7 Layers Bakery — Real NY-Style Baked Goods Made By Real New Yorkers!

7-layers-ownerswebIn case you didn’t realize it, I have something of a major sweet tooth. I’m more of a chocolate and peanut butter guy than I am into any type of fruit-flavored treats, but no matter what type of baked goods you prefer, I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll love at 7 Layers Bakery, located in the Grand Oaks Plaza on Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54) in Lutz, in the same plaza as Amici Pizza.

It was easy for me to become friends with 7 Layers owners Evelyn Barreno and her husband William Morello. After all, not only are they fellow transplanted “New Yawkas,” they serve Evelyn’s amazing baked goods, most of which remind me a lot of the great bakery items I loved when I was growing up on Long Island.

Evelyn, whose background is in marketing, says she has been baking since she was a kid. “My mom, my grandmother…all of us…love to bake,” she says. “People have always told me I should open my own bakery, so here we are.”

7-layers-cupcakeswebI remember meeting this fun young couple at last year’s Wesley Chapel Fall Festival and being instantly hooked not only on Evelyn’s cake and cookie samples, but also on Will’s high-spirited, friendly approach to getting people to try everything.

Since their store opened a little less than a year ago, William and Evelyn have become involved with the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce, and held a Chamber ribbon-cutting ceremony almost a year ago.

“We’ve made a lot of friends through the Chamber,” Evelyn says. “The response since we opened the store has been amazing.” The bakery is also a favorite of Joey Richman’s, the young Wesley Chapel resident we wrote about in  a couple of recent issues, who has had some continuing health issues following a recent kidney transplant.

There’s no doubt that the baked goods are top-notch. Although the store is named for the famous Italian seven-layer rainbow cookies that Evelyn and Will grew up with in New York City, I initially fell in love with 7 Layers Bakery’s awesome specialty cupcakes, especially the Reese’s peanut butter cup cupcakes, which have not only decadent peanut butter-flavored icing, but also…surprise!…a mini Reese’s cup hidden in the center.

7-layers-cream-hornswebOther great cupcake flavors include double chocolate, double vanilla, creme brulée, toasted marshmallow, red velvet, cookies and cream and so many more.

But, even this man can not live by cupcakes alone. I’m also partial to Evelyn’s hand-piped cannolis with homemade cannoli cream, her amazingly flaky Napoleons, the real NY-style black-and-white cookies (Evelyn says some of her customers call them “half moons”) and the store’s assortment of loose Italian-style cookies available by the pound, especially the soft-baked chocolate chip cookies and the traditional NY-style lace cookies (which, according to Evelyn, some people call “Florentines,” even though I never heard that term before). 

Other items also available at 7 Layers Bakery include homemade tiramisu, flan and tres leches, as well as Italian sfogliatelle pastries (like crispy croissants with custard-style cream inside), as well as an ever-changing assortment of Leann’s cheesecakes, which are uniquely served in jars and great coffee.

Holiday Traditions!

Evelyn also says that she is already gearing up for the holiday season. “We’ve already started doing our pumpkin spice and we’ll have apple pie cupcakes soon,” she says. “By the time the holiday season really gets started after Halloween, we’re going to have to bring in an additional oven to handle the holiday orders,” Evelyn says. “We have a lot of very loyal customers.”

She says that in addition to Christmas tree-shaped, iced cookies, she will be creating some surprises for the holiday season. “But, get those orders in early, because we run out of our cookies a lot now already, so we expect to really be busy this holiday season.”

Custom Cakes, Too!

There’s no doubt that Evelyn also creates some amazing custom-designed cakes in your choice of flavors and designs.

“If you can dream it up, I can make it for you,” she says.

7 Layers Bakery (26306 Wesley Chapel Blvd.) is open seven days a week. For more info, visit 7LayerCookieCakes.com or the company’s Facebook page or call 388-2271.

Cappys Pizzeria Of Tampa Palms Delivers Great Meals

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Looking for delicious, but not too-thick Chicago deep-dish pizza ? Try Cappys Pizzeria in the City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center. Other favorite dishes include the large Greek salads, the veggie pizza, the calzones and the small New York-style pepperoni pizza.

Even if I never tell you that Cappys Pizzeria, located in the City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center, is my absolute favorite pizzeria in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel, I will say that I have never had a bad meal at this inviting, uniquely decorated little gem.

Cappys Tampa Palms managing partner Harold Hasselback says that even though his pizzeria has never been #1 in either our annual Reader Survey or on my list of favorite pizzerias in the area, he’s proud that the five Cappys locations together have won the “Best of the Bay” title from Creative Loafing’s readers an amazing nine times.

“People always ask us why we don’t do wings or pasta or other Italian specialties, like other pizzerias,” Hasselback told me during my most recent visit. “I tell them that, at Cappys, we’d rather do everything we do the best we can do it and the fact we’ve won so many awards from not only Creative Loafing, but also Tampa magazine tells me we’re doing it right.”

