By Ralph

 

Thirty-one years is a long time in the restaurant business.

It's an especially long time in Brandon, where restaurants, shopping centers and entire stretches of road can look completely different from one decade to the next.

 

Yet since Feb. 9, 1995, one name has remained part of the local landscape:

La Septima Cafe.

 

Today you'll find it at 702 W. Lumsden Road, but that's not where the story began.

 

It started with Ronnie and Dahlia Fernandez, their two children—and a little restaurant on Parsons Avenue.

 

One Dining Room and a Small Kitchen

 

When the Fernandez family opened La Septima in 1995, it was a modest operation.

 

The restaurant had one dining room, a small kitchen and only a handful of employees. Most of those employees were family: Ronnie, Dahlia and their children, Jennifer and RJ.

 

They weren't newcomers to the restaurant business, but owning their own place was different.

 

Would Brandon like their food?

 

Would enough customers walk through the doors?

 

Would the business survive?

 

The answer gradually became clear.

 

Customers came.

 

The restaurant grew.

 

And according to the family, its staff eventually expanded to around 50 employees.

 

Bringing a Little Ybor City to Brandon

 

The restaurant's name tells you something about what the Fernandezes were trying to create.

 

La Séptima refers to Seventh Avenue—Ybor City's historic main street.

 

That connection was personal.

 

The family's grandparents had immigrated to Ybor City, and when Ronnie and Dahlia opened their restaurant, they intentionally incorporated some of that heritage into both the food and atmosphere. The restaurant still describes itself with the phrase “A Taste of Old Ybor.”

 

Its menu reflects that connection.

 

You'll find dishes such as ropa vieja, shredded flank steak slow-simmered in a wine-based sauce; picadillo, seasoned ground beef with olives and capers; lechón asado, pork marinated in sour-orange mojo; palomilla steak; Cuban sandwiches; Spanish bean soup and black beans and rice.

 

But there's one dish on the menu with a particularly personal story.

 

Who Was Pepe?

 

Order the Steak Pepe, and you're ordering a little piece of Fernandez family history.

 

The restaurant says the dish was named for Dahlia's father, who came into La Septima every morning to help after the restaurant opened in 1995.

 

The menu still identifies him as an inspiration to both the family and the restaurant staff.

 

That's the sort of detail that separates a family restaurant from simply another place serving lunch.

 

Sometimes the family history ends up right on the menu.

 

Outgrowing Parsons Avenue

 

Eventually, the little Parsons Avenue restaurant wasn't so little anymore.

 

La Septima outgrew the original location and in 2011 moved to La Viva Plaza on West Lumsden Road. The larger location provided more parking and room for more than 100 guests, along with expanded dining and private-event space.

 

Moving an established restaurant always carries a risk.

 

A business can leave behind more than a building—it can leave behind routines customers have followed for years.

 

But La Septima made the move and continued growing at its new Brandon home.

 

And the Fernandez children remained involved.

 

Jennifer has handled responsibilities including human resources and accounts payable, while RJ has served as general manager. By 2022, the family's eldest granddaughters had also joined the operation.

 

What started as a husband, wife and two children had begun reaching another generation.

 

Then Came 2020

 

If three decades in the restaurant business weren't difficult enough, La Septima eventually faced something nobody could have anticipated when it opened:

COVID-19.

 

With its dining room closed, the restaurant shifted heavily toward takeout and introduced family meals designed to feed four people. Delivery and other off-premise options became increasingly important.

 

The restaurant survived.

 

And some of those adaptations stayed with it.

 

Today La Septima offers dine-in service along with pickup, delivery, catering and private-event options.

 

More Than Cuban Food

 

La Septima is commonly described as a Cuban restaurant, but its culinary identity is broader.

 

Over the years, the Fernandez family has described the menu as drawing from the Cuban, Spanish and Italian influences associated with historic Ybor City.

 

That helps explain why the menu can move from ropa vieja and picadillo to caldo gallego, palomilla and other dishes reflecting Tampa's immigrant food traditions.

 

It's less about recreating one country's menu than preserving some of the mixture of cultures that made old

 

Ybor distinctive.

 

Thirty-One Years Later

 

Brandon in 1995 was a very different place.

 

The population grew.

 

Development pushed farther outward.

 

National restaurant chains multiplied.

 

The Fernandez family watched those changes from behind the counter of the business they'd started with one dining room and a small kitchen.

 

In February 2025, La Septima celebrated its 30th anniversary. That means this year marks 31 years in business.

 

The current restaurant remains at its Lumsden Road location and continues to be operated by the Fernandez family.

 

That longevity is why we're featuring La Septima in Crosstown Eats.

 

We're not declaring it Brandon's best Cuban restaurant.

 

We're not reviewing the food.

 

We're telling the story behind a locally owned restaurant that's managed to remain part of Brandon through three decades of change.

 

Know Before You Go

 

La Septima Cafe and Catering is located at 702 W. Lumsden Road, Brandon.

 

Current hours are Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; closed Sunday. The restaurant offers dine-in, takeout, delivery, catering and private-event options.

 

La Septima Cafe official website

And the next time you pass La Septima on Lumsden Road, remember:

It didn't begin there.

 

It began in 1995 on Parsons Avenue with Ronnie, Dahlia, Jennifer and RJ working inside a little restaurant and wondering whether Brandon would give their family business a chance.

 

Thirty-one years later, Brandon has given them their answer.