Oronzo Honest Italian — Honestly Fast, Casual & Delicious!

If you’ve been craving freshly made Italian food and haven’t yet tried Oronzo Honest Italian, located in the outparcel building to The Walk at Highwoods Preserve plaza on Bruce B. Downs Blvd., I suggest you go now because it’s a one-of-a-kind fast-casual dining experience that’s sort of an Italian take on nearby Chipotle.

Owner Dan Bavaro, who started his career in the food service business at the age of 16 in New Jersey, when he worked for a food truck/caterer who provided food for movie sets. Two years later, he started a high-end limousine company and made enough money when he sold the business to open his own restaurant.

“I knew I didn’t want a ‘slice joint’ or a fine dining Italian place,” Dan says, so after moving to Tampa in 2007, “I ended up becoming one of the first three places in the country to serve wood-fired true Neapolitan-style pizza (that has since become all the rage) when I opened the original Bavaro’s Pizza Napoletana on Franklin St. downtown in 2009.”

Dan Bavaro (far left) with his family.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Dan says that when he first opened Bavaro’s, his whole menu was maybe ten items — including two pizzas, two appetizers, two salads.

By his third year in business, however, Bavaro’s had added pastas and sauces, all made in house and started selling the sauces in the restaurant.

“When we started, I got up to making 250 pizzas a day. Once we added other items, only 60% of the business was still pizza.” By 2015, Bavaro started franchising his place, with new locations popping up at Tampa International Airport and in downtown St. Pete and downtown Sarasota.

In 2016, he began talking with Bob Johnson, the owner of the uber-successful The Melting Pot franchises in our area and the two decided to start working on a fast, casual Italian concept together that four years later became Oronzo, which was named for Dan’s grandfather when it opened earlier this year. Oronzo and Angela Bavaro emigrated from Italy to Brooklyn, NY, where he owned and operated a trucking company, delivering fresh ingredients to local markets and restaurants. 

What About The Food?

Dan is proud that even though Oronzo is a fast, casual concept, the restaurant is a true scratch kitchen, where the pastas, sauces, bread for the piadina sandwiches (aka Italian burritos) and crispy, Roman-style flatbreads (Dan warns that they are not pizzas, although they’re yummy, whatever you call them) are all made in-house. Even the salad dressings and amazing tomato basil zuppa (soup; Jannah’s favorite, which is served with crisp, toasted rosemary focaccia bread) are all house-made.

Start with an Italian-inspired salad (the Italian chopped, classic Caesar and “Iconic Caprese” are all delicious (we added grilled chicken to the Italian chopped salad on this page). Our favorite dressing is the Caesar, but the roasted pepper vinaigrette gets Dan’s vote.

Jannah and I love the spaghetti with meatballs (and I love adding the fresh Italian sausage to it) and the fresh-cut zucchini noodles with antico pomodoro (fresh tomato sauce). You can choose from Oronzo’s pomodoro, spicy arrabbiata, crema, pesto, butter or extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) sauces.

I’m also a big fan of the chicken pesto pasta. The only pasta on the menu I haven’t tried is the primavera, which you can get with spaghetti or zucchini noodles.

Also outstanding is the Caprese forza bowl, made with farro, an ancient grain from Sicily that has become popular here, too. The Caprese bowl features farro, crispy baked chicken, heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, pesto and a balsamic drizzle. So savory!

Senior video producer/photographer Charmaine George, who took most of these pics, also raved about the Caprese piadina (above) and Dan says his favorite is the chicken parm piadina.

My favorite flatbread so far is the Carne (with San Marzano tomato sauce, spicy Italian sausage, prosciutto cotto and spicy soppressata, fresh mozzarella and EVOO).

For dessert, Oronzo has three unique options. The only one I’ve had so far are the cannoli crisps, which are house-made cannoli cream, served with almost cookie-like cannoli crisps for dipping (above). There’s also a warm Nutella piatto flatbread and Italian wedding cookies. There’s even a great kids menu (labeled “Bambino”). 

Oronzo also features an easy-to-use ordering kiosk which quickly walks you through all of the available menu items and Dan says his online ordering system is state-of-the-art, too.“You can go on there and order for a week from now at a certain time and the system will remind us to make your food fresh a few minutes before you’re set to pick it up,” he says. “Technology is a key part of what we do and it’s been made better by listening to our customers.”

And now, Oronzo also offers beer and wine. The new additions include a Montepulciano D’Abruzzo red, a Pinot Grigio white and a sparkling prosecco, plus Peroni beer on draft and an Oronziata non-alcoholic beverage made from scratch with blood oranges, plus delicious espresso and Americano coffees.

