New Tampa 2017 Year in Review: Food

Ford’s Garage was a hit immediately after opening.

Fat Rabbit, Wok Chi & Snowrolls On Our List Of Favorite New Eateries In 2017

As part of our “year in review” series of stories in this issue, assistant editor John Cotey and I decided that I should include something about all of the new restaurants that opened in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel in 2017.

And of course, since I love to write about new places to eat, I decided to mention a few of my favorites that opened in our area over the past 12 months.

In Wesley Chapel, my favorite new eatery is Noble Crust.

But, Noble Crust was far from alone on the list of new places to eat north of the Pasco County line in our distribution area. In The Shops at Wiregrass alone, in addition to Noble Crust, Irish 31, Wok Chi and Menchie’s all opened and all of them were great additions to the dining scene at the Shops.

After Noble Crust, Ford’s Garage is definitely my favorite newcomer, with a really good seared tuna appetizer, tender steaks and a great Chicken Henry entrĂ©e. None of the other new entries around the Tampa Premium Outlets mall make my list, as most are fast food, my favorite of which is Culver’s, followed by Pollo Tropical, Starbucks, Panda Express, Wendy’s and Taco Bell.

Fat Rabbit

Irish 31 also makes my list of new favorites, even though the menu has a few too many fried items for my taste. However, the Ploughman’s salad and Farmer’s Fried Chicken, as well as a pretty good ribeye steak keep it near the top of the newbies for me.

I also really enjoy not only the build-it-yourself stir-fry dishes at Wok Chi, but also the Chi-Licious pork spareribs, the egg rolls and dumplings and even the hot green tea.

Meanwhile, here in New Tampa, we didn’t see as many new places to eat open, but The Fat Rabbit in the City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center and Precinct Pizza on Cross Creek Blvd. are both pretty good, with Fat Rabbit being my favorite of the two for its excellent burgers and blackened wings.

And, although it isn’t truly a restaurant, per se, the new Snowrolls, the  ice cream shop in the Pebble Creek Collection also is pretty incredible. Even though you can now get rolled ice cream in other places in our area, the quality of the ice cream and the variety of  flavors and toppings at Snowrolls is second to none.

This first location of a new franchise also has excellent crepes, amazing authentic Italian coffee and coffee drinks, as well as a new chocolate gyro that swirls milk chocolate and hazelnut flavors with more to come. It isn’t ice cream, but it’s indescribably smooth chocolate and you can even add toppings to it, too.

I’d also like to give a shout out to the new owners of CafĂ© OlĂ© Restaurant on Cross Creek Blvd., who have converted a small portion of the existing restaurant (which has long been my favorite in New Tampa) to a Venezuelan bakery and coffee shop with great cafĂ© con lechĂ© and a variety of authentic Latin desserts.

We Lost A Few, Too

Unfortunately, New Tampa also saw a few restaurants close in 2017, including Vuelo Mexican Grill, Takara Sushi & Sake, Paramount Lebanese Kitchen and Dairy Queen.

Noble Crust Has Taken Wesley Chapel By Storm!

WHEN I first heard that Noble Crust was planning to open in The Shops at Wiregrass mall a couple of years ago, my fiancé Jannah and I immediately starting visiting the original Noble Crust on 4th St. in St. Petersburg to sample the menu.

We both immediately became fans of Noble Crust’s unique Italian fare with a Southern accent. And, although I still wish Noble Crust owner TJ Thielbar (a former managing partner at Bonefish Grill), Wesley Chapel managing partner Will Perez and Chef Rob Reinsmith would expand the menu at Noble Crust a little, what can you say about a mall restaurant that isn’t open for lunch during the week and isn’t open Mondays at all but is still packing in crowds of happy fans every day it is open?

The food and drinks are excellent — and priced very fairly —  the atmosphere is more like something you’d find in New York or Miami than in “The Chap” and the fact that Chef Rob regularly changes the menu and adds unique specials every month or so does keep me (and a lot of other people) coming back and hungry for more.

