As a true New Yawka and lover of real New York pizza, I’ll be honest that I’ve never been a fan of Little Caesars Pizza, which recently opened its second Wesley Chapel location at 5482 Post Oak Blvd.,off Wesley Chapel Blvd., in the same retail strip plaza (photo above) as Jimmy John’s.
To me, Little Caesars is more about convenience and competitive pricing than it is about deliciousness, but I’ll admit that I enjoyed the new (at least to me) pepperoni “Crazy Puffs®” (bottom photos) on the menu and I definitely also will try the Cookie Dough Brownie made with M&Ms® minis, which the location was out of the day we visited.
But, Little Caesars does offer specialty pizzas like the “3 Meat Treat®” (shown above) for just $12.99 (it’s also available in a larger “Detroit-style deep dish” rectangular version for just $15.99).
The “Hot-N-Ready®” options are even less expensive, with the “Classic Cheese” and “Classic Pepperoni” both starting at just $7.29, and the “Extramostbestest®” cheese or pepperoni pizzas starting at just $8.29 each. And, “Stuffed Crazy Crust” pizzas start at just $$13.99. Also available are pretzel crust pizzas (starting at $6.99), breadsticks, Italian cheese bread and more.
And, with Little Caesars’ new “The Pizza Portal” (right photo), picking up your to-go order is as easy as grabbing an Amazon package at an apartment complex. And yes, DoorDash delivery is available, too. For more info, call (813) 923-0715 or visit LittleCaesars.com. — GN
I remember seeing part (but not all) of the 1944 movie classic “Arsenic & Old Lace,” starring Cary Grant and directed by the great Frank Capra, one day during my teenage years as I flipped through my 13 channels before the days of cable TV. From what I could remember, I thought the movie, adapted from the 1939 play by Joseph Kesselring, was a “cute, but dark” comedy.
So, seeing the Wesley Chapel Theater Group (WCTG)’s performance of “Arsenic & Old Lace” at the Zephyrhills Lions Club on Apr. 26 was basically like seeing it for the first time. Directed by Colleen DeFelice (who told the audience she had played one of the lead roles, Aunt Abby, 13 years before), WCTG’s “Arsenic” was a fun, if understandably dated, macabre comedy about some murderous — and sometimes hilarious — family members.
The play starred Alex Peña in the Grant role of Mortimer Brewster, who loves but doesn’t seem to want to marry his cheeky, somewhat pushy girlfriend Elaine (performed to perfection by Aliza Rivera). Mortimer is a theatre critic who lives in Brooklyn with his seemingly sweet spinster aunts Abby (played by Danielle Warren) and Martha (Jennifer Peña), while Elaine lives with her father, Rev. Dr. Harper, across a graveyard from Mortimer, his aunts and his brother Teddy (Chad Allen). Teddy believes he is actually former U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt — and everyone who visits the Brewster house plays along because Teddy is a little craz…let’s just say “out there.”
“Arsenic” takes its first sinister turn when Mortimer finds a dead body in the house and Abby and Martha admit that there are eleven more dead bodies buried in the basement — all lonely, older men who drank their homemade elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine “and just a pinch of cyanide.” Teddy has been digging the men’s graves in the basement, thinking they are locks for his Panama Canal, and believing that the men died of yellow fever.
But, it turns out that Mortimer’s long lost brother Jonathan (David Sparano), “who looks like Boris Karloff” (and was actually portrayed by Karloff during the stage play’s five-year run on Broadway, and by Raymond Massey in the movie), also is a murderer. Jonathan has traveled the world with Dr. Einstein (James Hernandez), a plastic surgeon who changes Jonathan’s face after every murder. The two have brought along a dead body of their own to dispose of at the Brewster home and Jonathan plans to murder Mortimer (and maybe his aunts and Teddy, too) to replace his brother in the house when he also discovers his aunts’ most recent victim, thinking Mortimer was the killer.
But, Officer O’Hara (Arturo Delacruz) shows up to pitch his own play idea to Mortimer, which throws a monkey wrench into Jonathan’s plans. Jonathan ends up being arrested, Mortimer signs the papers committing Teddy to a sanitarium and Abby and Martha agree to join Teddy (convinced by Mortimer to keep them from being prosecuted for the murders). Mortimer and Elaine can finally live happily ever after, when Abby and Martha tell Mortimer that he was actually adopted and not related by blood to his murderous family. Still with me?
WCTG’s “Arsenic & Old Lace” was funnier than the plot actually sounds and was well-received, with some out-loud laughs from the sold-out crowds of maybe 100 people at each performance.
The next WCTG performances will be “A Night of One Acts,” also at the Zephyrhills Lions Club, the weekend of July 12-13.
WCTG, which does not have a permanent home of its own, would love to find one in Wesley Chapel and will definitely need to raise more money to be able to afford one.
To make a donation, volunteer to join the group or for tickets to “A Night of One Acts,” visit WesleyChapelTheaterGroup.org. — GN
So, you think you’ve sampled enough fried chicken in our area to last you a lifetime?
Kay Lee (left photo), the owner of the brand new Kay’s Kitchen Authentic Chicago Style Fried Chicken, located (as we told you last issue) at 2808 E. Bearss Ave. in the Palms Connection plaza, says you haven’t tried the area’s best fried chicken if you haven’t sampled her full-wing fried wings with her signature, authentic Chicago-style mild sauce (top photo).
