Nibbles & Bites: Chickens, Car Washes, Carrabba’s and more!

Chicken, Chicken & More Chicken?
The Wesley Chapel area isn’t exactly lacking for chicken-oriented restaurants, considering the recent openings of Chick’n Fun, Zaxby’s and King of the Coop, as well as the now-under-construction Chicken Salad Chick. And, don’t forget chicken places that have been established in Wesley Chapel for years, such as PDQ, Popeye’s and Wing Stop.

But, it appears that we’ll still have to make room for another.

According to Pasco County permitting records, Slim Chickens met with county planners on Feb. 8 at a pre-application meeting, which generally allows prospective applicants to meet and discuss the specifics of their proposals. 

A “quick look plan” presented to the county shows the 2,400-sq.-ft. restaurant (with 42 parking spaces) would be located on the southeast corner of Old Pasco Rd. and Wesley Chapel Blvd., west of Advance Auto Parts, and less than a 1/2-mile from Chick’n Fun.

The plans also include a 1,406-sq.-ft. auto service center, which would be in between the Slim Chickens and Advance Auto Parts.

Slim Chickens is a fast-casual chain that specializes in chicken tenders, wings, sandwiches, salads, wraps and chicken & waffles, as well as other items. It is headquartered in Fayetteville, AR, and has more than 100 locations in more than 30 states. The only location near Wesley Chapel is on N. Boundary Blvd. near Macdill Air Force Base in South Tampa, and there are three other locations in the Florida panhandle. For more information, visit SlimChickens.com. — JCC

Woodie’s Wash Shack Hosts A Spectacular Grand Opening!
If you missed the Grand Opening and official Ribbon Cutting ceremony for the new Woodie’s Wash Shack-Cypress Creek (located at 24749 S.R. 54 in Lutz, about a mile west of the Tampa Premium Outlets) on Feb. 4, you missed one of the best North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon cuttings we’ve attended in years.

First of all, there was free Tampa Bay Buccaneers gear being given away, appearances by a variety of Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) vehicles and K-9 officers (bottom photos), delicious, free food from Bubba’s 33 and Honeybaked Ham and, perhaps best of all, free car washes for every vehicle that came to the party and unlimited top-level monthly wash memberships for just $9.99 per month for the first three months.

But, the even bigger news of the day was that Woodie’s owner Don Phillips (who says he based his growing local chain of four wash shacks on the California surf era of the late 1950s and early 1960s) and local franchisee Harry Jenkins also presented a $10,000 check to Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco for his K-9 Officer program. Phillips even mentioned that the money will go, in part, to the training of a new K-9 officer, appropriately named Woodie.

And, for those who have seen the sign at The Grove at Wesley Chapel that another Woodie’s location is coming soon, Jenkins says that location will likely open in the next 6-7 months. For more information, stop by or visit WoodiesWash.com. — GN

Carrabba’s Italian Grill Goes Vertical!

Even though we’ve previously reported (multiple times) that Carrabba’s Italian Grill would be opening between Aussie Grill and Bonefish Grill on the north side of S.R. 56, we’ve seen some recent comments on Facebook indicating that some of you still don’t know what is being built in that area.

Well, now that Carrabba’s has gone vertical and posted a sign (photo), there is no need for additional speculation. The Bloomin’ Brands-owned Italian eatery, originally founded in Texas by Johnny Carrabba and Damian Mandola, already has 220+ locations in 29 states, and is expected to open this 69th Florida location (and second with a Lutz zip code) within the next 3-6 months. — GN

Kumquat Pie Is Now Pasco’s ‘Official’ Pie!

Congratulations to the little known and oft-overlooked Kumquat Pie, which was recently declared the official pie of Pasco County. The Pasco Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the resolution to honor the pie on Feb. 8, after the Tourist Development Council for Experience Florida’s Sports Coast voted the make the pie the official pie.

“Kumquat pie is an iconic dish in Pasco,” said District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, “and it’s only appropriate it’s now our official pie.” 

Key lime and apple have filed protests, but they never had a chance against the mighty kumquat. It may look like a misshaped baby orange, but the grape-sized fruit has found a place in Pasco County’s heart, dating back to the late 1800s. And of course, Pasco is well-known for its annual Dade City Kumquat Festival, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. — JCC

NerdsToGo Is On The Move For Small Businesses

Michael Varnadore (white shirt) and his team of nerds at NerdsToGo in the Pebble Creek Collection can solve almost any consumer or business computer problem.(Photos courtesy of NerdsToGo)

Michael Varnadore is a nerd, and he’s proud of it.

