Category: Out of Area

By Gary Nager

Where do you go in Wesley Chapel for great Italian food? It’s not a trick question. I know we have a lot of good pizza places in Wesley Chapel proper, but since D’Alessio, Ciao! Italian Bistro and even Primadonna have opened and closed in either New Tampa or Wesley Chapel, there really is no place for authentic Italian cuisine in either of our distribution areas.

However, there is a great little place that we’ve helped create something of a stir about (admittedly, with a lot of help from the Wesley Chapel Community on Facebook.com) that’s located just a couple of miles west of the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO) mall, in the same space that used to be occupied by Bosco’s Pizza.

We may have helped stirred things up for them, but Little Italy’s Family Restaurant & Catering owners Carl and Chef Jessica Meyers have kept the sauce pot simmering nicely ever since with Jessica’s amazing recipes and the happy couple’s no-B.S. northeastern attitude and homemade Italian food “like mama used to make.”

Jessica is originally from Canarsie, a tough part of Brooklyn, New York, where she learned real Italian cooking, especially from her grandmother. This reporter is particularly happy that Jessica learned everything she needs to know about making the perfect red sauce, which most Italian food lovers (like yours truly) can’t live without.

First, let me say that although Little Italy is in no way fancy, it’s really a misnomer to call it a “pizza place — even though Jessica does offer amazing true Sicilian-style thick-crust pizza with a variety of great toppings, or try the “I Did It My Way” where the first three toppings are “on us.”

I’m not holding it against her that there’s no round New York thin-crust pizza at Little Italy’s, but I hope that when they expand into a larger location — which the Meyers are already trying to do — maybe they’ll add the thin-crust ‘za, too.

In the meantime, Jessica says, “I use the best ingredients and make everything here, except for the actual dough for the pizza crust and the real Italian bread we make our ‘grindas’ with. That, we import from New York.”

“New Jersey,” Carl, who met Jessica in his native Rhode Island, chimes back.

“Somewhere up there anyway,” she laughs. “The best Italian bread I‘ve found.”

My favorite dish so far has to be the meatball parmigiana grinda ($9). Jessica’s big, homemade meatballs are literally too much to contain, even for the crispiest, most perfect Italian hoagie roll I’ve had in the Tampa Bay area, swaddled in a thick, red marinara.

That bread also is no slouch when wrapped around Little Italy’s tender, but thick cut of chicken breast parmigiana ($9 grinda, $14 with spaghetti). And those to-die-for meatballs are also available in some of the best spaghetti and meatballs around ($13). All of these dishes make a great meal for two hungry people who both crave this kind of “comfort food.”

Other traditional Italian pasta favorites (all $12-$15 for a huge portion) on the menu are baked lasagna, eggplant rollatini or parmigiana, fettuccini Alfredo or bolognese (meat sauce) and some properly pillowy ravioli. I bet if enough of you ask nicely, Carl will even give the OK to adding his linguine with a loaded with clams zesty white clam butter sauce I’ve never tasted before sampled (but wasn’t allowed to photograph; just kidding) on my most recent visit. I’m so thankful that I’ve yet to get my shellfish reaction from clams, ‘cause I love ‘em and this was a dish worth risking it on, ya know?

For starters, if your family loves any kind of cheese sticks, you have to try the mozzarella “half-moons,” which literally are so big more than two people can share them (for just $6!). Other of our office’s favorites to date are a great bruschetta appetizer ($6), an even better caprese salad with a beautiful balsamic finish and an excellent house salad. Other big-portion starters (all $5-$8) on the menu are Jessica’s own “smashed potatoes,” French fry and onion ring baskets and garlic and cheesy garlic bread.

‘Give Me That Calzone…”

Even when I lived in New York, I was never a big calzone guy. But, if you even like a traditional (with a unique tomato sauce, Bacio mozzarella and creamy ricotta, $10) or chicken parm, Buffalo chicken or “I Did It My Way” options (all $13). Just try to eat one of these bad boys without at least four other people…six in some cases.

Even if youse guys feel like a burger, Little Italy’s has you covered, with the already-legendary-in-our-office Godfather burger. It costs $10, but is an 8-oz. slab of made-to-order ground beef, salami and cappicola ham, encased with melted provolone, then topped with prosciutto ham and a balsamic glaze reduction, all on a garlic toasted bun. Add $3 for a huge portion of great fries or the thick onion rings pictured above.

Lil’ Goombas catch a break with smaller portions of those delicious “pa-sketti” and meatballs or cheese ravioli (both $5) or “chicky” fingers and fries for $6.

At least try to save some room for dessert because Jessica promises that no matter how busy she gets, she will always come to your table and hand-fill you one or two (or seven) of her crispy cannoli shells (as she is in the photo above) with the best cannoli filling I’ve had since a certain bakery in Elmont, NY, I mentioned in a previous article.

And, Jessica promises that she can handle your holiday catering order like nobody else. She and Carl started in Florida with a popular mobile food truck called “Little Italy’s Meatballs, where they served hundreds of people a day. In other words, she means it when she says, “No order too large or too small,” she says.

For more info about Little Italy’s Family Restaurant & Catering (24436 S.R. 54, Lutz, next to Walesby Vision), call 909-2122, visit LittleItalyFamilyRestaurant.com. It is open Tues.-Sat. at noon for lunch and dinner.