Fresh Kitchen Is Open; First Watch Is On Deck

Although New Tampa already is home to several “build-your-own bowl,” fast-casual restaurants, the opening of the new Fresh Kitchen at the north end of the Sprouts Farmers Market-anchored Village at Hunter’s Lake plaza is still well worth celebrating.

Fresh Kitchen, which has eleven locations in Florida, from Gainesville to Davie, is now open. It will hold its official ribbon cutting Tuesday, March 30 at 10:30 a.m.

Fresh Kitchen has one of the best (and tastiest) varieties of  bowl bases, veggies and proteins of any bowl restaurant in our area.

I already love the “power” and coconut ginger rice, cauliflower potato mash, kale slaw and baby kale caesar as bases, parmesan broccoli and herb roasted cauliflower veggies, fresh-grilled steak and unique almond-baked chicken fingers, the creamy white ginger and herb balsamic vinaigrette sauces and pico de gallo and kale pesto tomatoes “add-ons.” 

Fresh Kitchen president Steven Lanza, who attended the “friends & family” event where these pics were taken, says everything at Fresh Kitchen is fresh, homemade and gluten-free.

“We call it healthy food that’s flavorful,” Lanza says. “We believe our quality is as good as you would find in a steakhouse or fine-dining restaurant in a fast-casual environment.”

For more info about Fresh Kitchen (8648 Hunter’s Village Rd.), call (813) 336-3800 or visit eatfreshkitchen.com. 

First Watch To Open Apr. 5

Directly adjacent to Fresh Kitchen, New Tampa is getting its own First Watch restaurant, even though there’s already a location only 3 miles to the north on BBD in Wesley Chapel.  

Even so, operations manager (and New Tampa resident) Carrie Hagerman says the Wesley Chapel location isn’t going anywhere.

“That area is growing so fast,” Hagerman says. “There’s plenty of room for both stores.”

Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. — Legit Bagels, Delicious Coffee & More

As a native New Yorker raised on bagels and lox (aka smoked salmon) and bacon, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches, but who has been living on the west coast of Florida since 1993, one of the hardest things for me to find in our area has been true, New York-style kettle-boiled-then-baked bagels that tasted anything like those I had been enjoying since I was a child.

Yes, there is a place in North Tampa, another in Clearwater and one in Brandon, but until recently, no such “legit” bagel place has existed in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel.

Daniel Kurland is a New Jersey native who first moved to the east coast of Florida and was living in Vero Beach when he first tried a Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. bagel.

“I grew up on bagels,” Daniel says. “Every town in New Jersey had a couple of bagel places. But, when I moved to Florida, it was hard to find good bagels.”

Daniel says he was a steady customer of the Vero Beach Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. before he moved to near Wesley Chapel three years ago and says, “I was shocked by the lack of not only good bagel places, but of breakfast places in general. Not even a Denny’s or an IHOP.”

So, Daniel, who has had many previous careers, including a “dot com” business that he sold. He owned and operated a bar in Ft. Lauderdale before moving to Vero.

“Owning a bar, I liked being part of the community and I was looking for that feel again,” he says, when he found what he believed to be a perfect location for a Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., on S.R. 54, just west of I-75, in an existing strip center at the front of developer Mark Gold’s fast-developing Grove property.

OK, Let’s Talk Food!

Daniel says that the thing he first liked about Brooklyn water Bagel Co. was the fact that just about everything is made in-house, using water that is “Brooklynized” right in the store.

“We use the water to not only make the bagels, but also our coffee (more on that below) and our desserts (ditto),” he says. “I really think it makes a difference,” and the location’s growing roster of regular customers seems to agree with him.

“Our most popular ‘regular flavors’ of bagels are probably the everything and plain,” he says. “If we ever run out of those, we might as well close our doors.”

And, while my personal favorite Brooklyn Water Bagels are the Black Russian (pumpernickel) with (sesame) seeds and the white sesame and poppy seed varieties, Daniel says that there are a few other flavors he can rotate in and out.

