Owner Regina McColl is a truly authentic Australian, from Melbourne, but weâre fortunate that she has brought the flavors of her home country to within 10-15 minutes of most New Tampa residents.
The bakery goods are truly unlike anything Iâve had in the Tampa Bay area. Thereâs a square one that looked like it could be chocolate and peanut butter, but is actually caramel inside and itâs absolutely addictive. Sorry that I neglected to take a picture of it, but thereâs no doubt Iâll be back.
Regina McColl
Walkabout, which celebrated its Grand Opening with a May 2 North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon cutting, also serves great food, like the thick-cut prime rib, with mashed potatoes and broccoli shown left. Regina also put out finger foods like yummy traditional meat pies (similar to empanadas), and spinach ricotta feta triangles for the Chamber event. Oh, and of course, thereâs beer and wine, too, mate!
For more info, visit AussieBakeryCafe.com or call (813) 953-1085, and please tell Regina I sent you!
The Man Caveâs Grand Opening
Another great locally-owned business that recently cut a ribbon was The Man Cave Haircuts for Men, which actually celebrated its one-year anniversary on April 1 with a North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon cutting.
For more info, call (813) 574-8405, or visit the-man-cave-haircuts-for-men.business.site and tell Katie and her crew the New Tampa Neighborhood News sent you!
Iâm not going to say that Jamaican cuisine has ever been among my top favorites, but I will say this â as a native New Yorker who has previously sampled some well-known Jamaican restaurants in Manhattan, there are a number of dishes Iâm going to keep going back to the new Hummingbird Jerk House to enjoy.
Owner Patrick Murrel, a Hunterâs Green resident, and his family invite you to sample truly some of the best Jamaican cuisine Iâve had the chance to try, especially in Tampa.
The Hummingbird Jerk House, located in the space previously occupied by Dairy Queen, on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in North Palms Village (next to Oakleyâs Grille), features everything from authentic meat patties to items Iâve previously never (and still havenât) tried, such as cow foot and butter beans (with dumplings) and what is billed on the menu as the Jamaican National Dish called ackee and saltfish.
According to Hummingbirdâs website, Patrick is from the Westmoreland province of Jamaica and grew up in the town of Sav-la-mar, next to Negril. The website says his âmama teach him to cook,â and from the items Iâve sampled so far, Iâd say she taught him well!
The Best Fried Chicken?
Chicken is obviously a staple of Jamaican cuisine, based on the Hummingbird Jerk Houseâs menu. And, not surprisingly, three of my favorite dishes are the jerk chicken, the brown stew chicken and some of the best fried chicken Iâve had at any kind of restaurant in Tampa. The fried chicken is super-crisp, but still tender and served on the bone, with a side of Patrickâs signature and super-tasty brown stew sauce, plus sides like white rice or rice and peas (beans), plantains and veggies, which are usually either sliced carrots or carrots and cabbage. Iâd love to see some additional veggies on the menu, but the sliced carrots are particularly tasty.
Jerk chicken dish.
Lead video editor Gavin Olsen and I both also enjoyed the jerk chicken at Hummingbird Jerk House, although it doesnât have quite as much kick as some jerk chicken Iâve sampled. Even so, it is full of flavor and thereâs always a couple of different hot sauces on the tables, if you need a bigger jolt from your jerk. Thereâs also BBQ and curry chicken on the menu, but I hadnât sampled either at our press time.
Speaking of the brown stew sauce, for those who crave sauce all over their chicken, there is a brown stew chicken on the menu, which is basically similar to the fried chicken but covered with the sauce. The brown stew sauce also is tasty on Patrickâs whole snapper, although heâll warn you that the whole snapper does have bones, so itâs a little bit of work to enjoy this zesty dish.
From what Iâve seen during my multiple visits to the restaurant, the more popular snapper seems to be the escoveitch, which is available bone-in or as a filet (which is likely how I will try it in the future). The snapper is fried and then covered in onions, sliced carrots, scotch bonnet peppers, pepper and vinegar. Thereâs also jerk salmon on the menu, although I donât usually enjoy salmon other than smoked and on a bagel.
Meat patties are a popular item at the Hummingbird Cafe.
I havenât yet sampled the ackee (a Caribbean fruit) and saltfish (cod), but many of the Hummingbird Jerk Houseâs regulars rave about it. I did, however, sample the Japanese coco bread with saltfish, a doughy appetizer which is slightly sweet from coconut milk.
Other Jamaican staples Iâve sampled at the Hummingbird Jerk House include the oxtail and the curry goat.
