If the pictures below don’t make you think “nutritious,” think again. These are just a couple of the staple offerings at the new UrbanGr#d Nutrition, located at 26244 Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54) in Lutz, in the Grand Oaks Plaza. Owners Fio and Luis Diou have both been fitness fanatics for years, and they say they were frustrated at the lack of protein-packed, lower-carb breakfast and snack options here in the Tampa Bay area, especially in and around Wesley Chapel.
Luis, a chemist who says he became a serious weightlifter after leaving the U.S. Army, and Fio, a former online fitness and nutrition coach, have come up with a unique variety of delicious options already earning some buzz for UrbanGr#d on local Facebook communities from fellow fitness fans.
Top left in the photo gallery what may be the best oatmeal I’ve ever tasted. It features added banana caramel protein (there are other flavors available, too), plus a variety of toppings. I chose crunchy granola, fresh strawberries and real peanut butter and it was almost too good.
UrbanGr#d also features a variety of protein-powered donuts (top left; less than 2g of sugar each) waffles (bottom left), açai bowls, gourmet shakes, energy teas and even hot and iced protein coffee drinks. For more info, call (813) 388-9278 or visit “UrbanGrid Nutrition” on Facebook.
The kitchen at Double Branch Artisanal Ales (DBAA), the first business to sign a lease at the new Village at The Grove development, is finally open.
Travis Glenn and his wife Tammi (photo) are renting the space from DBAA co-owner Ryan Clarke and will manage the food side of the micro-brewery, which is called “Omnivorous.” Travis has been a general manager of various restaurants in his 30 years in and out of the business, including eight years at the Dark Horse Brewing Company in Marshall, MI.
Travis has been with DBAA since the day it opened, working as a bartender, but when the original kitchen manager backed out, he applied to take over.
That’s good news for the pub, which has weathered Covid-19, and the lack of a kitchen, from the day it opened. Travis says you could just see the money floating out the door as patrons stopped by for a beer on their way to dinner somewhere else. “It’s been a huge loss,” he says. “People pop their heads in and ask if we have food. I feel like I’ve turned away 30-35 people a day. It happens all the time.”
The menu at Omnivorous features wings, burgers and “good, honest, straightforward bar-type food” with some personal touches, like amazing Brussels sprouts. Everything is made from scratch, his brisket is smoked in-house, the burgers are smash-style and one of Travis’s goals is to have the best chicken wings in the area, with some unique sauces.
One of his fryers is dedicated to only vegan and gluten-free options, like French fries and those delicious Brussels sprouts.
DBAA has other plans as well. There’s a new brewer, Robert Hunt, who used to work at Tampa Beer Works, in charge of the beers. Ryan says they will continue to produce the wide variety of pilsener, IPA, Hazy and Sour beverages, including a soon-to-be released Grove Gold Florida pilsener, named after Grove developer Mark Gold.
Ryan also had added video and board games to the selection of entertainment, and is already hosting events like yoga, where an hour of Sunday yoga is followed by a beer. The first yoga class was held last month, drawing 23 people. And, while Omnivorous isn’t currently open on Sundays, adding brunch on the weekends also is being considered.
Ryan also would like to put together a Father’s Day beer festival.
“The (Covid) delays have definitely created challenges,” Ryan says. “We’re still very excited about the things coming to The Grove, like the container park, and the new apartments across the street, and looking forward to what this can be.”
For more information about Double Branch Artisanal Ales (5956 Wesley Grove Blvd.), call (813) 492-8800 or visit DBAA.com. — JCC
Even though there are quite a few Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurants located in New Tampa, based on what I’ve already tasted and heard from customers, it’s still well worth a few-minute drive to the Eagle Plaza on Oak Grove Blvd. at S.R. 54 in Lutz to try the new Garden Mediterranean Grill.
gggg
Owners Raja Saad and her husband, Chef Hedi Jlassi (top photo) are both from the Arabic North African nation of Tunisia and they offer a huge variety of delicious Mediterranean-influenced food in a beautiful, but casual setting.
The restaurant now called Garden Mediterranean Grill has had a number of previous tenants, including a Latin restaurant and a number of coffee shops, but Raja and Hedi and their family believe that they have brought the right cuisine and the right price to the location — and yes, the food is delicious!
Whether you dine as a couple of bring a large family or group of friends to the Garden, you’re sure to find plenty of options, as well as huge portions.
Lamb chops
Meat lovers platter
Foule
Half chicken
Interior of restaurant
Al Bohsali Dessert
Appetizer Dip and Pita
To start, try the Foule (pronounced “fool”; center photo, far right), a delicious dish of puréed fava beans, garlic, lemon and topped with virgin olive oil. It’s served with the fluffiest pita bread I’ve had anywhere. To really get into the variety of starters, however, Raja and Hedi recommend the appetizer platter, which includes hummus, baba Ghanouj (mashed, cooked eggplant), labneh (strained yogurt), falafel (fried, ground chick peas) and grape leaves. Other starters include fried calamari, Nabulsi fried cheese, tabouli (chopped parsley, diced tomatoes, onions, dry mint, lemon juice and olive oil), shakshouka merguez (sautée of Merguez sausage and eggs cooked with tomatoes, onion, garlic and spices and even shrimp scampi.
