The first Lotte Plaza Market in Rockville, MD. The upcoming location at the old Sweetbay Supermarket will look similar.
Lotte Plaza Market has filed plans with the City of Tampa to renovate the former Sweetbay Supermarket off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., next to the Home Depot, as it prepares to open what will be New Tampa’s largest Asian marketplace.
The renovation project on the 49,432-sq.ft. building, roughly 11,000 square feet of which will be storage and cooler space, will transform the inside of the former grocery store into a marketplace that sells Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese food items and ingredients, a wide selection of meats and fresh fish and seafood and a huge variety of fruits and vegetables not found at American grocery stores.
The Lotte Plaza Market also will include at least three restaurants in its food court, as well as a bakery and a tea stand.
The renovations will cost roughly $4.5 million, according to the plans. The owners of the small Maryland-based ethnic grocery store chain focusing on Asian groceries and goods purchased the old Sweetbay Market for $7 million in January of 2021.
The Sweetbay building closed in 2013 and has been unoccupied since. KNK Tampa, Ltd. bought it in 2001 and leased it to Kash n’ Karry for a 20-year term beginning in November of that year. Kash n’ Karry operated under the lease until June 14, 2006, when its Belgian parent company Delhaize America, Inc., converted it into a Sweetbay. But, despite its rebranding, Sweetbay never gained the popularity of nearby Publix or Walmart stores.
In October of 2013, Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo Holdings bought 72 Sweetbay stores, plus the leases to 10 other underperforming Sweetbay locations that had already been closed. One of those leases belonged to the New Tampa location, which had six years remaining on it, but Bi-Lo Holdings declined to do anything with the property other than pay the rent until the deal expired in 2020.
Founded in 1976, Lotte Plaza Market is considered to be one of the premier Asian and international groceries in Maryland and Virginia, where it has 12 locations. The mini-chain also has one location in New Jersey, and opened the only other Florida location in Orlando on W. Colonial Dr. in February 2019.
Lotte Plaza Market is hoping to open 50 new locations by 2030. — JCC
Zukku-San Sushi Bar & Grill, located on the north side of S.R. 56, just west of I-75, has been my favorite Japanese restaurant in our area since the day it opened.
I love sushi, and Zukku-San has an incredible variety of some of the best sushi in our area, but for me, it’s always been more about everything else on Zukku-San’s delicious menu that sets it apart from its competition.
Co-owner Ferdian Jap and co-owner/executive chef Gia Tran have created something special in their unassuming space next to Crumbl Cookie. And, while Zukku-San is an elegant, but still casual, sit-down restaurant with a full premium liquor bar (with craft cocktails like the lychee nut martini and coconut mojito shown center right on this page), Ferdian and Gia actually started together with more of a fast-casual poké-bowl-and-sushi-“burrito” concept in Tampa’s Armature Works, with a similar location also open in Charlotte, NC, and they are getting ready to open a similar concept called “Ato” in the KRATE Container Park at The Grove (Ferdian says Ato likely won’t open until late May or early June).
And, since they’re obviously not busy enough with just those eateries, Ferdian and Gia also have an Astro Craft Ice Cream location in Armature Works, and plan to open a second Astro location where Great Clips closed on the north side of S.R. 56. next to Mellow Mushroom. The signage is up at the new Astro Ice Cream, but Ferdian says the new location likely won’t open until June or July (more on that below).
But, this article will focus on Zukku-San, which continues to add new favorites to my list every time I try anything new.
The Best Starters!
I have been raving about the Starters at Zukku-San from Day One, including the most perfect deep-fried gyoza (pork dumplings) with house-made Ponzu sauce, crispy vegetable spring rolls served with an amazing semi-spicy orange chili sauce, skewered traditional Japanese chicken and beef tenderloin yakitori (with fresh veggies; there’s also shrimp and veggie-only varieties) served with teriyaki sauce, steamed or garlic edamame, crispy fried Karaage chicken served with spicy mayo and a wonderful tuna tataki, plus it’s the only place I know of that serves Tempura a la Carte options.
The tempura is lightly battered and fried to golden perfection and allows you to order individual portions of your favorites.
