Category: Business

OTB Delights Café Now Offering Fresh, Locally Prepared Meals & More

I have seen the highs and the lows over the last six years with my friend Dirson De Mesquita, the owner of OTB Delights Café, now located in Nye Commons, on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., just south of S.R. 54.

Dirson had started his successful, healthy-eating-oriented restaurant concept in the same plaza as The Hungry Greek and Dickey’s BBQ a little further south on BBD (across from AdventHealth Wesley Chapel) when he decided to find anther location in 2018.

What he didn’t know was that he would be closed for several months (basically, from August until December) that year, as he agreed to leave his old space in order for the new tenant — Umu Japanese & Thai — to get started on their build-out while he began building the new OTB.

Bottom line? Dirson and his wife Ana weathered the storm of several months with no OTB income and have been thriving in their new location ever since.

“Our breakfast business has definitely picked up since we’ve been here,” Dirson says. “And our lunch crowd has been about the same.”

The new location is definitely a nicer layout and even though OTB is the only restaurant in Nye Commons, which doesn’t have a particularly easy entrance to get into either, people have been finding it (it’s located less than four miles north of the Pasco County line) — and loving many of the changes to the menu.

But, What About The Food?

At its old location, when OTB only served healthier turkey bacon for breakfast, I’ll admit I didn’t go out of my way to enjoy my most important meal of the day there.

But now, with the new OTB even closer to my office, Dirson has added not only real bacon, but a variety of delicious new breakfast menu items.

My favorite is still the “breakfast plate”, with your choice of three regular or chocolate chip pancakes, two eggs any style (over easy for me, of course) and three strips of that (extra crispy) bacon — a bargain for only $9.99. And, even though it comes with pancakes, I still add OTB’s tasty marble rye to soak up my egg yolks.

Just as delicious, but understandably more expensive ($12.99) is the steak and eggs breakfast, with a nice portion of thinly sliced steak and three eggs your way. Newer breakfast items include “Omelette’ing You Go,” a three-egg omelet served with your choice of side (try the fresh fruit) and toast. You can choose any three ingredients from the following list: any cheese, grilled onions, grilled peppers, tomatoes, baby spinach, arugula, red onion, diced ham, diced turkey, sprouts, pepperoncini, black olives and mushrooms — and all for only $8.99.

You avocado lovers will flip for the Good Morning Ciabatta, with two eggs your way, tomato, avocado and provolone on a tasty seeded, multi-grain ciabatta hoagie roll.

There’s also a breakfast burrito, chicken-quinoa eggs-travaganza and a tasty hash-and-eggs breakfast made with real corned beef and sweet potato home fries; an asparagus-bacon eggs Benedict; the Yolko Ono, with eggs, Black Forest ham, tomatoes and Havarti cheese on a multi-grain ciabatta; as well as an Acai bowl (with granola, bananas, strawberies, coconut flakes and organic Acai.

And, since Dirson is from Brazil, you know he’s serving great coffee, too.

Don’t They Serve Lunch, Too?

Although most people don’t think of a hamburger as a “healthy” option, Dirson’s grass-fed artisan burger is seasoned, hand-pattied, grilled to order and delicious. There’s also tasty veggie and turkey burgers.

OTB’s lunch selections also feature a variety of salads, including the Asian orange ahi tuna salad, with a generous portion of seared rare tuna, Mandarin oranges, toasted almonds and sprouts; a blackened portabella Caesar as well as a chicken Caesar; a seared steak delight salad and “salmon gone wild” salad. OTB doesn’t have the biggest selection of salad dressings, but all of them are pretty tasty. I especially enjoy the sesame ginger and spicy Santa Fe dressings.

Many of the salads also are available as “Rice Rice Baby” bowls. My favorites are the Shanghai chicken (with jasmine rice, sesame seeds, toasted almonds and the sesame ginger dressing), and the steak delight rice bowl (top right on this page), with black beans, jasmine rice, tomatoes, caramelized onions and blue cheese crumbles, with balsamic.

OTB Has Meal Delivery, Too?

