Florida Hospital Center Ice Provides The Perfect Venue For The Triumphant Return Of The ‘Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel!’
Congrats to all of my friends in the Rotary Club of New Tampa (which meets Friday mornings at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Cub) for successfully bringing back “The Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel,” in partnership with the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC).
An estimated crowd of about 2,000 people came to sample the wares from the 49 restaurants and beverage providers my restaurant committee assembled for the event, which was held on March 18, inside surprisingly not cold Florida Hospital Center Ice off S.R. 56.
The food and beverages were awesome — my favorites being the seared ahi tuna from the People’s Choice 1st place-winning Bonefish Grill, the fresh sushi from Olde Heights Bistro,Little Italy’s meatballs, the angus burgers from OTB Café, the short rib sliders from Twisted Sprocket Café, Wok Chi’s spring rolls and pot stickers, gnocchi ricotta from Noble Crust (the 2nd-place People’s Choice), chocolate bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes (3rd place) and The Cake Girl’s double chocolate brownies.
La’ Berry Frozen Yogurt & Ice Cream Café wants to be the first place you think of for a quick and delicious lunch or dinner, as well as for delicious frozen yogurt and ice cream with more than 80 different toppings!
Some peoplelove La’ Berry Frozen Yogurt & Ice Cream Café in the Trout Creek area of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (in the same building as Burger 21) for its varieties of frozen yogurt. Others (like yours truly) love it for the new Working Cow ice cream and still others for its variety of tasty, healthy sandwiches and other food items.
In other words, even if you think the name of the café is a little long to remember, just remember “La’ Berry” and you can enjoy a variety of great, healthy lunch and dessert items in a clean, casual environment. La’ Berry’s new owners — my friends Urvesh and Trina — have both worked in the health care field, so they’re particularly proud of the café’s many healthy options.
For example, La’ Berry always has several gluten-and dairy-free and one or more soy-free frozen yogurt options (all for just $0.59 per ounce) among its always-rotating flavors, as well as one or more flavors with no sugar added.
“We have a lot of people who love the taro, chocolate almond milk and even rose (yes, like the flower; it was available for a limited time in Feb. for Valentine’s Day) flavors,” Trina says. “And, we will be adding more flavors for people with dietary restrictions in the future.”
And, Urvesh says that Working Cow (which is based in St. Petersburg) is a healthier alternative in super premium ice cream. The company’s website says that everyone at Working Cow is, “proud of the fact that all of the dairy we use contains no hormones or high fructose corn syrup. Our goal is and will always be to provide you with the freshest healthiest ice cream available.”
And yes, it is delicious, as anyone who tried the Working Cow samples at last weekend’s Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel can attest. My favorites so far are the chocolate peanut butter, cookies & cream and espresso chip flavors, although the kids will go crazy for the “Superman” and “Cookie Monster,” too.
And, if you’ve never had authenticand creamy “kulfi” Indian ice cream on a stick (photo top left on next page), ask Urvesh or Trina to give it a try. I’ve only sampled the cream-flavored kulfi as I’m writing this story, but…yum!
I also really love the toppings — especially the various sauces — that you can add to your frozen yogurt cup or your Working Cow sundae at La’ Berry, especially the hot fudge, marshmallow, peanut butter and white chocolate sauces, although there are at least 80 items — from brownies to gummy worms to fresh fruit and from Reese’s cups to boba juice balls (and so many more), so everyone will find something they like to put on top of their tasty frozen dessert.
Outstanding Sandwiches, Wraps & Salads
But, if you’re looking for a quick and healthy lunch or dinner any day of the week, you also really need to try some of La’ Berry’s delicious salads, sandwiches and other food items.
For sandwiches, my favorite is the foza chicken panini, which comes with grilled chicken, fresh spinach, basil and mozzarella, plus tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, red peppers, red onions and a delicious pesto sauce, all on artisan white or whole grain panini bread. I had Urvesh hold the artichoke mayo and give me an extra side of the excellent pesto sauce.
I also loved the chicken Greek wrap, the chipotle chicken panini (which has chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese and a zesty chipotle spread) and our WCNT-tv sales and production assistant Gavin Olsen raves about his Philly steak panini). Our office also enjoyed both the big garden salad (which costs just $6.95, or add grilled chicken for just $1 more) with La’ Berry’s excellent Greek dressing (there’s also a Greek salad on the menu) and the La’ Berry salad, which includes fresh strawberries, blueberries, cand ied walnuts, bleu cheese crumbles and a tasty raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
On a future visit, I definitely plan to also try the gourmet grilled cheese (with fresh mozzarella, jack and cheddar cheeses) and the new tuna melt sandwich.
