Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival Returns To District Park October 21!

Jazz Tyme Productions is proud to announce that the Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival will return to the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. on Saturday, October 21, noon-8 p.m. (File photo from 2016)

Although it always features a little more than “just” great jazz, it’s hard not to have a soft spot for the Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival, which returns to the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. (two miles north of S.R. 54) on Saturday, October 21, noon-8 p.m.

Event organizer and promoter Tim Hancock of Jazz Tyme Productions has previously survived events where the heat index seemed to reach 120 degrees and one cancelled by torrential rain as the headliner hit the stage.

But, through it all, Hancock has brought great music, some excellent food and other vendors together for all-day shows that are appropriate for families but still allows adults to enjoy adult music and to a location only 15 minutes or so north of the Hillsborough/Pasco county line.

Bring your lawn chairs and/or blankets and grab the kids for some fun activities just for them.

This year’s Jazz Festival sponsors include the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce, Rubenstein Law, DeSigns Signs & Printing, Serenity Village Insurance & Consulting, Kaptain Krab Seafood, Jazz Tyme Productions and the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News.

Food vendors already announced for this year include JB’s Sweet Addictions, Anthony & Son Catering, Momma’s Empanadas, The Tea Jug, T-Momma Catering & Kaptain Krab Seafood.

For more info about the latest Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival, visit JazzTymeProductions.com.

Simply Events Presents The WC Fall Festival At The Grove Oct. 28-29!

Presented by Simply Events, the Wesley Chapel Fall Festival Returns to The Grove shopping center off Oakley Blvd., Saturday-Sunday, October 28-29.

So, of course, the 13th annual Wesley Chapel Fall Festival has to be held between Friday the 13th and Halloween, the two spookiest nights of 2017.

To that end, on Saturday & Sunday, October 28-29, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. both days, this will be the second year that Simply Events — a Pinellas County-based local event management company — will put on the free (to attend) Fall Festival, after wowing thousands of not only Wesley Chapel but also surrounding-area locals last year, the first time the Fall Festival wasn’t put on by the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC), which is a sponsor again this year.

“It was a great event last year and we expect it will be even bigger and better this time around,” says Simply Events’ Sonya Bradley.

This time, attendees can participate in a Pet Parade & Costume Contest, the Mr. & Ms. Pumpkin Pageant, a new Trunk or Treat event (on Saturday at 4 p.m.) and the Fall Festival Carnival until 10 p.m. both nights.

There’ll be live music, great fair-style food & beverages for sale, arts & crafts, a Halloween celebration & so much more.

For more information, contact Simply Events at (727) 674-1464 or online at SimplyEventsFL.com.

Have You Tried Oggi Italian?

I’m not the kind of guy to take it lightly when a delicious new restaurant opens anywhere near our area, but with limited “real” Italian food options in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel, I was really excited to find a great, new classic Italian restaurant located, of all places, at 214 E. Bearss Ave. at N. Florida Ave., not exactly a hub for sit-down restaurants.

But, the new, second location of Oggi Italian — the other is on Davis Islands — has everything from the most delicious tossed salad to a variety of savory roasted chicken dishes and, best of all for those of us who crave great pasta, the best al dentĂ© penne pasta you’ll find for miles around.

Owner Joe DeBartolo previously owned Fettuccine Street restaurant on Fletcher Ave., but has created a stir in South Tampa with the Davis Islands location of Oggi and I hope to do the same for his Bearss Ave. location, which is only a 10- or 15-minute drive from the southern tip of Tampa Palms.

The photo is the “Specialita della Casa” at Oggi, the pollo margherita, which is pounded-thin-and-breaded chicken breast, topped with house-made mozzarella, marinara, fresh basil and roasted pomodori tomatoes, served on a bed of  truly al dentĂ© mini-penne pasta that I could eat every day if I had to. It’s a delightfully different take on chicken parmigiana (which also is available) that should not be missed.

Oggi has a somewhat limited menu, but even the fresh Italian bread and that amazing house salad served with every entrĂ©e by themselves are worth a short drive to check it out — and don’t forget to tell Joe (a New Tampa resident) and his staff that you read about them in the Neighborhood News!.

And, Oggi also has craft beers on draft and a small selection of outstanding wines at very fair prices, with a daily Happy Hour from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. For more information, visit OggiTampa.com or call (813) 908-7778.

Small Business Administration Provides Hurricane Assistance Loans

New Tampa and Wesley Chapel residents whose homes, possessions or businesses suffered damage or loss as a result of Hurricane Irma may be surprised that the Small Business Administration (SBA) can help them get back in business or help them be made whole again.

The SBA is providing assistance with low-interest disaster loans for Florida residents and businesses in the 48 counties covered by U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s disaster declaration covering areas affected by Hurricane Irma. Hillsborough and Pasco are among the Florida counties eligible for federal assistance.

Homeowners can apply for low-interest loans up to $200,000 to repair or replace damage to their primary residence and along with renters, can apply for up to $40,000 to cover personal property, including vehicles. SBA homeowner disaster loan rates are advertised as being as low as 1.75 percent with terms up to 30 years.

Help For Businesses, Too

When it comes to assisting businesses and private nonprofit organizations of any size, the SBA disaster loans address not only physical damage to assets such as real estate, infrastructure and inventory, but economic loss as well. Owners can apply for up to $2 million for physical loss and $2 million to cover working capital.

Those loans, called Economic Injury Disaster Loans, are available even if no physical property damage has occurred.

The SBA is advertising loan rates as low as 3.305 percent for businesses and as low as 2.5 percent for non-profit organizations.