Busy working adults, especially those with younger kids, are turning more and more these days to meal delivery services like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron, but Dirson decided to get into the meal delivery business locally because he can promise the same dependable delivery of fresh meals with advantages over those other services.

“We don’t mass produce anything,” Dirson says proudly. Your meals aren’t taken out of a fridge and put into a box, they’re made to your order. You tell us what you want, we make it fresh and deliver it when you want it (guaranteed to arrive between 4 p.m.-9 p.m. on your chosen date to ensure freshness).”

The best way to get started is to call (813) 906-2229 or order online at OnlyTheBestDelivery.com.

You’ll find a huge selection of options online and even though there are actual menu items, Dirson promises that “everything is customizable. If the menu calls for an item to be served with broccoli, you can substitute asparagus, add sprouts, whatever you want.”

And, OTB’s portion-controlled meal delivery service has complete one-week meal plans, keto meals (like keto pesto parmesan chicken and veggies), plant-based meals (like mushroom taco lettuce wraps), special items for kids (kids’ sliced steak and sweet potato mash), desserts (like vegan, gluten-free cookies) and even raw, cold juices (try the cold press juice sampler, with green, yellow, red and bunny juice) available for delivery. There’s even a full catering menu that is fully customizable to your specifications, for events large or small.

Best of all, the food is delicious and guaranteed to arrive fresh, whether you like pulled chicken or ahi tuna with broccoli, quinoa or rice (two left photos on this page) or anything else on OTB’s extensive menu, Dirson’s delivery manager Jen will make sure your order is right — or she’ll make it right.

After six years, I’ve come to expect nothing less from Dirson and OTB!

OTB Delight Café, located at 4839 BBD Blvd., is open Monday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information, call (813) 906-2229 or visit OTBDelightCafe.com.

KAP Medical Group’s Direct Primary Care Approach Is A Hit With Patients

Karina Azank Parilo, M.D., of KAP Medical Group is proud to be Wesley Chapel’s only Direct Primary Care family physician.

After eight years in a local medical group, Dr. Parilo says she was frustrated with the ever-increasing number of patients she was expected to see, which she says was necessary in a medical group setting to cover the overhead costs associated with having to bill insurance companies.

Although Dr. Parilo says she already had 2,700 active patients, the group expected her to take on even more new patients.

“There were patients I’d had for six years who couldn’t get in to see me and couldn’t do their hospital follow-ups with me,” she says, explaining that her schedule was too full to be able to work them in, “and I was becoming increasingly frustrated.”

So, in December of 2017, Dr. Parilo decided to leave the group she had been with and three months later, opened her own practice, using a newer model known as Direct Primary Care.

That means her practice — located in the Windfair Professional Park behind the retail plaza on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. that includes Dickey’s BBQ and The Hungry Greek restaurants — doesn’t bill insurance companies.

“Instead, there is a membership fee for the practice,” Dr. Parilo explains, “which is generally $50-$60 for an individual, or a family with two kids is $150 per month.”

The practice is open to all ages, and the monthly fee covers unlimited office visits and virtual visits via phone or video, in-office tests, well checks, sick visits, weight management and management of chronic medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, asthma, arthritis and more.

For minor office procedures, such as cyst removal or laceration repair, a small supply fee is charged. A list of most KAP Medical Group membership costs is available at KAPMedicalGroup.com.

Dr. Parilo compares direct primary care to a gym membership, where you pay the same whether you visit once a year or once a month, or even once a week, which Dr. Parilo says some of her patients do to drop in for their regular weight checks.

Medical assistant and office manager Michelle Diaz (left) and Dr. Karina Azank Parilo are the only two faces you’ll see when you visit KAP Medical Group off Bruce B. Downs Blvd.

She says her practice is an alternative to what’s becoming more common with primary care physicians, where the overhead costs to have staff available to constantly submit and follow up on insurance claims becomes one of the unfortunate driving forces of the practice.

Direct primary care has proven very popular with Dr. Parilo’s new patients.

“In addition to growing as a movement across the country, it also is growing across our area,” she says. “We have patients coming from three counties, because it is more convenient and affordable. Some have traditional insurance, some have high deductible plans, some have no insurance and a few have Medicare.”