My favorite starters at Noble Crust include the amazing kale Caesar salad topped with a uniquely soft-cooked egg. The Caesar is special because I usually prefer something more traditional and I’m not the biggest kale fan, but between the gooey egg yolk and the definitely different Caesar dressing, well, let’s just say the salad works for me.

I’m also partial to Noble Crust’s Ricotta Gnocchi, which are homemade potato pastas with pancetta, black pepper cream, parmesan and pecorino cheeses and scallions. The gnocchi were first introduced to Wesley Chapel at the 2017 Taste of New Tampa at Florida Hospital Center Ice a couple of months before the local Noble Crust opened in July.

One of the special appetizers we loved was the cauliflower gratin, which is baked to perfection and covered with cheese, crumbled bacon and bread crumbs, which somehow tenderizes the cauliflower and gives it a crispy coating. You also can’t go wrong with any of Noble Crust’s unique pizzas — from the basic Margherita to the Noble Pig (topped with house-made sweet fennel sausage and large slices of amazingly tasty pepperoni). I haven’t yet tasted the pretzel-crusted calamari, but it looks delicious, too.

Although my favorite main dish is probably still the grouper special with chimichurri sauce (on a bed of perfect garlic whipped potatoes and succotash), I also love the chicken fried chicken parmigiana, served with bucatini (a thick, but hollow spaghetti), the rigatoni & beef short ribs, the double-cut pork chop, the tender, tasty beef, veal and pork meatballs also served with bucatini and the southern fried chicken with Tabasco-honey, black pepper gravy, apple & fennel slaw and your choice of mac n’ cheese or those roasted garlic whipped potatoes. Other side dishes include four-cheese grits, garlicky greens, crispy fingerling potatoes and fried green tomatoes with lime yogurt.

Brunch & Sunday Gravy!

For those who enjoy getting out of the house for a unique Sunday brunch (served beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday), Noble Crust has got you covered, too.

The brunch features great breakfast items like fried chicken and waffles, a southern “Benny” (poached eggs, country ham, fried green tomatoes and brown butter Hollandaise sauce on a buttermilk biscuit), a definitely different egg sandwich (with applewood bacon, scrambled egg and pimento cheese on a garlic butter brioche bun; add avocado for just $1.50 more)  or a goat cheese frittata (with heirloom tomato, caramelized onions and Hollandaise sauce). There’s also short rib “Benny” and meatball smash sandwiches that I haven’t yet sampled.

I also still haven’t yet tried Noble Crust’s Sunday Gravy, which includes house antipasto, garlic bread with pesto + ricotta, homemade pork gravy with spaghetti or grits in a family dinner setting. It costs just $19 per person and your first glass of wine is complimentary.

Dessert is a true treat at Noble Crust. My favorite so far has been the thick, dense, creamy slab of peanut butter pie, although I also enjoyed the warm chocolate budino (with salted caramel, cookie crumbles and fresh whipped cream) and the lemon buttermilk pie and bourbon pecan pie also seem to be pretty popular.

In other words, while Noble Crust may not be a traditional Italian restaurant, it is Wesley Chapel’s most unique new eatery and certainly is among my favorites in our distribution areas.

Noble Crust (28330 Paseo Dr.) is open Tues.-Thur., 4 p.m.-11 p.m., 3 p.m.-midnight on Fri., 10 a.m.-midnight on Sat. & 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on Sun. For reservations (not required, but suggested, visit Noble-Crust.co or call (813) 703-2682.

Ready For Something Truly Unique? Try New Tampa’s El Pescador Restaurant!

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.”

I, of course, have been among the loudest of those voices, always lamenting that every time we get a new place — even if it isn’t a chain — it’s still too similar to too many other eateries we already have here.

Well, one thing I can assure you is that the casual, new El Pescador Mexican Restaurant Taqueria & Seafood in the Publix-anchored New Tampa Center plaza isn’t like any other Mexican place we already have, nor is it like any other fresh seafood place I’ve sampled anywhere. Seriously.

Although it is owned and operated by the same family that owns some of the local Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurants, El Pescador truly specializes in fresh seafood.