Our most recent order (left) included four pieces each of carrots, sweet potatoes and zucchini (only $2.95 per order each), as well as a whole soft shell crab ($9.95), which was cut into bite-sized pieces for us.
Other a la carte tempura options include shrimp, tofu, broccoli, while giant squid, avocado, hamachi (yellowtail snapper) collar, asparagus, onion, red and jalapeño peppers and whole lobster tail. So good!
On our most recent visit, we also ordered the chef’s special spicy bluefin tuna chu-toro crudo, which has thin slices of bluefin tuna (which is a fattier tuna they call medium-fatty, than their regular ahi tuna tataki appetizer), topped with jalapeños and scallions in an incredible sriracha/chili-based spicy sauce. It’s also served with a side of seaweed salad.
The Best Entrées!
We’ve usually stayed pretty basic when it comes to our favorite entrées “from the Wok & Grill” at Zukku-San, but on our most recent visit, we tried three new dishes (in addition to our usual chicken fried rice) and no one was disappointed.
Grilled short ribsUdon Noodles with fried tofuSoy butter glazed baked salmon
My favorite was my grilled short ribs, which are marinated in Asian pear juice, grilled to perfection and served with jasmine rice and sautéed veggies. These aren’t your fall-off-the-bone short ribs; they’re more like Chinese-style BBQ spare ribs, but the flavor is definitely unique.
Photographer Charmaine George ordered the wok-fired Udon Noodles with fried tofu and we all raved about the sauce covering the chewy soft noodles, the tofu and the sautéed broccoli, onion, carrot, red peppers and zucchini. Like Zukku-San’s fried rice and wok-fired hibachi (egg) noodles, you can order them with just veggies, chicken, tenderloin steak or shrimp, too.
Of course, Jannah and I also had to bring our granddaughter Rosie with us, since Zukku-San has been her favorite restaurant since she was just over a year old. Rosie and her mom Lauren love all the starters we order (the carrots are her favorite) and the perfect California roll, but her dad Albert also raved about the soy butter glazed baked salmon entrée. Lauren also always gets a Mexican roll, with tempura shrimp, avocado, cucumber, sesame seeds, masago (fish roe) and spicy mayo.
For those who only crave sushi, try Zukku-San’s Masterpiece sushi rolls like the shrimp volcano and lobster Masterpiece roll.
Zukku-San also has a wide variety of nigiri (sliced fish on rice) and sashimi (no rice), hand rolls, as well as sushi and sashimi palettes with from 24 pieces of up to four different sashimis (for $50) up to small and large sushi palettes with as many as six Masterpiece rolls or 8 classic or hand rolls for $120.
For lunch, Zukku-San has make-your-own poké bowls with rice or mixed greens, up to two proteins (try the panko chicken and ahi tuna), up to two sauces and up to three toppings, as well as Bento Box lunches with short ribs, chicken teriyaki, shrimp tempura or sushi-only, served with ginger salad, pork gyoza and miso soup.
Zukku-San Sushi Bar & Grill is located at 25916 Sierra Center Blvd.) and is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner (although the lunch menu isn’t available on weekends). For more info, visit ZukkuSushi.com or call (813) 419-1351.
Astro Ice Cream Set To Open!
For those of us who love ice cream, the announcement that Zukku-San’s owners also are opening a second location of their Astro Craft Ice Cream in our area is very much welcome news.
The Armature Works location features a variety of unique flavors that, according to its website, “feature new twists of traditional flavor combinations that reflect the diversity of our Tampa Bay community & honor its rich history.”
Ferdian says no one else has flavors like creme brulée café con leche, whiskey cookie dough, Tampa guava cream cheese or banana pudding peanut butter cookie, Ybor spiced run toasted coconut meringue pie, or options like ice cream sandwiches made with real pressed Cuban bread from La Segunda Bakery (photo above). “The bread gets crispy and the ice cream stays cold,” says Ferdian. Wow!
Stay tuned to these pages for updated on Astro Ice Cream’s expected opening.
Tucked away in Angus Valley, one of the few remaining places in Wesley Chapel that business and residential development haven’t touched, Jeff Hajari gets back to nature.
