Belated congratulations to my friend, and now past president of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, for an outstanding year at the helm of our area’s largest Rotary Club, which meets Wednesdays at noon at the Lexington Oaks Golf Club clubhouse.
Kent passed his president’s gavel over to new president David Gainer on June 15, at the club’s annual awards banquet and installation of new officers. Ross presided over the club’s many service projects, which included not only another successful Duck Fest, but also the start of a new tradition, the Hats & Horses Kentucky Derby party, during his tenure.
At the banquet, Ross gave away many service awards (including one to my fiancée Jannah McDonald) and welcomed inspirational guest speaker Tiffany Ervin, the self-proclaimed “Rotary Greek.” His very deserving Rotarian of the Year was future stand-up comedy star Jodie Sullivan.
At Kent’s final meeting as the club’s president on June 27, everyone in attendance honored him by wearing his signature vest and a mask of his likeness. Great stuff! — GN
OK, you long-time readers know I don’t get too excited about too many of our seemingly neverending supply of new chain restaurants opening here in Wesley Chapel.
But, this one’s different. I genuinely love the new Bahama Breeze Island Grille, which opened on July 16 on the north side of S.R. 56, between the soon-to-open Hyatt Place hotel and Chuy’s Tex-Mex.
And, it’s not just because general manager Jeannie LaFever is so awesome. It’s always great to meet nice, energetic people who obviously love what they do, but we’re talking about a restaurant here. No matter how nice the management, wait staff and bartenders may be, if the food isn’t great, at least one local publisher would not be a frequent customer.
Known for its Caribbean fare and flair, Bahama Breeze is a chain eatery that delivers on its promise of great island-inspired food and drinks in a tropical setting with live music every night (and all day Saturday and Sunday). And, even though I’ve heard a few locals complain about the early crowds and that the restaurant isn’t located on a body of water and faces a busy roadway (blah blah blah), I’m just glad the food is up to snuff.
“And, even though we’ve been slammed, everything’s been running pretty smoothly so far,” Jeannie says. “People are just really excited we’re here!”
Jeannie’s favorite dishes include the most popular jerk chicken pasta, the true fall-off-the-bone baby back ribs. the beef empanadas, the jerk chicken wings, the coconut shrimp and the braised short rib & oxtail.
To date, I can vouch for two different sauces on your “Market Catch” fresh fish, which has been redfish on both visits for me. On mine and Jannah’s first visit, we thoroughly enjoyed the almond-crusted redfish topped with lemon butter sauce (great mashed potatoes and green beans as the sides), as well as the mango glazed redfish with grilled pineapple salsa shown above right.
On our most recent visit, Jannah went a little less adventurous, with her tasty Cobb salad, but I really loved the chimichurri sauce on the skirt steak churrasco. Skirt steak isn’t as tender as, say, a filet, and Bahama Breeze’s only other steak is an 8-oz. top sirloin (which I may just try on my next visit), but wow, with that sauce and the outstanding yellow rice and black beans served as sides, this is my current favorite dish at “the Breeze.”
Jeannie also wants to make sure that locals dive headlong into Bahama Breeze’s exotic tropic drink menu.
“Our Bahamarita is the bomb,” Jeannie says. “But you can’t go wrong with a mango jalapeño mojito, a Goombay Smash or a pineapple-coconut martini, either.”
Bahama Breeze Island Grille (25830 Sierra Center Blvd.) is open every day for lunch & dinner. For more information, call (813) 949-0779 or visit BahamaBreeze.com. And please, make sure Jeannie and her outstanding staff know you read about them in the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News!
I have only met Hans Geissler of Morningstar Fishermen a few times since I was first introduced to him at a Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel (see story on page 33) meeting back when the club met at the old Ciao! Italian Bistro in the Shops at Wiregrass. But, like most people when they first encounter him, I felt from Day One like we were old friends.
Current Wesley Chapel Rotary Club member Dane Parilo first met Hans back in the early 2000s, when both men helped charter the Rotary Club of San Antonio (FL). Not only have Dane and Hans been close friends ever since then (Dane even got the Wesley Chapel Rotary to make donations to Morningstar), Dane has helped his friend expand Morningstar Fishermen, the incredible faith-based 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization Hans started in 1993, several years before both he and Dane joined the San Antonio Rotary.