She adds that those who already have good insurance plans choose to be KAP members because of easier access to their doctor and less hassle dealing with insurance companies.

“Dealing with insurance is a pain,” she says, “and a lot of administrative cost goes into billing insurance.”

To cover the costs, those doctors simply have to see more patients.

“As a result,” she explains, “doctors just don’t have time.”

A Little History

Dr. Parilo is originally from Tampa. She earned her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Biology from Duke University in Durham, NC, then came home and earned her Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from the University of South Florida in 2005. While she started training in anesthesiology, she changed her focus to primary care because she found she missed building ongoing relationships with her patients.

“I like taking care of kids, women, men and the older population,” she says, “so I went into family medicine to be able to take care of everybody.”

In 2008, she moved to Massachusetts and completed a residency in family medicine at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester in 2010.

At the time, she says she was a single mom, so she was excited to be able to bring her daughter back home to the Tampa area.

Now, she and her husband, Dane, live in Seven Oaks and have a blended family of three children and three granddaughters. They met through the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon in 2012 and both have remained active in the club.

“I enjoy the service aspect of Rotary and enjoy serving the community,” she says.

For example, in addition to being involved with the club’s local service projects, both Dr. Parilo and her husband have been part of the Rotary Club’s trips to Honduras to provide clean drinking water and latrines for families and schools in the mountainous and impoverished city of Troyes.

With the Direct Primary Care model, Dr. Parilo says the main advantage is the amount of time she can spend with each patient when needed, and that the time she spends with each patient is flexible to meet their needs, as well.

“I have time to talk with my patients’ specialists or spend an hour catching up with them if they’ve had a lengthy hospital stay,” she explains. “I can take care of my patients however they need to be taken care of.”

While that might be in person, at times, she notes that it also could mean via phone, via video conference or even via text. Dr. Parilo uses an app that maintains patient privacy and connects directly with the patient’s electronic medical record.

“Patients love it,” she says, adding that many times, her patients don’t want to leave work to come in for an appointment. “They can just send us a picture and we can respond.”

Dr. Parilo has just one person on her staff — Michelle Diaz, her medical assistant and office manager. The two have worked together since 2010.“My old patients have known her and loved her as long as they’ve known me,” Dr. Parilo says.

And Yes, It Works

Daelyn Fortney is a Seven Oaks resident who began seeing Dr. Parilo shortly after KAP Medical Group opened. Now, Daelyn’s husband, three children, son-in-law and granddaughter are all patients too.

“Dr. Parilo is a good doctor and a great person,” Daelyn says. “It’s almost like a partnership with her. Plus, you walk into the office and they actually know you. That (kind of service) has been lost in recent years.”

Daelyn adds that she had been frustrated trying to find the right primary care physician, and that the time she saves with KAP Medical Group is worth every penny.

“We run our own business,” Daelyn says, “so our time is actually money, anytime we have to take time away from our business.”

Dr. Parilo says that in some cases, Direct Primary Care may save her patients money.

“People don’t realize how much they’re spending before they get anything,” she explains. “You pay premiums whether you ever see a doctor or not.”

She says most people don’t have an old, traditional insurance plan where they can see any doctor they choose and pay a simple co-pay. Most patients have a high deductible they have to pay before the insurance company even begins to pick up the tab.

“At the end of the year,” she asks, “how much did you actually pay out of pocket?”

KAP Medical Group Direct Primary Care & Family Medicine is located at 2615 Windguard Cir., Suite 101, across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from AdventHealth Wesley Chapel. The practice is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. For more information or to set an appointment, visit KAPMedicalGroup.com or call (813) 536-0050.

Cypress Creek Town Center Area Still Rockin’

The S.R. 56 corridor just west of I-75 continues to be the hottest area in what we like to call Wesley Chapel.

Here’s a few projects picking up steam:

* On the north side of S.R. 56 between Bahama Breeze and the Hyatt Place Hotel & Conference Center, a La-Z-Boy furniture store has broken ground.

Headquartered in Monroe, MI, La-Z-Boy is best known for its recliners, although it offers a complete line of furniture.

