Trick Or …Truck? Lots Of Halloween Weekend Options!

The World’s Largest Food Truck Rally 12 may not break the all-time record for largest food truck parade Halloween weekend at the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO), but it will have enough food on hand that we can heartily suggest wearing stretchy pants.

The rally, according to organizer Jeremy Gomez, is expecting roughly 80 trucks for the Oct. 30-31 event, which will be held 11 a.m.-6 p.m. each day. That truck number was as of our press time, and is expected to grow.

The World’s Largest Food Truck Rally, a traveling caravan of cuisine, set the Guinness World Record for the largest food truck parade in 2014, with 125 food trucks at the Florida State Fairgrounds. It will headline the 17th annual Wesley Chapel Fall Festival, essentially taking the place of the usual carnival rides and turning the festival into a fall foodie-palooza.

Drew Cecere of Florida Penguin Productions, which is organizing the Wesley Chapel Fall Festival along with the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce, says the change was made to mix things up this year, as well as to alleviate the event’s competition with other area fall festivals that rely on rides.

“We went in a totally different direction this year,” Cecere says. “This will help us reach a totally different demographic.”

The Wesley Chapel Fall Festival will still offer live music, kids activities like bounce houses and a host of local vendors. There will be a pumpkin patch, pet costume contest, face painting and a Miss and Mr. Pumpkin Patch pageant. On Sunday, the popular Trunk or Treat event will begin at 4 p.m., before regular trick-or-treating begins.  

Tickets to the event are $10, and can be purchased at eventbrite.com by searching “Wesley Chapel Fall Festival.” For more information, visit Facebook.com/WesleychapelFallFestival. 

As for the food vendors, there will be a variety of local trucks along with those that travel with the rally. Here’s some to check out, according to World’s Largest Food Truck Rally organizer Jeremy Gomez:

TACOS Y SNACKS EL INDIO: One of the most authentic Mexican trucks around, and the owners are the hardest working I know.
HORHAY’S MAC & CHEEZ: Absolutely amazing mac dishes. Comfort foods with a modern twist like their Ghost Pepper Mac N Cheez. RENEGADE BURGER COMPANY: Best burgers around.
RED ZEPPELIN ROCKING LOBSTER :Lobster Rolls from heaven. 
TRES SUSPIROS HANDMADE BRAZILIAN CHOCOLATE: The absolute best chocolate around. Works of art. Brigadeiro Chocolate is a skill that not everyone can master… and Chef Amy has done that. These are works of art and taste even better. 
HOTT MESS: Tater Tots like no other! Everyone does tots now… Hott Mess has been doing them always, they wrote the book. They also have some amazing giant breaded pork sandwiches that are really hard to find this far south.
SHEFU: Super authentic Chicago Style Dogs and more. And, they also are just amazing people. We know its “just” a small Chicago-style hotdog trailer, but the owners go out of their way to import everything from Chicago, making it truly authentic, and hard to find down here.
SMOKIN MOMMA LORA’S BBQ: Some serious serious BBQ glammed out to the hilt. Her BBQ is on another level.
TREE DOG ROOTS: Absolutely amazing mash, veggie dishes, and everything else. The owner is so sweet and has been at this for a long time…really knows her flavors. Her specialty is mashes and root vegetables,  which by itself is rare..  but what she does with them is amazing.
CHAZITO’S LATIN CUISINE: They make amazing food. They follow us all over the country, four generations work the truck…and they are all awesome. Their mix of Spanish/ Cuban/Puerto Rican style is super refined, and is hard to find at other places.
PHILLY T’S CHEESESTEAK AND PO’BOYS: His sandwiches (pictured) are just amazing.. and they also follow us all over the country
DAVIS ISLAND VIBES: Amazing tropical fruit beverages served inside a pineapple. They have been a major hit every year..and its because the drinks are fantastic. 
PAMZ PIZZA CONEZ: They take pizza and make them into these cones that you can hold… so they are like cups of amazing pizza goodness… that you can then eat…really clever.

Other Halloween Events In/Near Our Area:

The Sarah Vande Berg Tennis Center (6585 Simons Rd. in Zephyrhills) is hosting its first annual Halloween Dog Show (see ad, right) on Saturday, October 30, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. It costs $20 to enter your dog, and there will be prizes for the top 3 dogs, as well as raffles, gift doggie bags, a bounce castle and more. Plus, 25% of all proceeds will be donated to Allie Cares, a nonprofit organization which offers free medical care treatment options for animals and families in need. For more information, call (813) 361-6660.

