Less than two months before the 2017 Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel — which will be held on Saturday, March 18, noon-4 p.m., at the new Florida Hospital Center Ice (which now has ice!) — I’m ecstatic to say that my restaurant committee is already surpassing my expectations.
As of our press date — January 19 — we already have 30 restaurants that have verbally committed to participate in the Taste! The truly amazing thing to me, however, is that when we recorded Episode 15 of WCNT-tv (Wesley Chapel & New Tampa television) just four days earlier, we only had 23 restaurant commitments and two maybes (see below).
In other words, virtually every restaurant we’ve spoken with has jumped at the opportunity to give away samples of their cuisine to what we expect will be at least 3,000-5,000 attendees. Everybody seems to want to have a chance to be inside the largest ice skating and hockey facility in the southern U.S. for what was the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area’s signature event for 20 years, even though it’s now been four years since the Taste was held.
The Taste, which is being put on for the first time by the Rotary Club of New Tampa (which meets Fridays at 7 a.m. at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club), will also feature a live cooking demonstration by formerly 465-lb. celebrity chef and author George Stella, whose popular show on the Food Network is called “Low Carb & Lovin’ It.”
There also will be beer and wine available at the Taste, plus great musical entertainment and emcee/Rotarian Bob Thompson will make the rounds to every restaurant and sponsor booth at the event to help our food and beverage providers and sponsors give away some great prizes throughout the day.
And more great news is that the website TasteofNewTampa.org is now live and will provide regular updates about the event’s sponsors and all of the participating restaurants as they commit to participating. You’ll also be able to purchase Taste tickets on the site shortly and, since Taste proceeds will benefit the Rotary Club of New Tampa Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, your Taste ticket purchases may be tax deductible!
Here is the list of restaurants that had committed to participate in the Taste, whether verbally or in writing, at our press time:
•Stonewood Grill & Tavern
•Ciccio Cali
•Vuelo Mexican Grill
•The Private Chef of Tampa
•Paramount Lebanese Kitchen
•GrillSmith
•Dempsey’s Steak House (Saddlebrook)
•Little Italy’s
•Old Heights Bistro
•7 Layers Bakery
•Top Shelf Sports Lounge (FHCI)
•McDonald’s
•PDQ
•Union 72 BBQ
•Sonny’s BBQ
•Cantina Laredo
•Happy Cow Frozen Yogurt
•Charley’s Cheesesteaks
•Tijuana Flats
•Culver’s
*Pepe’s Cuban Cafe
•Buttermilk Provisions
•Arroy Thai
•The Cake Girl
•BJ’s Brewhouse
•OTB Delights Café
•Nothing Bundt Cakes
•Jimmy John’s
•Buffalo Wild Wings (probable)
*Cheddars Scratch Kitchen (probable)
Look for more updates in these pages, on WCNT-tv and at TasteofNewTampa.org!
And, Speaking of WCNT-tv…
The full-age ad in our latest issue touts the accomplishments and viewership to date of WCNT-tv. Episode 15 of WCNT-tv debuted on YouTube the same day we went to press with current issue, but we are pulling some fairly impressive numbers, at least in my opinion, through the first 14 full-length episodes and special reports that have aired to date.
Our Facebook reach is now at more than 334,000 people, up nearly 100,000 people since our last update in these pages.
We’ve also now had nearly 64,000 views on YouTube (which, we’ve been told, are usually much harder to come by than Facebook views) and nearly 83,000 views on Facebook itself for all of the segments combined.
Those may not be local TV station numbers…at least not yet…but with some episodes garnering as many as 10,000 views and with all of the big news coming up over the next several months, my partner Craig Miller (of Full Throttle Intermedia) and I are confident that we’ll soon pass a reach of half a million people and more than 100,000 views each on Facebook and YouTube.
Craig and I again thank our exclusive webcast partner, the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce, and our Studio Sponsor, Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, for believing in this project and trying a different way to bring attention to local businesses. Subscribe to the WCNT-tv YouTube channel today!
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