The SBA may not be the first place people might think of for homeowner or renter disaster assistance, so public affairs specialists like Mary Gipson and Laura Wages have been dispatched from the agency’s Disaster Assistance Field Operations Office in Atlanta to spread the word about the resource through local media, including a recent stop at the Neighborhood News office.

Gipson says providing disaster assistance is part of the job. “In times of presidential or other federal agency-declared disaster, we make loans to businesses of all sizes, nonprofit organizations, homeowners and renters,” she says.

Applications for physical property damage loans need to be filed by Thursday, November 9, and the deadline to return economic injury applications is June 11, 2018.

According to Gipson, if you think you have a claim, apply sooner, not later.

“Do not delay when completing your SBA application,” she says.

The SBA loaned $40,900 in Tampa in 2016, with no reported loans in Wesley Chapel, according to data on its website, sba.gov, where you can find more information and apply online.

You can call (800) 659-2955 (or {800} 877-8339 (for deaf and hard of hearing applicants) or call Mary at (202) 579-3172.

If you prefer to do business in person, there is an SBA Disaster Recovery Center serving Hillsborough and Pasco county residents 36 minutes south of County Line Rd. and Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.,  at Hillsborough Community College at the Regent (6437 Watson Rd. in Riverview). It is open daily from 8 a.m. — 8 p.m., according to the SBA website. Applicants can get assistance filling out the form and have their application reviewed before submitting it.

Cappy’s Pizzeria Owner Is Happy To Focus On Pizza, Salads & Calzones!

EVEN THOUGH I keep asking him to add some more menu items, Harold Hasselbeck, the owner of the Cappy’s Pizzeria in the City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center, says he’d rather keep doing what he does well than bring on additional menu items and spread himself and his small, but happy staff too thin.

OK, I get it, especially when everytime I take the office to Cappy’s, everyone is still happy, despite the comparatively small menu selection. Although the laminated menus themselves feature way-cool album covers on one side and the menu on the other, which fits well with the super-funky dĂ©cor and vibe at all four Cappy’s locations (Seminole Heights, South Tampa and Riverview are the others).

In previous reviews of Cappy’s, I’ve always explained that even though this uniquely decorated, full-service dine-in and carry-out pizzeria serves both thin-crust and deep-dish pizza, it’s a little bit of a misnomer to call Harold’s thin crust “true New York style” or his deep dish pizza “true Chicago style,” but that doesn’t mean that both styles aren’t delicious, because they are.

But, we’ll get back to the pizza in a bit. For starters, Cappy’s only offers cheesebread ($4.25) and breadstix ($3.25, served with a side of a deep-red, thick marinara dipping sauce) and a variety of salads, all available in small sizes from $4.50-$5.50 and large sizes for $7-$8.50. Our favorites at the office are the large Greek salad shown on the next page — which features lots of feta cheese, kalamata olives, pepperoncini and a nice-sized scoop of Cappy’s house-made potato salad, with a slightly sweeter house-made dressing — and the small tossed salad with Cappy’s house-made Italian vinaigrette dressing, which is a perfect appetizer-size salad for two.

Cappy’s also adds feta to its non-traditional Caesar salad and although I’m not the biggest fan of spinach salad myself, Cappy’s has a spinach & goat cheese salad with white raisins, shaved almonds and a house-made honey balsamic vinaigrette that got rave reviews from the couple at the next table on our most recent visit.

Pizzas & Calzones

Cappy’s opens every weekday at 11 a.m. (noon on Saturday & Sunday), and offers great lunch prices, like single NY-style cheese slices for $2.50 and $3 if you want one topping. I’m partial to the sausage and premium meatball toppings (see below) at Cappy’s, but there are almost 30 different toppings available, with veggies like artichoke hearts, banana peppers, carmelized onions and jalapeños to meats like anchovies, bacon and ham and premium toppings also are available.

There are also lunch-sized calzones for just $5, which comes with mozzarella, a side of marinara sauce and two fillings of your choice. You can even add extra fillings for just $1 apiece.

There also are lunch combos such as two one-topping slices or a one-filling, lunch-sized calzone and a fountain drink for just $5.99, or add a mini-salad (smaller than a small) of your choice to your $5.99 combo and the price is just $8.50.

You can order small- or large-size NY-style pizzas (with a truly crispy crust) and small-, medium- or large-size Chicago-style pizzas for lunch or dinner (Cappy’s Tampa Palms stays open until 9 p.m. on Sun.-Thur. and until 10 p.m. on Fri. & Sat.) and in addition to the regular toppings, you can add premium toppings like chicken, goat cheese, feta and sun-dried tomato.

NY-style pizzas start at just $9.00 for a small or $11 for a large, up to $14.50 for the small and $18.50 for the large“Cappy” (with sausage, ham, pepperoni, fresh mushrooms, onions and green peppers). Our office gobbled up the large Cappy (we ordered it without sausage).

Chicago-style pizzas cost the same for a small as the NY-style and the medium deep-dish costs the same as the large NY-style. The large Chicago style starts at $14 for just cheese and we ordered sausage and meatball that even if I wasn’t in training for a four-mile kayak race, I probably still couldn’t have finished more than two filling wedges of at a time.

Cappy’s also offers a nice variety of  beers on draft (I love the Peroni and Fat Tire), plus red and white wine and red and white sangria by the glass, as well as wines by the bottle.

Cappy’s Pizzeria is located at 16019 Tampa Palms Blvd. For coupons worth $3 off a $20 purchase and $5 off a $30 purchase, see the ad  on pg. 41 of our last New Tampa issue. For more information, visit CappysTampaPalms.com or call (813) 512-8947.