D'Rose Gastrobar puts Colombian technique on an artist's canvas in Ybor City

D'Rose Gastrobar occupies a ground-floor room in the historic Robertson Building on East Seventh Avenue, and the first thing its owners will tell you is what the place is not. It is not, they say, a traditional Latin restaurant. The menu has Colombian roots, the technique is modern, and the sentence the room is built around is one they wrote themselves: this isn't just Latin food. This Is Also Latino.

A line the owners wrote first

That line sits on the front of their own website, and it works less as a slogan than as an instruction. Victor M. Lopez founded D'Rose and runs it as chief executive, with co-founder Edgar Lopez and four partners: Gustavo A. Lopez on culture and operations, Jessica T. Gonzalez as beverage director, Osyamil Milian as executive chef, and Yulieth Lopez on guest experience.

Their stated position is that Latin dining usually gets sold on color and folklore, and that the version worth showing is also elegant, creative and cosmopolitan. They describe the menu as Colombian DNA expressed through modern technique, global influences and artistic presentation, and say the goal is to challenge what diners expect Latino food to look like. The restaurant is the argument, and the kitchen is where it gets made.

Plates built to be shared

The kitchen works in modern Latino tapas, and the menu is arranged so a table orders several at once rather than one plate each. The Pulpo Costeno is charred octopus with potatoes in a coconut ahogado. The Ceviche Amazonica uses local catch in a passion fruit leche de tigre with yucca. The Crispy Porkbelly is Berkshire pork with aji verde. The Chontaduro Hummus folds peach palm fruit into chickpeas and arrives with crostini, which is a familiar shareable rebuilt around an ingredient most Tampa menus do not carry.

Behind the artistic presentations is a commitment to ingredients sourced close to home. From locally raised chicken and Colombian-style sausage to fresh fish and shrimp from the Gulf, D’Rose brings together Colombian culinary heritage and Florida’s regional bounty. The result is a menu that celebrates its cultural roots while supporting the community around it.

The dish that explains the rest fastest is the Cheese Canvas. Whipped goat cheese is spread across a small artist's canvas, finished with truffle honey and rose powder, and brought to the table on a wooden easel. It is the plainest version of what the kitchen means by artistic presentation, and it puts the restaurant's own name into the garnish.

The room is part of the argument

D'Rose treats the cocktails, the design and the music as one piece with the food, which is why the menu asks for several plates at a time rather than a single entree. Teal velvet chairs sit under a wall of wood slats cut into a wave. A neon script on a living plant wall reads Elegante Pero Peligrosa. Drinks get the same attention the plates do, and one of them arrives with a popsicle standing in the glass.

In a neighborhood shaped by generations of immigrant culture, D’Rose offers its own contemporary expression of that legacy, bringing together history, art, design, and modern Latino gastronomy.

If you go

D'Rose Gastrobar is at 2238 E 7th Ave in Ybor City. It serves Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m. and Friday from 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday runs brunch from noon to 5 p.m. and dinner from 5 to 10 p.m., and Sunday is brunch only, from noon to 5 p.m. The restaurant is closed Mondays. The full menu is at drosegastrobar.com.