Although we had been previously told to expect some sort of fried or grilled chicken restaurant in the space previously occupied by Wok Chi in the Shops at Wiregrass, the new restaurant that opened there earlier this month is called Teriyaki Madness, which is more of a Japanese experience, whereas Wok Chi was definitely more of a Chinese restaurant.
Please note that in our October 18 Wesley Chapel edition, I mistakenly called this new restaurant by a different name, which also was a fast-Asian concept that closed several years ago. I already have apologized to the general manager at Teriyaki Madness for my mistake, so I hope you will read this and go visit Teriyaki Madness soon. Feel free to make fun of me when you do visit.
Teriyaki Madness specializes in â you guessed it â dishes cooked with a teriyaki glaze (thicker than most sauces) that, to me, is more like BBQ sauce than something youâd get at a Japanese restaurant. This fast, healthier-than-most-fast-casual concept was founded in Las Vegas in 2003 and currently includes more than 100 locations being operated throughout the U.S. and now Mexico by M.H. Enterprises, which is based in Denver, CO.
In addition to beef, chicken and tofu teriyaki dishes, Teriyaki Madness also offers spicy chicken, spicy tofu teriyaki, orange chicken teriyaki, fried chicken katsu and yakisoba noodles with chicken, beef, tofu or all veggies. Appetizers include crispy chicken egg rolls, edamame (soybeans), crab Rangoon, chicken pot stickers and more.
The veggies are very fresh and you can customize which veggies you want, so yes, Iâll visit The Teriyaki Madness (28152 Paseo Dr.) again soon.
For more information, call (813) 803-3749, search âTeriyaki Madnessâ on Facebook or visit TeriyakiMadness.com.
In a tiny office tucked behind The Grove shopping center he recently bought for $62.7 million, Mark Gold is unveiling big dreams.
âBig, big, major,â he says. âThis is major.â
Goldâs vision is all over the walls of the leasing office at The Grove, on blueprints and promotional materials.
There will be a family park, an amphitheatre for musical performances, a brewery, new restaurants, an indoor adventure facility, beautiful landscaping and lighting, and what Gold says will be the biggest shipping container park â think Sparkman Wharf, but on steroids â in the world.
A rendering of how a “container park” will look at The Grove.
There also is room for 400 homes, if Gold chooses to develop the additional acreage.
While others have, for too many years, seen a big box dead end office plaza with empty buildings and overgrown and unkempt land, Gold sees the future.
âThis is a diamond that no one has touched for 10 years,â he says. âNo one had the money to polish the diamond. Thatâs just crazy.â
The Grove, which opened in 2007 and whose current tenants include Best Buy, Dickâs Sporting Goods, Michaelâs and others, as well as the Cobb 16 Movie Theater, may be an afterthought to many locals, a shopping center that once had great potential before development stopped. Gold and his Mishorim Gold Properties promise that will change.
âThe message is, The Grove is coming back,â says Gold, emphatically. âItâs not owned by the bank or an insurance company anymore, itâs owned by creative developers that do this already all over the U.S.â
As Gold lays out his plan, it almost sounds too good to be true. However, District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore, who arranged a meeting for Gold with county planners and administrators, loves the idea.
âI think heâs the real deal,â Moore says. âWhen he left after his presentation, there was energy and excitement in the room.â
Pascoâs uber-friendly-to-business county commission is likely to do what it can to make things happen fast. Many of the typical hold-ups â such as proper zoning and utilities â are all already in place.
The mostly vacant Village across the parking lot from stores like Best Buy, Marshall’s and DICK’s Sporting Goods has been mostly vacant but Gold already has new tenants signed to leases.
Gold, who has now owned the plaza less than a month, isnât wasting any time starting to create a destination that he thinks could serve as a downtown Wesley Chapel one day.
âThis is not only about money, itâs about vision,â he says. âLetâs bring something to Wesley Chapel that people like to come to.â
Just a few days after his purchase, he already had signed leases for 15 of the 60 containers, or micro-shops, that will populate the land between The Groveâs office âvillageâ and Outback Steakhouse. Moore said he was impressed to see that overgrown grass had already been moved and some of the area was already being prepped.
Gold is hoping to create a European-flavored market or bazaar, with an emphasis on locally-owned stores and boutiques, and he says that in about two months, the containers will begin showing up.