On this day, he is tending to his bees, all eight hives of them. It doesn’t take a lot of work, really, now that he has been doing this for two years, but he works to keep his hive small and strong.
In his kitchen, his countertops are filled with 16 oz. mason jars of the sweet elixir his troops have produced, roughly 400 pounds in all during his most recent harvest.
A large wedge of beeswax sits nearby on the floor, below a counter of vials filled with propolis (“bee glue”), a byproduct of the hive used by people with diabetes to heal wounds, combat allergies and even soothe toothaches.
“Bees are amazing,” Hajari says. “There are so many benefits to everything they produce.”
Which is part of the reason why Hajari is so fascinated by them. Truth is, we couldn’t live without bees, as they, along with butterflies, pollinate approximately 75 percent of the world’s flowering plants and 35 percent of the world’s food crops, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Hajari, 59, was born in Kerman, Iran, and came to the US in 1987 to start a new life. He settled in New York and began a career as a home improvement contractor, but then relocated to Florida and eventually bought a home in Angus Valley.
With an affinity for nature and being self-sustaining, Hajari started with chickens and goats in his backyard, and while his attempts to make goat’s milk failed, he did successfully manage to make some soap.
But, he really wanted his own honey. Because he returns to Iran every year to help take care of his mother, barnyard animals required too much care. So, three years ago, he bought his first beehive from a woman in Dade City for $250. He transferred the hive in his truck, and says that setting it up was, well, a bit painful.
“I got stung like crazy,” Jeff says. “Probably 20-25 times. But, it was okay.”
Hajari continued to add more hives — at one point he had 12-15. But, they were weaker hives, and he has found by limiting the hives to eight or so, he has a stronger, healthier group able to resist attackers like ants and other pests. Two years ago, he designed a new entrance for the beehive to fight against varroa mites, who were capable of wiping out an entire colony.
Hajari says he learned how to keep bees like you would learn about anything — the internet and trial and error. He watched documentaries and YouTube videos, read articles and purchased a beekeeping suit. Handy with wood working, he constructed frames for the bees to expand their honeycombs. He has made mistakes, losing bees and entire hives. “Like anything, there is a science to it,” he says.
Every few months, his kitchen becomes a laboratory, where he extracts the honey from the combs and bottles it.
“It takes two days to get it all done and jarred and ready,” Jeff says. “It’s a labor of love. As long as I have enough for my coffee and tea, and my friends.”
He says that the taste each time is different, and that it all depends on what flowers were pollinated. One of his recent batches was particularly dark and bitter.
“I don’t know why, but my honey looks almost like coffee,” he says. “I’ve been to stores but I have never seen anything that looks that dark. It’s extremely dark. But, I read where the darker the better, as it has more antioxidants and antibodies. So I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m good with it.’”
He sells his honey and propolis on Facebook marketplace, which you can find by searching “Local Honey Wesley Chapel.”
Hajari will even come remove a colony of bees from your yard, if need be.
“It’s a hobby, and it’s fun,” he says.
But, there’s always something new to learn, and Hajari has now added mushroom hunting — “Not the crazy ones, the edible ones” — to his nature quest. He joined a group that goes hunting in places like Ocala National Forest, the Croom Wildlife Management Area in Brooksville and even Hillsborough River State Park. One trip yielded a basket of Chanterelle mushrooms, which he cooked up. “I’m addicted to them, they were so good,” Jeff said.
Because he has so many trees and logs in his backyard, he ordered a mushroom growing kit and is hoping to produce Shitaki, Golden Oyster and Lion’s Mane mushrooms in his own backyard. He said it takes a year.
And,before he left for Iran recently, he planted a banana tree, avocados, blueberries and blackberries.
“I just like to be self sufficient,” he says, “especially when it comes to nutrition. I want everything organic, and I like to produce it myself.” What’s next for Jeff? He’s not sure, but he seems to be just beginning. “I always like to try something new,” he says.
If you have kids as young as age 6 and as old as high school-age, and you’re not sure what to do with them this summer, RADDSports at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County has a variety of great camps during the 2022 RADD Summer Heatwave.