And, best of all, Trina and Urvesh always make everything fresh for you when you order your lunch or dinner, and all of these menu items cost just $6.95-$7.95. All sandwiches are served with your choice of chips or pasta salad or you can upgrade your side to fresh fruit cup, a cup of soup or a nice side salad for just $1 more.
For you vegetarians out there, La’ Berry also has not only a tomato and mozzarella panini, but also a Cali veg wrap and even authentic Indian potato-and-veggie samosas. These crispy, fried appetizers (photo above) are like a slightly spicy potato knish inside, but with a super-crisp shell, and served with a deliciously spicy dipping sauce.
I have yet to sample any of La’ Berry’s different soups, but I meant to during the recent run of colder-than-normal weather.
La’ Berry also has a nice kids menu, with everything from PB&J sandwiches to corn dogs to a chicken melt sandwich, all foreither just $3.95 or$4.95 per item.And, if you or your kids are into that whole smoothie craze, La’ Berry has you covered there, too, with ten different flavors, including my favorites — the peanut butter cup and bananas Foster flavors, and other fresh fruit options like strawberry, blueberry and even “razz matazz” and “mango madness.”
And, once you get the kids to eat a delicious, healthy meal, you’ll want to reward them with La’ Berry’s delicious frozen yogurt or Working Cow ice cream — and you should reward yourself, too.
“We’re committed to healthy food and serving people with dietary restrictions,” Trina says. “We’re still adding menu items and specials, so please keep stopping in to give us another try if you haven’t been here in a while and feel free to make suggestions about items you’d like us to add.”
La’ Berry Frozen Yogurt & Ice Cream Café is located at 20304 Trout Creek Dr. It is open 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. on Sun., 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. on Mon., & Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. For more info, search for “La’ Berry Frozen Yogurt & Ice Cream Café-Tampa” on Facebook or call 345-8537. La’ Berry also offers fund-raising events on-site for school and other groups.
I guess I was just about the only one who actually really liked the old Señor T’s, the original Mexican concept restaurant opened by owner Tom Reynolds in Nov. 2015 in the former location of Romano’s Macaroni Grill on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., next to Chili’s Grill & Bar.
Even though Señor T’s closed only nine months or so later (in Aug. 2016), I was kind of addicted to the unique mahi-mahi fajitas. Few people in our area believed that Reynolds shut down to revamp, but revamp he did, and on October 25 of last year, Reynolds and an all-new crew brought in by Carol Daniel and Dennis Borders of Chicago-based Levy Restaurants opened the new Vuelo Mexican Grill.
Reynolds and company are hoping that the now-four-month-old Vuelo, which means “flight” in Spanish, will take flight in New Tampa. Daniel and Borders brought in celebrity chef consultant Mark Estee — a former James Beard award semifinalist for “Best Chef in the West” for his Campo restaurant in Reno, NV — to completely overhaul the menu, and award-winning Reno-based architect Larry Henry to improve the interior.
Since then, Reynolds has hired new general manager and head chef Michael Lopez, fresh off a three-year stint as the food and beverage director at Lake Jovita Golf & Country Club in Dade City, to maintain quality control in the kitchen and to also make sure the “front of the house” runs smoothly.
Estee (who appeared on a recent episode of WCNT-tv on YouTube) and Lopez have been working together to keep Vuelo as a “scratch kitchen” and Lopez says that about 90-percent of what comes out of the kitchen is made in-house. “Ultimately, we will be closer to 98 percent from scratch,” Lopez says. “The only things we won’t make are our own mayonnaise and our own breads, but all of our chips, salsas and entrées are made here.”
Speaking of salsas, one of the focal points for Vuelo is the new fresh salsa bar, which has about seven different salsas (from roasted maize verde to hot Tomas to mild Luis), plus fresh lemon, lime, cilantro and jalapeños to spice your salsa your way.
“And yes, chips and salsa are absolutely free at Vuelo,” says Reynolds, who took a lot of heat locally for charging for chips and salsa at Señor T’s. “We want to be a long-term player in New Tampa, so we know we have to keep our customers happy.”
And, that customer base is growing. Lopez says that, thanks in large part to advertising in the Neighborhood News. “We were absolutely slammed on Valentine’s Day,” he says. “I know we had some people who weren’t happy about their wait times, but we had more than 300 people in here on that Tuesday night.”
OK, So What About The Food?
All this talk about new people is great, but for most of us, what matters most at any new restaurant is the food and I have to say that I think Reynolds, Estee and Lopez are on to something.
