Category: Dining & Entertainment

Ginza Endless Sushi Opens Next To Winn-Dixie!

If you haven’t yet tried the new Ginza Endless Asian Cuisine & Sushi, located at 6417 E. County Line Rd. at Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in the Trout Creek area (between the Winn-Dixie supermarket and LA Fitness), we definitely suggest you give it a try.

Ginza’s all-you-can-eat specials cost just $12.95 per adult for lunch and $24.95 per adult for dinner and that price includes all you care to eat of literally dozens of items — from fresh sashimi and sushi to hibachi-style chicken, shrimp or steak and even favorites like Mongolian chicken (photo, shown with a side of fried rice) and beef and so many more.

At our press time, Ginza still did not have its liquor license, but the freshly prepared food and fast service make it more than worthy of a visit until that happens, which should be sometime in April, according to a restaurant employee. And, with the coupons in our latest New Tampa edition and the upcoming Wesley Chapel edition hitting mailboxes on Friday, it’s an even better value!

For more information about Ginza, call 907-1688 or visit GinzaFlorida.com and please tell them that the Neighborhood News sent you!

Lots Of Restaurant News In Cypress Creek Town Center

Logo 2011 We were the first (or among the first) to tell you about the planned openings of Culver’s, Cheddars and Pollo Tropical in the Cypress Creek Town Center Development of Regional Impact (DRI), near the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO) mall, but the news and rumors are still flying about other eateries that are on their way.

Although we haven’t been able to get confirmation from the company’s home office, we have been told that the popular Mellow Mushroom pizza & more chain is planning to open in the same area.

We have confirmed, however, through the Pasco County website, that a new Longhorn Steakhouse also will be built in the area.

Also, we were the first to tell you that Irish 31 is being built next to Panera Bread at the Shops at Wiregrass mall and now, we’re both happy and sad to announce that City Grill, located in the Wesley Chapel Village Market at S.R. 54 and Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., has been sold.

Owner Eth (aka Eric) Thueltrouve told me just before we went to press that City Grill (which was still open at our press time) will be re-branded as an O’Brien’s Irish Pub, which has popular locations all over the Tampa Bay area, including Carrollwood, Brandon and others.

Thueltrouve says the new owner has a successful O’Brien’s in Plant City and we’re happy that it also is a place known for karaoke and live bands. We’ll keep you posted.

Neighborhood Nibbles & Business Bytes

By Gary Nager

Tarek’s Café & Grill Opens 2nd Location…In Our Old Location!

Considering that I’m celebrating my 22nd year of owning and editing this publication (as of the day before this issue’s cover date), I can’t help but be impressed by someone who has been doing something great in our area for even longer than I have been serving this community.

Case in point — Tarek Elsayed, who has been the owner of Tarek’s Cafe & Grill near the intersection of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and Fletcher Ave., on the USF Tampa campus, for 24 years!

I hope some of you may already have tried Tarek’s new place which — because he expanded into our former location in the Shoppes at Amberly plaza in Tampa Palms, actually has our old address — 15345 Amberly Dr.! Tarek promises to serve great American cuisine with a Mediterranean flair at his now-open Tampa Palms café & grill!

Whether you’re craving a great hamburger or sandwich, or maybe want to try a tomato and mozzarella salad with a side of homemade couscous (photo) or authentic Middle Eastern pastries, Tarek has been keeping USF students, professors and staffers happy for nearly a quarter of a century and his Tampa Palms location is a lot bigger and nicer than his hugely popular takeout counter at USF.

For more info, visit TareksCafe.com, call 252-3238 or see the ad on pg. 47 of our current issue.

Congratulations to everyone at CentraCare Florida Hospital Urgent Care, which hosted a Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting at its location in front of the Wesley Chapel Target on Feb. 9. For more info, visit CentraCare.org.

Irish 31 To Open Next To Panera In Wiregrass Mall!

As nearly 22,000 of you already viewed on our Facebook page, former USF football star Jay Mize, who already has four successful Irish 31 restaurants (in Hyde Park Village, Westshore, Westchase & at the Amalie Arena), says he hopes to open his fifth & sixth locations by the end of 2016.

One of those new locales is on Clearwater Beach & the other is in The Shops at Wiregrass mall, in a shared building that just began site work next to Panera Bread.

Mize says the Irish 31 at Wiregrass will be 2,800 SF & will feature the same great chef-inspired (I call it ‘Irish-plus-gourmet’) cuisine as the other Irish 31 locations. “It’s sort of a race to see which of our new stores opens first,” Mize says. “But we hope both will be open by the end of 2016.”

Visit Irish31.com and stay tuned to NTNeighborhoodNews.com for updates.

RGA Promises Great Networking & Fun!

I hope you will start joining me and dozens of other happy business networkers at the next RGA Network weekly networking luncheon or monthly networking Happy Hour, both of which are held at the Shops at Wiregrass mall. The lunch events are held every Thursday at GrillSmith (2000 Piazza Ave.), 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., and the Happy Hours are held the third Tuesday of every month at Pinchers Crab Shack (28330 Paseo Dr.), where $5 gets you free appetizers and free chances to win great prizes given away by other happy networkers. I’ve already made several great, new contacts at Pinchers, where I recently gave away about a dozen gift cards.

For more info, visit RGANetwork.net and please tell them I sent you! — GN

Owner offers up Only The Best (OTB) for local patrons

When you meet Brazilian-born-and-raised Dirson De Mesquita, the owner and chef at Only The Best (OTB) Delights Café, located in the Shoppes at Wesley Chapel plaza across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), you are immediately impressed by any number of things.

