Month: October 2021

Total Air Solutions Keeps Your A/C Cool, Clean & Running

Floridians have to face a lot of dreadful things during the summer months.

Pesky pests. Stifling heat. Never-ending afternoon showers. Hurricanes.

But, if you really want to find a ticked-off Florida resident, find one whose air conditioning just went out on a summer afternoon.

Don’t let that person be you. Before it is, you might want to give Total Air Solutions a call.

If the last year or two has taught us anything, it’s that being stuck inside is no fun, especially in the summer. And, the heat is just one reason.

Total Air Solutions offers a number of services, and as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, has evolved to provide its customers even more. With a premium placed on clean air like never before in our homes, schools and businesses, Total Air Solutions co-owner and co-founder Bill Albert says his company has seen a tremendous demand for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) products.

As IAQ experts, Albert says Total Air Solutions specializes in customizing solutions to best protect your home from these airborne pollutants.

Another side effect of the pandemic has (in many cases) been a shortage of much-needed parts when your A/C unit does fail.

“There has been an economic failure to meet the demand for HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning) products,” Albert says. “As a Carrier factory-authorized dealer, we have the first right to these units as they come out of the factory. You can count on us to deliver your repairs or new units faster than many of our competitors — and the last thing you want is to be stuck with no air conditioning and lacking the parts necessary for your repair.”

Total Air Solutions has been serving not only the Tampa Bay area, but areas up and down the Gulf Coast for the last 19 years. But, over most of that time, Total Air had mostly dedicated its business to commercial properties — from offices to medical clinics and more.

Three years ago, Total Air started servicing residential customers.

“We’ve been in Tampa a lot longer than people realize,” Albert says. “We hire local techs and we’re continuing to grow and very interested in growing in the Lutz, New Tampa and Wesley Chapel areas.”

Total Air Solutions has made strides in its quest to become the go-to service provider for air conditioning in our area, especially with people spending so much time inside these days, when compared with pre-pandemic times, as well as rising temperatures.

“Everyone needs the service much more because the air is always running,” Albert says. “And, it’s Florida. So, it’s been a banner year for our residential side.”

Growing The Right Way

Albert figures that Total Air, which he started in his garage with fellow co-owner/co-founder Frank Decarlo, has nearly doubled in size over the past year or so.

Albert worked for six years as an HVAC distributor for Carrier Florida, first in Tampa and then in Orlando. Prior to that, he held positions in a solar hot water heating and installation company and at a home energy design system firm.

Decarlo previously was the VP/general manager at a heating and cooling company in North Port, FL, for seven years, where he was initially hired as a service manager and grew that company’s annual sales fourfold. Prior to that, he was a service technician at an air conditioning firm in New York.

Now, 19 years later and having combined their efforts, Albert and Decarlo and have Total Air offices in Tampa and North Port and nearly 100 employees total.

“There are a lot of air conditioning companies out there, but there are very few qualified technicians,” Albert says. “We’re also Carrier-certified and (have won Carrier’s) President’s Award three years in a row, but we also can fix any brand because when you call us, we send you service technicians, not salesmen. There’s an industry term for that — an SID, or “salesman in disguise” — but that’s not what you get from Total Air. We’re not going to sell you things you don’t need. We try to find the total air solution for our customers.”

Keeping Eyes On Those Eyes

Albert says that Total Air is not only keeping homes cool and the air clean, but also is in full hurricane season mode. While the Tampa Bay area has been fortunate so far this season, there are still two months remaining in the 2021 season. Any storm that hits the area could require a lot more service requests.

“We’re very conscious of hurricane season because we know there can be damage or people can be without air conditioning,” Albert says. “We want to help them get it back up and running as quickly as possible.”

And, Total Air does that very well and efficiently. It’s one of the reasons the company has been able to keep customers from the very start, and the majority of its Google reviews mention Total Air’s professionalism, responsiveness and punctuality.

“Total Air sent out Carlos, who was professional and knowledgeable about our system, even though they did not install the system,” wrote Greg MacPherson in a 5-star Google review, adding that the company that did install his system was “too busy” to help. “(Carlos) quickly found the refrigerant leak and soldered it, then tested and recharged the system. We had A/C again!”