The Wesley Chapel store will be 13,650 sq. ft., and will soon have company, as a 15,664-sq.-ft. parcel is being developed for retail/restaurant.

The nearest La-Z-Boy showroom is located on N. Dale Mabry Hwy., and there also are locations in New Port Richey, Brandon and Clearwater.

La-Z-Boy will be the fifth furniture store to open in roughly a 4-mile stretch on S.R. 56, joining Rooms To Go (intersection of S.R. 56 and BBD), Ashley, Haverty’s and the 70,000-sq.ft. El Dorado Furniture, which has not yet begun construction in Brightwork Crossing (next to the new Wawa, where 54, 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd. meet).

* Main Event, which will offer bowling, laser tag and a restaurant/bar, and the KISS-themed restaurant/bar Rock N’ Brews are both under construction on S.R. 56, east of the Tampa Premium Outlets.

Rock ‘N Brews received approval from county planners to begin construction on Aug. 30, while Main Event has been under construction since July.

* Also potentially sharing the same space with the two eateries will be Cigars International, which filed site plans on Sept. 5 with the county to build a 9,497-sq. ft. store according to permitting records.

Cigars International, according to its website, is “the King Kong of cigar companies.” It was established in 1996 in Bethlehem, PA, and deals in all things related to cigars. It has a large online presence, and a Wesley Chapel location would only be its fifth store/center, joining two others in Bethlehem, one in Hamburg, PA and one in The Colony, TX.

The store would be flanked by the two roads used to get to Main Event, Rock ‘N Brews and the Saltgrass Steakhouse, which is still only in the planning stages.

* Representatives from 7-Eleven were scheduled to meet with county planners on Sept. 16 to propose building a 3,500-sq.-ft. gas station/convenience store on the southeast corner of Overpass Rd. and Boyette Rd.

* Aldi has begun construction just a little north and west of Costco, and it will be one of two new stores in our area.

Plans have been filed with Hillsborough County to rezone the property of the old Ruby Tuesday off BBD in Highwoods Preserve to make room for a proposed Aldi in New Tampa. — JCC

The Latest On The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus Of Pasco County!

After years of staring at renderings and blue prints and imagining what the new sports complex in Wiregrass Ranch will actually look like, general manager and RADD Sports CEO Richard Blalock’s vision is now coming into focus.

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County is no longer just a large patch of cleared land, it has gone vertical, and the current schedule is looking towards a July 10, 2020, completion.

After three failed efforts since 2001 to build an athletic complex on the property located northeast of the Shops at Wiregrass and two miles east of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., off S.R. 56, the 98,000-sq.-ft. indoor gymnasium is on its way.

Blalock, however, is not letting his excitement get the best of him. While the $45-million facility — which will share a campus with a full-service, Marriott-branded, 120-room Residence Inn hotel featuring a rooftop bar — is a big part of transforming the Wesley Chapel area — and Pasco County — into even more of a sports tourism hotbed, he intends to proceed slowly out of the gate.

“We’ve got people lined up that want to sign a contract now,” says Blalock.

*A drone photo of the progress on the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus.* ***Photo by Charmaine George.***

He is proceeding, though, like a quarterback with plenty of time on the clock. It’s not that he doubts the projection. But, he’s leery of Florida’s cranky wet weather that often slows down construction, most recently during Hurricane Dorian’s trip through the Atlantic.

“We had to take all of the cranes down,” says Jannah Nager, who was recently hired as RADD Sports’ director of marketing after working for more than four years as the marketing and events coordinator at the Pasco Education Foundation. She is the wife of Neighborhood News publisher Gary Nager.

With more bad weather lurking, it may not be the last time the cranes and other equipment have to be removed from the site for safety reasons.

“Everybody is beating us up, ‘When are you going to start booking events?,’” Blalock says. “But, I will not start booking events until after this hurricane season. Once the roof is on, or the side panels, I’ll be more comfortable.”

Blalock says a new facility in North Carolina jumped the gun on its opening and, thanks to Hurricane Dorian, had to postpone that opening.

“That’s the last thing we can afford to have happen here,” he says.

