Oakley’s Grille Sold Again & Other Tasty Local Business News

Cafe Ole is empty these days.

The day Heather Woodall signed the papers making her purchase of Oakley’s Grille official, her drive home that night to Haines City took more than two hours
It turned out to be an ominous sign.

Woodall confirmed last week that the long commute, combined with becoming a new mother, has made running a restaurant so far from home impossible, and Oakley’s has once again been sold.

Located at 17631 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., Oakley’s opened in 2011 in the old Quizno’s location (next to Supercuts) in the North Palms Village. Keith Oakley’s spot developed a strong following as one of the area’s hidden restaurant gems.

In February, Oakley sold his restaurant to Woodall and partner Ladesha Stoudemire, who discovered the place through a business broker who stopped in to have lunch there.

Despite the typical grumblings from diehards about the place losing some of its charm, due to minor changes, as well as some personnel departures, Oakley’s Grille remained popular during the transition.
“We had a strong base of regulars,” Woodall said. “Things were good.”

Although rumors circulating around the restaurant by staff is that the burger joint — arguably home to New Tampa’s best burgers, as well as great chicken and other sandwiches and salads — could be converted into an Italian restaurant by the new owner, Luca Ammirati.

Woodall said she has been told that Oakley’s will again remain largely unchanged.

“He is keeping it as is,” Woodall said.

However, on top of the usual difficulties in succeeding in the always-tough restaurant business, Woodall faced other challenges.

“We decided to put all of our energy into a family,” Woodall said. “It was a great experience. It was really bittersweet, because we would have loved to remain here but it wasn’t feasible. With the drive and the traffic and with the little guy, you can only imagine.”

Efforts to reach the new owner were unsuccessful, but the Oakley’s faithful are likely hoping that Woodall is right, and one of the area’s best burger places will remain as is.

COMING SOON, ‘MON: Next to Oakley’s, where the old Dairy Queen used to be before being shuttered last year, progress continues to be made on the area’s latest entry into the restaurant market – The Humming Bird Jerk House.

The Jamaican-style restaurant is well into the remodeling process but still has a few permitting and final inspection hurdles to complete. Word is, the jerk spices should be humming by the end of the year. And, according to plans filed with Hillsborough County, the restaurant looks like it will have indoor seating for roughly 32-35 patrons.

OVER AND OUT? Although there are no signs on the door indicating that it has closed for good, that does appear to be the case at CafĂ© Ole Restaurant & Tapas Bar, which was at one time considered one of New Tampa’s hidden culinary gems.

A peek inside the restaurant, located at 10020 Cross Creek Blvd. (next to Thai Lanna), across the street from the New Tampa Regional Library, looks like it could re-open for business tod

ay. But, all three sections of Olé have been closed since at least the beginning of August.

 

Are You Crazy About Keto Pizza? Please Try This At Home!

The pepperoni Keto pizza from 900Âș Woodfired Pizza

From what I see on Facebook, even though I don’t “get” it personally, everyone in Wesley Chapel is completely insane about the crustless pizza being sold in our area for those who are on the Keto diet.
Yes, Keto pizza is all the rage, even though I can’t personally eat more than one small ”slice” of it, but not because it isn’t tasty. All I can tell you is that if I ate more than one slice of Keto pizza at a time, I might not go to the bathroom for the rest of the year. Just saying.

 

On the other hand, someone very near and dear to my heart is on the Keto diet, so we’ve simply had to try it at a couple of local pizza places. And, all I can tell you is that my fiancĂ©e Jannah McDonald definitely has improved on any version of it we’ve tried in our distribution area. And, best of all, this improved keto pizza is something you can make at home yourself, especially if you just happen to have a working toaster oven.

Our story begins (as so many in this publication seem to, John Cotey) at 900Âș Woodfired Pizza in the Shops at Wiregrass mall, where owner Steve Falabella became a local Facebook sensation when our mutual friend Jennifer Ames, the administrator of the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook group, posted a photo of 900Âș Woodfired’s Keto pizza.

And yes, Jannah was among the hundreds (thousands?) of locals saying “I have to try that” following Jennifer’s post.

Jannah’s finished Keto pizza.

Literally the next day, we were at 900Âș trying it out and we both agreed that although it did taste like pizza, the “crust” — a double (or triple?) layer of cheese and nothing else to “hold it together” — was not only ridiculously filling, but should also come with a warning about having to have at least a salad (or some other kind of roughage) with it or risk being bottled up like the S.R. 56 exit off I-75 during rush hour.

 

Before we ever went anywhere else to sample another store-bought Keto pizza, Jannah started working on variations of her own. And, just for the record, I do a lot more cooking in our apartment than she does, so I was so surprised at how charged up she was to cook that I became her sous chef for this adventure.

After a few efforts, Jannah came up with the recipe and procedure and, after the first time it worked to perfection (I preferred it to 900Âș Woodfired’s and Amici’s), I told her I just might have to write about it in these pages.

So, here goes.

 

Although we don’t have a fancy new convection oven or any special cooking utensils, Jannah found that making her smaller version of crustless Keto pizza worked best in our toaster oven.

The pepperoni base for Jannah’s Keto pizza. Slices of mozzarella go on top of the pepperoni. Cover the mozzarella slices with sauce. Cover the sauce layer with shredded mozzarella and pop it into the toaster oven. Bake at 450Âș F, for 7-10 minutes, or until golden brown.