So far, the only salad I’ve sampled is the tangy house salad (diced tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, lettuce, parsley, herbs, olive oil and lemon juice), but there also is a great-looking Greek salad, fattoush, tahini and Caesar salads. You also can top your salad with a variety of meats and seafood, including chicken kabobs (so good) or shawarma, beef or lamb shish kabobs, kufta (ground lamb) kabobs, delicious, fresh-cut gyro meat, salmon or shrimp.
I haven’t sampled any of the sandwiches yet, but I have had several of the meats available as sandwiches as entrée platters. The sandwich that looked the most interesting to me was the chicken shawarma quesadilla, which is a nice Middle Eastern take on the popular Mexican dish which combines sliced chicken shawarma meat and a delicious garlic sauce with cheese, onions and tomatoes stuffed inside a soft tortilla. There’s also fish, shrimp and falafel wraps on the menu.
The perfectly-season meat entrée platters all include long-grain yellow rice and amazing grilled veggies (onions and red and green peppers; Jannah and I order them well-cooked). Among my favorite entrées so far are the gyro, beef shawarma and chicken kabob platters, but my can’t-miss option so far is the lamb chop platter. You get four tender, delicious rib chops that are grilled to perfection.
Lamb chops.
Other entrée options include Turkish kabobs (ground lamb and beef, but Raja says they are different from kufta kabobs), Merguez sausage, lamb shanks and chicken tekka, which is a marinated half-chicken char-grilled in what appears to be an Indian-influenced blend of spices. I didn’t taste it but photographer Charmaine George said it was outstanding.
Although I can’t eat shrimp and personally don’t love salmon or tilapia, the seafood entrées include shrimp kabobs, salmon, fish and mixed seafood platters, as well as the char-broiled whole fish of the day, usually red snapper or bronzino. There are also are large meat-lovers’ platters (with shish, kufta and chicken kabobs, gyro and beef and chicken shawarma) and royal meat-lovers’ platters (add lamb chops, shrimp and salmon), both in sizes to serve 2-3 and 4-6 people, although all of them honestly look like they could serve even more people to me.
Desserts & Beverages!
Like most Mediterranean restaurants, Garden Mediterranean Grill offers dessert favorites like baklava, warbat (filo dough stuffed with cream) and a variety of cakes, but my favorite so far are the almond baklava fingers shown and the salted caramel cheesecake. I’ve yet to try the baklava with ice cream, but it’s definitely on my list. As for beverages, try the Turkish coffee, the Moroccan mint green tea and the fresh mint lemonade.
Left to right: Mint lemonade, salted caramel cake and hot tea being poured.
Garden Mediterranean Grill is located at 1900 Oak Grove Blvd., Lutz (zip code 33559) and is open Mon.-Thur., 10 a.m.-10 p.m., 10 a.m.-11 p.m. on Fri., 9 a.m.-11 p.m. on Sat. and 9 a.m.-10 p.m. on Sun. For more information, call (813) 528-8088 or see the ad on pg. 39 of our latest issues for a Grand Opening Special 15%-off coupon.
Although New Tampa already is home to several “build-your-own bowl,” fast-casual restaurants, the opening of the new Fresh Kitchen at the north end of the Sprouts Farmers Market-anchored Village at Hunter’s Lake plaza is still well worth celebrating.
Fresh Kitchen, which has eleven locations in Florida, from Gainesville to Davie, is now open. It will hold its official ribbon cutting Tuesday, March 30 at 10:30 a.m.
Fresh Kitchen has one of the best (and tastiest) varieties of bowl bases, veggies and proteins of any bowl restaurant in our area.
I already love the “power” and coconut ginger rice, cauliflower potato mash, kale slaw and baby kale caesar as bases, parmesan broccoli and herb roasted cauliflower veggies, fresh-grilled steak and unique almond-baked chicken fingers, the creamy white ginger and herb balsamic vinaigrette sauces and pico de gallo and kale pesto tomatoes “add-ons.”
Fresh Kitchen president Steven Lanza, who attended the “friends & family” event where these pics were taken, says everything at Fresh Kitchen is fresh, homemade and gluten-free.
“We call it healthy food that’s flavorful,” Lanza says. “We believe our quality is as good as you would find in a steakhouse or fine-dining restaurant in a fast-casual environment.”
For more info about Fresh Kitchen (8648 Hunter’s Village Rd.), call (813) 336-3800 or visit eatfreshkitchen.com.
First Watch To Open Apr. 5
Directly adjacent to Fresh Kitchen, New Tampa is getting its own First Watch restaurant, even though there’s already a location only 3 miles to the north on BBD in Wesley Chapel.