Morningstar is amazing because its mission statement expands on an old saying:
“Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to raise fish and grow vegetables and the whole community eats for a lifetime.”
In about a quarter of a century, Morningstar has helped people in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and more than 20 other countries across the globe grow vegetables and raise fish using aquaponics, a form of biomimicry. In places where people so often go hungry because they don’t have the natural resources or knowledge of how to grow their own vegetables by raising their own fish — and by using only 1-3 percent of the water used in traditional agriculture, all with no soil. The roots of the plants are actually fed by the waste generated by the fish, usually tilapia.
Hans, who has created Morningstar’s headquarters on Old Saint Joe Rd. in Dade City, where he has multiple fish tanks served by a system of pipes pumping water, has primarily brought the science of aquaponics to these poor nations — from Haiti to multiple countries in need in Africa, Asia, Europe and Central and South America — by setting up the same self-contained ecosystems large enough to raise fish and fresh vegetables to feed entire communities in need. Today, however, he says he has a different focus, one created by a recent natural disaster at his modest Dade City headquarters.
On July 6, a bolt of lightning struck Morningstar’s power tool shed, where virtually all of the books and records of the nonprofit also were destroyed. A large lawn mower basically blew up and a 23-foot boat next to the burnt building very nearly caught fire, too.
While most people would be devastated by such a loss, especially since Hans had no insurance whatsoever for the building, the Morningstar founder took a different view:
“God said it was time for a change, for a new direction,” Hans told me as we examined the building’s charred remains. “Unfortunately, many of the systems we set up in these other countries to help poor people would end up being taken over by bad people because they could get away with it, often using legal loopholes to do so.”
Because of that, Hans says, Morningstar will now focus on helping the poor and hungry right here in the U.S. “And, instead of building the systems for them and leaving them there, we provide seminars and animated videos showing communities and even individual people how to create the systems themselves and how to fund the start-up costs to buy the needed pipes, fish and vegetables.”
Since the fire, Hans is even more determined to “Help Others Help Themselves” here in the U.S. He can even show anyone how to create a small, working aquaponic system at their own home.
But, to do so, he needs more help than ever. And, I told Hans I wanted to help, even though I don’t have a great track record of raising money for worthy causes.
To find out how you can help, visit MorningstarFishermen.org or call (352) 523-2722 and please tell Hans I sent you.
IMAGINE, IF YOU CAN, your husband or wife taking the kids for their usual bike ride together and waiting for them to come home. Everyone knows bicycles can be dangerous, but even those times that you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach because it’s taking a little longer than usual for them to return, it pretty much always turns out OK.
Doesn’t it?
Then, imagine what the family of West Meadows resident Pedro Aguerreberry, 42, is going through today, less than three weeks since Pedro took his sons Lucas, 8, and Bennett, 3, out for a bike ride, never to be seen alive again by his wife Meghan or those young boys.
But, this wasn’t just another tragic accident that, in an instant, changed forever the lives of the Aguerreberry family and everyone who worked with the always-smiling Pedro at Citigroup and their friends and neighbors in New Tampa.
Instead, it was an intentional act by a sadly mentally deranged young man who posted on Instagram the day before he made that quick U-turn in his car on New Tampa Blvd. (the main road that runs through West Meadows) to run down Pedro and his young sons that no one should blame him for what he was about to do. Instead, Morse said, “blame the devil.”
Yes, Morse, the former Freedom High student who was Baker Acted by the Tampa Police Department (TPD) on June 12, just two weeks earlier, only to be released — against the protests of his own mother — on June 19, a week after being held and evaluated, was obviously dealing with a serious mental illness. But, this isn’t about whether or not the man charged with the first-degree, premeditated murder of Pedro should be declared not guilty by reason of insanity or not. It’s about what happens after a happily married, devoted husband and father is intentionally taken from the arms of his loving family by someone he had never met.
Trying To Make Sense Of It
Even though I had never met Pedro or Meghan, I was one of more than 200 people who filled St. James United Methodist Church on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. on June 27 for his funeral. The next day, I also came out to take pictures of the 100 or so who got together to put on a memorial bike ride and run in his honor.
At the memorial service on Friday, I was stunned that the start of the service was delayed by an hour, as I was one of only maybe 30 people who were actually sitting in the seats. The other (approximately) 175 or so people in attendance made a circle around the outside of the seating area and every last one of them hugged Meghan and the boys (Lucas was able to get himself into a seat, but Bennett, who was more severely injured in the crash, was still in a wheelchair) and offered them all prayers and other words of love and encouragement.