Iâve never been the biggest curry fan (although Jamaican curry is different than Thai or Indian curry) and I donât go out of my way to eat goat, but I really enjoyed the oxtail. It is âstewed downâ with Jamaican herbs and butter beans in a savory brown sauce and is very tasty and tender. It does take a little work to get at all of the available meat, but trust me, itâs worth it. I definitely also plan to try Patrickâs beef stew â which is only available Thur.-Sun. Other menu items include Rastaman vegetable stew, soups (including Manish-Water, or goat soup), chicken wings and roti skin sandwich wraps with curry chicken or goat, jerk chicken or veggies.
Breakfast, Too?
Patrick is proud to have recently announced that he is now serving authentic Jamaican breakfast favorites on Sat. and Sun. mornings (8 a.m.-11:30 a.m.). Among the breakfast items are salt mackerel, ackee and saltfish with cooked green bananas, dumplings and more, plus porridges of cornmeal and oats.
And of course, any time you walk into a place and the music of the great man himself â Bob Marley â is playing, youâre bound to feel good. And, at the Hummingbird Jerk House, youâre also likely to leave satisfied.
Hummingbird Jerk House (17631 BBD, Unit F) is open 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sun., and every other day 11 a.m.-10 p.m., except it is closed on Mon. For more info, visit HummingbirdJerkHouse.com or call (813) 512-2558. Â
Libertyâs Elaine Feaster was named Middle School Student of the Year by the Hillsborough County Council PTA/PTSA. Sheâs shown receiving her award from Superintendent Jeff Eakins.
The Hillsborough County Council PTA/PTSA (Parent Teacher Association/Parent Teacher Student Association) has presented its annual award winners and those who work and learn in New Tampa have taken home a number of those awards.
The biggest one given out at the Glazer JCC on April 11 may be the one given to Liberty Middle School 8th-grader Elaine Feaster, who was chosen as the district-wide Middle School Student of the Year.
Feaster, who has been mentioned in these pages a few times in the past, is a Girl Scout (Troop 1247) who has collected thousands of books for underprivileged students.
This spring, she also was recognized by the Prudential Spirit of Community Award and the Presidential Volunteer Service Award.
The Freedom High PTSA took home four awards, including the âAt Your Service Award,â which recognizes an outstanding service project.
Freedom won the award for its campus cleanup project, which involved students doing school beautification projects on the weekends, about once a month, including trimming shrubs, adding mulch, and painting.
Freedom music teacher Lorelie Wiemar was named âInstructional Person of the Year,â teaching assistant Stacey Lindahl was named âNon Instructional Person of the Yearâ and PTSA president Jeannine Armington was the âPTSA President of the Year.â
Wharton High principal Mike Rowan was named âPrincipal of the Year.â
The latter award is given to recognize an outstanding principal who is committed to cooperation with the PTSA.
Wharton PTSA president Kristie Scism says that in his first year as principal at the school, Rowan worked tirelessly, and closely with the schoolâs PTSA, to add events and recognitions that help increase school spirit and pride around campus.
Other winners include Hunterâs Green Elementary earning the âArts in Education Awardâ and Tampa Palms Elementary PTA earning the âAt Your Service Awardâ for the elementary level.
Benito Middle School PTSA won the âFamily Involvement Awardâ and Liberty Middle Schoolâs Meghan Melton was awarded the middle school âNon-Instructional Person of the Year.â
The price simply wasnât right for the developers Bill Place chose to buy and turn the Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC) into new homes, so the PCGC owner is turning to a new development group.
13th Floor Homes, a Miami-based investment management firm, was chosen late last year from a group of bidders interested in razing New Tampaâs oldest golf course in favor of a new housing development. Following months of inspections and meetings with homeowners, 13th Floor has withdrawn its interest.
âThey got to end of the inspection period and wanted to change a lot of the terms,â says Place. âWe didnât want to change the terms.â
Place and his wife Su Lee own Ace Golf, which bought PCGC in 2005.
While the exit of 13th Floor from the process was a disappointment for Place, he said there were seven developers that had originally submitted bids to purchase the 6,436-yard golf course, which opened in 1967. So, itâs on to the next group of potential suitors, which Place would only describe as âmajor homebuilders.â
Despite the lack of a sale to 13th Floor, he says the months of examination and feedback have helped guide what will be acceptable in the future.
Place also said that while the zoning exists to build 600 homes on the 149 acres he is selling, he wouldnât even consider allowing that much development.
And, according to what he learned from focus groups organized by Pebble Creekâs two homeowners associations, there also is opposition to multi-family units and homes being built in close proximity to existing homes in the community.