Total Air has a number of different service plans, and recently added a premium maintenance plan called the “Safe & Healthy Neighbor Plan.” The new plan provides added benefits like a larger discount on replacement parts, high-efficiency filter upgrades and, most important, your annual dryer vent cleaning. Many companies, according to Albert, charge over $200 for this dryer vent cleaning service alone. But, Total Air’s “Safe & Healthy Neighbor Plan” is available for $46.99 per month (for 6 months).

Total Air also has a new, informative “System Health Report” with each of your maintenance appointments. This report gives you valuable insight into the condition of your A/C unit, plus any preventive recommendations to keep your system running at optimal performance.

Albert says the maintenance of an air conditioning system, even a new unit, is vital to keeping your house cool.

“Just because it’s running doesn’t mean it’s perfect,” Albert says. “I ask (customers), ‘Don’t you change the oil in your car, too?,’”

And, of course, Total Air Solutions also provides residential and commercial heating services, including installing heat pumps, as well as duct work services. You can even finance your new Carrier A/C.

Total Air Solutions’ Tampa office is located at 1015 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. For more info, visit TotalAirFl.com or call (813) 247-2665 or see the ad on page 45.

total air solutions

Kobé Steakhouse Moving Down The Road

Kobé Japanese Steak House, which has been located at the corner of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and Pebble Creek Dr. since 2011, is moving down the road to the old Vuelo’s/Señor T’s/Romano’s Macaroni Grill site in front of New Tampa’s Home Depot.

According to Hien Nguyen, a spokesperson for the family-owned mini-chain, as soon as remodeling is completed on the former Vuelo’s, Kobé “will transition from our current location.”

Nguyen says the new location, “will be larger to accommodate our growing team and business. We aim to transition by the end of this year.”

The new site for Kobé is 7,000 square feet — giving the restaurant roughly 1,000 more square feet to accommodate a larger kitchen for it’s growing to-go business —and offers more parking.

The successful and highly-rated Japanese steak house, one of 12 located in Florida, is now going to try to succeed where others have not when it moves into the former Vuelo’s Mexican Restaurant location, which was previously Señor T’s and before that Macaroni Grill, which closed in 2013.

Señor T’s opened in November 2015 but was poorly received and scathingly reviewed by many. It failed to make it through even a year, closing its doors for good in July 2016.

The Mexican eatery was rebranded, redesigned and opened with a new, but still Mexican-based, menu as Vuelo’s a few months later, in November. But, whether it was the food or the location, Vuelo’s died out just over a year later and the restaurant has been empty since 2018.

Can another restaurant succeed in that seemingly cursed location, which can be difficult to get in and out of from BBD?

Probably, considering that Chili’s has had staying power right next door. Plus, Kobé has an established reputation and is popular in New Tampa (at least according to our annual Reader Surveys, which always give the restaurant high marks). And, according to 2,756 Google ratings, Kobé has a 4.7 out of 5 rating. Yelp reviewers give Kobé 4 out of 5 stars.

In addition, Kobé has been the most successful/longest lasting of all of the restaurants to have come and gone from its location in front of the Pebble Creek Collection.

The saga began when Tampa Bay media personality Jack Harris leant his name to (and co-owned) Harris & Co., the original restaurant in Kobé’s location, which opened to rave reviews in 1997 but closed in 2000. But, Harris & Co. would just be the first of five restaurants in the building, which also has been home to Durango Steak House (2000-02, 2003), the Durango-owned Sammy Frogs (2004) and Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse (2006-11) prior to Wasabi selling its spot to Kobé.

Kobe Vuelo Mexican Grill

Nibbles & Bites: Balanced Foods Opens, Wolf’s Den Closes, Another First Watch Planned.

In case you missed it, Balanced Foods, the six-store chain which started in Woodlands, TX, is now open in the former La Prima Pizza location next to Super Target in the North Woods Plaza at 1211 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (just north of County Line Rd.).

I’ve already visited multiple times and enjoyed both lunch- and dinner-sized portions of fresh, healthy, house-made entrées like the roasted vegetable and tenderloin entrée (pictured) and the city grilled chicken with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. There are different lunch and dinner entrées, and all come in small, medium and large sizes to fit your diet, taste and budget.

Balanced Foods also offers a variety of snacks, from its own freshly made chunky chicken salad dip (served with gluten-free crackers, apple and celery sticks), to packaged items like yummy ChipMonk banana chocolate chip sunflower Keto Bites and addictive ICON Meals peanut butter vanilla Protein Popcorn. For more info, visit BalancedFoods.com or call (813) 778-4874 and please tell them you read about them in the Neighborhood News. We also plan to do an update on the explosion of healthy eating locations in Wesley Chapel in a future issue. — GN

Wolf’s Den Closes; First Watch To Open 2nd WC Location?

