"Too many hours for too many years inside my restaurant were to blame. I needed more sunshine."

Ladies and gentlemen, Cephas Gilbert has left his building and, as a result, Ybor City does not have a Jamaican component for the first time in four decades.

A little more than a year ago, Gilbert said, he was diagnosed with a Vitamin D deficiency.

He had run Cephas’ Hot Shop, which sold Jamaican food and juices on Ybor’s Fourth Avenue, for 38 years. In 2020, he transitioned the business into a juice bar inside Tequilas Ybor on Seventh Avenue.

So, Gilbert — known for challenging NFL players to handshake tests of strength, holding coconuts in one hand while cracking them open with a machete and turning a corner of Ybor into a Jamaican oasis — did possibly what only he would do.

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