Meet the Owner: San Carlos Tavern

Having moved to America from Colombia at the age of 21, Juan Carlos Londoño has worked hard to build something for himself in the land of opportunity.

Londoño, 40, would eventually grow tired of the cold weather in Philadelphia where he first moved from his homeland and decided to sell his pizza parlor to make his way to Tampa in 2001. He started a small bar called Recuerdos (50 person capacity) near Dale Mabry and Waters, but eventually felt the need to move and saw an opportunity in Seminole Heights.

"The bar we had before was too small, the number we did were beyond what we could handle in that building so we started to look around," Londoño said. "It's not easy to find something where you can get a full liquor license but we saw a lot of opportunity in Seminole Heights because it was growing all the time and it still is."

6416 North Florida Avenue

(813) 234-1267

Early days in Seminole Heights: "Eight years ago, I moved over here and the real estate was really expensive. The neighborhood associations were meeting with the city and both had big plans to change the entire idea of what the area could be. Then the recession hit, so everything changed little by little instead of it happening as quickly as people wanted, but Seminole Heights still changed for good," Londoño said.

Getting in with the residents: "We haven't much response from the neighborhood people and I think that it's because the residents around here think of us as a Latin hangout. We have Americans come in and request music and if we have it, we play it. We love this country and we're here to be part of it," Londoño said.

Bringing in food: "We finished our full kitchen just three months ago. We're trying to get an idea for what people want so our menu is still small. We'd like to be more like a sports bar, but we have a Colombian flavor and people have asked us to make rice and beans and stuff like that. We've had a reaction from Latinos mostly, but we're trying to get more people in here to watch sports and use the kitchen to keep us busy on the weekdays instead of just Friday and Saturday," Londoño said.

Price: San Carlos boasts $3 mixed drink specials during their daily happy hour from 3-8 p.m. and is fair with the charge for their 60 plus beer options as well.

Music: With more than 1,200 cds in house, Londoño is happy to play anything from his wide ranging collection. "One of my favorite things about owning this place is that I love music. I like to play the role of DJ some nights. It gets crowded in here on the weekends with everybody dancing," Londoño said.