And honestly, it’s hard to argue with her. Kay’s batter fries up extra-crispy and although the lemon pepper seasoning salt she adds to the chicken is a little salty, she says she (and her long-time cook, who goes by “DJ Cotton”; he’s an actual R&B DJ for hire, with a DJ booth Kay set up for him upstairs) are always happy to alter the amount of the seasoning to suit your taste.
All I can tell you is that the chicken is so yummy, it doesn’t need the sauce, but Kay hopes you transplanted Midwesterners will appreciate its authentic flavor.
Photographer Charmaine George and I also loved the fried grouper (right; this photo was provided by Kay because, she said, the flaky, truly delicious grouper we were served wasn’t “pretty-looking enough”), extra-crisp fries (which were still crispy somehow when I took home my leftovers an hour later), the extra-cheesy mac-&-cheese (below left) and the decadent, homemade Key lime cake (bottom right).
Kay, who has operated two super-successful Kay’s Kitchen food trucks in the Riverview area, says she has been looking for a brick-&-mortar location for a while now and she is so happy that “God brought me here” to introduce her outstanding, no-frills food — including fried chicken gizzards and livers, shrimp, pizza “puffs,” basa fish, hush puppies, okra and more — to a whole new community. For more info or to place an order, call (813) 893-0415 or visit KaysChickenKitchen.com. — GN
“This is a dream come true,” says Cindy Bray, executive director and founder of Hope Services, Life Skills & Vocational Training Center, reflecting on the success of this year’s annual “Dance Your Dream” event.
Dance Your Dream was designed to offer a free prom-type experience for individuals ages 14 and older who live with disabilities, starting four years ago with just 80 attendees, Dance Your Dream has become an annual tradition that now brings together the community in celebration of hope and support. This year, the event saw 300 attendees at Wesley Chapel District Park on Apr. 26, where the gym was filled with music, laughter, and dreams coming to life.
Chick-fil-A provided delicious meals (and the Chick-fil-A cows) that added warmth to the night, and the event featured music, games and a 360-photo booth.
A highlight of the evening was the surprise guest, Raiqwon O’Neal, the offensive tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneer (#75), whose presence brought joy and excitement, lifting the spirits of everyone in attendance. “His message and meet-and-greet were the perfect way to start the night,” Bray said.
“The smiles and laughter in the room were priceless,” says Cindy Bray. “My heart is full of all the joy we shared that night.”
With 22 years of experience, Cindy founded Hope Services, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization contracted with the Department of Education/ Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Serving 10 counties within a 50-mile radius from their location at 5426 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., Hope Services offers life skills and vocational training to individuals living with disabilities. To support Hope Services, visit HopeGetsJobs.com.
Frank Geivelis (far left), Sabani Ferhatovic & Sabani’s wife Ferzeta Omerovic & Sabani and Ferzeta’s grandsons Beno & Anthony Ferhatovic of Café Zorba.
The day I drove up to and found out that the Tutti Frutti Café in the KRATE at The Grove container park had closed, a gentleman sitting in front of the nearby Café Zorba (5804 Grand Oro Ln. #102) told me that he and his friend sitting with him were now the new management team at Café Zorba, which previously was only a Greek/Mediterranean restaurant but now also is serving traditional Bosnian/Balkan food, in addition to the usual gyros, Greek salads, stuffed grape leaves (dolmades) and souvlakis (below left).
The two men — Fotios (he goes by Frank) Geivelis and Sabani Ferhatovic — invited me to attend the Grand Reopening of Café Zorba, which was held on May 3 and was going to feature an almost-40-lb. lamb roasted outside on a rotating spit grill.
Well, as a true lamb lover who had never sampled Bosnian food before, I brought along photographer Charmaine George to sample and take pictures of some of Café Zorba’s new traditional Bosnian/Balkan cuisine.
We started with an order of cevapi — small sausages made of lamb and beef served with ajvar (red pepper sauce) inside a tasty flatbread. Cevapi is a popular Balkan street food that tasted a little like lamb-infused, well-grilled breakfast sausages.
We also saw Sabani’s wife Ferzeta Omerovic take the foil wrap off a pot of the most beautiful-looking stuffed peppers (called punjene paprike; far right photo), so we asked her for a sample. Now, I honestly have never even liked stuffed peppers, but the mild red bell peppers were cooked to soft perfection and stuffed with ground beef, rice, tomato sauce and a variety of spices so tasty that Charmaine and I were both hooked.
We also got a sample of Ferzeta’s Bosnian stuffed “sour” cabbage rolls known as sarma, which are fermented (pickled in some kind of vinegar base) cabbage leaves stuffed with ground meat (I forgot to ask if it was veal, lamb or beef), minced onion, beef stock and paprika. Sour is correct. Charmaine actually preferred the sarma to the punjene paprike.
I then returned alone four hours later to check out the roast lamb, which Sabani was busy getting properly spiced when Charmaine and I first arrived. He definitely loved cooking the lamb, as he was handing out freshly carved samples of the most tender, garlicky delicious sliced lamb I had ever tasted — better than the lamb chops at most high-level restaurants! And, Ferzeta’s creamy tomato and cucumber salad served with it also was outstanding!
But, if you missed out on the Grand Reopening lamb, don’t be sad — Frank promise me that they will be roasting a whole lamb “at least once or maybe twice a month. Follow us on Instagram to find out when we’ll have it next!” For more info, call (813) 388-5987 or order online from DoorDash or Uber Eats.— GN
