NT/WC Reader Survey Results: Best Restaurant

Stonewood Tops List 

Operating partner Dave Rathbun (photo) says he is often amused when he sees people trying to leave his popular Stonewood Grill & Tavern after a meal, only to bump into a neighbor or someone they know and delaying their exit.

Those moments, as much as any other, are when Rathbun can smile and truly appreciate the success of his restaurant.

“We tried to create a culture where it feels like the ‘Cheers’ of New Tampa,’’ Rathbun says.

And indeed, for Rathbun, it is a place where everybody seems to know his name, because they keep coming back.

The friendly and welcoming atmosphere, the familiarity between the customers and Rathbun and his carefully selected staff (the folks he says “bring the place to life”), and a menu and bar area that almost never fail to deliver one of the best dining and imbibing experiences around are why, once again, Stonewood Grill & Tavern is the Neighborhood News “Best Restaurant in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel,” as voted on by our readers, for a second straight year.

Stonewood, a Tampa Palms staple since opening in September 2002, beat out Bonefish Grill and newcomer Noble Crust — the reader’s top pick for best new business (see list, on pg. 50) — which are both located in Wesley Chapel, for the top spot.

“It’s just an honor to have people vote for you,” Rathbun says. “I’m humbled by every vote.”

Despite a not-so-great location — Stonewood is tucked behind a 7-Eleven and McDonald’s on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., just north of Commerce Park Blvd. — it has thrived as an upscale family restaurant because, well, Rathbun is kind of like family. He has lived in North Tampa for more than 20 years, including Richmond Place the last 16 years. He knows most of his customers, and their kids, and where those kids go to school.

“It’s wonderful to work in the community where you live,” he says.

Stonewood, a small chain which has 10 locations statewide, is best known for its steaks and seafood. Rathbun says the restaurant receives all of its steaks from only three different plants in Iowa, and “it’s all Midwestern beef, aged for 28 days, then hand cut to our specs and cooked the way you want them.”

The restaurant has popular main dishes like delightful short ribs with butternut squash ravioli, hearty grilled rosemary and garlic lamb loin chops, tender oven-baked herb-encrusted grouper and cedar plank roasted salmon in an apricot mustard jalapeĂąo glaze, to name a few.

Or, you can hunker down at Stonewood’s popular bar and order tavern wings or oak grilled shrimp or anything else from the full lunch or dinner menu.

“One of my customers once told me, ‘You know, I can come in here and have a real nice dinner and a bottle of wine with my wife and celebrate an event, or I can come in with my guys and have a burger and a beer at the bar and watch a basketball game,’” Rathbun says. “They love the flexibility.”

A new and improved lunch menu, plus weekday specials which can be ordered at the bar or at your table, also help keep people coming back.

For example, on Tuesdays, Stonewood offers specials on craft beer and craft burgers (see photo). Wine Down Wednesday features half-off discounts on almost a dozen wines, and Thursday is Stoli Martini night.

“We offer something for everyone, and I really like that I’ve been able make so many relationships with my customers over the years,” Rathbun says. “I’m glad so many people enjoy it.”

Stonewood Grill & Tavern is located at 17050 Palm Pointe Dr., Tampa Palms. For info, call (813) 978-0388 or visit StonewoodGrill.com.

Wesley Chapel Chamber Gets A New Name & A 2018 Taste Update

Hope Allen

Is there any way to change something that has been hugely successful without ruffling some feathers?

Based on the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC)’s recently announced name change to the “North Tampa Bay Chamber,” the answer is probably “no.”

However, that doesn’t mean that the name change wasn’t a necessary thing to do, nor has it been anyone’s plan to throw away all of the good will that has been created by the only Chamber of Commerce Wesley Chapel has known for the last 20 years.

Even so, CEO Hope Allen of the new North Tampa Bay Chamber has been hearing some unhappiness about the Chamber’s name change from people who wonder if the newly named Chamber will still be the first place people see when they search “Wesley Chapel Chamber” on Google or Facebook.