My favorite dish at Vuelo is the bubbling filet mignon molcajete, which is served bubbling hot in a lava rock bowl with chunks of tender filet, potatoes and sautéed veggies and a deliciously zesty peppercorn gravy. There’s also a seafood molcajete I can’t eat with shrimp, scallops and snapper. I may have to try it without the shrimp someday.
Lopez also is proud to announce that, due to customer demand, the sizzling asada platters the restaurant opened with have now been replaced by some absolutely excellent chicken, steak and shrimp fajitas, for just $15 or pick a combo of any two of those items for just $17. The chicken fajitas pictured above are thick slices of tender chicken breast with some of the best onions and peppers you’ll find anywhere and basted in and topped with a savory lime butter. Yum!
Also added to the menu since Vuelo opened are the Vuelo wings served in your choice of sauce — traditional fire hot, chipotle BBQ glaze or mojo Cubano. I haven’t sampled them yet, but you can bet I will…soon.
Other Vuelo favorites so far in our office include the trio of “street” tacos, available with pork carnitas, barbacoa beef, achiote chicken and our favorite, the fried or blackened fish. We also love the chicken quesadillas and the enchiladas. We haven’t yet sampled the burritos that Lopez says he will bring to this year’s Taste of New Tampa (see pages 34-39). Vuelo’s marketing director Suzanne Deveney says many Yelp reviews have called the burritos “the best in town.”
I really love Vuelo’s beautiful bar area, which is stocked with a wide variety of Mexican beers in bottles (try the Victoria beer), some of the world’s most famous tequilas and a nice selection of fresh fruit margaritas. Even the Casa ‘Ritas on the rocks are potent and absolutely delicious.
There are great specials almost every day, including five mini tacos for $5 Mon.-Fri., from opening til 6 p.m.; and one kid eats free every day 4 p.m.-6 p.m. (with each purchase of an adult entrée at full price). There’s DJ dance music on Vuelo’s covered patio on Taco Tuesday nights (when two tacos & a draft beer or Casarita cost just $6), and on Fajitarita Friday, you get a free Casa ‘Rita or glass of house wine with any fajita purchase. There’s also a great weekend brunch menu on Sat. & Sun., with bottomless mimosas or bloody Marys/Marias for only $10 per person. Brunch starts at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays.
“We get a nice crowd for UFC fights, too,” Lopez says with a smile.
Vuelo Mexican Grill is located at 17641 BBD and is open every day for lunch and dinner. For more information, call 972-4800 or visit VueloMexicanGrill.com.
In the past few weeks alone in Wesley Chapel — New Tampa’s neighbor just north of the Pasco County line — we have seen the opening of Florida Hospital Center Ice, the groundbreaking ceremony for the first Crystal Lagoon to be built in the U.S. and the green light given by Pasco County’s Board of County Commissioners for the 7,800-acre “Connected City”.
A couple of weeks before those big events, the Williams Automotive Group (which also owns Wesley Chapel Toyota, Wesley Chapel Honda and Tampa Honda on N. Florida Ave.) broke ground on its newest dealership — the 60,000-sq.-ft. Lexus of Wesley Chapel, located just south of Wesley Chapel Toyota, adjacent to I-75.
Brothers David and John Williams, honored as the WCCC’s Business Leaders of the Year for 2015, held a private groundbreaking ceremony for the Lexus dealership, which is being built quickly. We hope to have more information about when the dealership is expected to open in time for our next issue.
Very close to the Lexus dealership, Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen was hiring its staff at our press time and could be open around the same time this issue reaches your mailbox. We also got word that a second Wesley Chapel Chick-fil-A was being built near the Walgreens on S.R. 54 at BBD. The land next to the pharmacy has been cleared for some time; we’ll let you know when it goes vertical.
Meanwhile, the pace of new businesses popping up is even faster and more furious along S.R. 56 — especially around the Tampa Premium Outlets — than it is on S.R. 54. The first buildings on the north side of 56 across from the outlet mall are getting very close, as Pollo Tropical is nearly as close to opening as is Popeye’s, Ford’s Garage is likely a few weeks behind those two and Panda Express is at least 1-2 months behind those three.
Further east on S.R. 56, the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, next to FHCI, is now taking reservations and another hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn, has gone vertical on Silver Maple Pkwy. off 56, next to the TD Bank near Texas Roadhouse.
Dress Warm! The Coolest Event Ever Will Be Held At The Coolest Venue Ever — Saturday, March 18, Noon-4 p.m!
The Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) was no longer interested in putting on any more big events. The New Tampa Rotary Club just happened to be looking for one.