For example, although he always has cinnamon raisin bagels in his bagel bins, he recently has been selling cinnamon crunch bagels that are proving to be pretty popular, and others like blueberry and egg that can be rotated into the selection. “We’ll even do an olive cream cheese in the spring.”

My favorites at Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. are the “Williamsburg,” with authentic Nova Scotia-style smoked salmon, cream cheese and tomato (I hold the onion it comes with) or a bacon, egg & cheese on a double-toasted bagel. But, Daniel says the “not-spicy” chorizo sausage sandwich shown below is among his favorites, as are the made-to-your specifications fluffy omelettes next to the chorizo sandwich above. Photographer Charmaine George added spinach, mushrooms and bacon to that omelette, which was served with two crispy hash brown “cakes.” 

Chorizo sausage sandwich

Also available are the “Brooklyn,” with bacon, sausage and ham, eggs and cheese, and the “Jersey Boy,” with Taylor ham, eggs and cheese. There’s also a “Greenpoint” with scrambled egg whites, spinach, mushroom and Swiss on a scooped, toasted whole wheat bagel. You can even get fresh avocado on a bagel.

Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel

Lunch, Coffee & Dessert!

The lunch menu is limited to tasty NY-style basics — a corned beef Reuben (with sauerkraut, Swiss and 1000 Island or spicy mustard on rye), a turkey or pastrami Reuben (with the same toppings) called “Rachel,” and tuna and chicken salad melts. I have tried all but the chicken salad and so far, so delicious. 

I’ve also made my own sandwich from the Brooklyn Sandwich Board with corned beef and pastrami, although there’s also house-roasted chicken and even whitefish salad. Charmaine also enjoyed the roasted chicken, bacon & avocado wrap above. 

Don’t miss the beverages, either. I’m kind of addicted to the Brooklyn Infusion coffee, flavored with vanilla, caramel and Kahlua, although there also are dark and medium roasts, as well as decaf and pumpkin spice varieties. The same flavors are available cold, too, as iced coffee “Cubstas,” and there’s also CinnaBuzz coffee with extra caffeine. There’s even actual coffee-flavored ice cubes at the coffee bar and fans of authentic egg creams will find New York’s beloved Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup and soda fountain seltzer.

The decadent dessert options include legit black-&-white and chewy chocolate chunk cookies, plus house-baked muffins, in flavors like cookies & cream and a mixed-nut “stud muffin.” Daniel says the only dessert items not baked in-house are the variety of different rugelach, a rolled Jewish-origin pastry available in chocolate, cinnamon, apricot and other flavors. 

Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is located at 27835 Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54), Suite 101 (next to the new King of the Coop chicken). It is open every day, 6 a.m.-3 p.m. To place an order or for more information, call (813) 775-2275 or visit BrooklynWaterBagel.com.

St. Patrick’s Day Means It’s Been One Full Year Of Covid-19

The photo of Jannah and me was taken on March 7, 2020, at a friend’s wedding, literally a week or so before the U.S. began to shut down because of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

I also remember going to O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Wesley Chapel to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2020, and I was already uncomfortable talking too closely to the people we met and especially, with hugging anyone. No one was yet wearing masks — as there was some debate as to whether or not they were effective in preventing the spread of this then-new, still-largely-unknown illness — and I just felt like no one knew how close was too close to be talking to someone in those earliest days of the illness. 

Well, St. Patrick’s Day 2021 is now here, which means that the pandemic has been raging in this country for one full year. Thankfully, despite nearly 30 million confirmed U.S. cases and more than a half-million deaths, the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths seem to finally be subsiding a bit, thanks to ongoing mask-wearing and social distancing rules, as well as the introduction of millions of doses of three rushed-to-market vaccines. The good news — at least so far — is that those who have been able to receive the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccines to date have been avoiding serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths, with minimal side effects for most.

I will admit that those who have been able to receive any of these vaccines once they became available has been a little mystifying to me — I thought it was supposed to be the elderly, true front-line workers in hospitals (doctors, nurses and anyone else with direct patient contact), firefighters and law enforcement officers who were supposed to be first in line to receive them, but I saw many people under age 65 on Facebook who didn’t fit into any of those categories bragging that they had received both doses of the vaccine before my mom was able to get her first dose of Moderna vaccine, which she finally did last week.