Of course, there’s the cleanliness of his place and the way he tries to communicate with every patron, whether they’re happy (as almost all of his customers are; see below) or not. Anyone can see that the man is a tireless worker who aims to please.

And, pleasing locals is what OTB has been able to do for a little more than a year now. With OTB’s healthy menu, featuring organic and locally-grown produce, no microwaves, fryers or freezers, it’s a perfect, casual (but recently redesigned) little spot where so many who work out at the FHWC Wellness Center or work at the hospital itself have invited their friends and co-workers to sample OTB’s tasty food at very fair prices for the quality.

Dirson has made some changes to his menu, but most recently, he decided to bring back his six-item dinner menu.

For dinner, OTB has two kinds of grass-fed, organic top sirloin (Dirson says to try it with balsamic caramelized onions and gorgonzola cheese crumbles), a Salmon Gone Wild entrée (which is a different dish than the Salmon Gone Wild salad on the next page) of wild-caught, baked North Atlantic salmon with pesto sauce, a chicken Ana Bella (free range chicken cooked in a cream sauce with spinach and tomatoes), all served with soup or salad and fresh veggie and rice sides.

The dinner menu, which is offered any time of day (just as you also can get breakfast or lunch whenever OTB is open), also has two kinds of mini-quesadillas — with cheese or chicken and cheese.

The dinner menu is so new, we don’t have pics of the new items to share, so all of the pics on this page are from OTB’s breakfast and (primarily) lunch menus. But, OTB — which Dirson says he has consistently ranked #1 or #2 of all restaurants in the Wesley Chapel area on Trip Advisor.com and has maintained a 4.5-star (out of 5) rating on Yelp.com — already has lots of fans, including everyone here at the Neighborhood News office. In fact, OTB was the #10 Favorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapel with our readers in the most recent Reader Survey & Dining Contest, and #11 on my own list of favorites (and my fourth favorite lunch place and third favorite hamburger joint in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel).

From breakfast, where I flipped for the Good Morning Ciabatta (try it with over easy fried eggs although, I warn you, it’ll get a little messy), even though I really didn’t think I loved turkey bacon, to each of our office’s favorites so far, there’s something for pretty much everyone at OTB.

Billing manager Jill Reilly loves the Kickin’ Chicken burrito, office assistant Celeste McLaughlin swears by the San Diego Chicken sandwich, office manager Mary Dorey really enjoyed the Salmon Gone Wild salad, assistant editor John Cotey really enjoyed the Seared Steak Delight salad, which is one of my three favorites at OTB, the others being the Asian Orange Ahi Tuna salad and the killer Artisan Burger.

I also can vouch for both the Rio Rancho and Shanghai Chicken rice bowls, which means there’s very little on the menu that I can’t recommend. I don’t eat too much vegetarian-only (and no gluten-free) fare, but OTB does have multiple salads, sandwiches and entrées catering to non-carnivores and those who prefer fresh, real food.

Dirson even recently started growing fresh herbs right in OTB’s new planters to add to the organic feel of the place.

OTB Café is open Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-9 p.m., 8 a.m.-9 p.m. on Sat. and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sun. Catering also is available. For more information, call 973-8880 or visit OTBDelightCafe.com.

SPOTLIGHT ON: Don Pan International Bakery

By Gary Nager

If you’ve ever driven by the Don Pan International Bakery, located in the Shoppes at New Tampa plaza on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., just south of S.R. 56 (on the same side as Office Depot), but never stopped in for any of Don Pan’s delicious desserts, pastries, sandwiches, empanadas or café con leche, I hope this spotlight will convince you to finally stop in and enjoy some tasty Latin cuisine.

Don Pan is a small franchise that started in the Miami area, and eight of the current twelve locations are dotted up and down the east coast of Florida. There are two Tampa locations, both on N. Dale Mabry Hwy. (one in Carrollwood and the other in the South Tampa area), and the Wesley Chapel location is owned by Ricardo Perez, who is from Venezuela.

“All of these (pastry-style) sandwiches are what I grew up eating in Venezuela,” Ricardo says. “Everyone who tries them really seems to love them.”

Of course, Don Pan has empanadas in beef or chicken and pressed Cuban and other more “typical” Latin fare, but if you’re looking for a great ham and cheese sandwich, I recommend trying Don Pan’s cachitos instead. These Venezuelan delicacies have the ham and cheese baked into a tasty hoagie-shaped roll.

The items from Ricardo’s native country that I liked best, surprisingly (at least to me), were the cachapas, which are slightly sweet yellow corn pancakes, similar to (but sweeter than) arepas (which also are available at Don Pan). The cachapas are baked with a mild white cheese and I was told to try them covered with Don Pan’s unique shredded pork and then pressed (photo) and I’ll just say that I’m now hooked on ‘em.

But, Don Pan also has chicken puff pastries, cachitos without cheese, spinach strudel, as well as a great variety of sandwiches and other Latin “finger foods,” such as definitely different cheese “fingers.”

And, since it is still primarily a bakery, Don Pan also boasts a huge selection of a dozen or more cakes, cake slices and dessert pastries — from guava and cheese danish to different takes on tiramisu and Napoleons — that are well worth a try.

There’s even Venezuelan-style flan and tres leches desserts, plus truly delicious espresso, cafe con leche, marron (less milk than a con leche) and other coffee drinks and fresh fruit shakes. Don Pan’s breakfast specials start at just $3.75 and fast and delicious lunch specials start at just $4.95. Don Pan can even cater your next party.

So, stop in at Don Pan (1708 BBD Blvd.) any weekday, 7 a.m.-8 p.m., 8 a.m.-8 p.m. on Sat. or 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sun. For more info, call 994-6734 or visit them on Facebook. — GN