El Grande — the “big one” — really says it all. Yeah, this place is big. It also happens that El Grande’s super size is what makes it so great; it has the best variety of imported Spanish food products in the city. The store imports food (including fresh fruits and vegetables) from Peru, Honduras, Puerto Rico and Columbia, just to name a handful. It has a small botanical section for all your effigy-candle and rose-hip-water needs — to, you know, drive the bad spirits away. Maybe even better than the grocery itself is the little cart attached to the building where they fry up Spanish-style steak sandwiches and Churros. A pipin’ hot slab of beef and a sugary stick of fried dough? Doesn’t get much better. 8413 Hanley Road, Tampa, 813-202-8163.
This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2006.