The main issue I have with that is that I can’t eat most of the incredible variety of seafood dishes available at El Pescador because of my accursed shellfish allergy. In fact, other than the fresh fish dishes on the menu (and yes, there are a few; see below), the only shellfish dishes I can safely eat are the “Patas de Cangrejo,” or crab leg platter, the “Almejas al Ajo” (clams in garlic sauce) and the grilled octopus and sea scallops, even though I’ve never been a big octopus or scallop lover.

If you’re not allergic to shrimp, lobster, oysters, mussels, crawfish, etc., and you like to sample them in a variety of different sauces, your taste buds may have found a new home.

Let’s Start With Starters…

Before you order anything, El Pescador’s happy servers bring you the most incredibly crispy, oversized tortilla chips, with a Vallarta’s-like fresh, purĂ©ed salsa and a spicier salsa, plus a plate with a dollop of a unique tuna salad and fresh cucumbers and tomatoes.

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.

Oyster fans can enjoy small or large plates on the half shell, fried or served “Rockefeller” style, baked with octopus, crab, shrimp and cheese. There’s also shrimp empanadas, fried calamari, cheese dip and made-to-order guacamole.

As for the fish dinners I can eat, the “Huachinango Zarandeado,” which is one of the priciest items on the menu, is a marinated whole red snapper, fileted and cooked over an open fire that truly seals in the flavor and juices. If you prefer a whole fried snapper that isn’t fileted for you, the “Huachinango al Gusto” is the whole fish with garlic, spicy diablo red sauce or creamy ranchera sauce — for about half of the cost of the Zarandeado.

Fish lovers also can enjoy fried or grilled swai (a freshwater catfish). grilled salmon or whole fried tilapia.

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.

Jannah and I did sample the “small” snow crab leg dinner ($19.95), which comes with fries and rice (although you can substitute veggies), as do all of El Pescador’s House Specialties. The crab legs are yummy, but extremely messy, as the legs themselves are covered in a creamy “Chef’s secret sauce” of garlic, butter and (I’m guessing) paprika. Also available are a variety of platters, including the Vallarta Grilled Combo (shrimp, tilapia and octopus with grilled onions) and El Pescador Seafood Combo (garlic, shrimp, tilapia and scallops with rice, salad and garlic bread).

For You Landlubbers…

Whether you’re allergic or you just prefer more traditional Mexican fare, El Pescador does also have a tasty carne asada steak, very good fajitas (including the steak, shrimp and chicken Fajitas El Pescador combo pictured on the next page), chicken (including the tasty “Pollo Crema”), two kinds of pork,  marinated beef, chorizo sausage, shrimp and fish, all available in mini-tacos, tacos, burritos, or quesadilla, or create your own combo. More adventurous types can try tongue or tripe.

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.

Items from the kids menu cost just $6.95 each and include your choice of a cheese quesadilla, steak burrito, chicken fingers, a cheeseburger, grilled chicken burger or even grilled chicken. Kids entrées are served with rice and beans or fries.

And, El Pescador Mexican and domestic beers (try the Carta Blanca), as well as merlot, chardonnay and homemade sangria, as well as flan, churros and other tasty desserts.

El Pescador (19062 BBD Blvd.) opens at 11 a.m. and stays opens until 9 p.m. on Sun., 9:30 p.m. Mon.-Thur., and 10 p.m. on Fri.-Sat. For more info, including great coupon specials, call (813) 615-9595 or search “El Pescador Mexican Restaurant” on Facebook. Note-Some photos shown here are from Yelp.

Taste of New Tampa Sets Date For 2018!

Even though the 2017 Taste of New Tampa at Florida Hospital Center Ice earlier this year didn’t raise the most money ever for a Taste, it was a hugely successful event that attracted around 2,000 people to Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI).

The way I see it, the 2017 Taste, sponsored by the Rotary Club of New Tampa (which meets Fridays at 7 a.m. at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club) was an amazing event that fell short of its nonprofit-organization-benefiting fund-raising goals because of two main reasons — 1) not enough sponsorships and 2) people’s concerns about the event being held indoors, especially in a venue that we all assumed would feel a whole lot colder than it did on that fun Saturday in March (photo).

