When it comes to places to grab a hot and healthy breakfast in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, our readers left no choice that their favorite place to do so was First Watch.
While the area doesn’t have a wealth of breakfast options, readers still managed to name 20 places they would call their favorite. But, it was First Watch, located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in the Shoppes at New Tampa plaza in Wesley Chapel, and then everyone else, as the Bradenton-based chain garnered 56.5 percent of the votes. No other style of restaurant dominated their category in the Best of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel the way that First Watch did.
But that is of little surprise to anyone who has waited in line — and who hasn’t? — to dine there.
“I think it is multiple things,’’ says Kerri Hagerman, the manager for the Wesley Chapel location, which happens to be the fourth-ranked performing First Watch of more than 300 locations nationwide. “One of the biggest reasons is that we focused on quality as a company — quality of the food, quality of the service and the quality of the people we have working for us.”
Hagerman says it all leads to achieving the company’s mission statement: “You First.”
The restaurant offers a unique menu of breakfast, brunch and lunch items, like its popular avocado toast, lemon ricotta pancakes, a “chickichanga” burrito with whipped eggs, chicken, chorizo sausage, various cheeses, a mild Veracruz sauce and a variety of skillet hashes.
Every made-to-order menu item is made with the promise of fresh, and often local, ingredients.
The Tampa Bay area, including the Wesley Chapel location, also is First Watch’s test market for limited time offerings. Every 10 weeks or so, five new items are colorfully displayed on the chalkboard at the front of the restaurant. If they end up being a hit, they make it onto the regular menu. So, items that some across the country are experiencing for the first time now, the Wesley Chapel location featured a year ago.
Items currently being featured: a Mediterranean tomato stew called Shakshuka with Moroccan red harissa stew topped with cage-free poached eggs, a supergreen frittata wrap, an acai bowl topped with fruit and granola, rainbow toast featuring ricotta cheese-covered brioche toast topped with berries, mango and local honey and a blue booster drink with white grape juice, blueberry, lemon and basil.
Hagerman says First Watch’s juices, like the popular Kale tonic that was tested here but is now a regular menu item, are always big hits. While the restaurant has a reputation for innovative healthy foods, there also is plenty for those looking for something more traditional.
“We do serve healthy foods, but we also have a large variety of indulgent items as well,” Hagerman said. “There’s is definitely plenty for those looking for something heartier as well.”
I wish I had a dollar for every time a New Tampa or Wesley Chapel resident has told me, “I wish something other than another chain restaurant would open here.”
If you enjoy fresh ceviche to start a meal, there are tuna, shrimp and tilapia varieties and the lime juice, onions and peppers combine to make a tasty appetizer. There also “Vuelve ala Vida,”a mix of shrimp, octopus, oyster and tilapia ceviche, as well as peel-and-eat shrimp and crawfish, shrimp and shrimp and octopus cocktails and “Caldo 7 Mares” and other soups.
The most expensive item on the menu is the whole, stuffed lobster, which is heavily stuffed with shrimp, crab, scallops and octopus. Shrimp alone are available grilled, fried, spicy sautéed, with pico de gallo or sautéed in garlic sauce.
Lunch is a good deal at El Pescador, with steak or chicken fajitas for just $8.50 or create a lunch-size combo of two for just $9.50. Most other lunch items are just $7.95-$9.95.