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County is hosting its second annual “Halloween Hullabaloo” on Saturday, October 30, noon-4 p.m. The event will feature a 3v3 basketball tournament, a 5v5 indoor soccer tournament and a volleyball tournament. The cost is $100 to register each team. There also will be activities for kids in the lobby from 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m. The cost is $10 for spectators. For more information, or to register, visit Wiregrass-Sports.com.

Fall Fest at The Grove is billing itself as Wesley Chapel’s biggest Halloween celebration, and it runs through Sunday, featuring amusement rides, a pumpkin patch, carnival food, Halloween activities and more. Plus, there is a Costume Contests at 4 p.m. on Halloween. You can buy ride tickets HERE.

:

Grand Hampton Residents Turn Community Into A Movie Set

The scene that started it all for “Grand Hampton: The Movie Series,” with Antony Capers and his son Merric.

A strange alien-like creature is chained to the wall. Four kids lay motionless on the floor, marked with blood. A menacing woman in a white lab coat steps over them to talk to a baby girl dangling from the ceiling. A light fog flows through the scene.

This is just a regular Wednesday or Thursday night in the Grand Hampton garage of 45-year-old Antony Capers, where, on this night, he is filming another episode of his quirky, campy, creepy — and even funny — web video series that has much of his community buzzing.

Capers, a freelance designer who owns his own production company, Reelistic Tales, is an accomplished painter, graphic designer and has even written and illustrated children’s books. He also is the creator of “Grand Hampton: The Movie Series.”

He says the series, which so far has posted 17 episodes and can be viewed on YouTube by searching for “Grand Hampton Movie,” has changed his life. The series has 151 subscribers, and roughly 6,000 total views. A party was held in the Grand Hampton clubhouse for the Season 2 premiere.

He doesn’t get paid to do the show — a new episode is posted each Monday — but he says it has brought him the kind of joy that is priceless.

“It’s really a labor of love for me,” Capers says. “I’ve met so many of my neighbors, and it’s become a close-knit production of new friends.” 

What began as a short 45-second clip morphed into a series of short episodes filmed exclusively in Grand Hampton, starring only the community’s residents.

“It’s like my Hollywood playground back here,” says Capers, a Queens, NY native.

Which is not how it all began. His initial 45-second clip of his son Merric staring out across a lake in a trance, pointing at something only he could see, was done for Capers’ portfolio.

But, he decided to post the clip on Grand Hampton’s community Facebook page for fun, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Everybody who commented  asked what Merric was looking at, and not to leave them hanging,” Capers said.

So, he didn’t. He shot two more episodes with his son, basing the story on an idea that has been bouncing around his head for years — where a community that is comprised entirely of people in the witness protection program is used to harvest the lungs of those who won’t be missed.

Antony recruits another neighbor to join the cast.

With requests for more episodes, Capers started asking for community volunteers to play roles in the production.

Richard Villarino was first, playing a neighbor in Episode 3 concerned that children were disappearing.

Another neighbor, Annette Simmons-Brown, sent in a head shot and, perhaps because her bald head (at the time) gave her a more minacious look, was pegged to be the evil Dr. Annette, the harvester of kids’ lungs, a few episodes later.

“I don’t know why he picked me…but I’m glad he did,” Simmons-Brown says. “It’s been so much fun. If I had to rate the whole experience on a scale of 1-to-10, I’d give it a 15.”

Taabish Ajaney, a 15-year-old North Tampa Christian Academy student, messaged Antony on Facebook looking for a role. He landed a part, but also has extensive editing experience and has taken on the role of intern, helping shoot many of the scenes.

Julia Rees, a 26-year-old medical school student, donned a red hood, black makeup streaked across her face and a 10-inch knife while emerging in the Season 1 finale as a mysterious hero…or perhaps a villain.

“He just said I’d be a bad ass,” says Rees. “I’m not sure where the character is going, but I’m along for the ride.”

Roughly 50 neighbors, many who gathered to watch the filming of the latest episode, have played roles. Kelly and Lura Mulroy and Latasha Scurry play television anchors, Henry Scurry is convincing — and arguably the best actor in the series — as the head bad guy, and Ishban Howard has played multiple roles, including one as the chained up alien. 

Nicole Reber is another bad guy who made her debut recently in Season 2, Episode 3, and her three children — Ashton, Dylan and Skyla — were all snatched by the aliens in the same episode. Others have helped build sets and set up other scenes, while Capers’ next door neighbor Chace Scurry not only played a part, but her infant daughter Jahnai was the one dangling from the ceiling while mom nervously looked on. “Can you believe she let me do that?,” Capers says, chuckling. 