But, considering how new all of this is, and how crazy the lines have been at public heath locations just to get a Covid test, I am encouraged by the progress that has been made. I’m also encouraged by the fact that the vaccines all also appear to be effective against the different Covid-19 variants that have been popping up. 

I also am hopeful that Jannah and I — who are both under age 65 and in relatively good health — will be able to be included in the next group to be vaccinated, especially once teachers and everyone living or working in long-term care facilities have received theirs. My wife and I genuinely miss going out to crowded bars with live music, but we’ve spent precious few evenings out enjoying dinner and karaoke or to watch a Lightning game since this nightmare began.

 I feel fortunate that neither I nor any members of my immediate family have been touched personally by Covid, although at least one Neighborhood News employee did suffer for a few weeks with a relatively mild case. But thankfully, our employees have mostly been working from home and we wear masks whenever more than one of us are in the office together. 

Even so, how long Jannah and I will have to continue to wear masks when we go out to eat — something we’ve done far less of the last year, but have started to do a little more of late — remains to be seen. And, I also am concerned that the repeal of mask mandates by the governors of several states may be happening a little too soon, too. The U.S. is nowhere near “herd immunity” yet and I don’t have the same faith in people to wear masks without those mandates that those governors seem to have. 

So, while St. Patrick’s Day is one of the holidays I actually have traditionally enjoyed, it will forever be remembered, at least by me, as the holiday when the scourge of the early 21st century first hit home. Stay safe, my friends.

Whether You Crave Italian Or American Food, Try Frammi!

(Above, l.-r.) Travis Younger, Rachell Reed, Ciara Weiss and Erika, Francesco & Luca Ammirati invite you to check out Frammi, New Tampa’s only restaurant serving both great American and Italian cuisine.(Photos by Charmaine George & Gary Nager)  

If your family can’t always agree about what type of food to eat — you want delicious lasagne but your kids are asking for great cheeseburgers — you can both find plenty of favorites at the all-new Frammi American Grille and Italian Food, located in the space previously occupied by the popular Oakley’s Grille on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in North Palms Village.

The restaurant has been owned by Luca and Erika Ammirati since August of 2018, but they kept the name as Oakley’s Grille until about a month ago, and they kept the menu virtually the same, with Luca adding some of his authentic Italian specialties a little at a time.

But, considering that Luca is from Napoli (Naples) in southern Italy and Erika is from a small town outside of Milano (Milan) in northern Italy, the two have a vast wealth of Italian dishes that they love sharing with hungry diners in New Tampa, Wesley Chapel and beyond.

When they were formulating the menu for Frammi, Luca says he and Erika wanted to keep as much of the all-American Oakley’s menu while incorporating an equally extensive selection of truly authentic Italian favorites. To that end, the Frammi menu is American on one side, but flip it over, and you’ll find Italian specialties on the other side.

“There are plenty of places in the New Tampa area serving American food and some serving Italian,” Luca says with his charming accent, “but we wanted to be the only restaurant in the area specializing in both.”

Great Grilled Specialties

Yes, Frammi still has those delicious Oakley’s hamburgers (with a dozen different options, including the popular ghost pepper burger and the bacon, egg & cheeseburger below), “Kars Katch” fried tilapia tenders, Philly cheesesteak and chicken Philly sandwiches, beef, chicken and fish fajitas and some of the best fries in the area.

But, Luca and Erika also have added sandwiches with Boar’s Head meats and cheeses, like the pastrami & swiss sandwich on marble rye bread, as well as a great corned beef Reuben. 

And, although it’s not shown on these pages, the fried chicken sandwich also is excellent and is one of a half-dozen chicken sandwich choices, including my favorite, the unique Cajun chicken Cordon Bleu, topped with hot capicola and melted Swiss.

The Ammiratis’ Italian influence also is evident in the  variety of hot pressed sandwiches, including the spicy Italian and Uncle Muzzie’s mufaletta.

