The Floridian, the Cuban-sandwich spot at 4534 W. Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa, is putting its furniture, kitchen equipment and lease up for sale as longtime owner Harold Seltzer prepares to retire. The business itself isn't part of the deal — Seltzer says he's parting with the physical pieces of the operation, not the company behind it.
“The business itself is not for sale,” Seltzer told the Business Observer, which first reported the listing. According to the outlet, the sale covers leasehold improvements, furniture, fixtures, equipment, small wares and an assignment of the lease on the 1,500-square-foot space, which still has eight years remaining. The asking price is listed simply as “subject to offer.”
Seltzer, who has owned The Floridian since 2009 according to his LinkedIn profile, says he's ready to step away entirely. “I'm planning to fully retire,” he said, per the same report. He's also willing to license The Floridian name to a buyer who wants to keep operating the shop under its existing identity, rather than start fresh with a new concept.
The Floridian name predates Seltzer’s ownership: the shop’s history dates its opening to the July 4 weekend in 1993, when Val and Ted Dilar converted an insurance office in Treasure Island into a Cuban-sandwich restaurant. The history page says the St. Petersburg Times named its signature sandwich the “Best Cuban Sandwich in Tampa Bay” in 1997. That earlier beachside chapter gives the brand a longer local history than Seltzer’s tenure, which began in 2009. The Floridian’s history page
What's Included in the Sale
The kitchen on offer is fully built out, according to the listing details relayed by the Business Observer. It includes an 8-foot hood with an Ansul fire-suppression system, a six-burner stove and oven, two fryers, a three-door glass cooler, under-counter coolers, a freezer and an in-floor grease trap. Also included are pots, pans, small wares, tables, chairs, bar stools and shelving — plus the sit-down dining area, counter seating and full kitchen that make up the space itself.
Axxos Commercial Real Estate, which is handling the listing, described it as a turnkey operation. Axxos's listing says a buyer bringing in their own concept could realistically open within days or a few weeks of taking over. Axxos also pegs market rent along Kennedy Boulevard or nearby Dale Mabry Highway at $45 to $55 per square foot — a notable gap above the rate currently built into The Floridian's lease, which runs $23.50 per square foot (about $2,937 a month) for the next three years before climbing to $26 per square foot (around $3,250 a month) for the five years after that.
A Restaurant Lineage Rooted in a Montreal Butcher Shop
Seltzer's path to Tampa sandwiches traces back decades, to a family meat market in Montreal. He began working at the NDG Meat Market at age eight, the shop his grandfather, Sam Seltzer, ran — a business Sam's sons would go on to operate for 60 years, supplying burger patties to the A&W restaurant chain along the way, per the Business Observer's account.
A buyer taking on the name would inherit a place in a food tradition the city formally claims: Tampa City Council designated the Cuban sandwich its official signature sandwich in 2012. Tampa-style versions commonly include Genoa salami alongside roast pork and ham, a detail that has long distinguished them from Miami’s version. The sandwich’s local standing reflects Tampa’s immigrant and cigar-making history, making the shop’s identity more than a sign above a Kennedy Boulevard storefront. USF’s account of the Cuban sandwich’s history
Harold Seltzer later worked as a partner at a Montreal law firm before he opened the first Sam Seltzer's Steakhouse on Dale Mabry Highway south of Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa in 1995, choosing Florida partly because his in-laws had a condo in Sarasota. Sam Seltzer's Steakhouse expanded to six more locations over the following seven years and grew to 13 restaurants at its peak, according to reports cited by the outlet, before the chain filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and shut down for good in May 2010.
From Steakhouse Closures to a New Chapter
Harold Seltzer sold the original Sam Seltzer's Steakhouse business in 2004, but after the chain's later collapse, he bought the St. Petersburg and Port Richey restaurants, refurbished them and rehired more than 150 workers who had lost their jobs, renaming the spots Harold's. He sold the two remaining Harold Seltzer Steakhouse restaurants in 2023, the same year the chain's Clearwater location closed — a casualty, Seltzer said, of a new property owner canceling the lease on July 1, 2023, as the Business Observer separately reported.
A former Harold Seltzer's Steakhouse building at 3500 Tyrone Blvd. in St. Petersburg later sold for $3.9 million to Services Corporation International, a national funeral and cremation services company, according to that earlier report. Through it all, Seltzer kept The Floridian running, at one point driving up to 100 miles on Fridays to oversee the business. Now, as he winds down for good, he still holds the rights to the sandwich shop's intellectual property and is open to seeing someone else carry the name forward.
