There are a lot of Florida food favorites such as Key Lime Pie and Stone Crab Claws, but no food can cause more debate than the humble Deviled Crab.
A deviled crab (called croqueta de jaiba in Spanish) is a large crab meat croquette beloved by both Latin and non-Latin, rich and poor throughout the Tampa Bay area and across Florida.
The deviled crab was created in Ybor City in the 1920’s during a long cigar-workers strike and the deviled crab, made from local blue crab meat, day-old Cuban bread, and Cuban-style chilau sauce, became almost over night the cheap lunch break meal of choice. The food spread to non-Latin locals and then to winter visitors. Today, some tourists seek out deviled crabs for their first local dish in Florida.
A deviled crab & Cuban sandwich (no mayo)
A good deviled crab should have a thick enough shell so it can be held up and eaten by one hand, the original way the immigrant workers eat this meal. Putting a fork to one is unacceptable. If you must have a fork: go back to your Maryland crab cakes. But the cake should be a golf ball size chuck of crab meat inside or you will also feel the wrath of true deviled crab enthusiasts.
My wife’s family would drive across Tampa to the Seabreeze Restaurant on Causeway Boulevard on McKay Bay just to buy their popular deviled crabs. I even remember people loading up with deviled crabs to take into the Causeway Drive-in down the road.
When this seafood institution closed down, there was panic among its regulars. Knowing the Seabreeze name was meaningful, several small restaurants were started by former employees in Brandon and Ybor City, but for whatever reason they weren’t the same.
A New Seabreeze Restaurant in a Historic Tour Bus
In the last few years a new recreation of Seabreeze was opened on North Boulevard, near the west side of the Hillsborough River. The Seabreeze Deviled Crabs and Seafood is hardly a dining experience. People come because the deviled crabs are made like the old restaurant by a former employee.
Besides an open-aired stand selling live blue crabs in tanks, this Seabreeze makes its deviled crabs and Cuban sandwiches in a converted tour bus once used by the Weeki Wachee tourist attraction. The classic bus was found in a dump and restored as a classic food wagon.
It seems fitting to me that deviled crab making is located in a mobile food spot since that is how the Florida dish was first sold in the 1920’s.
floridatraveler 
Awesome post and history of Ybor City and Tampa Bay! My family is devoted to Crab Chilau! Though we usually buy our deviled crabs from Carmin’s in Ybor City we love serving them with our traditional Crab Chilau. I recently launched a concentrated version of Chilau Sauce so my friends and family could consistently make the dish, life hasn’t been the same since. Grear post!
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Love Carmines. Tampans fight over deviled crabs like they do Cuban sandwiches. I remember my mother-in-law driving from South Tampa to the 22nd Causeway to get one deviled crab.
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My parents are from Tampa also. I remember vacationing there years ago. We used to go to the Sea breeze restaurant just for the devil crabs. They are so good with a drizzle of crystal hot sauce. The Cuban sandwiches are tasty too.
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The Causeway Inn was a landmark for its food and location. The Causeway Drive-In is also gone – fun place with sea gulls. MCL
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I am a native of Tampa. As such, I’ve eaten countless Deviled Crabs and Cuban Sandwiches all across Florida. It is relatively easy to find a good cuban Sandwich in most area’s of Florida, but a real, genuine Ybor type Deviled Crab is another story.
Carmines, Seabreeze, Columbia , and others have, or had, Amazing Deviled Crabs.
I nearly forgot about Larry’s Deli on Hwy 41 in Land O Lakes, just north of TAMPA.
Larry’s honestly has the Best Cuban Sandwich I’ve ever eaten anywhere in Florida.
There’s no better meal for me than a cuban sandwich, a deviled crab, and an ice cold beer. WOW !
I moved to Savannah a year ago and am so upset there are no Deviled Crabs, or genuine Cuban Sandwiches here. No Latin/Cuban food period. How sad !
If Carmines, or Columbia, Pinos, LA Terasita, etc., would open up here, it would be a virtual Gold Mine ! I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
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