By October of 2020, Blalock says, he hopes to have events ready to go at the new facility, which broke ground in June of 2018. He hopes to book at least 25 events in the first 12 months the sports facility is running. Nager’s job is to help spread the word in the community while marketing the facility to sponsors.

“Jannah knows the community, she knows the people, she knows the ins and out, and she knows the politicians,” said Blalock. “We need somebody that knows community and is popular in the community. That makes our job so much easier.”

The primary sports at the new complex will be basketball and volleyball, and cheerleading is expected to be the third core sport at the facility, which can run eight basketball courts or 16 volleyball courts at any one time.

There also is room for multiple mats for wrestling and judo tournaments, with gymnastics also a possibility. Blalock said he even has been contacted by a youth soccer team in the United Kingdom that is interested in training for a few weeks at the new facility, which will have two outdoor soccer fields and plenty of room to train inside if the weather turns bad.

Local Use During The Week!

Weekend sports tournaments, however, will be just part of the big picture at the new facility.

Blalock says there will be plenty of sports programming for local athletes to participate in, too. He says there will be a three-tier system for each of its three core sports — Academy, Competitive and Development — which will allow opportunities for all level of athletes starting at the age of 9 and going all the way through high school

*Jannah Nager and Richard Blalock are just beginning to market the complex to local sponsors.*

The Academy will be for training elite athletes for travel teams, but will also include an educational component and require participants to maintain a certain grade-point-average. He says the sports will be programmed to not interfere with the local high school seasons.

“The ultimate goal is to change the culture of how these kids are trained,” Blalock says, adding that it is well-documented that youth sports are susceptible to being overrun by overzealous coaches and parents, as well as entitled athletes.

The Competitive program also will be in-house, with three days a week of practices and games — and the chance for advancement to the Academy level, Blalock says.

The Developmental program will be “quasi-recreational,” according to Blalock. Volunteer coaches will run the teams, although those coaches will have plenty of access to paid coaches on the complex’s paid sports staff to help develop more drills and gameplans.

The programming also will be competitively priced with the local market, according to Blalock.

For those who like sports but don’t play for whatever reason, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus will offer a Sports Administration & Hospitality program, where kids can gather data, travel with the teams and serve as managers.

And, now that ground has broken on a nearby 55-over community in Wiregrass Ranch (see story on pg. 8), more programming for older residents also may be in the offing, like pickleball and Rock Steady Boxing for those with Parkinson’s disease. There may even be room for some golf cart parking spots, Blalock says.

In addition to its youth and adult sports programs, the facility is able to provide space for conventions, banquets and other non-sports events.

Blalock and Nager are putting together sponsorship packages now, and also are accepting resumes for positions, although Blalock stresses that the actual hiring process is likely several months away.

For more information about sponsorships and more, visit RADDSports.com or email Jannah@raddsports.com.

RADD Wiregrass Ranch

New Owners Promise To Continue The Fitting Little Feet Tradition

*The husband-and-wife team of Ramon Rivera and Nicole Barber have owned Little Feet shoe store for a few months now, but they’ve been fans of the store much longer than that.*

When Ramon Rivera and Nicole Barber bought Little Feet Shoes earlier this year, it represented more than just a new business venture for the couple.

They consider it their opportunity to help others the way the store helped them.

Located on S.R. 56 in front of Sam’s Club, Little Feet is a shoe store just for children, carrying brand name shoes and more with sizes that fit infants and toddlers up to boys and girls size 6, in regular, wide and extra-wide widths.

For Ramon and Nicole, who are married with three children, Little Feet is a place that helped their middle daughter, Sophia, as she learned to deal with a sensory processing disorder.

Back in 2012, Nicole says that Sophia never wanted to put her shoes on. Sometimes it took 30 minutes to get them on her feet to get out the door in the morning, sometimes even longer.

Ramon and Nicole were tired, stressed and frustrated when Sophia began therapy and they learned that socks and shoes are a common trigger for kids like Sophia.

It was a therapist who suggested they take Sophia to Little Feet, which carried sensory-friendly brands, and have a fitting with then-owner Diana Ciccarelli, who was known to get on the floor with the kids and help them find the perfect shoes, showing patience as they tried on endless pairs, if necessary.

It was just what Sophia needed.