RADD is offering everything from All-Sports camps to individualized training camps in its core sports of basketball, volleyball, soccer and cheerleading, some of which are broken down by age and/or skill level and others for kids of all ages and abilities.
All-Sport Camps!
To give your kids (boys and girls) ages 6-16 exposure to and training in volleyball, basketball, soccer and cheerleading, as well as Yo Murphy Performance Training, RADD’s All-Sport Camp is a great choice. There are three separate one-week sessions — May 31-June 3, June 20-24 and July 18-22 — and the camps group kids by age (6-8, 9-11, 12-14 & 15+), are all held indoors from Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., in air-conditioned comfort and include lunch each day, plus a camp T-shirt.
“Campers will get an introduction to each sport and learn basic skills, rules and components of each sport,” says RADD Sports CEO Richard Blalock. “This summer’s camps will focus on sport-specific skills for everyone from novice to elite athletes.”
Basketball Camps!
There will be three week-long RADD Basketball Camps for boys and girls ages 8-16, which are designed to focus on individual skills development, the importance of basketball fundamentals and developing a healthy team attitude and will be held indoors only, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. The basketball camp dates are June 6-10, June 27-July 1 and August 1-5, and also will be broken down by age and skill level.
Cheerleading Camps!
There are three levels of cheer camps this summer, including three one-week sessions for Youth Cheer Camps (June 6-10, June 27-July 1 & August 1-5, all 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; with late pickup and drop-off available for an additional charge) for ages 5-12. No previous cheer experience is necessary and athletes will learn foundational skills for stunts, tumbling, cheers and dance in a fun environment. The cheer camps also will include daily fitness education by Yo Murphy Performance.
The next level up is the RADD Team Cheer Camp for ages 6-14, which will be held June 13-17 only, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. each day, for athletes who have been through or would like to join RADD’s competitive cheer teams. The focus will be on new skills for stunts, tumbling and dance before fall team placements, with daily fitness education provided by Yo Murphy Performance.
High school cheer teams also have their own three-day (July 27-29) School Team Cheer Camp, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. each day. The School Team Cheer Camp is appropriate for both sideline and competitive cheer teams. Teams also will receive two follow-up sessions to be scheduled throughout the year.
Soccer Camps!
There will be three one-week RADDSports Soccer Camps for ages 8-17 — June 13-17, July 11-15 & July 25-29.
The soccer camps, which will be held both outdoors (weather permitting) and indoors, will focus on improving fundamental skills and game technique.
“I really don’t think there’s anything like our camps in this area,” says RADDSports director of soccer (and former English Premier League player and Tampa Bay Rowdies player and coach) Stuart Campbell.
Volleyball Camps!
RADDSports also is offering seven different sessions of Volleyball Camp.
The Attacking Camp (June 13-15, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) will focus on individual techniques for attacking, with proper footwork, proper arm swing mechanics and the transition part of the attacking position.
For the Defense Camp (also June 13-15, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) campers should come ready to work hard and focus on the technical aspects of playing the libero position, including ball control and overall defense.
The two-day Setting Camp (June 16-17, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) will focus on offensive strategies, proper hand and body positioning and mental and emotional aspects of the game.
Younger players (ages 5-9) can attend the Eaglets Volleyball Camp (July 11-13, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.), where they will be taught the fundamentals of volleyball utilizing lighter balls and a lower net, all while having a great time building a passion for the sport.
There’s also a Co-Ed All Skills Camp (July 11-14, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) for boys and girls ages 10-18, designed to teach the fundamentals of volleyball to those ranging from elite to beginner levels.
The Team Camp (July 11-14, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) is a four-day camp designed for Varsity and JV teams who want to get a jump start on their high school seasons! Coaches and players are encouraged to attend together with focus on skills development, competition against other high school teams, team building and goal-setting.
There are two different Elite Camps (July 25-28, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and July 27-28). The first Elite Camp includes 21 hours of training for Elite Varsity-Level Setters (grades 9-12), Developmental Setters (non-varsity, grades 7-10) and First Contact (serve, serve receive & defense for grades 7-10). The second Elite Camp is eight hours of training for grades 5-7 and beginning 8th graders.