Well, considering that I have attended and/or been part of the committee putting on 20 of the first 21 Tastes, I can tell you that FHCI is by far the best venue we’ve ever had for the event — a fact that I believe most of this year’s attendees would agree with — even though there are quite a few things we learned we could do better next time.

The first organizational meeting for the 2018 Taste will be held later this month and New Tampa Rotary president and Taste event chair Karen Frashier says that once the Taste 2018 committee chairs have met, we will be looking for additional volunteers. We’re not interested in people hoping to pad their “community resumes,” but folks who are willing to roll up their sleeves and actually work to help make the 2018 Taste — which will be held on Sunday, March 25, noon-5 p.m., at FHCI — even bigger and better than this year’s event.

“(FHCI’s) Gordie Zimmerman and George Mitchell have been amazing to work with,” Frashier says. “And, they were really happy with the quality of the sponsors, the food and beverage providers and the people who attended. We’re all looking forward to next year!”

To that end, the Rotary Club already is pre-selling Taste tickets at a 20-percent discount through Feb. 1 at TasteofNewTampa.org!

And of course, look for Taste 2018 updates in just about every issue of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News, at NTNeighborhoodNews.com, on the “Neighborhood News” page on Facebook and on WCNT-tv’s YouTube channel!

Speaking Of WCNT-tv…

By the time you read this, WCNT-TV (Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television) will likely have surpassed my first two goals.

I created WCNT-tv with a partner back in June of 2016 and in the 17 months since then, I have produced and “aired” about 100 segments, including more than 30 WCNT-tv “News Desks” with yours truly and Susanna Martinez as the co-hosts, and two dozen Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) Featured Business segments with host Mollyana Ward, who also has hosted our first four “Today’s Fashion Focus” segments featuring Sarah Rasheid of the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO).

WCNT-tv also has featured exclusive interview segments, slide videos featuring everything from Pasco County animal shelter dogs to Zammy the Sheepadoodle visiting Tampa’s  Shriners Hospital for Children, and from the Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival to the “Symphony in Lights” at the Shops at Wiregrass.

My initial goal for WCNT-tv was to have the show reach one million people on Facebook and a combined viewership of 500,000 on YouTube and Facebook.

And yes, at our press time for this issue, we have inched ever closer to both of those numbers, as all WCNT-tv segments combined to date have now reached 983,000+ people on Facebook and have been viewed nearly 470,,000 times on YouTube and Facebook (combined), including nearly 340,000 views on Facebook and nearly 130,000 views on YouTube.

I promised to throw another WCNT-tv party — this time for the general public — when we reached those milestones, so look for that announcement very soon.

And, just in time (we hope) for businesses looking to increase their exposure among the residents of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, our new 2018 Media Kit, which gives you discounts for advertising in the Neighborhood News, on WCNT-tv and on NTNeighborhoodNews.com, is now available on our website, social media and by calling our advertising sales rep, Tom Damico, at (813) 910-2575.

And, Finally…

My page 3 editorial last issue had the desired effect — it’s gotten people talking about what I believe is the much-needed connection of Kinnan St. in New Tampa to Mansfield Blvd. in Wesley Chapel.

Some in Meadow Pointe II have told me I have no right to be voicing my opinion because I don’t live there, but most (including a few Meadow Pointe residents) have told me to keep fighting the good fight on this topic.

I’ll give you three guesses as to which option I’m going to choose.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Culver’s Is So Delicious, You Probably Shouldn’t Call It ‘Fast Food!’

OK, SO WHEN YOU read the headline above, did you think to yourself, “Culver’s? I thought Gary doesn’t like fast food?”

And of course, you’d be correct. I’m not a chain restaurant guy, much less someone who eats any kind of fast food more than once a month (or less), so how is it that I’m about to rave about Culver’s, the 500+-unit, Wisconsin-based chain that has an extremely popular location right here off S.R. 56?