And, that logic is hard to argue, as Cappys is unassumingly always packed for lunch and dinner and offers great craft beers (like Cigar City Brewing’s Jai Alai) on draft, although I still prefer the mass-produced Italian Peroni beer, as well as house red and white wines and six different wines available by the bottle or glass (including a chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, a chianti, pinot noir, merlot and cabernet sauvignon).

Salads & Starters

Whether you choose the Caesar, tossed or Greek salad at Cappys, I assure you that the “small” could feed two people for dinner if they ate nothing else, or at least four people as a normal side dish/starter. The large salads are really family-sized, feeding at least 4-6 (or even 8) people each, depending upon how much other “stuff” each person also plans to eat. 

Our office favorite is definitely the Greek salad shown at the top of this page. It’s got the usual iceberg lettuce, pepperoncinis, onions and black olives, all topped with a zesty, authentic-tasting Greek dressing, feta cheese and enough potato salad for two or more people to enjoy as its own side dish, in addition to your salad course. I did say they were big, right?

I also really love the “small” tossed salad, which is served with a mild Italian (not balsamic) vinaigrette dressing over a variety of mixed greens, including plenty of tasty red cabbage that gives the salad a unique flavor. And, the Caesar dressing and croutons are spot on, too.

Our office also highly recommends Cappys crispy calzones and especially, the cheesebread appetizer and garlicky breadsticks served with a savory marinara sauce for dipping. My personal opinion is that ordering any of the three is overkill if you’re also getting pizza and salad, but Cappy’s cheesebread, breadsticks and calzones are all excellent.

Crust Me!

While it may not be what I remember from when I lived on Long Island or New York City, I do enjoy Cappys thin-crust NY-style pizza, because I love any pizza crust that crunches and even Harold’s too-thick-for-me-but-not-as-thick-as-most-Chicago-deep-dish pizza is crisp enough to cut the roof of your mouth (Note-if the roof of my mouth isn’t both burnt and cut, I probably didn’t enjoy my pizza).

cappys-veggie-pizzaOn our most recent visit, we sampled “The Cappy,” with ham, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, mushrooms and some extremely tasty sweet Italian sausage (other meat and fish pizza toppings include anchovies, tasty meatballs and even grilled chicken).

But, speaking of sausage, I will admit that my favorite deep dish pizza at Cappys is a large with pepperoni and sausage only. You have to eat it with a knife and fork and it still is covered in an outstandingly chunky tomato sauce that I genuinely love, so really, who’s complaining?

I also have friends who highly recommend the “The Veggie” at Cappy’s, which is topped with green peppers, onions, mushrooms, black olives and fresh tomatoes, although I’m not the biggest veggie pizza fan. Vegetarians also can add artichoke hearts, green olives, basil, broccoli, feta cheese, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and of course, pineapple.

Don’t Miss These Specials!

If you check out the Cappys ad in our most recent New Tampa issue, you’ll find coupons worth $3 off any purchase (dine in or carry out) of $20 or more and $5 off any purchase of $30 or more. The coupons can’t be combined with any other offers, but they save you a little bit of money on what I am confident will be a tasty meal at Cappys, which is perfect for everyone from families with kids to senior citizens.

Cappys Pizzeria (16019 Tampa Palms Blvd.) is open seven days a week for lunch & dinner every day. For more information, visit CappysPizzaOnline.com, or Facebook.com/CappysTampaPalms.

‘Making Strides Pasco’ At Wiregrass Tomorrow!

making-strideAs the number one cancer killer among women, most adults in Wesley Chapel — and around the nation — have had a close friend or family member who has had and/or succumbed to breast cancer.

But, whether you’ve been touched by this scourge personally or you just want to go for a 5-km (3.1-mile) walk for a good cause, we hope you’ll wake up tomorrow morning — Saturday, October 22 — throw on something pink and head to the American Cancer Society (ACS)’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Pasco” walk at the Shops at Wiregrass mall in time for the 8:30 a.m. start.

ACS of the South Nature Coast of Florida (serving Pasco, Hernando & Citrus counties) senior market manager Robyn Liska says the 2015 walk between the Shops and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel attracted an estimated 5,000 people, including more than 1,250 registered participants on 176 teams and raised more than $175,000.

A week before this year’s event, Liska said there were 116 teams and 724 participants registered that had already raised nearly $60,000, and that figure doesn’t include sponsorship money.

According to the ACS website (Cancer.org), “Making Strides walks are the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the nation, uniting nearly 300 communities with a shared determination to finish the fight.”