Now, That’s Italian!

But, to be honest, I was much more interested in Frammi’s all-new Italian side of the menu, especially the incredible variety of pasta dishes.

  • Prosciutto and Mozzarella
  • Meatballs
  • Lasagna
  • Clam pasta

There are favorites like pomodoro (fresh tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese  and basil), two different ragus (not to be confused with the jarred sauce) — one with black angus beef (aka Bolognese) and an incredible ragu di salsiccia, with fresh Italian sausage. Luca says his favorite is the spicy pasta arrabiata and there’s also a puttanesca (with black and green olives, garlic, anchovies, tomato sauce and capers).

But, my favorites are the truly authentic meat lasagne (above), made with creamy bechamel sauce, instead of the more Americanized ricotta), the perfect pesto (which sticks to the pasta better than at most places) and especially, the vongole (tiny, fresh clams in their shells, made with diced tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, white wine, garlic and red chili pepper flakes. 

Luca originally introduced me to his authentic fried meatballs more than a year ago, as he says in southern Italy, they don’t serve the meatballs in sauce, they’re served with a side of fresh tomato dipping sauce and garlic bread.

Other Italian specialties include a chunky bruschetta appetizer, a an antipasto Italiano with prosciutto, mortadella (also ham), salami, Parmesan cheese and house-baked bread), a “secondo platto” (second dish) of prosciutto e mozzarella (also with house-baked bread), a fried chicken “cotoletta” (served with fries), an eggplant (melanzana) parmigiana so popular it sells out all the time, fried calamari and several others. 

There’s also a variety of freshly made salads and a reasonably priced kids’ menu, with everything from fish sticks to cheeseburger and more — all from $3.49-$6.99.

“Please be patient,” Luca says. “We are not serving fast food here. Everything is made to order — including Erika’s homemade tiramisu (above).” 

And, everything I’ve sampled to date has been outstanding. I can’t wait to try more — and neither should you!

Frammi (17631 BBD Blvd.) is open every day, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., and offers delivery with Doordash, Mobile Meals & Uber Eats.  For more info, call (813) 523-5075.

Zukku-San Is Taking Its Place Among Wesley Chapel’s Best!

If you somehow haven’t seen it as you crawl to or from I-75 on S.R. 56, or you haven’t seen the ads (or my previous shorter writeups) in these pages, a favorite from Tampa’s Armature Works has opened in our area.

Zukku-San Sushi Bar & Grill opened towards the end of 2020, next to Crumbl Cookie, and has brought that great Tampa vibe along with it.  

But, while the Zukku Sushi location in the Tampa Heights Market at Armature Works is set up (like most restaurants in that space) as a faster-food mix of “curated” sushi, pokĂ© bowls and sushi burritos, co-owner Ferdian Jap and his possible future brother-in-law and co-owner/Executive Chef Gia Tran (Ferdian’s girlfriend is Gia’s wife’s sister) have brought the same “works of art” feel to the coolly elegant Zukku-San, which is much more of a sit-down, fine dining restaurant, featuring a super-premium, full liquor bar.

Zukku co-owner Gia Tran

Gia, who spent several years at Sushi Alive in the Westshore Business District, followed by five years at Ocean Prime outside of the International Plaza, says that Zukku-San allows him to get even more into his unique combination of knowledge and love of the freshest sushi and the ability to create more upscale works of art that he learned at Ocean Prime.

In fact, “Zukku” is a canvas commonly used by artists to create their masterpieces and “San” is a title of respect added to a name in Japanese. Amazing food is the art form and the chefs are the artists who use the finest ingredients to create these culinary masterpieces. In fact, there even are large and small sushi and sashimi palettes served on a custom artist’s palette. These folks are not playing around when it comes to food.

If you spend a few minutes with Ferdian and Chef Gia, you can tell just how excited they are about their latest venture together (they also have a Zukku Sushi location in Charlotte, NC) — and they’re not the only ones. 

