Wok Chi Brings Its Unique Chinese Concept To The Shops At Wiregrass

As a native New Yorker, it’s been a major challege for me to find what I would call great Chinese food anywhere in the Tampa Bay area, much less here in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel.

Therefore, I’m not going to try to convince you that the new (it opened in February) Wok Chi, located in the Shops at Wiregrass mall, is the best Chinese food I’ve ever tasted or that it’s authentic New York style, even though this hip, young five-location chain now has two stores in the Big Apple (as well as the original, year-old location in Brandon).

What Wok Chi is, however, is delicious, fresh and with something of a Zen vibe, with philosophical (pink) fortune cookies, free tea (because it is good for your “chi” or life force, also spelled “qi”), according to the signs on the walls in this fast, casual, healthy concept eatery.

The primary focus at Wok Chi is that you get to customize your meal the way you want it. “Our wok masters craft the meal you choose from scratch,” boasts the “About” section at WokChi.com. And, it’s true. Plus, if you’re a wok-sautéed veggie lover like I am, Wok Chi is truly paradise.

Whether you choose the regular- (starting at just $8.45 for skinless chicken breast, up to $10.95 for the regular-size shrimp) or large-size ($15.95-$20.95) stir-fry, you get to choose your meat (there’s also pork loin, flank steak, organic firm tofu and veggie-only options), up to three of the amazing selection of veggies (see below), as well as anything from plain white rice to fried brown rice, quinoa, egg or wheat noodles and even kale beds for your “base,” plus your favorite of Wok Chi’s nice variety of sauces (all without artificial ingredients or MSG, which another sign on the restaurant’s wall says, “disrupts our chi”).

My favorite sauces are the spicy Szechwan and Kung Pao (the latter has peanuts), but there are several other sauces, ranging from sweet & sour and black bean to sesame ginger and “General-Not-So-Tso’s” sauces, so you can pick your own favorites.

But, the veggies are what really sold me on Wok Chi and, while they’re not all what you’d call “traditional” Chinese vegetables (for example, no Napa cabbage or water chestnuts), you can choose from zucchini, squash, green beans, snow pea pods, onions, bell peppers, carrots, celery, broccoli, kale and baby bok choy. Best of all, Wok Chi does add different veggies seasonally — for example, sugar snap peas were available on my most recent visit.

And, these veggies are so green and beautiful and they sautée up so perfectly in the hands of Wok Chi’s wok masters (like Wiregrass location general manager Jeremy Vazquez, pictured at this year’s Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, which was held at Florida Hospital Center Ice only a month or so after Wok Chi opened here, on the next page) that once you find the sauce that suits you best, you’ll be hooked, too.

Note-I’ve mentioned many times in these pages that I have a major shellfish allergy, especially to shrimp, so I was a little concerned about the fact that Wok Chi’s chefs sautée shrimp in the same woks with the other ingredients, which can be enough for me to get my reaction without even eating any shrimp. Since the day this location opened, however, all I’ve ever had to do was mention that fact to Jeremy or whoever was cooking my food, so they always start with a thoroughly clean wok to do everything they can to prevent such contaminations. And, eight or nine visits later, I’ve yet to have my reaction to anything I’ve ever eaten at Work Chi. 

What About Dim Sum?

Considering that the woks are the stars of the show at Wok Chi, I am happy to tell you that I also love the dim sum (appetizers). My favorites are the chicken spring rolls (I’ve yet to try the duck confit spring rolls, but they sound awesome), the spicy pork & chive and chicken & chipotle pot sticker dumplings (served with an excellent sweet chile sauce) and especially, the Chi-licious pork spare ribs. They usually come with the black bean sauce, but try ‘em Gary’s way — with the spicy Szechwan sauce — and you’ll thank me.

And, if you’re up for something a little different, try the non-traditional pork sliders. I forgot to ask what the “bread” portion of the sliders is made out of (it looks a little like a soft taco shell, but it’s different), but the pork is very tasty, as is the unique, creamy sauce served on top of the sliders.

Also popular at Wok Chi, although I’ve yet to try them, are three varieties of summer rolls, — large-burrito-sized rolls that are filled with lump (real) crab, shrimp or avocado and basil. I’ve also yet to try the hot & sour soup, although it looks very good, too.

Wok Chi also features not only one of those magical Coca-Cola “freestyle” soda fountains filled with every possible soft drink flavor you can imagine mixed together, but also the aforementioned free, hot tea, with two different (and rotating) flavors always available. I’ve enjoyed the pineapple-coconut, mint basil and even jasmine green tea to date and look forward to trying other flavors soon. Other organic teas are available for sale, but taste the free stuff first.

I’m even impressed with Wok Chi’s new honey cruller dessert and creamy vanilla ice cream, a true bargain at just $1.