Jordan Caviggia read about the show on Facebook, and brought his son Jaxon, 9, to the most recent shoot, where he played one of the children in the garage. 

“It sounded like it’s a fun time, and I thought Jaxon would enjoy it,” Jordan said.

Capers thanked him for showing up, and asked the elder Caviggia if he was interested in having a part, too. Five days later, Caviggia filmed a scene playing the head of a newsroom.

“This has really ended up being about bringing people together,” he says. “It’s not about the show. I mean, there’s a story there, but it’s about community. It’s weird, and it’s a weird thing that’s happening, and I love it.”

Would Capers love for his show to catch the eye of a Hollywood executive? Of course. 

“If not, I’ll just keep filming with my friends,” he says.

Lotte Plaza Market Starts Permitting

The Lotte Plaza Market coming to New Tampa could look a lot like the one above, which is located Rockville, MD.

We told you back in February that the long dormant Sweetbay Supermarket property, after eight years of being empty, was finally sold to the folks who run the popular Lotte Plaza Market Asian grocery stores, and the new owners have officially begun the permitting process.

According to City of Tampa permitting records, Emerald Coast Permitting in Santa Rosa Beach, FL, applied for a zoning review in order to receive approval for a grocery store with a limited food court, which city planners deemed to be acceptable.

Next up will be a construction permit prior to work beginning to overhaul the old Sweetbay into New Tampa’s largest ethnic grocery store.

The Lotte Market will be approximately 55,000 square feet. Taaza Mart, which opened last year, is 17,000 feet. 

Founded in 1976, Lotte Plaza Market is one of the premier Asian groceries in Maryland and Virginia, where it has 12 locations. It opened its first Florida location in Orlando on W. Colonial Dr. in February 2019. New Tampa will be its second Florida location.

All Lotte Plaza Markets offer a wide choice of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese food items and ingredients, an impressive selection of meats and fresh fish and a huge variety of fruits and vegetables typically not found at your regular American grocery stores.

Although there aren’t yet any detailed plans available, the Orlando store, as an example, also has a hair salon, bakery and a food court that are all draws themselves, featuring restaurants like Seoul Soon Tofu, Joen Korean, Izziban Katsu, Pho 54 and Taglish, a Filipino-American concept.

Area Youths Learning How To Play Cricket

While many New Tampa parents can sign their kids up for leagues in sports like baseball, basketball, football and soccer that they themselves played as kids, the same opportunity hasn’t existed for the area’s large Indian population.

But now, that has changed.

Nagesh Nayak and Prahlad Madabhushi, the president and managing director, respectively, of the Tampa Premier League (TPL) — which is based at Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. — have begun holding youth cricket camps at New Tampa’s Community Park on Thursday nights. The hope is to take younger kids and spark interest, and provide the tools and knowledge, in a game that is near and dear to the hearts of their parents and their Indian culture.

“The reason we started it was there was a great deal of interested parents, asking if there was any cricket coaching for their kids,” said Madabhushi. “There is a large Indian population in New Tampa, so there was a lot of demand.”

Nayak and Madabhushi reached out to City of Tampa Council member Luis Viera for a place to hold their camps, and Viera helped secure the New Tampa location.

While you can find kids learning how to play in the streets and playgrounds in India (like American children learn baseball, basketball and soccer), that is not the case for cricket in the U.S. Nor are there any leagues for younger players, like Little League baseball or Pop Warner football.

Nayak says he would like to provide something close to that for interested players in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. The goal is to develop new players who could then advance to playing actual matches in local adult leagues.

Roughly 40 eager players showed up on Sept. 23 for the first New Tampa camp, which has 4-6 coaches available to teach each week. The kids, who range in age from 5 to 16, are shown how to throw and hit the ball, while also learning the rules of the game.

“I think everyone liked what they were experiencing,” says Nayak, an accomplished cricket player himself. “Hitting the ball, throwing the ball, catching the ball….especially hitting the ball…they enjoyed it.”

Madabhushi has been pleased with the early reception to the camps.

“It’s been amazing,” he says. “The kids are so into it, some of them don’t want to go home. And, the parents appreciate it as well.” 