She starts with a layer of the Publix-brand large-size pepperonis and puts them in the broiler for around five minutes, or until the edges get brown and curl up slightly.

One of the keys to the success of this recipe is not to burn the ‘ronis. Then, while preheating the toaster oven (on bake at 450Âș), she covers the pepperoni “crust” with a layer of single slices of Publix-brand low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella.

She then completely covers the top of the sliced cheese layer with either the tomato basil or vodka sauce from the new Cost Plus World Market, which we have found to have the fewest net carbs per serving of any store-bought brand. Although you can use your own homemade sauce, if you prefer, all I can tell you is that you Keto diet folks out there probably can’t make a sauce with fewer net carbs than World Market’s sauces (although we may have cleaned the store out of both types, because there hasn’t been any of either kind the last two times we’ve visited there).

She then covers the sauce layer with a layer of Publix shredded mozzarella and sprinklings of parmesan, and bakes it in the toaster oven for 7-10 minutes, or until all the cheese gets that golden brown hue.

It still goes against everything I loved growing up to have pizza without a New York-style crust, but hey, we still (in my opinion) have plenty of great options for that in Wesley Chapel — including not only 900Âș Woodfired, but also La Prima Pizza, NY NY Pizza, Amici’s Pizza, Best NY Pizza and PizzaMania.

Casino Night Is Tonight!

The Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon will host another “Casino Night” at Wesley Chapel
Nissan (28519 SR 54), 7 p.m.-10 p.m.

Last year’s event (photo) was attended by at least 200 people and all net proceeds will benefit local nonprofit charities!

The donation to attend is $20 per person, which includes $1,000 in gaming chips, heavy hors d’oeuvres, live music, live and silent auctions, raffle prizes and more, all to benefit Clerks for a Cure (to help in the fight against breast cancer), the Rotary Club’s Wesley Chapel High School scholarship program and the Pasco Sheriff’s K9 Program.

There also will be a cash beer & wine bar provided by Time for Wine.

For tickets & more information, visit WCRotary.com.

Chick-Fil-A, Wawa, Aldi Update

There is no shortage of anticipation of what is coming next to Wesley Chapel, but rarely is there the level of consternation that there has been for previously reported projects involving Chick-Fil-A, Wawa and Aldi.

We’ve got one word for you: relax.

All three are still coming.

For those of you beginning to lose faith in the long-awaited Chick-Fil-A on S.R. 54, just east of Bruce B. Downs Blvd., the never-open-on-Sunday-but-always-delicious chain received its final approval for its second Wesley Chapel restaurant on July 27. While ground has been broken for a while, the constant sight of a dirt lot the past many months has been making a lot of people nervous, according to Facebook.

In between the Walgreens and Chick-Fil-A, Wawa should soon be going vertical as well. The popular gas and convenience store filed permit requests for store signs last week. With a Dunkin Donuts planned a few hundred feet to the east, and a Starbucks right across the street, we might soon be dubbing that stretch Coffee Corner.

And all you Aldi fans can let out a sigh of relief. After moving planned locations twice, the discount supermarket chain has settled on the southeast corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd., and the project is currently under review.

 

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday!

You can now add Ruby Tuesday to the list of New Tampa restaurants that have closed in recent years, as it joins Casa Ramos and Las Palmas this year alone. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Longtime New Tampa fixture Ruby Tuesday abruptly closed its doors in late July, which was a surprise to many local residents.

The restaurant, which boasted “Simple Fresh American Dining” and had arguably the best (only?) salad bar around, was located on the corner of Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and Bruce B. Downs Blvd., in front of the popular AMC Highwoods 20 movie theater.

While it didn’t lack for passing traffic, it apparently was lacking in paying customers, joining more than 100 Ruby Tuesdays across the country that have been shuttered over the last year.

According to RestaurantBusinessOnline.com, Ruby Tuesday has closed 400 locations in the past decade.

Based in Maryville, TN, the dining chain was purchased by NRD Capital last year, and named Ray Blanchette as CEO in January in an effort to turn the company around.

Visitors on July 22 were greeted by a printed sheet of paper taped to the inside of the front door, saying “This Location Has Closed,” and directing people to the Ruby Tuesday in Valrico.

The manager at the Valrico restaurant confirmed that the New Tampa location was closed for good, but declined to answer any other questions. Messages left at Ruby Tuesday’s corporate offices were not returned.

Ruby Tuesday joins a growing list of shuttered restaurants in New Tampa in the past two years.
This year alone, Tampa Palms Mexican restaurant Casa Ramos and Pebble Creek’s Las Palmas Spanish CafĂ© have closed their doors, joining others like Dairy Queen and Vuelo’s Mexican Grill on BBD, as well as Beef O’Brady’s on Cross Creek Blvd.

The Dairy Queen location has a new tenant that has yet to open, but is expected to

be a Jamaican restaurant, and the old Vuelo’s site (which was formerly a Romano’s Macaroni Grill) may have a new restaurant group interested in bringing something new to the area, but the others remain vacant.

And, speaking of places that have closed recently in New Tampa, the H.H. Gregg appliance and electronics store located in the Market Square plaza on Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms closed last year, and last month, the Staples store in the same plaza shut down.