Oronzo Honest Italian is located at 18027 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. And is open every day, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. For more information, call (813) 730-0100 or visit Oronzo.com.

Check Out Moschella’s Italian Eatery & Market!

Whenever a new place opens in our area, most of us check it out and decide if there’s something there worth coming back for again and again.

Well, I honestly think that anyone who checks out the new Moschella’s Italian Eatery & Market, which opened the day before we went to press with this issue in the brand new plaza on Post Oak Blvd. (off Wesley Chapel Blvd./S.R. 54 and Old Pasco Rd.) should be able to find a dozen or more items that will fast become some of their all-time favorites.

Owners Bill Moschella and Anthony Spadafora and their families (above photo) invite you to check out what can best be described as gourmet shop on steroids, with so many different departments that it’s hard to leave the place without buying at least something — and for folks like me, many things.

But First, The Story…

Bill and Anthony are long-time friends from the Italian north end of Boston. Anthony and his wife Gina still live in Boston, but Bill and his wife Devanie and their family moved to just outside of Wesley Chapel. Bill was in the concession business for around 35 years.

Anthonys family owned catering restaurants and Bill’s family owned a pizza and pastry shop in Boston. Since moving here, Bill and Devanie kept wondering why they had to drive to St. Pete in order to visit a real Italian market. They drew up the plans for Moschella’s on their kitchen counter.

“Even though Devanie and I are running the place,” Bill says, “Anthony and his family have contributed just as much to getting it open and for helping make sure it has everything we need.” 

And Now, The Food!

Super-thick tomahawk veal chop grilled to perfection.

Although I found the Italian and other imported and gourmet domestic cheeses (there’s also a separate grab & go cheese display), the fully stocked butcher shop (check out the photo above of my super-thick tomahawk veal chop I grilled to perfection; it was the best veal chop I’ve had since I moved to Florida in 1993), the incredible deli sandwich selection (with both a complete Boar’s Head case and a second case with just imported Italian meats and cheeses for slicing) and huge variety of fresh pastas you can make at home, it is Moschella’s displays of fresh, prepared hot and cold foods that really caught my eye.

Bill credits Chef Megan, who has worked in both catering and local restaurants, with refining every menu item idea the families had for these displays.

The hot foods display includes chicken, veal and even shrimp parmesan, plus beef, veggie and sausage lasagne, as well as prepared (but not sauced) chicken, veal and eggplant cutlets, as well as delicious braised lamb shanks and so much more than I have room to describe here.

There also are plenty of unique cold prepared salads, from house-made bruschetta, amazing broccoli rabe with sundried tomatoes, three bean salad, marinated roasted peppers, artichoke stems and tuna salad with shells, to name a few.

And, although Moschella’s hasn’t yet started selling its gourmet pizzas or arancini (rice balls), Devanie says to give it another week or two and they’ll be available. 

There also are huge display cases of “Grab & Go” prepared food items, including both refrigerated and frozen sections.

In other words, if you need a whole tray of lasagne to bring to Christmas dinner, you can buy it today (while supplies last) and bake it to perfection yourself. I didn’t show pics of the Grab & Go displays here because I didn’t have room and they’re as photogenic as the other photos.

Dessert, Too?    

Do you really need to ask? Moschella’s has an amazing display case of everything from rainbow, chocolate sandwich (see photo on next page) and lace cookies to sfogliatella (think of a super-crisp croissant loaded with a thick, cannoli-like cream) and yes, cannolis hand-piped, also with that homemade cannoli cream. And, best of all, all of these luscious, decadent desserts are made in-house.

And of course, Moschella’s has all of the pre-packaged imported items Italian families and great cooks crave — from cookies and cakes to virtually every brand of imported tomato sauces (top right photo on next page), pastas, olive oils and balsamic vinegars (including oils and vinegars bearing a Moschella’s label) and so much more.

Like my new friend Liz from Staten Island said as she walked through Moschella’s — “I feel like I’m home!”

And Yes, Fine Wines, Too!

Mario, the guy usually behind the cheese counter, is from Sardinia, where learned all he could about Italian wine, cheese and cuisine, and speaks fluent Italian. He also helped pick Moschella’s amazing assortment of truly fine wines, the largest percentage of which are from Italy.  If you love Italian reds like I do, you have to check out Moschella’s selection of Brunellos (photo, right), Barolos, Amarones, Barberas, Chiantis and Sangioveses — it’s the best variety I’ve seen since I left New York City almost 30 years ago. 