Wok Chi also has a Loyalty Club, so you (and I) can earn rewards points every time you dine there. Wok Chi also offers delivery of your food through GrubHub, Mobile Meals and Uber Eats.

Fast, fun and delicious make for a really nice combination at Wok Chi!

  Wok Chi of Wesley Chapel is located at 28152 Paseo Dr., in the Shops at Wiregrass. Or, visit 2420 W. Brandon Blvd. in the Regency Square shopping center in Brandon. For info, call (813) 862-2315 or visit WokChi.com.

Hailey’s Voice of Hope Looks To Shine A Light

For Lisa Acierno, coping with the loss of her daughter is still a daily struggle.

“I’m trying every day to get through the day,” she says.

Hailey, who was a 17-year-old student at Wharton High, went missing from her Arbor Greene home on March 28.

A Facebook page was launched, called “Find Hailey Acierno,” and hundreds of people joined. They shared encouragement, ideas and tips. They offered love and support to Hailey’s family in a time of uncertainty.

They also shared information about when searches for Hailey were being organized. Many even showed up to comb Flatwoods Park to look for her.

On April 7, Lisa’s worst fears came true. After those volunteers, law enforcement and other agencies had spent days searching, Hailey’s body was found.

The Facebook group’s name was changed to “In Memory of Hailey Acierno,” and those same members again offered encouragement, support and love.

They also asked, “What can we do?”

The number of people joining the page, reaching out to the family and offering to help continued to grow.

The family of Hailey Acierno has launched a nonprofit foundation, Hailey’s Voice of Hope, online at HaileysVoice.com, where you can support awareness and services for those who struggle with mental health by purchasing items (pictured) or volunteering your time.

In her grief, Lisa began to dream of honoring Hailey by making a difference for those people who struggle with mental illness, as her daughter did.

“Let’s get rid of the stigma,” Lisa says. “During the search for Hailey, we were afraid of people’s opinions if we said what medications she was on, but that’s got to quit. People who are mentally ill didn’t do anything to choose this any more than someone with cancer or diabetes chooses those illnesses. They don’t want it.”

Lisa decided to start a foundation. She, her husband Chris, and adult sons Ryan and Josh make up the foundation’s board. They’ve applied for 501c3 status to be recognized as a registered nonprofit organization.

They reached out to the Facebook group to name the foundation, and they have changed the name once more. It’s now “Hailey’s Voice of Hope.”

Right now, Lisa says she doesn’t know exactly what her foundation intends to accomplish. She knows she wants to do something to act on the hundreds of offers of help that people continue to give her.

Lisa says changes are needed. For example, she says mental health services in our area aren’t available the way they should be.

“A perfect example was two years ago, when Hailey was being discharged from a residential program because insurance said she no longer needed to be there,” Lisa says. “They would pay for a partial outpatient program, but there isn’t one in Hillsborough County. She was basically kicked out of a residential facility and sent to something that didn’t exist.”

Volunteer Meeting Successful

Lisa organized a volunteer meeting, asking the supporters from her Facebook page — and the rest of the community — to show up for a town-hall type gathering on Saturday, August 12, at the Arbor Greene clubhouse off Cross Creek Blvd., giving everyone (even those who aren’t Arbor Greene residents) an opportunity to discuss how to raise money for the foundation, and what people can do to support needed mental health services in our community. 

She’s thinking of starting a letter-writing campaign to the Florida legislature. With 3,500 members on the Facebook page, maybe one of those volunteers could craft a letter. If Lisa posts a request to the Hailey’s Voice of Hope Facebook page, she hopes that maybe 500 or 1,000 people would copy that letter and send it, and get some attention for the cause.

Or, maybe the foundation could organize something she calls “Hailey’s Ride,” to help families get their children to available services, which is sometimes impossible for working parents who would need to take hours off from work to leave, pick up their kids, take them where they need to go, drop them off back at home or school, and go back to work.

Lisa is thinking even bigger, too.

“My ultimate dream is ‘Hailey’s House,’” Lisa says. “Somewhere kids could go after school, not to focus on their problems, but how to help them — maybe through art or music therapy — so they are learning coping skills.”

While she knows it’s a really big goal and that it ultimately might not happen, she’s not afraid to dream it.

“I keep saying that MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) was one started by one mad mother, the Susan G. Komen Foundation was started by one mad sister, and I’m a mad mom right now,” Lisa says. “It’s going to take a village to make this happen. It shouldn’t take something like this to get everyone’s attention. Hailey’s story was front page news because she was missing for so long, but there are so many families who are going through this who don’t get that kind of attention.”

She says that every day she wonders what more she could have done to help her daughter.

“Right now, we have a lot of support and so many people offering to volunteer,” Lisa says. “I just can’t sit back and do nothing.”

For more information about the foundation and its efforts, join the Facebook group, “Hailey’s Voice of Hope” or visit HaileysVoice.com.