For those of us who prefer mom-and-pop restaurants to chains, this may not be great news for you, as Wesley Chapel recently lost the always-popular Wolf’s Den Restaurant located on S.R. 56, but will apparently soon have a second location of First Watch, The Daytime Café, on S.R. 54, about a mile east of BBD, in the same plaza as Baybreeze Dental (see story below left).

Wolf’s Den owner Tony Carbone, who had to close temporarily a couple of times earlier this year because of a lack of help in the kitchen, closed for good before the end of August. “It was time,” he told me. “It’s been a real struggle with employees this year.”

Meanwhile, First Watch, which has a Wesley Chapel location in the Shoppes at New Tampa plaza on BBD south of S.R. 56, as well as in the new Village at Hunter’s Lake plaza on BBD in New Tampa and on S.R. 54 in Lutz, has not yet confirmed that it will open next to Baybreeze Dental, but we’ve been told by multiple sources that the currently empty end cap in that plaza (also home to a BayCare Medical Group office) will be a First Watch. — GN

Baybreeze Dental Hosts A Chamber Ribbon Cutting!

Congratulations to Ronak Parikh, D.M.D. (Doctor of Dental Medicine), the owner of the new Baybreeze Dental office at 28868 S.R. 54 (call 813.377.1822), and his family and staff, for celebrating the Grand Opening of the office with an outstanding North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon-cutting event Photo) on Sept. 8. Attendees got to enjoy tours of the modern new cosmetic dentistry office, great food by Glory Days Grill (located almost next door), plus delicious desserts from Nothing Bundt Cakes & Crumbl Cookie. — GN

WC Quick Bites

• Cluckin’ Fun To Replace Hardee’s?

A month or so ago, a new banner sign went up on the former location of Hardee’s on Wesley Chapel Blvd. (next to Goodyear Auto Service) announcing that Cluckin’ Fun, an apparent chicken restaurant, was going to replace the burger chain, but as of the day before we went to press with this issue, the sign was gone and we have no further info about Cluckin’ Fun.

• Shake-A-Salad To Open At KRATE

We told you last issue that Provisions Coffee & Kitchen was the first former shipping container to open at the KRATE container park at The Grove. It looks like the second crate to open, within a month or so, may be Shake-A-Salad, a new salad-and-wrap concept from fellow transplanted New Yawkas with fresh, tasty and healthy food options and homemade dressings. Visit ShakeaSaladfl.com. — GN

Balanced Foods First Watch Wolf's Den

Coyote’s Poekert Is Eager To Return To State

For most cross country runners, the offseason is all about putting in the miles. However, after putting in the miles before his sophomore season, Cypress Creek’s Zack Poekert switched things up a bit for 2021.

Instead, the Coyotes junior built more “tempo” runs — longer distances at a slower pace, shorter distances at a faster pace — into his training regimen and the results are paying off this season.

After winning a preseason jamboree in Palmetto — his first-ever first-place finish in high school — Zack reeled off four straight top-5 finishes against stiff competition, including a first-place finish at the River Ridge Invitational, and has emerged as a State contender in Class 3A.

Getting in the tempo work this summer, he says, has made him stronger and more confident.

“I notice the difference,” he says. “It made me a lot more confident going into these meets knowing that my training was there, and that I could compete with these (other runners) now.”

*Zack Poekert (left), with coach John Hoffman, after his fifth-place finish at the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala on Sept. 3* ***(Photos courtesy of the Poekerts)***

Zack, who broke 17 minutes for the first time at the jamboree, broke 16 minutes for the first time when he ran a 15:58 to finish fifth at the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala on Sept. 3.

Zack has been ranked as high as No. 18 in the state according to flrunners.com, and earlier this season had the third-best time in Class 3A.

Zack says his goal this year is to run a 15:30, a steep drop from the 16:30 or so he has been averaging. But, he is motivated and ran a 15:43 in his River Ridge win.

He was a freshman on the Coyotes team that made it to the State meet in 2019, and as a sophomore in 2020 helped the team win its first-ever district championship. However, the Coyotes did not qualify for a return trip to States, and Zack just missed going as an individual.

A strong track season (4:28 in the mile, 9:48 in the two-mile) has him ready for a bounce back.