Yes, these are a little pricy, but oh so worth it. There also are other more popularly priced Italian and domestic red, white and sparkling wines, and many more. 

So, do yourself a favor and get to Moschella’s and start shopping now. This issue will hit mailboxes on Dec 21 or Dec 22, but Devanie says they are taking orders until they close at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve, when they open early (at 7 a.m.).

Moschella’s Italian Eatery & Market is open every day, 9 a.m.-6. p.m. (other than their holiday hours) at 5648 Post Oak Blvd. For more information, call (813) 973-7500 or visit Moschellas.com.

Mangia!

Sweet! New Tenant Looking At Old Sweetbay

We’re happy to tell you that the one-time Sweetbay Supermarket in New Tampa, closed and abandoned for nearly eight years, is finally on the brink of a much-needed transformation.

Located right across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the AMC movie theater and next to Home Depot, the property the building sits on is currently under contract and, if things proceed as planned, a new tenant will begin the process of moving in by early 2021.

Who that new tenant will be, and what kind of business might be headed for the long-empty building, however, was still a mystery at our press time.

“I can tell you it has been under contract, but I can’t tell you who,” says John Neukamm, the attorney for KNK Tampa, Ltd., the California-based owners of the building. “Hopefully, within the next few months, you will see some changes up there.”

Neukamm wouldn’t give any hints about what kind of business might be filling the vacant building, which has more than 30,000 square feet of space.

It won’t be a bowling alley, which he confirmed after we jokingly took a wild guess, and Neukamm says it is unlikely to be another grocery-type store, considering that Sprouts just opened a little north of the location and an Aldi has begun construction directly across the street. 

“I think the neighborhood will be happy,” he says. 

Neukamm also says he is confident the buyer will be putting some “major renovations” into the project.

It will definitely need it.

The Sweetbay building closed in 2013 and since then, has been unoccupied while its parking lot has gone through various stages of disrepair, overflowing at times with tractor-trailers and parked storage trucks while also serving as a dumping ground for people getting rid of old furniture and appliances.

Tampa District 7 City Council member Luis Viera and his predecessor Lisa Montelione sicked code enforcement on the property’s lease-holder multiple times over the years.

“It has been a long road for New Tampa with this property,” Viera says.  “Its inactive status has caused many challenges for New Tampa and I am happy that it is under contract and look forward to seeing what comes in here. The fact that this is under contract by itself is a good step for our New Tampa community, as this has been a problem site.”

The property currently is worth $1.5 million, according to Hillsborough County property records. KNK Tampa, Ltd. bought it in 2001 and leased it to Kash n’ Karry for a 20-year term beginning in November of that year.

Kash n’ Karry operated under the lease until June 14, 2006, when its Belgian parent company Delhaize America, Inc., converted it into a Sweetbay.  

But, despite its rebranding, Sweetbay could not compete with nearby Publix or Walmart. When Delhaize announced it would be closing 22 stores in the Tampa Bay area, its New Tampa location was part of that group.

In October of 2013, Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo Holdings, the parent company of Winn-Dixie, paid $265 million for 72 Sweetbay stores, plus the leases to 10 other underperforming Sweetbay supermarkets that had already been closed. One of those leases belonged to the New Tampa location, which had six years remaining on it, but Bi-Lo Holdings declined to do anything with the property other than pay the rent.

Finally, it’s time for something new.

“Probably, by early next year, it will all be coming out; it will be obvious what is going on,” Neukamm says. “It is going to be an asset for the neighborhood.”

We asked our readers on our Neighborhood News Facebook page what they would like to see in the space currently occupied by the old Sweetbay, and they responded.

Some responded jokingly (we assume), by suggesting New Tampa could really use a giant Starbucks (hardy har har, Brandon Maldonado) or a combination pizza, burger, and self-storage facility (also real funny, Richard W. King).

Others were emphatic, with ALL CAPS!!!! (We get it, Chris King, you want a Trader Joe’s and as you said) “NOTHING ELSE IS ACCEPTABLE!!”

King, however, spoke for the most of those who responded. In fact, our readers really, really, really want a Trader Joe’s, even with Publix, Sprouts and soon-to-be Aldi all within walking distance. And, how much do people love their trendy grocery stores? Lucky’s Market, Fresh Market and Whole Foods also all received some votes.

Those other markets didn’t receive as much love, however, as Total Wine & More, which wasn’t too far behind Trader Joe’s when it came to our readers.