Diana passed away last year, leaving the future of the store uncertain.

“Our daughter was devastated,” says Nicole. “She was so upset as she asked us, ‘Where am I going to get shoes?’”

As an orthopaedic nurse, Nicole also knows how hard it can be for kids with orthotic braces to find shoes that fit over the braces. Little Feet carries those hard-to-find shoes, and helps each kid find the perfect fit.

So, when the store became available for purchase, Nicole and Ramon say they jumped at the chance to buy it.

Shoes For All Children

While Little Feet can be life changing for children with special needs, Ramon and Nicole emphasize that the store carries great shoes for all children.

Top-quality brands, specialty shoes and current favorite trends are all available at Little Feet. Some of the store’s most popular brands include Tsukihoshi, Pediped, Stride Rite, Mini Melissa, Livie and Luca, New Balance, Sperry, Saucony, and Plae.

“We carry everything from trendy shoes to formal shoes, or something that’s fun for parties, to school shoes in specific colors and specialized shoes for kids who need them,” explains Ramon.

Nicole adds that the store sells washable shoes, too, which can be a great benefit for a toddler who is potty training.

Little Feet also offers Capezio dance shoes, leotards and tights, and carries socks and bows.

Many customers travel long distances to get to the store, which is local to Neighborhood News readers.

“We are the only kids’ shoe store in the Tampa Bay area,” explains Ramon. “We have customers who come from Dunedin, Tarpon Springs and South Tampa.”

He says similar stores have closed because people no longer appreciate how important it is to have kids’ feet sized for proper growth and long-term development.

“In other stores,” he says, “it’s up to the parents to figure out what size shoe to buy their children.”

Parents don’t always do a great job of it. In fact, even Ramon and Nicole were once parents who didn’t know what size shoes their children needed.

“The first time I came in to Little Feet, my kid was in shoes that were two sizes too small,” laughs Nicole. “I had no idea.”

Ramon explains that kids can’t often articulate the problem with their shoes. They just take them off. However, he says, it’s really important for a child’s foot development to get them in the right size right away.

“Their bones are very soft, so if they’re in the wrong shoe, you can actually have damage,” Ramon explains.

“We provide a lot of education,” adds Nicole. She says they also encourage kids to run around the store to try out the shoes thoroughly. Plus, the shoes they carry have more stability, promoting proper balance.

Erin Guilbeault is a mom to a six-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter. She says she’s been buying her kids shoes at Little Feet for the past couple of years.

“I love their selection and how patient they are when it takes a while,” she says. “Sometimes it’s a few minutes and sometimes it’s an hour. Everyone is always really helpful and lets them try on as many pairs as they need to find the perfect (shoes).”

Experienced Staff

Nicole is the first to admit that she has a lot to learn about running a shoe store. She gives credit to Alexis and Robin (see photo on previous page), employees of the store who have been there for about three years now, for teaching and helping her.

“They kept the store going through the transition, before we bought it,” says Nicole. “If it wasn’t for them, Little Feet would have had to close its doors.”

In fact, Erin says if she hadn’t heard that the previous owner had passed away, she probably wouldn’t have even known the store had been sold, because she says the transition has been seamless and the customer service has remained consistently excellent.

So, Little Feet remains open and ready to be discovered by families who want high-quality, trendy and fun footwear, fit by an expert.

“From a business standpoint, we’re hoping this model works,” says Ramon. “Others have given up on it, but we want to bring it back and even expand it. We hope to be able to allow people to purchase online, too, but they can still come in and get fitted for the right size.”

Erin says she will continue to take advantage of all that Little Feet has to offer.

“I kind of wish I had found them sooner,” says Erin. “I go in there and there are all these adorable toddler shoes. I’m going to be sad when my kids outgrow them someday.”

Sales and promotions are often announced on Facebook and Instagram, along with photos of some of the store’s in-stock shoes. Search “Little Feet Shoes” on either social media platform.

Little Feet is located at 27607 S.R. 56 (next to Wolf’s Den, in front of Sam’s Club). The store is open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., 10 a.m.–6 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call (813) 991-1785 or visit LittleFeetShoes.net.

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