I was on hand for the Grand Opening and WCCC ribbon cutting at (Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel participating restaurant) Wok Chi (28152 Paseo Dr., in the Shops at Wiregrass mall) on Mar. 10, at the amazing new information center for the Avalon Park West (APW) community off S.R. 54, and at the Meraki Aesthetic Center (26907 Foggy Creek Rd., off S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel) on Mar. 16.
For my money, Wok Chi is now the best Chinese restaurant in Wesley Chapel. Fresh, crisp veggies and tasty chicken, pork, beef and seafood are sautéed with white, brown or fried rice, whole wheat or egg noodles or even quinoa while you wait and topped with some excellent sauces (my favorites so far are the spicy Sichuan and kung pao sauces) and the dim sum also is pretty great. My favorites so far are the crispy chicken and veggie spring rolls. You can even enjoy two kinds of free, delicious hot tea, as well as purchase soft drinks, to go with your meal.
Please tell GM Mark Pasquale that you’re a friend of mine and, if you just happen to have a shellfish allergy like I do, so he can cook your food in a separate, clean wok.
For more info, call Wok Chi at 862-2315 or visit WokChi.com.
I can’t wait for the new sections of APW to open. If you’ve driven past the building on S.R. 54 shown in the top photo above, you may have wondered what it was. Well, it’s a representation of the new multi-family community with businesses on the bottom floor of the buildings (some call it neo-traditional) to be built from where the information currently sits to where it will meet up with the existing homes in APW, about a mile west of the center. APW is part of the New River Township Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which is approved for 4,800 residential units and 700,000 square feet of commercial uses. One of the new sections of the community that is certain to attract a lot of attention to APW is K-12 charter school that should begin building shortly. We’ll keep you posted as things start to heat up.
The Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) continues to cut ribbons at new businesses in both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, including at the new and very cool Imagine Escape Games, located at 2830 E. Bearss Ave., in the Palms Connection plaza (next to PJ Dolan’s Irish Pub).
I will say that Imagine Escape Games was not what I expected — I thought it was going to be some sort of video arcade or maybe a place that sells video or role-playing games.
Wrong! Imagine Escape Games is the ultimate team-building exercise as you are (gulp) locked behind a gate and have to use clues and teamwork to escape from those locked cells.
If you’re claustrophobic, you may not want to try it, but if not, there currently are two rooms available for escape as you’re reading this. The team I was on of mainly WCCC members escaped the first challenge in a little more than 10 minutes, almost five minutes sooner than our allotted 15 minutes.
For more info, visit ImagineEscape.com or call 693-BOOK (2665), and please tell them the Neighborhood News sent you, even though I didn’t have a pic to show you because I was part of the game.
And for the full upcoming WCCC schedule of ribbon cutings and business events, visit WesleyChapelChamber.com
Now that Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) has completed its recent major expansion, it’s growing outside of Wesley Chapel, too.
The hospital has broken ground on an off-site emergency room on S.R. 54, just east of the Suncoast Pkwy. in Land O’ Lakes.
The building will be 18,000 sq. ft., with 24 beds, and will offer full-service emergency room care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including on-site laboratory and imaging services, such X-ray, ultrasound & CT scan. The new ER will be staffed with Board-certified emergency medicine physicians and nurses who specialize in emergency care.
“This emergency room facility will provide the Central Pasco community with greater access to comprehensive emergency care,” said Denyse Bales-Chubb, president and CEO of Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel. “We recently completed a significant expansion at (FHWC) and we continue to add physicians and services to meet the medical needs of our growing community.”
The ER is expected to be open in late 2017 or early 2018. A groundbreaking ceremony was held April 6.
Jenny, Sasha, Astrid & Gina enjoy a day at Cabana Spas on S.R. 56, receiving just some of the offerings available to the spa’s clientele to help them “Relax, Refresh & Renew!”
When chaos and stress are running up the score in the game of life, Cabana Spas offers a place to call a personal time out.
Located in the Seven Oaks Plaza on S.R. 56, Cabana Spas promotes itself as a place to, “Relax, Refresh & Renew.”
“Every one of our services fulfills at least one of those categories,” says Glen Harrod, who co-owns Cabana Spas with his wife, Jill.
Services available at Cabana Spas include hydro massage, oxygen therapy, facial LED therapy, an infrared sauna for multiple people, teeth whitening and more.
The rejuvenation begins as soon as a customer steps through the door, leaving the hustle and bustle of 21st century Wesley Chapel far behind. Within, it’s a “New Age” atmosphere at Cabana Spas, according to MacKenzie Carr, area manager of Glill (“It’s a combination of our names, Glen and Jill,” says Glen), Inc., parent company of the business “The energy of the store is relaxing,” Carr says. “You’re not really walking into a business; you’re walking into our home.”
At Cabana Spas, the concierge service is more like hospitable pampering.
“We want to make sure our clients are taken care of and we give them the royal treatment” says Carr, who explains that first-time customers begin their Cabana Spa experience with a conversation about what they want to achieve.
“We’re going to sit down with a client and have a consultation with them and ask them, ‘Do you want to relax, do you want to refresh, or do you want to renew?’”
A Unique Menu Of Services
Options are selected from Cabana Spa’s menu of services and treatments based on desired outcomes, such as relieving muscle tension or improving skin conditions.
“We’re big on making our customers feel good about themselves internally and externally,” says Carr. “We have a lot of services that take care of the skin and the hydro massage that makes you feel good on the inside.”