Although fans of Zukku-San pack the place (but please note that there are few eateries better set up for social distancing) for dinner virtually every night, Gia and Ferdian only recently unveiled a new lunch menu, so the lunch crowd is just now building.

But, while you can get the full dinner menu if you go at lunch time, there also are lunch-only items, like excellent tuna and other pokĂ© bowls and tender short rib and other bento boxes, all of which include salad, rice, two fried gyoza, or pork dumplings, and Zukku-San’s amazingly fresh and delicious sautĂ©ed veggies. The bottom line is that whether you go for lunch, dinner or drinks and appetizers, you really can’t beat the quality — or the artistry — of Chef Gia’s food at Zukku-San.

For Starters…

Jannah and I haven’t always gotten a full meal when we visit Zukku-San because the starters are just so delicious.

But, every dine-in visitor to Zukku-San also receives a towel that puffs up when your server pours hot water on it. But, neither photographer Charmaine George nor I got a picture that really does this magical process justice, so you’ll just have to check it out for yourself, OK? 

And, even though Jannah and I aren’t as big on sushi as some Zukku-San diners, the fish is always fresh and excellent, as is the seared ahi tuna tataki. Also outstanding are the fried vegetable spring rolls (served with a unique orange chili sauce), the skewers of beef tenderloin and chicken yakitori (shrimp and scallop yakitori also are on the menu; all are skewered with fresh sautĂ©ed onions, peppers zucchini and even broccoli) and the fried pork gyoza. 

But, our favorite starters are probably the wide variety of Tempura a la Carte options. Jannah’s favorite is the zucchini and mine are the broccoli, carrot and amazing whole soft shell crab tempura (right). Also on the tempura menu are shrimp, sweet potato, tofu, whole giant squid, avocado, scallops, hamachi (yellowtail) collar, asparagus, onion rings, red and jalapeño pepper and even whole lobster tail tempura. 

“Most Japanese restaurants give you an order of tempura that may have some vegetables you don’t like,” Ferdian says. “But, we give you four pieces of zucchini or broccoli or whatever vegetables you like, for only $2.95 per order. At Zukku-San, you pick only the tempura items you want.” 

There’s even “Chef’s Features” available, like a tender bluefin tuna appetizer, topped with caviar. Ferdian says that the bluefin appetizer is likely to become a regular menu item in the future, but Gia says other “Chef’s Features” also are coming soon.

There also are soups and salads available as starters, but other than the ginger salad that comes with the entrĂ©es, Jannah and I haven’t sampled any of them…yet. 

From The Wok & Grill

Just in case you’re still hungry for more than just appetizers, Zukku-San offers mine and Jannah’s favorite chicken teriyaki (above), which is served with those aforementioned sautĂ©ed veggies. Also available are dinner portions of those tender, delicious grilled short ribs, plus items we haven’t tried yet, like soy butter glazed baked salmon, miso garlic scallops or tofu, and wok-fired hibachi and udon noodle dishes, all with your choice of protein, or just with veggies.

But, it’s really hard for us to ever pass up the Japanese-style fried rice, which is jasmine rice with egg, peas, carrots and onions and available with chicken, beef, shrimp or fried tofu protein options, but our favorite is the veggie fried rice, which adds red peppers, broccoli, zucchini and amazing baby bok choy. The rice has a nutty flavor that is hard to match. 

Zukku-San also has a kids menu, but while the items aren’t cheap, the portions seem adult-sized to us. There’s also a variety of desserts, from triple chocolate cake to matcha green tea cheesecake, fried ice cream and more, but we’ve honestly never had room left over for dessert. There’s also a variety of hot and iced teas, as well as boba milk tea, but Jannah usually gets a wine or hot saki and I usually have either an Asahi Dry or Sapporo beer, or a whiskey. 

Zukku-San Sushi Bar & Grill (25916 Sierra Center Blvd., Lutz) opens every day at 11 and is open until 9:30 on weekdays, 10 p.m. on Fri. & Sat. & 9 p.m. on Sun. For more information, visit ZukkuSushi.com, call (813) 419-1351.