For more info about tomorrow’s walk, visit MakingStridesWalk.org/PascoFL or MakingStridesWalk.org/RealMeanPascoFL. — GN

Vuelo’s Getting Ready For Opening

nibs_senortsSeñor T’s To Become Vuelo’s

Speaking of restaurants we liked that had closed, Señor T’s Mexican Grill, which opened in the former location of Romano’s Macaroni Grill on Bruce B. Downs in November 2015 and closed in August of this year, held a two-day Job Fair Sept. 27-28 for people interested in working for a new restaurant, which should open within a few weeks.

According to an on-site manager we spoke to shortly after the well-attended Job Fair, the new restaurant also will be owned by Señor T’s owner Tom Reynolds, but will be called Vuelo’s and both the menu and the concept will be revamped, although it will still be a Mexican restaurant.

We’ll provide more updates as Vuelo’s gets closer to opening.

Editorial: No Real Good Choice

trump-clinton
Republican candidate Donald Trump was trounced in the first Presidential Debate by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, but our editor says he can’t vote for either of them.

So, like 80 million or so other Americans, I watched every second of the first presidential debate between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and I will admit that the former First Lady, U.S. Senator from New York and Secretary of State absolutely wiped the floor with the businessman/real estate developer/reality TV star who somehow fooled Republican voters into thinking that he would be a better choice than the dozen or so much more qualified GOP candidates he ended up besting during the primary process.

And, as a native Lawn Guylander, it was hard to not see the irony of two candidates I truly dislike, each with ties to New York, duke it out at Hofstra University, which is 15 minutes from where I grew up.

Does anyone…even the staunchest Republican supporters…still believe that the unprepared, unimpressive “La Donald” was the best choice for the GOP to try to take back the White House after eight years under President Obama? Seriously?

Trump didn’t just lose the debate; he embarrassed himself and his supporters. Registered Republicans across the country let out a collective “uh-oh” as the billionaire stumbled, bumbled and sniffed (what was that anyway? a cold? allergies?) his way to the worst on-stage performance by a Republican since Sarah Palin.

Trump railed on about the number of murders in Chicago, but seemingly only because it’s Pres. Obama’s hometown, not because he had some important (or valid) point to make. He gave himself credit for changing his mind about the president’s birth certificate not being real, but never explained why he did three+ years after that certificate was produced.

When Trump jabbed lightly at Clinton about her 33,000 deleted emails, she countered with a smashing left hook to the jaw about why he won’t disclose his taxes. “Maybe he’s not as charitable…or as profitable…as he’d like us to think,” Hillary said to the American people. “But mainly, I think it’ll show that he hasn’t paid any federal income tax for years.”

“That just makes me smart,” the precocious billionaire sniffed back.

Smart? OK, maybe he is. But, appealing to undecided middle and lower class American voters who somehow have to pay thousands of dollars a year to Uncle Sam while only making thousands themselves? I don’t think so.

As I mentioned in my editorial after the first debate, I’m a registered Republican who could have happily supported Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson or Marco Rubio (I voted for Rubio in the primary, even though I don’t agree with all of his Tea Party positions), saying that I could get behind almost anyone other than Trump.

The only other major candidate who gave me similar pause was the second-place Republican Ted Cruz, who would attempt to make Christianity our national religion, despite our country’s diverse population. Trump may have sold GOP voters on the “fact” that he was the only non-politician in the field — just as he sold unsuspecting students on the bogus Trump University and unsuspecting condo buyers in New York, Tampa and other locations on buildings with his name on them that he ultimately walked away from without completing — but his “non-politically-correct” responses did nothing throughout the campaign but convince me he was the wrong choice, even as he built up his treasure trove of delegates.

So, obviously, I can’t vote for Trump — or recommend that anyone else should either. Even so, I also can’t throw my support behind Clinton, as I twice did Obama. A few weeks prior to the debate, I heard the former Secretary of State take credit for being in the “war room” as Pres. Obama and our top military officials came up with the plan to ultimately “take out” Osama bin Laden, but where was the First Lady when her husband was President? Meeting multiple times with the Al Qaeda leader after he had made his first (and unsuccessful) attempt to blow up the World Trade Center?

Did we even once hear Hillary say, during either of her Presidential campaigns, that, “We should’ve taken out that SOB when Bill had the chance” all those years ago?

No. Instead, we have been (since the 1990s) — and continue to be — told about the “stand by my man” relationship between Hillary and her husband, who surely didn’t begin and end his process of wooing White House interns with Monica Lewinsky. I don’t believe the Clintons are in any way, shape or form a loving couple. I say Hillary has stuck with her hubby only because she feared that she would never become president herself if she divorced him, despite his blatant philandering.

Hillary claims to be fighting for you and me, but I honestly believe neither candidate cares as much about us as they do themselves.

Yes, Clinton dominated Trump in Round One. It was so bad that if it were a prize fight, it would have been stopped early, with Trump sniffing blood back into his nose instead of sniffling before and after every time he spoke.

Even so, I will still be at the polls on Nov. 8, voting for other offices. I just can’t see myself casting a ballot for either of these two, even though one of them has to win. Heavy sigh.