Ybor City Perfect Host For Talent Quest Florida.

I'm sitting in a place called Gaspar's Grotto, which purports to offer authentic Cuban cuisine. The pirate theme either works or it doesn't, but the stiff pair of margarita rocks delivered by my infectiously cheerful server Kelly definitely do.

I'm in Ybor City (pronounce it “EE-bor”), in the heart of old downtown Tampa, Florida, to cover Talent Quest Florida, one of the largest karaoke contests in the United States, possibly in the world. About four hundred of the state's top singers will descend on this multi-ethnic center of what used to be the hub of cigar making in the free world prior to World War II, in a bid to qualify for tens of thousands of dollars in prizes, and a chance to advance to the national championships in Laughlin, Nevada later this year.

At Gaspar's you can shoot a round of pool, or throw those kiddie darts with plastic tips at an electronic scoreboard. Or you can do what the rest of the twenty-something crowd is doing: soak up the alcohol and socialize, either in person or through their ubiquitous texting devices, listen to the excellent music and try to guess what species the anonymous fish in the two giant aquaria behind the bar are, and whether or not they'll end up in your dinner.

I've opted for the Spanish bean soup, so bland it's predominantly a hydration option, then moved on to the crab enchilados, and though the crab is soggy and the pasta al dente to the point of being simply undercooked, the thick red spicy sauce is outstanding, perhaps the best red I've ever tried. But the clientele is too young here, flashing tattoos and piercings reflected in the mirror-bright faces of their new cell phones as they flit about, and I move on.

Down the street, past three-story brick facades with wrought iron details, and fifty-foot palms lining the narrow  asphalt nodding in the steamy breeze, I settle down at an outdoor table at King Corona, a tobacco and caffeine establishment with a five-generation pedigree that appears to be just the B-side of an A-type personality I need. Puffing on a freshly hand-rolled stogie and sipping an espresso strong enough to raise its dukes, it's a good place to soak up more of the local color. A couple of tables away, two middle-aged men carry on an amiable argument in what sounds like Russian, as a pair of blondes, Teutonic, tall, twin-like, stroll by in shorts and halters, pursued closely by two young gents, one sporting a bright red mohawk.

In front of me lies the latest copy of La Gaceta (Spanish for, what else, “The Newspaper”), which bills itself as the nation's only tri-lingual publication of its type, with articles in Spanish, English and Italian. I'm not sure what they've learned about journalism in their eighty-seven years of print, but the thirty-two point type of the headline demands that we “Celebrate the 4th of July!”, while directly under it is a huge photograph of a wedding party from April of 1928, apropos of what I have no idea.

But perhaps that's typical of the dichotomous surroundings: Ybor City doesn't know quite what it is. Born from cigar magnate Vincente Martinez Ybor's burning passion to own a company town blessed with cheap labor and a ready port,  fallen into ruin and disrepute, then reborn as a nightlife mecca, the streets are lined with tattoo parlors, tobacco shops, restaurants of every stripe, nightclubs and theaters, with every third frontage declaring itself for lease.

Which is not to say that Ybor City is seedy, or even downtrodden – far from it. With its Latin passion, Italian grace, and Yankee ingenuity all in full supply, the town may be quintessentially American, prepared at any moment to reinvent itself to take advantage of the vagaries of a global economy gone haywire and such vices as are deemed seemly, dance a salsa-inflected sidestep, and arise again, Lazarus-like.

Tomorrow, The Ritz Ybor will begin hosting the Talent Quest Florida  semi-finals, an event sandwiched between an open casting call for America's Next Top Model and a concert by The Fab Faux, The venue, whose website boasts the slogan “Remember. Recapture. Reinvent.” may be the perfect place, in the perfect town, for exactly what those karaoke hopefuls want.

A new start. A new life. The beginning of a better dream.