New Tampa’s Rotary Clubs Both Step Up Their ‘Service Above Self’

New Tampa (Breakfast) Rotary president Karen Frashier, with firefighters at Station No. 20 on BBD Blvd. in Tampa Palms.

Years before I helped charter the New Tampa Noon Rotary Club — which meets every Wednesday at noon in Mulligan’s Irish Pub in the Pebble Creek Golf Club — the first Rotary Club meetings I ever attended were on Fridays at 7 a.m., in Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club (TPGCC).

I may not have been at the first meeting of the original Rotary Club of New Tampa (I may also refer to it as the NT Breakfast Rotary) which, more than 20 years later, still meets Fridays at 7 a.m. at TPGCC, but I definitely attended multiple meetings of the club that first year, when it became (and still holds the record) the largest Rotary Club ever chartered in the southeastern U.S., with more than 60 charter members.

Not only were these people tremendously energetic (e.g., they were singing songs from the Rotary Songbook, aka, “Songs From the Year of the Flood,” at 7 a.m., no less, which was not particularly appealing to me) and dedicated to Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self,” it also brought in amazing guest speakers who provided me with many of my biggest news stories back when there was a lot less news to write about that wasn’t road- or school- or development-related.

Rotary District 6890 Governor Tom Wagner (l.) and New Tampa Noon Rotary president Vinnie Kudva.

About a dozen years ago, I helped bring together a group of like-minded people who also wanted to be Rotarians — and who were more available for a lunch-time weekly meeting — at the old Circles New Tampa Bistro in Pebble Creek. It was a much smaller group — I think we chartered with 18-20 members — but we became like a new family — and quite a few of the original club members (and several who joined within the first couple of years) are still members today.

Rotary International, the parent organization which has all but eradicated polio from the world (with only eight new cases announced in 2016, all in Pakistan and Afghanistan), is the largest service organization on Earth, with tens of thousands of clubs and more than 1.2 million members worldwide.

Those numbers give local Rotary clubs, which are grouped together in districts, a lot of ability to serve not only their local communities, but to do service projects around the world.

Sophia Contino and Pasco Sheriff’s Deputies receive a donation from Frashier and New Tampa Rotary past president Brice Wolford.

Despite their differences in size, both clubs truly embody the spirit of Rotary. The Breakfast Rotary’s sheer numbers (with around 70 members today) allow the club to take on major service projects — like building a playground at Rotary’s Camp Florida in Brandon, humanitarian trips to Costa Rica and Honduras, helping to put on the Wiregrass Wobble Turkey Trot 5K race and taking over as the host organization for the rejuvenated Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel — and donating tens of thousands of dollars per year.

Although I mentioned in our last issue that the Breakfast Rotary honored me for helping make sure the Taste was a success this year, I neglected to tell you that on June 30 (the day I got engaged), the club donated more than $44,000 to 23 different nonprofit organizations, everything from the New Tampa Relay for Life and the March of Dimes to Sophia’s Lemonade Stand to benefit the Pasco Sheriff’s Charities, Inc. As outgoing president Brice Wolford handed the gavel over to 2017-18 president and 2017 Taste event chair Karen Frashier, New Tampa’s original Rotary Club is still vibrant and will continue to be ingrained in the fabric of the New Tampa community.

For the complete list of organizations the club helped this year and more information, please visit NewTampaRotary.org. 

But, before you make the assumption that small cannot be mighty, consider this: the NT Noon Rotary Club won the District 6890 Membership award by growing from fewer than 20 to  26 members, and has not only hosted another successful annual bike ride through Flatwoods Park, but also been able to provide international service projects in 2017-18 club president Belvai “Vinnie” Kudva’s native India, Nepal and Kenya.

Many of our club members, myself included, couldn’t understand how we could do so much good with such a small club, but current District Governor Tom Wagner explained when he visited our Aug. 2 meeting that Vinnie, “knows more about how to access Global and Local District grant money from the Rotary Foundation in order to fund important service projects than just about anyone.” Small but mighty, indeed.

For more information about the New Tampa Noon Rotary, search “New Tampa Noon Rotary” on Facebook. 

City’s 2018 Budget Includes NT Rec Center Upgrade & More

Thousands are on waiting lists for the New Tampa Recreation Center’s dance, acrobatic and sports readiness programs, like the one pictured, a problem that could be alleviated with the $1.95 million dedicated to expansion in Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s proposed budget for 2017-18.

Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn has proposed a $972.4 million budget for fiscal year 2018 (which begins Oct. 1) that will result in some increased taxes, but it is a budget that also had some good news for local residents.

Buckhorn’s 2018 budget proposal includes money for a new fire station located off County Line Rd. near Grand Hampton, the expansion of the New Tampa Recreation Center in Tampa Palms, design funding for a future “sensory friendly” park behind the BJ’s Wholesale Club store in Tampa Palms and funds to improve both water pressure and code enforcement in the area.