Zack’s passion for running started when he was younger, running with his mother Ronda, a former track and cross country standout for Plant, who helped the Panthers to the 1991 and ‘92 State cross country championships.

When Ronda got back into running after years away from the sport, Zack asked if he could join her. Together, they trained and eventually ran in a handful of 5K races, like Miles for Moffitt and Gasparilla. Eventually, Zack got to the point where he was leaving Ronda in the dust.

“I would see him at the beginning of the race, and at the end of the race,” says Ronda, laughing.

His passion for the sport, however, grew quickly during his freshman year at Cypress Creek, buoyed by his trip to the State meet.

Ronda gives credit for Zack’s success to his coaches, John Hoffman and Elsa Rehberg, and dad Bryan will occasionally go over the course with his son.

When Ronda does have a tip to lend, it’s usually about the mental aspect of racing, and strategy. Primarily, running your own race even if the rest of the field decides to go out either too fast or too slow, and then maintaining where your tempo needs to be during the race, is paramount to success, she says.

“It’s 100 percent,” Ronda says. “If you let that slip throughout the race, it can throw off everything.”

That’s good advice in a tough District 3A-2, which features last year’s State runner-up Sunlake High and standouts like Colby Robbins and Alex Pena. Poekert already has run against both at multiple meets this season, finishing behind them by roughly 10 seconds in a few races, with more head-to-head opportunities to come. That competition will make Poekert, and the rest of the Coyotes, better by season’s end.

Poekert says he is looking forward to the challenge.

“Our team is really young but you can see that they are starting to get really good,” Poekert says. “But if we don’t go as a team, I plan on getting back to States as an individual. My goal is to run that 15:30, and be All-State at the State meet.”

cross country Cypress Creek High

Check Out This New Service We Are So Proud To Offer!

Although I have owned and been the editor of the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News for more than 27 years, about ten years ago, I started noticing that a number of businesses had plaques on their walls that displayed the Business and Dining Feature stories we’ve written about them.

Gary Nager
Editorial

Because my staff and freelance writers have always done such a great job writing these Business Feature stories, I certainly could understand why those businesses were proud to have our masthead and the stories we worked hard to create displayed on their walls.

But, yours truly? Not so much.

I just couldn’t understand why those businesses wouldn’t just ask me if I could create plaques for them, since my hyperlocal business was the one that did the interviews, took the pictures, wrote, edited, published and directly mailed those stories to tens of thousands of their neighbors — and virtually all of those stories brought those businesses in new customers and stimulated interest in their businesses that they never had before.

Instead, a big part of the reason they never thought to ask me was because there have been businesses out there — at least two that I know of (more on them below) — who (originally) would purchase a subscription to the Neighborhood News and send those businesses proofs of the stories that we sweat blood to create in order to sell them those plaques.

The more of these plaques I’ve seen in those offices, restaurants and retail establishments — and there have been hundreds of them I’ve seen personally over the years — the more my blood boiled. Plus, we made it even easier on these not-local businesses to use our work to create those plaques by posting electronic versions of every New Tampa and Wesley Chapel edition of our publications on our website.

I was at one of my advertiser’s locations when my blood boiled over. Although that advertiser admitted that she “wasn’t sure” if the person from the company that reprinted our work on the plaque at her office represented their company as being “affiliated” with us, she was under the impression they were and went ahead and spent nearly $200 to have them create the plaque that so ticked me off.

The two companies who seem to be lying in wait for us every time we publish a new issue are “That’s Great News” and “In The News” and I have had words with the local sales reps for both companies, because whether or not it’s illegal for them to use our published content without our permission (it’s not), I am tired of them using our masthead, logo and content we work so hard to publish to make money in a business that we could do ourselves. And, I’ve warned both companies that the time was coming when I would do just that.

Well, that time is now. I want all of our advertisers and readers to know that you no longer have to utilize either of these two companies to preserve our business, dining and news stories — and we will even do it for less!

The plaque (right) preserving the Dining Feature story about Acropolis Greek Taverna that appears on pgs. 38-39 of this issue is the first sample of what we can and hope to do for everyone who wants to display our work.

We offer a variety of plaque and border colors and have the ability to modify the story to fit on any size plaque to fit in any space you have on your wall. And, you don’t have to be a current advertiser to have a plaque created. We guarantee professional work direct from its source and 100% satisfaction.

To order your plaque of any story from any issue of Neighborhood News, email me at ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com.

plaque story