I had never seen this done at a funeral before but I definitely felt this amazing energy flowing between every one of those well-wishers and the entire Aguerreberry family.
As if he hadn’t already been through enough that week, poor Bennett simply couldn’t handle the receiving line. After the first 20 minutes or so, he said, “Mommy, please stop letting go of me,” as Meghan tried desperately to continue holding his hand while hugging every one of the attendees with her other arm.
Still 20 minutes later, Bennett pleaded with her again, “Mommy, please stop hugging them.” I can’t imagine that anyone who left St. James did so with his or her heart still intact after hearing this sweet child’s plaintive cries.
After that, it was difficult to focus on the beautiful, sweet words of remembrance from Brett, Oscar and Laura, Pedro’s friends and coworkers at Citigroup who spoke. Everyone who did mentioned Pedro’s smile.
“Pedro was always happy and always had the greatest smile on his face,” Brett said. “He was always saying, ‘Hey, Brett, isn’t this just the greatest day?’”
It’s still so hard to believe that someone like that could be taken away from the people who love him by such a senseless, heinous act.
Even so, I personally wanted to thank Loyless Funeral Homes for providing such a beautiful video memorial for Pedro, both online and during the service. All of the pictures of him and his family on these pages were saved from that video.
Honoring Pedro’s Memory…
It certainly isn’t difficult to understand why so many people have felt compelled to try to help the Aguerreberry family. In addition to the memorial bike ride, a GoFundMe page has already raised tens of thousands of dollars to help them and The Fat Rabbit Pub in Tampa Palms and 900º Woodfired Pizza in the Shops at Wiregrass (owner Steve Falabella lives in West Meadows) were among those holding fund-raising events (Fat Rabbit’s was on July 8) to help.
As for the bike ride, cyclists young and old started at the BBD entrance to Flatwoods Park, turned right onto BBD and left onto New Tampa Blvd., pausing to honor Pedro at the makeshift shrine set up by his fellow West Meadows residents near where he was struck and killed by Morse’s car a little west of Wood Sage Dr.
Brett was among the handful of runners who said a little prayer for Pedro before taking off to run the park’s paved loop together.
So, how can one of my favorite local restaurants get even better when the husband-and-wife chefs who opened it — and still own it — hire a new chef?
That’s what has happened recently to my friends Jessica and Carl Meyers of Little Italy’s Family Restaurant & Catering on S.R. 54 in Lutz, less than two miles west of the Tampa Premium Outlets. Jessica and Carl have brought in an authentic Italian chef, born and raised in Napoli (not Naples, FL), who has honed his skills in not only his native country, but also in Germany, Australia, England, Tampa and, most recently, his own place, which was called Manzoni’s, even though neither the chef’s first nor last name is Manzoni.
“Manzoni is-a the street-a I grew up on in-a Napoli,” says Chef Simeone (pronounced “Sih-me-oh-nay”) Chiacchio, who opened Manzoni’s in Tarpon Springs a few years ago, after working at some of the better Italian restaurants in South Tampa. “Manzoni’s was-a the first-a time I ever owned a restaurant, and I found out that I’d-a rather cook for-a someone else and not-a have-a to be the boss.”
That worked out perfectly for Jessica and Carl, who brought in Chef Sam (“or Simon,” says Simeone. “Sam is just-a little easier for-a some people.”) a little over a month ago and have enjoyed not only his “autentico” Neapolitan cuisine, but also his accent, his sense of humor and his ability to multi-task.
“I told him you’re like an octopus,” says Jessica. “Carl and I really admire his skills. He can cook anything and he’s already adding amazing new specials and slowly making changes to our existing menu. We’ll be rolling out our new menu soon.”
Carl, who has been to Italy many times, says he can tell Chef Simeone is authentic because, “he doesn’t let anything go to waste. He cuts up the leftover penne and spaghetti for his pasta fagioli (one of his new specials) and he saves all of the scraps of cut produce, like onions, garlic and more and makes stock to keep his chicken dishes moist.”