âThings are moving fast,â he says. âThis is big in places like Europe, Amsterdam…you see it all over the place. In the U.S., it is fresh. And, it is going to be the largest one in the world.â
Each of the container âshops,â which are former semi-truck trailers that will be outfitted with solar panels, is 40-feet long (although there are options to split the office containers into two or even three separate spaces), and hereâs the big news â he is renting them out for only $1,500 a month for an entire container, with limited up-front costs for design.
âIf you have a dream, letâs make it happen!,â Gold says.
âIf you have a dream, letâs make it happen!,â he says. âThis is your mom-and-pop opportunity, your dream. I care about my tenants. I want to help people come to us. Let me help you.â
A family park for children also will be one of the key components of The Groveâs transformation, as will a 36,000-sq.-ft. indoor trampoline/adventure park (see pg. 14)..
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is a part-owner of Surge Adventure Park, Gold says he already has Surge at four of his developments and that it is likely Brees will follow him to Wesley Chapel, too. Surge Adventure Park would be built near the Cobb 16 Movie Theater.
As we reported last issue, Double Branch Artisanal Ales, owned by Wesley Chapel residents, is expected to open in December, the first new project under Goldâs Mishorim Gold Properties.
âI think it is extraordinarily exciting for our community,â says Hope Allen, CEO of the North Tampa Bay Chamber. âItâs a long time coming. âIt was disheartening to see (The Grove) not living up to its full potential over the last couple of years. I appreciate that new ownership is going to invest in it.â
Gold says he also has signed leases with at least four restaurants â pizza, sushi, gourmet hot dogs and frozen yogurt â for the currently mostly-vacant office park that he calls âThe Village,â as well as a restaurant/duelling piano bar owned by Wesley Chapel resident Jamie Hess and his brother Joe.
âI met with him and was very enthusiastic and energetic,â said Jamie Hess, who signed his lease on Oct. 10. âI thought he had an amazing plan. I went home and researched his other properties and after that, I was sold. Heâs going to make The Grove a huge success.â Weâll have a separate story about the piano bar in a future issue.
Gold has a reputation for investing in property that is undervalued and turning high-vacancy shopping and office centers into bustling, vibrant, family-focused entertainment destinations.
He bought the Lynnhaven North shopping center in Virginia Beach, VA, in late 2018 and quickly turned that around, with nearly $10 million worth of renovations and upgrades.
Whether youâre talking about the Regency Court Shopping Center in Jacksonville, or the Shoppes at Hickory Hollow in Antioch, TN, the DW Center in Newport News, VA, or a handful of other similar U.S. projects, Gold has swooped in to buy a failing shopping center and invested millions into transforming them.
And, the ebullient Gold is excited about The Groveâs prospects.
He says he has been looking to purchase land in the Tampa Bay area for years, but couldnât find anything that suited him.
âIt was like Mission Impossible,â he says.
He spent eight months negotiating to buy The Grove, when he says it usually takes him only about a month to complete similar deals.
The purchase included the 604,000 sq. ft. of existing shopping and dining space, as well as 1.3-million sq. ft. of retail and office space that he plans to build.
But, even better, The Grove is located in one of the southeastâs fastest-growing areas.
Not only are there thousands of homes at various stages of development within a 10-mile radius of The Grove in nearby communities like Mirada, Epperson and even Quail Hollow, but Wesley Chapel also boasts an average annual household income of $92,000.
The shopping center is located just off busy I-75, and can be seen by 100,000 drivers a day.
âI am in the middle of the all the action,â Gold says. âRight where I want to be.â
And soon, he hopes, where all of Wesley Chapel will want to be.
For leasing & more information about The Grove, contact keren@mgoldgroup.com.
The Japanese restaurant and sushi bar formerly known as Fongâs Sushi and Sushi Raw, in the Shoppes at Amberly plaza in Tampa Palms (next to Crunch Fitness) is under new ownership and my first visit to the new Sake House will have be going back for seconds.
I didnât get to speak to the new owner but I did enjoy some tasty fried pork shumai dumplings (photo above), a unique chicken fried rice and some super-fresh snapper sashimi. Hopefully, Iâll be telling you more about the Sake House in a future issue. In order to help make that happen, please call or stop in and tell them you heard about the Sake House from Gary at Neighborhood News!
The Sake House is located at 15311 Amberly Dr., Tampa. For hours and more information, call (813) 977-3838 or visit SakeHouseAmberly.com.