He says he’s been a nerd since the 1980s, when he first laid his eyes on an Apple IIe computer, bought his first Commodore 64 and got his first Information Technology (IT) gig in 1986, when the U.S. Air Force started using the new Zenith Z-100.

What a decade that was. The computer world has changed a lot since then, and Varnadore has changed along with it. Now, he directs an entire team of nerds at NerdsToGo Computer Services, located in the Pebble Creek Collection shopping plaza on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. Varnadore’s nerds can come to you and solve your computing needs.

“First and foremost, we want to be known as the guys you can trust with your IT, with your business, and with your data,” says Varnadore. “All of my nerds are certified, background-checked and drug-tested. Everybody here is a professional IT specialist of one type or another.”

NerdsToGo offers a slew of services, ranging from replacing a cracked screen on an iPhone to serving as an on-demand mobile IT department for your small business.

“We basically do everything,” says Varnadore, who opened his NerdsToGo franchise in 2019. “Our motto is ‘We Make IT Work.’”

NerdsToGo was founded in 2003 in Guilford, CT by David Colella to provide computer service for residential and small business users, long before computers were ubiquitous. The concept hasn’t changed, and there are now 25 locations nationwide, mostly along the east coast but as far west as Seattle.

On the consumer side, Varnadore’s franchise does hardware repair, and can even replace the back glass on an iPhone (and other phones) with its new laser machine. In many cases, they can have your cell phone or laptop with a cracked screen back to you within a few hours.

Owner Michael Varnadore says his nerds can take care of your small business IT needs, too.

And, Varnadore promises that they will never put business ahead of honesty.

“This was my first time visiting NerdsToGo, but definitely will not be my last,” wrote one of the customers on Google, where the New Tampa NerdsToGo franchise has a 4.9 rating. “All of the staff here were super knowledgeable and pleasant. They were upfront and honest, did not try to haggle me for business. In my case, I had numerous devices to repair and they were very honest and told me which ones were not repairable. For the items that were repairable I received same day service.”

Varnadore says home networking, mostly involving setting up mesh networks to improve the WiFi range in homes, is popular, as well as options like setting up a new computer and transferring data off an old one, setting up printers, installing certain applications, removing malware and other issues with cyber security.

All of these are even more important issues now, in a Covid world, than they were before, because so many more people are working from their homes. 

There are enough computer conundrums to keep NerdsToGo busy. One of the most common complaints from consumers? “My computer is too slow!”

NerdsToGo specializes in tuning up your device by offering solid state drive (SSD) bundles, where they swap out an old hard disk drive (HDD) for a newer SSD, while transferring all your data to the new drive.

HDDs have moving parts, like a spinning “platter,” which can be broken when dropped or bumped, while an SSD is more like a large memory chip.

Varnadore says the difference in speed can be like trading in a station wagon with side paneling for a Porsche.

“The slowest thing on a computer these days is the hard drive,” Varnadore says. “Data is read and written to the disk so many times, people don’t realize how much that it slows everything else down. Now, with new solid state technology, there’s no moving parts. It’s very fast. You put (an SSD) in, it turns that slow computer into something running better than the day they bought it. People are amazed at the difference in speed, and that can save them hundreds, even thousands of dollars.”

NerdsToGo does most repairs in its office, but sometimes a trip to your home or business is all it takes.  

NerdsToGo also is bolstering and emphasizing its local and small business offerings for those who can’t afford a full-time IT employee or don’t want to invest in expensive managed service companies to monitor their networks.

Through its NerdAssure program, NerdsToGo can manage the IT services for small businesses, supporting anywhere from one to hundreds of computers.

“From the day we opened our doors, we’ve always provided services to small businesses,” Varnadore says. “The new NerdAssure is a new branded capability we are rolling out that can do stuff in the background.”

The service monitors more than 3,000 different elements of the business’ computer hardware and software to make sure it’s running effectively, and if there’s a problem, NerdAssure is alerted so it can take action.

Varnadore says that NerdAssure also provides a real-time antivirus, “that not only looks for bad guys’ signatures but actually has a security operations center watching for any events that might be taking place.”

One of the most valuable services is backing up your business’ data. “If you lose critical data you can be out of business,” Varnadore says. “Everything else can be replaced. But, your intellectual property can’t. We can protect that.”

NerdAssure provides hosting for a Microsoft 365 environment and takes care of email issues while offering other IT administrative support as well.

And, when problems do arise, NerdsToGo can be onsite the same day to fix them.

“We want to be the IT company for your small business,” Varnadore says. “When you need us, we are there, and we can be there onsite, so you’re only paying for the time you need us there. When you don’t need us, NerdAssure is monitoring and securing your network in the background.”