Carl also mentioned something I forgot to write down about the beans used in Chef Sam’s pasta fagioli, but all I can tell you is that it is the best I’ve had in the Tampa Bay area. A bowl of it is so big and hearty, it’s a meal unto itself, but don’t get too full to try Sam’s outstanding faggotini pasta, which may not have an appetizing name, but it’s a flavor I’ve never tasted in Italian food before. Faggotini is a pasta “purse,” stuffed with pecorino Romano cheese and pear. Each bite of these filling purses has just a hint of sweetness from the pear, a perfect complement to the salty cheese. But, these faggotini are lightly covered with just the right amount of a creamy, but still light, pink tomato sauce that expertly finishes off this unique pasta dish.
“Just-a don’t-a call it a‘vodka sauce,’” Sam says. “There’s-a no vodka in it.”
New Entrée Specials, Too!
As soon as I saw the new specials board (both the pasta fagioli and faggotini are on it), I got really excited about what Sam’s bringing to the table (pun intended) at Little Italy’s, especially once Jessica and Carl also showed me Sam’s super-extensive menu from Manzoni’s.
Of the new entrées already sampled by yours truly, my surprise favorite was the chicken Vesuvio, which Sam can make for you with the chicken lightly breaded or unbreaded. The chicken surrounds ample, tender slices of eggplant and topped with fresh mozzarella and a light (but not pink), zesty tomato sauce.
My second favorite dish from the specials board was the Caprese chicken over pasta (I’m obviously a tomato/tomato sauce guy). Thick, tender (thanks to that homemade stock?) chicken breasts are topped with also-thick slices of delicious, fresh tomatoes, dense (but perfectly melted) slabs of fresh mozzarella in a thicker tomato sauce more reminiscent of Little Italy’s original sauce, topped with fresh basil. It was served over a helping of spaghetti that provided side dishes for two more meals for me after all that I left over during my visit.
The third new entrée I sampled was the chicken panna, which is served in a thinner-than-Alfredo creamy sauce with pancetta, peas and fresh mushrooms. Jessica said it was her favorite of the new specials and she almost didn’t let me steal even a bite from her (just kidding, Jess).
And of course, yes, you can still order anything from the restaurant’s existing menu, although you might want to ask your server to explain any tweaks Sam may have made to Little Italy’s locally famous lasagne, veal parmigiana (my personal favorite; more on that below), chicken piccata, calzones and huge, rectangular pizzas.
You might just recognize that server, by the way, as Jessica says that she is now going to sometimes work the floor as a server, especially on the weekends, because she really does want Little Italy’s thousands of loyal fans to have full explanations of every new dish and any tweaks Sam may have made to their favorite dishes when they visit.
“All I can say is that the guy is doing amazing things in that kitchen,” Jessica says, “so I want to explain to our customers what goes into making these dishes.”
Carl adds, “This restaurant and kitchen aren’t large enough to do true fine Italian dining. But, what we’re serving now is a step up from what we’ve been doing, without being a step up in price.”
Sam told me not to order the veal parmigiana until the next time I came in because Little Italy’s just started using a new meat purveyor, “and I-a want-a you to-a taste-a the good-a vitello (veal).” He says there will be osso buco (veal shanks on the bone) on the specials board soon and maybe even a steak special.
“Oh, and-a Gary, I know you’re-a not-a the only-a one who likes-a fresh veggies,” Sam says. “We’ll-a give you a choice-a of pasta or veggies with-a your (non-pasta) entrée, too.”
And of course, Sam can create just about anything you want for your next party. Catering has long been a big part of Little Italy’s success the past three years, and I don’t see that side of the business slowing down anytime soon. I guarantee you that a big tray of Little Italy’s lasagne would be the perfect addition to any 4th of July celebration.
And, of course, Little Italy’s still has a “Little Goombas” menu and recently added beer and wine. So, enjoy a delicious glass (or bottle) of delicious chianti, pino grigio or Grandma’s homemade sangria, or a Peroni or domestic beer and get to know the new Little Italy’s. It’ll be “molto delizioso.”
Little Italy’s (24436 S.R. 54, Lutz) is open for dinner only Tues.-Fri. and for lunch & dinner on Sat. & Sun. For info, call (813) 909-2122, or visit LittleItalyFamilyRestaurant.com.
Belated congratulations to my friend, and now past president of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, for an outstanding year at the helm of our area’s largest Rotary Club, which meets Wednesdays at noon at the Lexington Oaks Golf Club clubhouse.
