation changes with availability. The opening week feature was a branzino, roasted with olives and a romesco that had been made with real dried peppers rather than the jarred preparation that shortcuts the process. The fish itself was handled correctly — not overcooked, the skin crisped, the flesh pulling cleanly from the bone. For a kitchen in its first week of service, this represented a confident operation.
The Room and the Location
The Ybor City Market building dates to the early twentieth century and has the high ceilings and industrial bones that make converted spaces in this neighborhood work. Centro’s interior is modest rather than designed: tile floors, a small bar along one wall, the tables at an appropriate density for the room’s dimensions. The outdoor patio, which faces 8th Avenue rather than the more trafficked 7th, gives the space a quieter aspect than most Ybor City restaurants offer. On a weeknight, the patio operates as a functional outdoor dining room; on a weekend, it fills quickly.
The location in the market building rather than on 7th Avenue is both an advantage and a limiting factor. Foot traffic on 8th Avenue is substantially lower than on 7th, which means Centro will need its own audience rather than benefiting from the throughput that the primary commercial corridor generates. Rivera is aware of this. “We want people to come specifically for us,” he said in a brief conversation at the host stand, “not just because they were walking by.” That is a sustainable strategy for a restaurant with a kitchen that can hold up under scrutiny, and Centro’s kitchen appears to be one.
Hours and Logistics
Centro Lounge and Kitchen is open Tuesday through Saturday. Lunch service runs from eleven in the morning to three in the afternoon; dinner service runs from five to ten, with the kitchen closing at nine-thirty. The outdoor patio is available weather permitting. Reservations accepted via phone and through the restaurant’s website; walk-ins accommodated based on availability.
Parking is available in the Ybor City Market building lot on 8th Avenue and in the street parking along the adjacent blocks. The 7th Avenue garage at 13th Street is a three-minute walk for evenings when the street spots are occupied.
Centro Lounge and Kitchen, 1600 E 8th Ave Suite D204, Tampa, FL 33605. Reservations: (813) 555-0241.