And, when you do need NerdsToGo, Varnadore says you won’t be passed through to a call center somewhere else. The New Tampa location phone is answered by a customer specialist, one of the technicians or even by Varnadore himself. So, give your local nerds a call for a free technology evaluation.

NerdsToGo is located at 19651 Bruce B Downs Blvd., Suite C6. The store is open Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m., and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, visit NerdsToGo.com or call (813) 321-1700.

Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. Adds Authentic Carnegie Deli Menu Items!

When I lived in New York City in the early 1980s, the two most iconic Jewish delicatessens in Manhattan were the Stage Deli, which closed for good in 2012, and the Carnegie Deli, which permanently closed its doors at the end of 2016. The two delis, which also were bitter rivals, were located about a block from each other on 7th Ave., near Carnegie Hall, and both were known for their huge, overstuffed sandwiches, weighing in at a pound of meat each.

I thought both famous eateries were gone forever; that is, until Wesley Chapel Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. franchise owner Daniel Kurland told me that all 16 or so of the locations in the Florida-based chain were replacing their existing deli lunch sandwich meats with authentic corned beef and pastrami (and a few other items shown on this page) from the wholesale distributor that has stayed in business since the Carnegie Deli closed.

“Brooklyn Water Bagels even tried to get an exclusive,” Kurland says. “Our corporate entity wanted our stores to be the only places you could get these authentic Carnegie Deli items, including corned beef, pastrami, potato knishes, cheesecake, sour Kosher pickles and even mustard.”

But, Kurland added, “We were told that there were delis and restaurants all over the country, many in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area, where the first Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. locations opened, which already were buying these items from the Carnegie Deli wholesale distributor. They had to be grandfathered into our agreement with Carnegie.”

So, while it’s not the only place in the U.S. where you can sample these items that I loved so much when I lived in Manhattan,   Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is one of very few places on the west coast of Florida, and is certainly the only place in Wesley Chapel, where you can buy them.

And, because the Carnegie Deli was famous for its 1-lb. sandwiches, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. today offers the (pictured above) Manhattan Combo sandwich — with 1-lb. total of Carnegie Deli corned beef and pastrami, on authentic Jewish-style rye bread (or your choice of bagel) with Carnegie mustard (which also is available for purchase in a squeeze bottle), or the also-popular 1000 Island dressing. No, there’s no steamer “drawers” keeping the moisture (and heat) in the meats before they are piled into your sandwich, but otherwise, they are very much the same tasty (albeit fairly fatty, yum!) deli meats I remember from New York City. 

There’s also The Manhattan sandwich, which offers 1-lb. of your choice of corned beef or pastrami, as well as the Half-Pounder Deli sandwich, which has just 1/2-lb. of your choice of corned beef or pastrami, for you lightweights. There’s even The Reuben, which features corned beef or pastrami with sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese, with mustard or 1000 Island dressing on toasted rye.

And, considering that a Jewish deli sandwich would never be complete without a Kosher sour pickle, Brooklyn Water Bagel’s Carnegie Deli sandwiches are all served with a matching Carnegie pickle. 

But Wait, There’s More! 

Knish.

Growing up, I was never the biggest fan of potato knishes — which, at most delis, are either square or round single-serving “pies” with a dough crust, stuffed with uniquely seasoned mashed potatoes — but for those of you who crave them, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. also offers Carnegie Deli’s round (only) knishes, that are very much like the ones we got at our local deli in Woodmere, Long Island. The knishes are especially delish with the Carnegie mustard, too. 

And, you can even finish off your meal with a nice-sized slab of Carnegie Deli cheesecake, which is a creamy, yet dense dessert which is offered with a cherry sauce either poured over it or on the side.

And, don’t forget that Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. also has a delicious roast turkey, bacon and avocado wrap, tuna, egg, chicken and even whitefish salad sandwiches (all of the creamy salad options are available for to-go sale in tubs) and, oh yeah, a huge variety (at least  dozen or more different kinds, from standard plain, sesame and everything to more exotic types, like Black Russian with seeds) kettle-boiled-then-baked fresh bagels and pick-your-own fillings omelettes that are available for breakfast or lunch anytime you visit. The smoked Nova Scotia salmon is authentic, too, and also is available for sale in packages, as are a variety of different types of cream cheese.

And, just in case you’re not a cheesecake fan, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. has a great variety of other outstanding desserts, most of which (not including the authentic Jewish rugelach pastries) are made in-store, using the franchise’s “Brooklynized” water.