Because Culver’s really shouldn’t be called “fast food,” other than the fact that this growing chain, which has 45 locations in Florida, does usually deliver your food to your car or their comfortable indoor seating area within 5-7 minutes or so.

In fact, Culver’s of Wesley Chapel franchise owners Ann and Marty Roeske don’t refer to their second Culver’s (they also purchased one of the first 100 or so units of the chain in 2000 in Wautoma, WI, near where they lived,; that location is now operated by their children) as fast food at all.

The famous cheese curds at Culver’s.

“It’s cooked-to-order food that is served quickly,” says Marty. “The company is always finding new ways to cook the food faster, but will never sacrifice the quality that the families who love us have come to expect.”

Ann adds, “If a family from Wisconsin comes here to visit, if their sandwiches or cheese curds or frozen custard don’t taste exactly the same to them as they do where they’re from, we’re not doing our jobs.”

That’s why Craig and Lea Culver — who opened the first Culver’s in Sauk City, WI, in 1984 (along with their parents, George & Ruth) — insist that all Culver’s franchise owners have to be on-site, hands-on owner-operators who also must be properly trained to ensure that the quality that has made Culver’s famous in 22 states (and growing), especially throughout the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions, as well as the Southeast, Texas and Arizona, always stays consistent.

More Than Just Burgers!

When I first heard Culver’s was opening in our area (the location on Nebraska Ave. at Bearss Ave. opened a year or so before the Wesley Chapel restaurant), I couldn’t figure out why so many Midwest transplants were so excited about it.

I was thinking, “OK, so it’s another burger place,” even though I’ll admit that I’m always excited about anyplace that serves authentic frozen custard — which is like your favorite ice cream, only creamier…sort of a delicious cross between soft-serve and “hard pack.”

But, while Culver’s “Butter Burgers” (no, they don’t make the burger with butter, it’s the bun that’s buttered, according to Marty) are delicious  — they’re certainly better and fresher (Ann says Culver’s 100-percent Midwestern beef is never frozen) than most fast food burgers — I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Culver’s other sandwiches and menu items.

My favorite, for sure, is the beef pot roast sandwich, which seems to be the only “brisket” served in this area that isn’t barbecued/smoked. This premium chuck roast is as tender as my mom’s brisket, slow-braised in a classic blend of herbs and spices and is served in those juices on Culver’s signature bun (which absorbs them nicely). You can enjoy this tasty “sammy” with Culver’s horseradish or BBQ sauce, although it honestly doesn’t need any sauce at all.

I also really enjoyed trying Culver’s North Atlantic Cod fish sandwich and the chicken noodle soup (both shown in the photo, right), as well as the crispy chicken sandwich and tenders. I’ve never tried Culver’s grilled chicken sandwich, but I liked the flavor of the grilled chicken on the Garden Fresco salad and the sesame ginger dressing.  I’m not the biggest chili lover, but “George’s Chili” is thick with meat and very tasty.

And of course, Culver’s recently added Wisconsin cheddar cheese dipping sauce and also is famous for its crispy, crinkle-cut fries. Plus, if you mention Culver’s crisp-outside, creamy-inside fried cheese curds to any former “Cheesehead,” they immediately start writing love sonnets set to music about them. Seriously.

All that having been said, the main reason I keep going back to Culver’s isn’t because of those items or the fact it’s a mile from where I live, it’s because of the frozen custard, a dessert I have enjoyed since the first time I visited the Boardwalk in Atlantic City in my teens. Every time I see Culver’s post a new flavor on their board on S.R. 56 mentioning Reese’s, Snickers, marshmallow or, say, the Oreo cheesecake custard on the previous page, I find myself detouring for a cup or cone, usually a cup and usually with Culver’s deep, delicious real hot fudge.

Just another fast food place? I think not!

Culver’s of Wesley Chapel is located at 2303 Sun Vista Dr., Lutz. For more info, including a great gift card special, see the ad on pg. 40, call (813) 949-1414 or visit Culvers.com. And, please tell Ann, Marty and their always-friendly, happy and courteous staff that the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News sent you!