âWeâve excluded all that from this next round,â Place says. âWeâll tell the next developer that these are things that have already been worked on with the homeowners and that we donât want to backtrack.â
Place said that he didnât originally choose the highest bidder because they wanted to come in and build rental homes. âWe donât feel that would be appropriate for the community,â he says.
Although there is a large contingent of residents opposed to the sale of the golf club (and what they fear will be a resulting loss of wildlife and green space) for any reason, the inspection period, which included lots of meetings with Pebble Creekâs HOAs and focus groups, was not acrimonious.
âNot at all, surprisingly so,â said 13th Floor corporate counsel Dan Daley. âThe community, particularly the HOA members and leadership, understood the reality of the situation.â
Mulligan’s Pub
That reality, Place says, is that the golf course is losing money â he has said that 2018 revenues were down 33 percent, and profits were down 50 percent â as the golf course industry struggles nationwide.
The club currently has only 20 members, and competition is stiff. In New Tampa alone, Pebble Creek has to compete with private country clubs at Hunterâs Green and Tampa Palms, as well the recently revamped Heritage Isles on Cross Creek Blvd.
Place even said that since Ace Golf bought Plantation Palms Golf Club â which had been closed for two years and is located only 10 miles from PCGC (in Land OâLakes) â in 2015, with the hopes of reviving it, Plantation Palms also has drawn additional business away from Pebble Creek.
While the sale of PCGC remains imminent, Place says that it currently is still business as usual. Mulliganâs Pub continues to be a popular hangout, and the club itself is booking weddings and other events through the end of next year.
âItâs physically impossible to get through the zoning and public input before then,â he says, âso we are still booking events through 2020. The one thing I have refused to do is operate like a business that is going out of business.â
When Amir Iranmanesh takes the stage at this yearâs Freedom High graduation ceremony to give his valedictorian speech, he wonât be thinking about his GPA, which he says is 9.14.
The 18-year-old will be remembering his late grandmother, the most influential person in his life.
âEveryone says this about their grandmas, but mine was the purest, most innocent person in the world,â says Amir, who describes himself as very family-oriented. âShe was magical â every time I make a decision, I pause to consider what she would do.â
Amir believes his achievement would have been impossible without his parents, who emigrated from Iran before the 1979 revolution that threw their home country into chaos and raised their children to make their own decisions since they were young.
âMy parents have always put a lot of trust in me, and gave me enough love to motivate me to want to do good things,â says Amir, who also credits his brother Eamon and sister Elhaam for their support.
Amir says he didnât intentionally aim for the top rank in his class. He had a âpassion for mathâ and wanted to learn as much of it as possible, so he began taking dual enrollment courses at Hillsborough Community College as soon as he could.
âUnderstanding math truly opens a whole new perspective on the world,â says Amir, who especially enjoyed algebra and calculus but also took extra courses in literature, public speaking, visual arts and computer science.
Amirâs strategy was to fill up his school days with homework and extracurricular activities and reserve Fridays and Saturdays for spending time with family and friends.
He competed for Freedomâs swim team for three years, and was a member of the schoolâs National Honor Society. He also served as an officer in multiple organizations at school, including the Rho Khappa National Social Studies Honor Society, Model United Nations and Future Business Leaders of America.
Amir helped others succeed in the classroom, too. He created a year-long math tutoring club staffed by student and teacher volunteers during their lunch hours, and also collected more than 3,500 book donations for the New Tampa Regional Library.
The future businessman currently serves as the treasurer of the student body-elected Executive Board of the HCC Dale Mabry Student Government Association. He manages a nearly $650,000 budget, votes on how to use the money during weekly board meetings and helps run general student body meetings on Tuesdays.
Although undecided at our press time where he will attend college, Amir says he plans to attend somewhere in Florida to remain close to his family.
Amir says he draws inspiration from his parents — father Ali, a civil engineer who owns a company with Amirâs mother Parvin, a former social worker.
âI plan to major in business so I can learn everything about how companies work, then invest in real estate once I have a steady income,â Amir says.
Amir traveled back to his native Iran last month for an extended vacation, exploring new cities and visiting family. He also took time to pay his respects at the grave sites of his three late grandparents and reflect on what he might do someday to alleviate the countryâs crumbling economy.
âItâs upsetting to see people from my own city suffer and struggle to pay for food,â he says. âWhatever my journey is, it will surely consist of me giving back to my hometown.â
Freedom Highâs 2019 graduation ceremony will be held at the Florida State Fairgrounds on U.S. 301 in Tampa on Thursday, May 30, at 9 a.m.