So, with a little bit of gentle negotiations, the Taste of New Tampa — formerly a New Tampa Chamber of Commerce fund raiser that was inherited by the WCCC when the two chambers merged in 2014 — fell back in New Tampa’s mouth…errr, hands.
“They had an asset, meaning the trademark for the Taste of New Tampa, and it was a great opportunity for us as a club to take on that trademark,’’ says Karen Frashier, the president-elect of the New Tampa Rotary and chair of the 21st (but now-renamed) “Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel.”
Scheduled for Saturday, March 18, noon-4 p.m., at the new Florida Hospital Center Ice, this year’s Taste has the potential to be the best one ever.
Why? Here are our top five reasons you should attend the 2017 “Taste”:
1. IT’S INDOORS!
If you attended many of the previous 20 Tastes, chances are there was at least a time or two when you cursed out the weather. Whether you were soaked by the rain or just drenched in your own sweat, being held outdoors sometimes made the food spectacular a crapshoot.
But, you’ll want to wear an extra layer of clothing for this one.
You won’t be standing directly on ice — but it will be beneath the rink’s special “sports court” floor — and the temperature inside the FHCI will be below 60 degrees.
You’ll be dry from any rain, though, and you can leave the sunscreen at home. Hurrah!
2. THE FOOD!
The last Taste in 2013, due to the threat of torrentialrain, ended up having fewer than 20 restaurants show up. This year’s event already has 41 signed up, with a month to go. According to our own Gary Nager, the restaurant chair for the 2017 “Taste”, there are another dozen or so still interested in participating at our deadline, so you might just have the choice of sampling food and adult beverages from more than 50 restaurants and beverage providers when it’s all said and done.
Your choices cover just about the whole spectrum of categories. Arroy Thai, Cantina Laredo, Dempsey’s Steak House, Latin Twist Cafe, Little Italy’s, OTB Delights Cafe, Paramount Lebanese Kitchen, Pepe’s Cuban Cafe and Union 72 are among the many participating at our press time.
And, organizers didn’t forget about your sweet tooth, as Blondie’s Cookies, La Berry Yogurt & Ice Cream, 7 Layers Bakery, Happy Cow Frozen Yogurt and The Cake Girl are among those that will be dishing out desserts. For a complete list, check out pages 34-39 of our latest New Tampa issue, or pages 40-45 of our upcoming Wesley Chapel issue.
3. IT’S FOR A GOOD CAUSE
The New Tampa Rotary Club supports a lot of worthwhile causes, and much of the money raised at The Taste will help the club support about 25-30 nonprofits in this area. The Rotary’s signature project is Feeding America Tampa Bay, so four mobile food pantries in the USF area, Meals on Wheels and the club’s meal-packing events – to which the club devotes $10,000-14,000 annually — will benefit.
“We saw (the Taste) as a great potential fund raiser for the nonprofits that we support,” Frashier says.
Also, 10 percent of the net proceeds will be provided to the WCCC to be used for scholarships for area high school students. The WCCC already gives out mutliple scholarships to students at Wesley Chapel and Wiregrass Ranch high schools, but now, thanks to The Taste, you can add Freedom and Wharton to that list, too.
4. THE ENTERTAINMENT
The Taste continues to add new stuff every week, but you can plan on checking out the Wiregrass Ranch drumline, the Bob Thompson Trio and the New Tampa Players, a local acting troupe that plans to perform a medley of Broadway hits, including some from the group’s latest production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
Frashier also said that all of the sponsors will have tables, and FHCI will offer open skating plus hockey, figure skating and perhaps even curling demonstrations.
There will be an area set up for kids to work on projects, and a trophy presentation at the end of the event — The People’s Choice Awards, where the public can vote on the tastiest food (or beverage) they sampled during the day. The top three vote-getters will win the “People’s Choice” awards.
5. GEORGE STELLA
Famous low-carb chef George Stella may not be the Godfather of the low-carb lifestyle – that’s still Dr. Atkins – but he’s pretty close.
Stella will be on hand, and we hear he will be showing everyone how he makes two of his more popular dishes — Anaheim Shrimp Scampi and Plant City Strawberry Shortcake Martinis.
Stella, who once weighed 467 pounds before dropping 250 by cutting out carbs, hosts “Low-Carb And Loving It” on the Food Network, and his most recent book — Low Carb Essentials — sold out in two days on QVC, Frashier said.
He will be signing copies of the book at The Taste, so if you need to drop a few pounds, the day after this event may sound like a good time to start.
For ticket and volunteer info for the 2017 Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, visit TasteOfNewTampa.org.
had Urvesh hold the artichoke mayo and give me an extra side of the excellent pesto sauce.