“Overall, there are some good things in there for New Tampa, so I think we did well,’’ says Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, the Hunter’s Green resident who represents District 7, which includes New Tampa, Terrace Park, Forest Hills and the University area. “Not to say we worked hard for it…but we worked hard for it.”

Buckhorn’s budget proposes a property tax increase for the first time since 1989, as he is asking to raise the city’s millage rate 9/10ths of a percentage point from 5.7326 to 6.6326 (or $6.63 for every $1,000 of taxable property).

“The day of reckoning has come,” says Mayor Buckhorn, a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative whose last term (due to term limits) as mayor ends in 2019, said. “I don’t like it any more than you do.”

For a home assessed at $168,829, which is the average in all of District 7, the property tax increase for homeowners will be $142.55 a year.

The increase for a home assessed at $261,500, which according to Zillow.com is the median home value for New Tampa, will be $235.35 a year, or $19.61 a month.

The property tax revenues are expected to produce $40 million in additional annual revenue for the city.

However, the city faces a $14-million shortfall this year and will have to soon start making $13-million-per-year debt payments on a 20-year-old public safety bond.

“Much of what we face today is not of our making,” Buckhorn says, “but the solutions will be.”

A ballot measure approved by the Florida Legislature, however, to increase homestead exemptions from $50,000 to $75,000 would reduce a property’s taxable value, saving the homeowner money but costing the city more than $5 million a year.

“In the 30 years I have been doing this (working in government), I have never seen the attack on local governments that I have seen this (legislative) session,” Buckhorn says. “This Legislature is hell-bent on doing whatever they can to limit local government and hamstringing us.”

However, without the millage rate increase, it is unlikely that all of the projects that will benefit New Tampa could go forward.

The proposed budget has $1.9 million earmarked for expanding the New Tampa Recreation Center, which is one of only two facilities in the city that is home to the highly touted dance, acrobatics and sports readiness program (the other is the Wayne Papy Athletic Center in Seminole Heights).

But, there currently is not enough room or staff to accommodate everyone.

The program at the NT Rec Center has grown from 59 participants in 2008 to more than 1,200 today, but that’s not even half of the people who want to participate — roughly 2,200 are on a waiting list.

This is the third time a budget proposal has had money in it for Rec Center expansion.

Last year’s budget had $3 million allocated to expansion, before it was amended and the money was redirected to fixing the Cuscaden Pool in Ybor City.

But, Viera said last year’s experience — which left a sour taste in the mouths of many in New Tampa — has created a new awareness of the budget process, emboldened by town halls he has been hosting as well as the recently formed New Tampa Council, which consists of representatives from most of New Tampa’s neighborhoods.

“New Tampa has got to lobby and push it through because you know what happened last year,’’ Viera said. “You have one vote with me, but you need four (of seven Council member votes).”

An additional $1.4 million of community investment taxes will be budgeted to complete the construction of Fire Station No. 23 (above), which will be located in the Grand Hampton/Grand Colony area off County Line Rd.

It will be the fourth fire station in the New Tampa area, along with fire stations 20 (on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Tampa Palms), 21 (just east of BBD on Cross Creek Blvd.) and 22 (on Cross Creek Blvd. between Cory Lake Isles and Morris Bridge Rd.).

“Public safety is issue no. 1 when you look at what government’s job is,’’ Viera says. “Just look at the city’s budget expenditures, where half of it ($243.7 million of $399.3 million) goes to police and fire.”

The station will house 39 firefighters (many of whom will come from the city’s proposed 48 new Fire Rescue personnel city-wide), an engine company, a truck company and a rescue unit.

The new station also will be home to a new District Fire Chief, who will coordinate responses between the other New Tampa fire stations.

The addition of Fire Station No. 23 is seen as an important safety measure in a sprawling area that is still growing and still lacks easy emergency access to many of the communities. It also will take some of the pressure off the other locations.

A fifth Fire Station, No. 24, was announced last year for the K-Bar Ranch area, but won’t be built until at least 2021.

The proposed 2018 budge also includes $90,000 for a study and design of a “sensory-friendly” park on the land behind BJs, which will be developed in conjunction with the University of South Florida (See story, right).

The budget proposal by Buckhorn was met with approval by members of the New Tampa Council, which Viera formed to help lobby the city on the needs of the New Tampa community.

New Tampa Council members Maggie Wilson, Warren Dixon, Brian Koerber and Tracy Falkowitz, all Tampa Palms residents, attended the budget presentation with Viera.

The city will hold a pair of public hearings on the proposed budget and tax rate on Weds., Sept. 13 & 26, at 5:01 p.m., in the City Council chambers on the third floor of Old City Hall at 315 E. Kennedy Blvd.