You want food and drink, clearly — although a good many folks also want something to do — and we concur! A bowling alley, roller skating rink and indoor go-kart place all received votes, although we were disappointed to see no one suggest a Dave & Busters (JCC) or a live music venue (GN).

Kevin Waters: I would love a Wright’s Deli somewhere in New Tampa/WC. Driving to S. Tampa is too far.

Pam Smith: Go carts, Fresh Market, Armature Works-like venue, Indoor small business venue

Diane Kelly Payne: Quaker Steak & Lube, outdoor music stage, car shows, etc…a fun place to go

Tara Fritsch Schmidt: Luekens Liquors or Trader Joe’s.

Donna Billie: A regular skating rink…not ice.

Lucy Meyer: Trader Joe’s, Fresh Market or Total Wine!

Dannieal Cooper: Indoor go-carts and arcade. Well kept with food and beverages

Kim Channels: A bowling alley or Spaghetti Warehouse

Geraldine Gomez: Kohl’s, Total Wine, PF Chang’s or Trader Joe’s!!! No more storage units!

Armando Rivera: Is a Medieval Brothel a possibility…asking for a friend.

Christie Frederick: A really good seafood restaurant. (There are) none around New Tampa

Doug Smith: A micro brewery!

Nagesh Nayak: Raquetball Court.

Barry Doupnik: Anything!! It’s a dump and an eyesore.

Tim N Catia Notarpietro: Planet Fitness! We need one up here!

Gina Arkell Tim Stokes: Just not another gym.

Richard Spencer: Bowling & arcade. Or trampoline park.

Nicolette Marie: Lucky’s Market!

Ivant Liberty: Cabela’s

Here are some of the other suggestions we received: 

This is how the Crumbl Cookies

As only the third location in Florida, the new location of Crumbl Cookies, next to Zukku-San Sushi, brings unique, delicious and yes, somewhat crumbly, cookies and more to the Wesley Chapel area.

This growing franchise, with 128 locations in 27 states, offers a new variety of flavors every week and so far, we’re trying hard not to become addicted to them. But, with amazing new cookie and “Crumbl Cream” ice cream flavors rotating in and out every week, I can’t be held responsible for what happens when you try them.

The first day the store opened earlier this month, we not only tried giant versions of each of the four opening-week flavors — peanut butter, churro, chocolate chip and double chocolate — we found them to be so delicious and different that we decided to also bring a variety of the store’s “Crumbl Minis” to our granddaughter Rosie’s first birthday party — and yes, they were a big hit. 

The peanut butter cookies are loaded with warm, gooey peanut butter, and the original chocolate chip cookies are packed with tons of equally melty chips. Our favorites, though, were the awesome frosted options — the double chocolate and the churro cookies (truly one of the best cookies I’ve ever tasted), and all of the Crumbls are slightly crisp outside but super-soft inside. 

In other words, I’m not sure I agree with the name of the place, but these cookies are truly decadent, no matter whether they really “crumbl’ or not. 

The day we went to press, I also got to sample our Crumbl Cookies store’s salted caramel ice cream, which also comes in a variety of delicious-sounding flavors like Buckeye brownie,  muddy buddy, raspberry cheesecake and many more.

Crumbl Cookies (25922 Sierra Center Blvd., Lutz) is open every day except Sunday. For more info, call (813) 445-6552 or visit CrumblCookies.com and please tell them I sent you! — GN

Smoke-Free Karaoke, Pool Tables & More?

I’m not bragging, but I have spent time in every bar that has opened in the Pinebrook at The Grove plaza on C.R. (aka S.R.) 54. I remember the original Fatheads Pub, Skinny’s Sports Bar and of course, our long-time advertiser, Joe Whiskey’s Sports Bar.

The only reason Jannah and I, until now, haven’t spent more time at Joe Whiskey’s is because it has always been a smoker-friendly bar inside. Well, when bars were allowed to reopen during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic a couple of months ago (under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order), Joe Whiskey’s reopened as a smoke-free bar with a covered outdoor patio for those who still want to smoke. 

Inside, Joe Whiskey’s is now smoke-free, for those of us who want to shoot pool, sing karaoke (with karaoke jock Allan Hudson Brady), play darts or video arcade games and/or watch football (or hockey) games while enjoying a drink at the premium, full-liquor bar with great prices (and with Jessica, one of our favorite bartenders, top left photo above) — without the thrill of having to breathe in second-hand smoke. Allan has a great karaoke list and he’s currently there every Thur.-Sat. evening.  

Joe Whiskey’s (27429 C.R. 54) is open noon-2 a.m. every day. For more information, call (813) 973-8336 . — GN