Services are provided in a self-directed manner, meaning clients generally apply treatments such as teeth whitening and facial masks themselves after receiving instruction from a Cabana Spas team member. Likewise with services such as the hydro massage, a deep-tissue stimulation delivered via a table with a mattress-like top that transmits energy from pulsating jets of water to a client’s body.
MacKenzie Carr and Tiarra Irish-Phillips will make sure you have all of the information you need before you try any of the relaxing and refreshing therapies at Cabana Spas, including (right), the FitBomb Infrared Sauna, where 2-3 people can relax or even enjoy an workout together.
One service not available at Cabana Spas is indoor tanning (although that is available nearby, at Glen and Jill’s South Beach Tanning Company location on Bruce B. Downs Blvd., in the SuperTarget-anchored Northwood Plaza; see below), Cabana Spas does harness the reputed cosmetic power of light in the forms of facial LED therapy, which uses intense illumination from different colored lights as treatment.
According to Wesley Chapel store manager Tiarra Irish-Phillips, each of four different colors used in the LED light therapy at Cabana Spas has specific benefits.
“Blue light is going to kill bacteria, so it’s really good for acne-prone skin,’’ she says. “Red light is going to help with scarring and fine lines or wrinkles and the green light is really good for oily or sensitive skin and blackheads. The yellow light has a relaxing effect and it’s really good for sunburn on the face.”
The hydration station is another popular service with Cabana Spas’ clients. It’s an open-ended capsule that mists the body with steam, which can include ingredients such as an aloe-based moisturizer.
“It’s like a steam bath from the neck down and is really good for hydrating the skin,” says Irish-Phillips.
Getting the benefits of a dry sauna has typically meant enduring not only heat, but the tedium of inactivity during a sweat session. That is not the case at Cabana Spas, which features an infrared-heated space called the FitBomb. It is cozy in size, with a capacity for 2-3 people, but is configured so customers can use their session to exercise, including resistance training with built-in D-ring fixtures, or relaxing by watching videos on a monitor inside the FitBomb.
The Oxygen Bar — It’s A Social Thing
A session at Cabana Spas can be breathtaking, and for clients who want to top off their lungs with some flavored oxygen, the members-only Cabana Room features an oxygen bar.
Customers partake of the life-giving gas through disposable “nose-hose” masks, that allow for drinking beverages such as coffee or water and having conversations. Carr says the atmosphere often becomes festive and has generated the idea of a Cabana Bash, whereby customers can rent out the facility to have a private oxygen party for a few hours after 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
It is popular with customers who gather in the Cabana Room to inhale the fragrant gas and often bond over the experience, perhaps comparing the merits of berry over mint and otherwise getting acquainted. It is a popular feature at “high-end Las Vegas casinos” according to Carr.
“It’s a really good place for members to get to know other members,” says Irish-Phillips. “They’ll just start talking and build up a friendship.”
Cabana Spas has been open for about eight months, with its official Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting occurring in January.
The Harrods often partner with other Wesley Chapel businesses to promote their shopping center oasis, and that’s how Astrid Jean-Paul discovered it.
She’s a busy executive who runs the J&M Consulting Firm in New Tampa, and the complimentary certificate she received from Mercedes Benz of Wesley Chapel for being a loyal customer has also now made her a loyal customer of Cabana Spas.
“I made an appointment not knowing what to expect, thinking deep tissue massage, hot rocks, etc…,” says Jean-Paul. “I was in another world of innovation, technology, deep muscle detoxification, and so many more surprises. I now continuously invite my dear friends and family to experience this phenomenon of alternative health and beauty.”
Cabana Spas’ services are available as individual sessions or as part of a monthly membership. Jill says they want to offer flexible access to meet the lifestyle needs of as many people as possible, whether they have 30 minutes or three hours available to indulge themselves.
“We’re affordable to your budget and also convenient because some people just want to run in on their lunch hour for one service or enjoy the oxygen bar,” she says.
The Harrods are true lifestyle entrepreneurs, as they also operate three South Beach Tanning Company franchises (including the aforementioned one in Wesley Chapel), a LaVida Massage franchise in Carrollwood, and expect to open their second Cabana Spas location in the Van Dyke Commons shopping center on N. Dale Mabry Hwy. in Lutz around the time this issue reaches your mailbox.
While they take pride in serving the unique needs of each of their businesses’ customers, Cabana Spas occupies a special place in the Harrods’ entrepreneurial hearts.
“With Cabana Spas, there’s nobody else doing this,” says Glen. “It’s building a brand based upon personal services at a great value. Our membership costs less than you would typically spend on one service at a resort-style spa.”
Jill sums it all up by saying, “Cabana Spas is truly our own unique brand.”
Cabana Spas in Wesley Chapel is located at 27607 SR 56. It is openMon.-Thur., 8 a.m.-9 p.m., 8 a.m.-7 p.m. on Fri. and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sat. and Sun. For more information, call 991-4433 or visit CabanaSpas.com. You also can get timely updates about special offers and events by searching “Cabana Spas-Wesley Chapel” on Facebook.
I can’t wait for the new sections of APW to open. If you’ve driven past the building on S.R. 54 shown in the top photo above, you may have wondered what it was. Well, it’s a representation of the new multi-family community with businesses on the bottom floor of the buildings (some call it neo-traditional) to be built from where the information currently sits to where it will meet up with the existing homes in APW, about a mile west of the center. APW is part of the New River Township Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which is approved for 4,800 residential units and 700,000 square feet of commercial uses. One of the new sections of the community that is certain to attract a lot of attention to APW is K-12 charter school that should begin building shortly. We’ll keep you posted as things start to heat up.