The black & white cookies are the best in the area, the chewy chocolate chip cookies have huge chocolate chunks and the house-baked muffins include blueberry, chocolate chip, apple cinnamon and banana nut. 

And, if you love delicious coffee, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. has the best hot and cold coffee in town, at least in my opinion. Its Brooklyn Water Coffee Roasters is its in-house micro-roaster, roasting its coffee in small batches (never larger than 90 lbs. at a time), and purchases only beans that are rated 80 points or higher by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (or in the top 3% of coffee in the world). My favorite available-all-year-‘round variety is the Brooklyn Infusion, with Kahlua, caramel and sweet vanilla flavors, but the seasonal Winter Wonderland blend, with white chocolate, caramel and hints of coconut also is amazing, although Kurland says it will be gone by the spring.

Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. (27835 Wesley Chapel Blvd., Suite 101) is open every day, 6 a.m.-3 p.m. For more information, visit BrooklynWaterBagel.com, call (813) 775-2275 or see the ad on pg. 34 of our latest Wesley Chapel issue to receive a free bagel just for stopping by. 

Brunchery Expanding To Wesley Chapel!

Brunchery New Tampa is getting ready to open a second location in Wesley Chapel!

The New Tampa Brunchery was opened at 17507 Preserve Walk Lane (off Bruce B. Downs Blvd) by Alket (Al) Marku and Stanley Athan in 2019. 

In January 2021, Marku took over as the only owner of the New Tampa Brunchery, and has been tremendously successful. He believes he will bring the same success to the Brunchery Wesley Chapel, located at 27607 S.R. 56, in the former location of Wolf’s Den.

Brunchery is known for its delicious breakfast and lunch menu that offers a variety of options, such as Stuffed French Toast, Omelettes & Benedicts, homemade Muffins, Creamy Chicken Salad on a Grilled Raisin Bread, and many other delicious items. It also is well-known for its outstanding service.

Marku, who took us on a hard hat tour of the former Wolf’s Den location that he is completely revamping, says he hopes to be open no later than Mar 14, possibly sooner. Stay tuned for an update next week. 

We are definitely looking forward to the opening of the Wesley Chapel Brunchery.

For more information visit lovebrunchery.com or call the New Tampa location at (813) 533-7271. — GN

PopStroke, Co-Owned By Tiger Woods, Breaks Ground!


The official groundbreaking of the local PopStroke was held Feb. 2. Players of all ages will enjoy PopStroke’s two mini-golf courses. The 10,000-sq.-ft. restaurant will offer a variety of delicious menu items. All PopStroke courses look more like real golf courses than mini-golf.  

Golf legend Tiger Woods may not attended the Feb. 2 groundbreaking of PopStroke, the tech-driven, family-oriented mini-golf and restaurant concept he co-owns, but rest assured, he’ll have a big hand in how it ends up looking.

“Tiger is involved in the whole process,” said Bryon Bell, the president of TGR Design, which is Woods’ golf course design company. “He will look at the holes, see if he thinks his kids would enjoy it and if he would enjoy playing it. If he’s in town, he’ll stop in at the site. He wants to be certain it’s enjoyable for all ages.”

With a few heaves of dirt, the project officially got under way just north and east of the intersection of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd. 

Greg Bartoli, the PopStroke founder and co-owner with Woods, says he expects the Wesley Chapel/Lutz location to open sometime in October.

The local PopStroke will feature two 18-hole courses — one will be harder than the other — featuring synthetic turf greens designed to mimic putting on real golf courses.

There won’t be any windmills, rivers or other obstacles, just rolling, undulated greens designed to challenge golfers of all ages.

“It’s one of the only concepts I know of anywhere in world, really, where you can find a 3-, 8-. 27- and 80-year-old enjoying it to the same extent,” Bartoli said.

Golfers can see their scores displayed on a large scoreboard, and even order drinks, via an app, that will be delivered to them on the course. 

The mini-golf is complemented by a 10,000-sq.-ft. restaurant and kid’s playground. The restaurant, Bartoli says, will feature premium food and drinks, as well as 24 different flavors of ice cream.

“PopStroke is really about being friends and families together across generations and  across socio-economic backgrounds,” Bartoli said. “It’s affordable and it’s accessible, and we take great pleasure in that.”

If you can’t wait until October, Bartoli recommends taking an hour drive to the nearest location in Sarasota, which is opening next month next to the University Town Center mall.

The Sarasota location will be the third PopStroke, joining courses in Port St. Lucie and Fort Myers, and Wesley Chapel will be the fourth. Additional expansion to Orlando, Houston and Scottsdale (AZ) also is planned.

For more information, visit PopStroke.com. — JCC