Congrats also go out to Jeff and Crista Dean, the owners of Bubbaâs 33, which is now going vertical between Ashley Furniture and Texas Roadhouse on S.R. 56, west of I-75, in Wesley Chapel. This will be the first location in Florida for Texas Roadhouseâs sports bar concept, which held a North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce-hosted groundbreaking (photo above) on Sept. 9.Â
For additional information, visit Bubbas33.com.
Congrats, Dr. Dave!
Congratulations to well-known local optometrist Dr. David Scamard and his office manager Eileen Popescu of Excellence in Eyecare on their August 14 ribbon cutting hosted by the Greater Pasco Chamber of Commerce.
You can visit Dr. Daveâs two-year-old independent optometry office inside the Costco on S.R. 56 â even if youâre not a member of the wholesale club â and he provides a full-range of eye care services, including comprehensive exams, visual field analyses, retinal imaging and more, with walk-ins welcome.
Dr. Scamard opened his first optometry office in our area more than 17 years ago and I can personally attest to the fact that heâs a great optometrist and a really good guy.
If you need more details, or itâs been a while since you had your eyes checked, call (813) 279-7038, visit ExcellenceinEyecare.net or see the ad on pg. 12 of this issue.
Dirson had started his successful, healthy-eating-oriented restaurant concept in the same plaza as The Hungry Greek and Dickeyâs BBQ a little further south on BBD (across from AdventHealth Wesley Chapel) when he decided to find anther location in 2018.
What he didnât 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 â Umu Japanese & Thai â 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.
âOur breakfast business has definitely picked up since weâve been here,â Dirson says. âAnd our lunch crowd has been about the same.â
The new location is definitely a nicer layout and even though OTB is the only restaurant in Nye Commons, which doesnât have a particularly easy entrance to get into either, people have been finding it (itâs located less than four miles north of the Pasco County line) â 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, Iâll admit I didnât 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 âbreakfast plateâ, 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 â a bargain for only $9.99. And, even though it comes with pancakes, I still add OTBâs 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 âOmeletteâing You Go,â 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 â 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.
Thereâs 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 heâs serving great coffee, too.
Donât They Serve Lunch, Too?
Although most people donât think of a hamburger as a âhealthyâ option, Dirsonâs grass-fed artisan burger is seasoned, hand-pattied, grilled to order and delicious. Thereâs also tasty veggie and turkey burgers.
OTBâs 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 âsalmon gone wildâ salad. OTB doesnât 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 âRice Rice Babyâ 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.
âWe donât mass produce anything,â Dirson says proudly. Your meals arenât taken out of a fridge and put into a box, theyâre 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).â
The best way to get started is to call (813) 906-2229 or order online at OnlyTheBestDelivery.com.
Youâll find a huge selection of options online and even though there are actual menu items, Dirson promises that âeverything is customizable. If the menu calls for an item to be served with broccoli, you can substitute asparagus, add sprouts, whatever you want.â
And, OTBâs 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 (kidsâ 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. Thereâs 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 OTBâs extensive menu, Dirsonâs delivery manager Jen will make sure your order is right â or sheâll make it right.
After six years, Iâve come to expect nothing less from Dirson and OTB!
Good news for those bemoaning the lack of things to do with the kids in New Tampa, as well as the number of empty “big box” stores in New Tampa — an Urban Air Adventure Park is on the way to the Market Square at Tampa Palms, the shopping center anchored by BJ’s Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Dr..
And it’s not alone.
While Urban Air Adventure Park will fill the former home of HH Gregg, Taza Market, an Indian supermarket and eatery, is expected to take over the old Staples location.
Urban Air Adventure is a Texas-based entertainment center franchise with locations all over the U.S.. The New Tampa location will be the company’s 10th in Florida, which includes centers in nearby Lakeland and Port Richey.
It has already announced on its website that it is coming to New Tampa, and according to plans filed with the City of Tampa, the facility will be 28,000 sq. ft. and include areas for a warrior course, spin/flip zone, slam dunk zone, family zone, wipe out area, adventure hub and private rooms for parties to go with a full service cafe.
The award-winning indoor activity center, which calls itself the “ultimate indoor playground for your entire family” and says it is more than just a trampoline park, typically offers high-flying activities, such as a Sky Rider Coaster, climbing walls and elevated ropes course, to name a few.
Taza Market, according to plans filed with the city, will be a 16,382-sq.-ft. Indian super market with fresh food made daily and a cafe-like area of roughly 1,700 sq. ft. with seating for 80.