Even so, operations manager (and New Tampa resident) Carrie Hagerman says the Wesley Chapel location isn’t going anywhere.
“That area is growing so fast,” Hagerman says. “There’s plenty of room for both stores.”
As a native New Yorker raised on bagels and lox (aka smoked salmon) and bacon, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches, but who has been living on the west coast of Florida since 1993, one of the hardest things for me to find in our area has been true, New York-style kettle-boiled-then-baked bagels that tasted anything like those I had been enjoying since I was a child.
Yes, there is a place in North Tampa, another in Clearwater and one in Brandon, but until recently, no such “legit” bagel place has existed in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel.
Daniel Kurland is a New Jersey native who first moved to the east coast of Florida and was living in Vero Beach when he first tried a Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. bagel.
“I grew up on bagels,” Daniel says. “Every town in New Jersey had a couple of bagel places. But, when I moved to Florida, it was hard to find good bagels.”
Daniel says he was a steady customer of the Vero Beach Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. before he moved to near Wesley Chapel three years ago and says, “I was shocked by the lack of not only good bagel places, but of breakfast places in general. Not even a Denny’s or an IHOP.”
So, Daniel, who has had many previous careers, including a “dot com” business that he sold. He owned and operated a bar in Ft. Lauderdale before moving to Vero.
“Owning a bar, I liked being part of the community and I was looking for that feel again,” he says, when he found what he believed to be a perfect location for a Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., on S.R. 54, just west of I-75, in an existing strip center at the front of developer Mark Gold’s fast-developing Grove property.
OK, Let’s Talk Food!
Daniel says that the thing he first liked about Brooklyn water Bagel Co. was the fact that just about everything is made in-house, using water that is “Brooklynized” right in the store.
“We use the water to not only make the bagels, but also our coffee (more on that below) and our desserts (ditto),” he says. “I really think it makes a difference,” and the location’s growing roster of regular customers seems to agree with him.
“Our most popular ‘regular flavors’ of bagels are probably the everything and plain,” he says. “If we ever run out of those, we might as well close our doors.”
And, while my personal favorite Brooklyn Water Bagels are the Black Russian (pumpernickel) with (sesame) seeds and the white sesame and poppy seed varieties, Daniel says that there are a few other flavors he can rotate in and out.
For example, although he always has cinnamon raisin bagels in his bagel bins, he recently has been selling cinnamon crunch bagels that are proving to be pretty popular, and others like blueberry and egg that can be rotated into the selection. “We’ll even do an olive cream cheese in the spring.”
My favorites at Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. are the “Williamsburg,” with authentic Nova Scotia-style smoked salmon, cream cheese and tomato (I hold the onion it comes with) or a bacon, egg & cheese on a double-toasted bagel. But, Daniel says the “not-spicy” chorizo sausage sandwich shown below is among his favorites, as are the made-to-your specifications fluffy omelettes next to the chorizo sandwich above. Photographer Charmaine George added spinach, mushrooms and bacon to that omelette, which was served with two crispy hash brown “cakes.”
Chorizo sausage sandwich
Also available are the “Brooklyn,” with bacon, sausage and ham, eggs and cheese, and the “Jersey Boy,” with Taylor ham, eggs and cheese. There’s also a “Greenpoint” with scrambled egg whites, spinach, mushroom and Swiss on a scooped, toasted whole wheat bagel. You can even get fresh avocado on a bagel.
Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel
Lunch, Coffee & Dessert!
The lunch menu is limited to tasty NY-style basics — a corned beef Reuben (with sauerkraut, Swiss and 1000 Island or spicy mustard on rye), a turkey or pastrami Reuben (with the same toppings) called “Rachel,” and tuna and chicken salad melts. I have tried all but the chicken salad and so far, so delicious.
I’ve also made my own sandwich from the Brooklyn Sandwich Board with corned beef and pastrami, although there’s also house-roasted chicken and even whitefish salad. Charmaine also enjoyed the roasted chicken, bacon & avocado wrap above.
Don’t miss the beverages, either. I’m kind of addicted to the Brooklyn Infusion coffee, flavored with vanilla, caramel and Kahlua, although there also are dark and medium roasts, as well as decaf and pumpkin spice varieties. The same flavors are available cold, too, as iced coffee “Cubstas,” and there’s also CinnaBuzz coffee with extra caffeine. There’s even actual coffee-flavored ice cubes at the coffee bar and fans of authentic egg creams will find New York’s beloved Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup and soda fountain seltzer.
The decadent dessert options include legit black-&-white and chewy chocolate chunk cookies, plus house-baked muffins, in flavors like cookies & cream and a mixed-nut “stud muffin.” Daniel says the only dessert items not baked in-house are the variety of different rugelach, a rolled Jewish-origin pastry available in chocolate, cinnamon, apricot and other flavors.
Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is located at 27835 Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54), Suite 101 (next to the new King of the Coop chicken). It is open every day, 6 a.m.-3 p.m. To place an order or for more information, call (813) 775-2275 or visit BrooklynWaterBagel.com.