“We still own the name and the domain name online, so we should still come up when people are searching for Wesley Chapel,” Hope says. “Once we completed our acquisition of the Greater Pasco Chamber last year, we knew we’d have to change the name. We also knew that there was no way to please everyone, no matter what name we chose.”

Even though Wesley Chapel has been the name (and the community) that has given the Chamber its identity the last two decades — especially during the last few tremendous growth years that are continuing to make “The Chap” one of the fastest-growing communities in both Florida and the nation — the fact is that the expanded Chamber (which also acquired the failed New Tampa Chamber of Commerce a few years ago) no longer is confined geographically to “just” Wesley Chapel.

“We are now the largest Chamber in Pasco County,” says new Board Chair and local dentist Dr. Zack Kalarickal. “But, we also serve the businesses in New Tampa, Lutz (where the Chamber recently moved to a new office), Land O’Lakes, Trinity and even north Pinellas County. And, our name needed to reflect that.”

Some of the Chamber’s members have been trying to find a way to still incorporate Wesley Chapel into the new name, even if it has to be a subhead. As the primary news media in Wesey Chapel, I also found myself wondering what anyone could do to somehow not lose the Chamber’s Wesley Chapel connection.

Although I couldn’t come up with a name that would make it work, I hope there could at least be a subhead or subtitle that says something like, “Built in Wesley Chapel; Building a Chamber to Serve the Tri-County Area.”

Whatever you call it, the newly expanded Chamber has more than 800 member businesses and has renewed its commitment to WCNT-tv — Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television.

To that end, I hope you’ll check out the next several episodes of WCNT-tv’s “Chamber News,” which feature Dr. Zack being interviewed by WCNT-tv’s Mollyana Ward (photo above), shot at the amazing Overnight Success Studio owned by Chamber member Miroslav Beck. Those segments are available now on our Neighborhood News Facebook page and on the WCNT-tv channel on YouTube.

I also hope you’ll keep an eye out for some exciting announcements about the only web-based “TV channel” serving both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. The new Chamber may be expanding beyond those borders, but we will continue to focus our energies — both online and in these pages — on our two “home” communities.

Taste 2018 Off & Running!

I’m also really excited about the plans for the 2018 Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel — on Sunday, March 25, noon-4 p.m., at Florida Hospital Center Ice (in conjunction with the new Chamber)  — as the Rotary Club of New Tampa hosts the event for the second time. Last year, my restaurant committee was able to attract nearly 50 restaurants and beverage providers and about 2,000 people attended. This year, sponsorship committee co-chairs James Carner and Jason Contino already have surpassed last year’s sponsorships and I’m already at nearly 25 food and beverage providers, with just about six weeks still to go until the Taste.

Those sponsors (in alphabetical, not monetary, order) already include:

•Acme On The Go

•Audi Wesley Chapel

•Campaign of TK Hayes

•Central Bank

•Family First Allstate

•Harbor Bank

•Ierna’s Heating & Cooling

•New Leaps Academy

•Murtha & Murtha LLC

•Pilot Bank

•Pinot’s Palette

•Suncoast Credit Union

•TSYS Merchant Services

•Usman Law Firm

Among the new restaurants already committed to serving samples at the Taste are Acai Brazil, Bruster’s Ice Cream, Cappy’s Pizza, Cinebistro at The Grove, O’Brien’s Irish Pub, Pinchers Crab Shack, Taco Son, Texas Roadhouse, Top Shelf Sports Lounge and Wicked Chickens, Deviled Eggs.

For more information about the 2018 Taste, including how to pre-buy tickets or volunteer, visit TasteofNewTampa.org! And, check out our exclusive Taste 2018 Preview Section in our next issue of Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News!

NT/WC Reader Survey Results: Best Breakfast

First Watch Wesley Chapel manager Kerri Hagerman is proud that First Watch has been voted as having the “Best Breakfast in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel” by Neighborhood News readers.

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.”