For more information about all of the RADD Summer Sports Camps at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County (3021 Sports Coast Way, Wesley Chapel) or visit wiregrass-sports.com/camps.
When I saw on the news and the uproar on Facebook that transgendered swimmer Lia Thomas had won the NCAA Women’s 500-yard championship, beating out Sarasota native Emma Weyant by 1.75 seconds, I couldn’t help but think about my own mediocre career as a distance freestyle and butterfly swimmer.
I didn’t want to be a swimmer as a kid, but all of my closest friends joined the Hewlett (Long Island) High swim team in 9th grade. At that age, I wasn’t big/tall or good enough to play high school football or basketball, so I accepted that swimming was it for me.
All of my friends were better than I was as a swimmer, especially in sprint events. But, I did enjoy being part of a really good team (we always had guys advance to the State Championship meets and some of them even won their events at the County level and at least made it to the finals in their respective events at States). Two of my closest friends were even good enough to swim for the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, I worked to the best of my ability for four years, doing well enough to earn a varsity letter my junior and senior years, based on my results in dual meets during those seasons. I even made it to the County meet my senior year in the 100-yard fly and 500 free, but did not crack the top-20 in either event, despite swimming PRs (personal records) in both. I believe my 500-free time at the County meet was 5:18, but that was nowhere near my goal of breaking 5 minutes.
Even so, I was in the best shape of my life, so I continued swimming to stay in shape in my two years at SUNY Albany, and I even decided to join Albany State’s team my sophomore year. I was relegated to the events none of the other swimmers wanted to compete in — the 200 fly, 500-, 1,000- and 1,650-yard freestyle — but I only qualified for the Division III State Championship meet in the 1,650. I had put on at least 10-15 lbs. of muscle since high school and swam my P.R. in the 1,650 at State — somewhere over 18 minutes — and also recorded my fastest-ever times in the 200, 500 (5:07) and 1,000 en route to finishing 18th at that meet.
Three months or so later, I transferred to the University of Florida, a long-time swimming powerhouse, and decided to see if I could walk on the men’s team. After the first 200 yards of warmups, I realized I was completely outclassed and got out of the water cursing at myself. The famous then-Gators coach, Randy Reese, put his arm around me and said he could tell I was a competitive swimmer, and that I could stay with the team as the equipment manager and possibly even a meet-day fill-in if I could handle the thousands and thousands of yards per day and still get the kickboards and hand paddles put away at the end of each session.
Not only did I decline, I joked that I clearly wasn’t even good enough to make the school’s women’s team — and he agreed.
Little did I know, 40+ years later, that anyone would actually attempt such a switch. The former William “Will” Thomas, who says she began feeling transgendered while still in high school, joined the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s team as a freshman in 2017 and finished in the top-seven in the same events I swam (500-, 1,000- and 1,650-yard free) at the 2018 Ivy League Championships (for the same Penn team my friends swam for), although Will Thomas did not make the finals in any of those events at the NCAA Championships that year or in 2019, the Texas native’s last year competing as a man.
At the end of 2019, Will Thomas told his coaches that he was transgendered and began undergoing hormone replacement therapy to transition to female that year.
Between Covid and transitioning to female, Lia Thomas (right in picture) didn’t swim as a woman at the 2020 or 2021 NCAA Championships, but resurfaced as one of the favorites in multiple events at this year’s NCAA Women’s meet. Lia not only won the 500-yard final (in a time 13+ second slower than Will Thomas’ PR of 4:20.5), she also finished 5th in the 200 free and 8th in the 100 free.
Now, after previously having met and written stories for the former Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner and his Better Health & Living magazine in the 1980s, I do believe it’s possible for adults to realize that the gender they were born into was somehow a mistake, and I wish Lia Thomas the best of luck in life.
What I don’t believe is that someone who was born a man should be allowed to compete as a woman at any level of competitive sports. I’m no doctor or geneticist, but I don’t believe suppressing a male’s natural hormones is enough to not give that genetic man an unfair strength and endurance advantage when competing against genetic women.
Like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, I believe that Weyant should have won the 500-free title, although I blame the NCAA for allowing Thomas — or anyone born a man — to compete as a woman at all.
