Columbia Restaurant's Original 1905 Salad (2024)

This Tampa Classic – Columbia’s Original 1905 Salad is considered one of America’s Top 10 best salads by USA Today. This flavorful salad boasts crisp lettuce, ham & Swiss cheese, red ripe tomatoes, and Spanish olives. This amazing salad is tossed in a unique vinaigrette and loved by all who enjoy it!

You are probably thinking that the name of the salad indicates that this salad recipe dates back to the year 1905 but in fact, it was created more recently, in the 1970s, by Columbia, one of the largest Spanish restaurant chains in the United States based out of Tampa Bay area of Florida. The restaurant chain Columbia was, however, founded back in 1905 so that’s where the name 1905 comes from.

This Columbia Restaurant 1905 Salad recipe still tastes great today more than 50 years later. Isn’t that amazing?

Love Restaurant Copy Cat Recipes? Here are three more copycat salad recipes to try: Little King Salad, Wendy’s Taco Salad, and Olive Garden Salad and Dressing.

Why You’ll Love This Columbia 1905 Salad

Once you taste this salad you will agree it is one of the best salads you’ll ever sink your teeth into. Iceberg lettuce, Spanish olives, ham, and Swiss cheese make a great taste combination. These ingredients work so well together! Anything topped with cheese, especially Romano, tastes superb in my opinion.

The Columbia 1905 salad is a nice and hearty salad recipe that is perfect as a main course salad as the ham and cheese add a good amount of protein which will help keep you full for a few hours but the salad could easily be served as a small side salad with a light meal.

The history of the Columbia 1905 Salad

It was in the 1970s when Columbia restaurants, one of Florida’s oldest restaurants, served this Columbia salad instead of offering a salad bar for their customers. A waiter by the name of Tony Noriega developed the original salad in the 1940s. Columbia restaurants adapted Tony’s salad to create their own Columbia salad with a few modifications; they omitted black olives and celery which were part of the original recipe.

The Columbia salad also became known as Tampa’s 1905 Salad due to the location of Columbia restaurants.

Columbia restaurants offered a new salad dressing consisting of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and Romano cheese.

What is the oldest salad?

As far back as the first century, there is evidence that ancient Greeks and Romans ate raw vegetables with vinegar oil and herbs on top.

Ingredients in Tampa’s 1905 Salad

As with most copycat recipes, you want to make sure to keep the ingredients as close to the original as possible to get the recipe to taste like the primary version.

For the salad:

• iceberg lettuce, shredded
• ripe tomatoes, cut into eighths – ripe cherry or grape tomatoes would work, too.
• Swiss cheese, sliced and julienned
• baked ham, sliced, and julienned
• pimento-stuffed green Spanish olives – leave them whole
• Romano cheese – stick to the Romano to keep it authentic!

For the 1905 salad dressing ingredients:

• white wine vinegar – the closest substitute for white wine vinegar would be champagne vinegar.
• extra-virgin Spanish olive oil – extra virgin olive oil will work if you cannot find the Spanish version.
• garlic cloves – minced – fresh garlic cloves are best, in a pinch, you can use jarred minced garlic
• Worcestershire Sauce – Lea & Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce keeps it original!
• lemon juice – fresh lemon juice is best but jarred or bottled lemon juice will work okay in this 1905 salad dressing
• oregano – dried, find it in the spice section
• Salt & Black Pepper – to taste

How To MakeColumbia’s Original 1905 Salad & Dressing Recipes

PREP

Grate your Romano cheese, and chop or julienne Swiss cheese and ham.

TOSS

Toss all of the Columbia 1905 salad ingredients, except the Romano cheese, together in a large salad bowl.

PREPARE

To make the 1905 salad dressing, whisk together minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and oregano in a small bowl.

Add in olive oil, beating to form an emulsion. Whisk in vinegar and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Can I omit the Worcestershire sauce in 1905 salad dressing??

The Worcestershire sauce really adds an umami flavor to the dressing so don’t omit it. There are recipes online for substitutes so if you don’t have any on hand do look for an appropriate substitute.

DRESS & COMBINE

Dress the salad by pouring the Columbia Salad dressing over the salad and tossing thoroughly to coat everything really well.

SERVE

Top with shredded Romano cheese and toss once more before serving.

LOVE IT? PIN IT!

I bet you can’t wait to make this salad! Don’t forget where you found the recipe! Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board before you go!

Tips & Tricks to Making the BEST 1905 Salad

Pour dressing over the salad just before you are going to serve it. If possible, only pour dressing over the salad that is going to be served right away. If there are leftovers it is best to store them without dressing.

Make sure the iceberg lettuce or whichever salad greens you are using are patted dry after washing them before mixing them with the other ingredients.

Make sure the julienned ham and cheese are bite-sized pieces as it is much easier to eat this way.

How to Store Columbia 1905 Salad

This 1905 Columbia salad will keep for a few days in the fridge. For best results, store undressed salad; once you put the dressing on it, it will get soggy if kept in the fridge for a few days.

More Recipes to LOVE

If you are a big fan of salads and/or pimento-stuffed olives – here are so more of my favorite recipes for you to try!

• BLT Pasta Salad (pictured above)
• Olive Dip (old fashioned stuffed celery dip)
• Muffuletta Sandwiches
• Grilled Chicken Waldorf Salad
• Dirty Vodka Martini
• Italian Raw Veggie Salad
• See ALL of my Salad Recipes

I hope that this Columbia 1905 Salad go straight to the top of your favorite recipes! Here is the ful printable recipe: