Although we had been previously told to expect some sort of fried or grilled chicken restaurant in the space previously occupied by Wok Chi in the Shops at Wiregrass, the new restaurant that opened there earlier this month is called Teriyaki Madness, which is more of a Japanese experience, whereas Wok Chi was definitely more of a Chinese restaurant.
Please note that in our October 18 Wesley Chapel edition, I mistakenly called this new restaurant by a different name, which also was a fast-Asian concept that closed several years ago. I already have apologized to the general manager at Teriyaki Madness for my mistake, so I hope you will read this and go visit Teriyaki Madness soon. Feel free to make fun of me when you do visit.
Teriyaki Madness specializes in â you guessed it â dishes cooked with a teriyaki glaze (thicker than most sauces) that, to me, is more like BBQ sauce than something youâd get at a Japanese restaurant. This fast, healthier-than-most-fast-casual concept was founded in Las Vegas in 2003 and currently includes more than 100 locations being operated throughout the U.S. and now Mexico by M.H. Enterprises, which is based in Denver, CO.
In addition to beef, chicken and tofu teriyaki dishes, Teriyaki Madness also offers spicy chicken, spicy tofu teriyaki, orange chicken teriyaki, fried chicken katsu and yakisoba noodles with chicken, beef, tofu or all veggies. Appetizers include crispy chicken egg rolls, edamame (soybeans), crab Rangoon, chicken pot stickers and more.
The veggies are very fresh and you can customize which veggies you want, so yes, Iâll visit The Teriyaki Madness (28152 Paseo Dr.) again soon.
For more information, call (813) 803-3749, search âTeriyaki Madnessâ on Facebook or visit TeriyakiMadness.com.
Chris Williams wasnât quite sure what to expect on Oct. 7 at the public workshop for Pasco Countyâs new school boundaries expected to go into effect for the 2020-21 school year.
The director of planning services for the Pasco County School Board said that in the three weeks prior to the meeting, there had surprisingly been only 35 online inquiries about the new boundaries, so he wondered if parents were waiting to address their concerns in person.
Would the same large crowds from the contentious, lawsuit-laden 2016 rezoning meetings come streaming through the doors of the Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) gymnasium? Would an angry mob be on hand to confront county planners who were there to answer questions? Would they be carrying pitchforks?
The answers? No, no and no.
It was, in fact, a surprisingly muted showing of roughly 50 parents over three hours, the energy muzzled by the emptiness of the high schoolâs large gymnasium.
âBased on some feedback, I expected more,â Williams said. âBut, I didnât expect this.â
There were 12 tables set up, with District staff manning many of them to answer questions about the new school zones, which will have the greatest effect on students living in Seven Oaks.
While current WRH juniors and John Long Middle School seventh graders will be allowed to stay next year to finish at the schools where they started, most everyone else in Seven Oaks is headed to Cypress Creek High and Cypress Creek Middle, if the boundaries are approved, as expected.
When Mica and David Rice decided to relocate from Orange County in New York to Tampa Bay, they say that the right school for their son, an incoming freshman, played the biggest role.
In the summer of 2018, after strongly considering Steinbrenner High in Lutz, the Rices made what they thought was the right decision â they chose WRH, and bought a home in Seven Oaks.
Two weeks after closing on their new home, Mica found out her sonâs stay at WRH was likely to be a short one, as the Seven Oaks community would in the crosshairs of rezoning in 2019.
âI saw it on Facebook, and I was shocked,â Mica says. âWe did a yearâs worth of research before deciding to move here, and did not know.â
The Rices were clearly disappointed that their son will not only have to attend a new school, but one further away from home. Mika says her 7-minute ride to school will now be a 20-minute ride.
âWe donât want to leave (Wiregrass Ranch),â she says.
However, there is little choice. Most of the parents who visited the public workshop seemed disappointed but resigned to the fact their children â whether at WRH or Long â would be attending Cypress Creek High and/or the new Cypress Creek Middle School, which is currently under construction, next year.
âIâm getting pushback, but not a lot of it,â Williams said. âThe impression is that certainly people are not happy, but they are kind of resigned to the fact. Most knew this day was coming.â
To drive that point home, Williams came armed with a newspaper article from 2016, where Pasco School Superintendent Kurt Browning specifically told the Seven Oaks community that while they were spared in the 2016 rezoning, they likely would be moving the next time around.
Cypress Creek High principal Caryn Hetzler-Nettle and new Cypress Creek Middle School principal Timothy Light (see story, pg. 30) had a table at the public forum with the hopes of assuaging any of the concerns of parents whose kids would be attending their schools next year.
Hetzler-Nettles said the process â which eliminated committees arguing over where to draw the boundaries and let the county planners handle it this time around â also seemed to do away with most of the tension from the 2016 process.
Also, the fear of the unknown has been eliminated. In 2016, students were rezoned for schools that didnât yet exist.
âItâs night and day,â Hetzler-Nettles said. âNow that weâre established and have a brand and a vibe out there, itâs been much easier.â
According to 2018-19 data, Wiregrass Ranch High was at 136 percent of its capacity.
By shrinking the zone and reassigning students who live in Seven Oaks, roughly 27 percent of the student body (or 600 or so students) will head off to Cypress Creek High, which today is at only 50 percent of its capacity of 2,090 students.
Long was at 116 percent of its capacity in 2018-19, but with nearly 450 students being rezoned for Cypress Creek Middle School, it could be at 90 percent next school year.
Williams said county-wide, Pasco is only at 90-percent capacity in all of its schools, but Wesley Chapelâs schools are continuously over capacity, due to the burgeoning development.
While rezoning Seven Oaks helped Williams meet his directive, he said the county also considered including Northwood in the rezoning, but instead chose to make some minor adjustments elsewhere.
Most of the concerns Williams heard at the public forum revolved around students being able to finish at the same school at which they had started, transportation and what to do about siblings.
Williams explained that siblings of any graduating seniors will have to attend their new school, but any students currently attending Wiregrass Ranch (or Long, since itâs considered the same campus) who are siblings of a junior can likely stay but will have to apply for choice.
However, once those WRH juniors graduate in 2021, their younger siblings will have to attend the school for which they are zoned.
Also, students in any academies only offered at Wiregrass Ranch (medical, hospitality) have to apply for choice but should get to stay. Those in the business academy, however, will have to go to Cypress Creek if zoned for it, because Cypress Creek also has a business academy.
The last opportunity for the public to have its say come son Tuesday, November 5, when the School Board will host a public hearing on the proposed boundaries. The final vote is scheduled for Tuesday, November 19.
In a tiny office tucked behind The Grove shopping center he recently bought for $62.7 million, Mark Gold is unveiling big dreams.
âBig, big, major,â he says. âThis is major.â
Goldâs vision is all over the walls of the leasing office at The Grove, on blueprints and promotional materials.
There will be a family park, an amphitheatre for musical performances, a brewery, new restaurants, an indoor adventure facility, beautiful landscaping and lighting, and what Gold says will be the biggest shipping container park â think Sparkman Wharf, but on steroids â in the world.
A rendering of how a “container park” will look at The Grove.
There also is room for 400 homes, if Gold chooses to develop the additional acreage.
While others have, for too many years, seen a big box dead end office plaza with empty buildings and overgrown and unkempt land, Gold sees the future.
âThis is a diamond that no one has touched for 10 years,â he says. âNo one had the money to polish the diamond. Thatâs just crazy.â
The Grove, which opened in 2007 and whose current tenants include Best Buy, Dickâs Sporting Goods, Michaelâs and others, as well as the Cobb 16 Movie Theater, may be an afterthought to many locals, a shopping center that once had great potential before development stopped. Gold and his Mishorim Gold Properties promise that will change.
âThe message is, The Grove is coming back,â says Gold, emphatically. âItâs not owned by the bank or an insurance company anymore, itâs owned by creative developers that do this already all over the U.S.â
As Gold lays out his plan, it almost sounds too good to be true. However, District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore, who arranged a meeting for Gold with county planners and administrators, loves the idea.
âI think heâs the real deal,â Moore says. âWhen he left after his presentation, there was energy and excitement in the room.â
Pascoâs uber-friendly-to-business county commission is likely to do what it can to make things happen fast. Many of the typical hold-ups â such as proper zoning and utilities â are all already in place.
The mostly vacant Village across the parking lot from stores like Best Buy, Marshall’s and DICK’s Sporting Goods has been mostly vacant but Gold already has new tenants signed to leases.
Gold, who has now owned the plaza less than a month, isnât wasting any time starting to create a destination that he thinks could serve as a downtown Wesley Chapel one day.
âThis is not only about money, itâs about vision,â he says. âLetâs bring something to Wesley Chapel that people like to come to.â
Just a few days after his purchase, he already had signed leases for 15 of the 60 containers, or micro-shops, that will populate the land between The Groveâs office âvillageâ and Outback Steakhouse. Moore said he was impressed to see that overgrown grass had already been moved and some of the area was already being prepped.
Gold is hoping to create a European-flavored market or bazaar, with an emphasis on locally-owned stores and boutiques, and he says that in about two months, the containers will begin showing up.
âThings are moving fast,â he says. âThis is big in places like Europe, Amsterdam…you see it all over the place. In the U.S., it is fresh. And, it is going to be the largest one in the world.â
Each of the container âshops,â which are former semi-truck trailers that will be outfitted with solar panels, is 40-feet long (although there are options to split the office containers into two or even three separate spaces), and hereâs the big news â he is renting them out for only $1,500 a month for an entire container, with limited up-front costs for design.
âIf you have a dream, letâs make it happen!,â Gold says.
âIf you have a dream, letâs make it happen!,â he says. âThis is your mom-and-pop opportunity, your dream. I care about my tenants. I want to help people come to us. Let me help you.â
A family park for children also will be one of the key components of The Groveâs transformation, as will a 36,000-sq.-ft. indoor trampoline/adventure park (see pg. 14)..
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is a part-owner of Surge Adventure Park, Gold says he already has Surge at four of his developments and that it is likely Brees will follow him to Wesley Chapel, too. Surge Adventure Park would be built near the Cobb 16 Movie Theater.
As we reported last issue, Double Branch Artisanal Ales, owned by Wesley Chapel residents, is expected to open in December, the first new project under Goldâs Mishorim Gold Properties.
âI think it is extraordinarily exciting for our community,â says Hope Allen, CEO of the North Tampa Bay Chamber. âItâs a long time coming. âIt was disheartening to see (The Grove) not living up to its full potential over the last couple of years. I appreciate that new ownership is going to invest in it.â
Gold says he also has signed leases with at least four restaurants â pizza, sushi, gourmet hot dogs and frozen yogurt â for the currently mostly-vacant office park that he calls âThe Village,â as well as a restaurant/duelling piano bar owned by Wesley Chapel resident Jamie Hess and his brother Joe.
âI met with him and was very enthusiastic and energetic,â said Jamie Hess, who signed his lease on Oct. 10. âI thought he had an amazing plan. I went home and researched his other properties and after that, I was sold. Heâs going to make The Grove a huge success.â Weâll have a separate story about the piano bar in a future issue.
Gold has a reputation for investing in property that is undervalued and turning high-vacancy shopping and office centers into bustling, vibrant, family-focused entertainment destinations.
He bought the Lynnhaven North shopping center in Virginia Beach, VA, in late 2018 and quickly turned that around, with nearly $10 million worth of renovations and upgrades.
Whether youâre talking about the Regency Court Shopping Center in Jacksonville, or the Shoppes at Hickory Hollow in Antioch, TN, the DW Center in Newport News, VA, or a handful of other similar U.S. projects, Gold has swooped in to buy a failing shopping center and invested millions into transforming them.
And, the ebullient Gold is excited about The Groveâs prospects.
He says he has been looking to purchase land in the Tampa Bay area for years, but couldnât find anything that suited him.
âIt was like Mission Impossible,â he says.
He spent eight months negotiating to buy The Grove, when he says it usually takes him only about a month to complete similar deals.
The purchase included the 604,000 sq. ft. of existing shopping and dining space, as well as 1.3-million sq. ft. of retail and office space that he plans to build.
But, even better, The Grove is located in one of the southeastâs fastest-growing areas.
Not only are there thousands of homes at various stages of development within a 10-mile radius of The Grove in nearby communities like Mirada, Epperson and even Quail Hollow, but Wesley Chapel also boasts an average annual household income of $92,000.
The shopping center is located just off busy I-75, and can be seen by 100,000 drivers a day.
âI am in the middle of the all the action,â Gold says. âRight where I want to be.â
And soon, he hopes, where all of Wesley Chapel will want to be.
For leasing & more information about The Grove, contact keren@mgoldgroup.com.
The Japanese restaurant and sushi bar formerly known as Fongâs Sushi and Sushi Raw, in the Shoppes at Amberly plaza in Tampa Palms (next to Crunch Fitness) is under new ownership and my first visit to the new Sake House will have be going back for seconds.
I didnât get to speak to the new owner but I did enjoy some tasty fried pork shumai dumplings (photo above), a unique chicken fried rice and some super-fresh snapper sashimi. Hopefully, Iâll be telling you more about the Sake House in a future issue. In order to help make that happen, please call or stop in and tell them you heard about the Sake House from Gary at Neighborhood News!
The Sake House is located at 15311 Amberly Dr., Tampa. For hours and more information, call (813) 977-3838 or visit SakeHouseAmberly.com.
Congrats also go out to Jeff and Crista Dean, the owners of Bubbaâs 33, which is now going vertical between Ashley Furniture and Texas Roadhouse on S.R. 56, west of I-75, in Wesley Chapel. This will be the first location in Florida for Texas Roadhouseâs sports bar concept, which held a North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce-hosted groundbreaking (photo above) on Sept. 9.Â
For additional information, visit Bubbas33.com.
Congrats, Dr. Dave!
Congratulations to well-known local optometrist Dr. David Scamard and his office manager Eileen Popescu of Excellence in Eyecare on their August 14 ribbon cutting hosted by the Greater Pasco Chamber of Commerce.
You can visit Dr. Daveâs two-year-old independent optometry office inside the Costco on S.R. 56 â even if youâre not a member of the wholesale club â and he provides a full-range of eye care services, including comprehensive exams, visual field analyses, retinal imaging and more, with walk-ins welcome.
Dr. Scamard opened his first optometry office in our area more than 17 years ago and I can personally attest to the fact that heâs a great optometrist and a really good guy.
If you need more details, or itâs been a while since you had your eyes checked, call (813) 279-7038, visit ExcellenceinEyecare.net or see the ad on pg. 12 of this issue.
Dirson had started his successful, healthy-eating-oriented restaurant concept in the same plaza as The Hungry Greek and Dickeyâs BBQ a little further south on BBD (across from AdventHealth Wesley Chapel) when he decided to find anther location in 2018.
What he didnât know was that he would be closed for several months (basically, from August until December) that year, as he agreed to leave his old space in order for the new tenant â Umu Japanese & Thai â to get started on their build-out while he began building the new OTB.
Bottom line? Dirson and his wife Ana weathered the storm of several months with no OTB income and have been thriving in their new location ever since.
âOur breakfast business has definitely picked up since weâve been here,â Dirson says. âAnd our lunch crowd has been about the same.â
The new location is definitely a nicer layout and even though OTB is the only restaurant in Nye Commons, which doesnât have a particularly easy entrance to get into either, people have been finding it (itâs located less than four miles north of the Pasco County line) â and loving many of the changes to the menu.
But, What About The Food?
At its old location, when OTB only served healthier turkey bacon for breakfast, Iâll admit I didnât go out of my way to enjoy my most important meal of the day there.
But now, with the new OTB even closer to my office, Dirson has added not only real bacon, but a variety of delicious new breakfast menu items.
My favorite is still the âbreakfast plateâ, with your choice of three regular or chocolate chip pancakes, two eggs any style (over easy for me, of course) and three strips of that (extra crispy) bacon â a bargain for only $9.99. And, even though it comes with pancakes, I still add OTBâs tasty marble rye to soak up my egg yolks.
Just as delicious, but understandably more expensive ($12.99) is the steak and eggs breakfast, with a nice portion of thinly sliced steak and three eggs your way. Newer breakfast items include âOmeletteâing You Go,â a three-egg omelet served with your choice of side (try the fresh fruit) and toast. You can choose any three ingredients from the following list: any cheese, grilled onions, grilled peppers, tomatoes, baby spinach, arugula, red onion, diced ham, diced turkey, sprouts, pepperoncini, black olives and mushrooms â and all for only $8.99.
You avocado lovers will flip for the Good Morning Ciabatta, with two eggs your way, tomato, avocado and provolone on a tasty seeded, multi-grain ciabatta hoagie roll.
Thereâs also a breakfast burrito, chicken-quinoa eggs-travaganza and a tasty hash-and-eggs breakfast made with real corned beef and sweet potato home fries; an asparagus-bacon eggs Benedict; the Yolko Ono, with eggs, Black Forest ham, tomatoes and Havarti cheese on a multi-grain ciabatta; as well as an Acai bowl (with granola, bananas, strawberies, coconut flakes and organic Acai.
And, since Dirson is from Brazil, you know heâs serving great coffee, too.
Donât They Serve Lunch, Too?
Although most people donât think of a hamburger as a âhealthyâ option, Dirsonâs grass-fed artisan burger is seasoned, hand-pattied, grilled to order and delicious. Thereâs also tasty veggie and turkey burgers.
OTBâs lunch selections also feature a variety of salads, including the Asian orange ahi tuna salad, with a generous portion of seared rare tuna, Mandarin oranges, toasted almonds and sprouts; a blackened portabella Caesar as well as a chicken Caesar; a seared steak delight salad and âsalmon gone wildâ salad. OTB doesnât have the biggest selection of salad dressings, but all of them are pretty tasty. I especially enjoy the sesame ginger and spicy Santa Fe dressings.
Many of the salads also are available as âRice Rice Babyâ bowls. My favorites are the Shanghai chicken (with jasmine rice, sesame seeds, toasted almonds and the sesame ginger dressing), and the steak delight rice bowl (top right on this page), with black beans, jasmine rice, tomatoes, caramelized onions and blue cheese crumbles, with balsamic.
OTB Has Meal Delivery, Too?
Busy working adults, especially those with younger kids, are turning more and more these days to meal delivery services like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron, but Dirson decided to get into the meal delivery business locally because he can promise the same dependable delivery of fresh meals with advantages over those other services.
âWe donât mass produce anything,â Dirson says proudly. Your meals arenât taken out of a fridge and put into a box, theyâre made to your order. You tell us what you want, we make it fresh and deliver it when you want it (guaranteed to arrive between 4 p.m.-9 p.m. on your chosen date to ensure freshness).â
The best way to get started is to call (813) 906-2229 or order online at OnlyTheBestDelivery.com.
Youâll find a huge selection of options online and even though there are actual menu items, Dirson promises that âeverything is customizable. If the menu calls for an item to be served with broccoli, you can substitute asparagus, add sprouts, whatever you want.â
And, OTBâs portion-controlled meal delivery service has complete one-week meal plans, keto meals (like keto pesto parmesan chicken and veggies), plant-based meals (like mushroom taco lettuce wraps), special items for kids (kidsâ sliced steak and sweet potato mash), desserts (like vegan, gluten-free cookies) and even raw, cold juices (try the cold press juice sampler, with green, yellow, red and bunny juice) available for delivery. Thereâs even a full catering menu that is fully customizable to your specifications, for events large or small.
Best of all, the food is delicious and guaranteed to arrive fresh, whether you like pulled chicken or ahi tuna with broccoli, quinoa or rice (two left photos on this page) or anything else on OTBâs extensive menu, Dirsonâs delivery manager Jen will make sure your order is right â or sheâll make it right.
After six years, Iâve come to expect nothing less from Dirson and OTB!