While the first camp hosted all children of Indian parents, Nayak says the camps are open to everyone. In fact, he says, because of the similarity to baseball — both sports involve a pitcher (called a bowler in cricket) throwing to a batter whose goal is to hit the ball — he’d be interested to see current and former baseball players take a shot at cricket. 

“I think that would be a good transfer of talent,” he says.

Nayak and other adult players in the area typically play on Saturdays and Sundays on a makeshift pitch on some extra, unused land at the Wesley Chapel District Park, roughly five miles north of New Tampa. Their hope is to eventually secure a regulation field, level and well-maintained, at the same park, for future matches and tournaments.

As the new players at the New Tampa camp develop and learn the game, they could graduate to games in Wesley Chapel with the better players.

“Out of the kids we had out there, 25 are between the ages of 5-12,” said Madabhushi. “But, there’s also about 8 or 10 of them who are ages 13-16, who we can take it to the next level. The first step is to move up to the adult league, and when they get familiar with that level, to take them to tournaments.” 

Weather permitting, the camps are held every Thursday from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. and cost $70 for eight weeks of training.

 For more information, email tampapremierleague@gmail.com, or visit Facebook @TampaCricket.

New Tampa Players Cut Ribbon On Uptown Stage Home

After years without a permanent home, the New Tampa Players could soon have two homes — at the University Mall, where the theatre troupe celebrated signing a lease (above), and at the forthcoming New Tampa Performing Arts Center in the new Hunter’s Lake development.

Although the New Tampa Players (NTP) have big plans for when their permanent home at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (PAC) opens behind the Village at Hunter’s Lake plaza (off Bruce B. Downs Blvd.), the theatre troupe isn’t missing a beat in the meantime, as it brings the performing arts art to the community in and near New Tampa.

Last month, NTP officially cut the ribbon on Uptown Stage, its black box theatre at the University Mall on E. Fowler Ave. 

Moving from space to space is nothing new for the local community theatre troupe, which is made up of performers from all over the Tampa Bay area. In the nearly 20 years since New Tampa Players were founded in 2002 by Doug Wall, it has never had a permanent home. 

While NTP signed a lease for the Uptown Stage in early 2020 and began performances and activities there earlier this year, the troupe held off on an official ribbon cutting until September 14.

“We used Covid to remake the space,” which used to be a Radio Shack, says Nora Paine, NTP’s producing artistic director.  “We did a soft opening through the summer, just to get our bearings and get used to producing stuff in that space. Then, we scheduled the ribbon cutting for September so more people could attend after summer vacations.”

Paine’s role as producing artistic director is new. After serving as NTP’s volunteer president since 2017, and volunteering for the organization for 13 years overall, NTP named her its first official employee.

Because of NTP’s growth and expanded vision, the organization agreed to a governance change and chose Paine to serve in a role that functions as both the troupe’s CEO and artistic director.

She oversees all of the activities at Uptown Stage and is looking forward to when NTP can move into the PAC, as well.

“We will keep Uptown Stage even when we move,” says Paine. “It’s a good space for small shows.”

She says the PAC will be a big stage with 350 seats, allowing NTP to bring back big musicals that are loved by the community, such as “Annie” and “The Little Mermaid.”

At the Uptown Stage ribbon cutting, Hillsborough County commissioner Ken Hagan said the PAC will be ready to open sometime between Aug. 2022 and Jan. 2023.

“But, if we want to do smaller shows with less name recognition, or do some things that are normally not done, Uptown Stage will be a great spot,” says Paine, “so we intend to keep both going.”

The Uptown Stage space also allows NTP to stage smaller productions, where people who have never been in a show and would like to try can gain a small experience to help them develop their acting “chops.”

Uptown Stage keeps NTP close to the audience they’ve developed while performing at the nearby University Area Community Center the last few years. As the Center’s own programming grew, however, the performances could no longer be supported and NTP had to find a new location.

The first show at Uptown Stage was held in May. For NTP’s summer season, small groups performed “The Amish Project,” “Motherhood Out Loud,” “Bloom” and “Polka Dots.”

The space also is used for Saturday morning arts classes for students at nearby Muller Elementary. These often bring in guests to connect kids to the arts, and range from puppet theatre to acting to painting.

“Uptown Stage allows us to continue to pursue our mission to give as much access to the arts to as many people as possible in Tampa,” says Paine.

More than a half-dozen additional shows remain for NTP’s 2021-22 season. In January, for example, the troupe will present “Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Pinata Woman and Other Superhero Girls Like Me,” in cooperation with Tampa City Ballet, combining the arts of theatre and ballet for the audience. Tampa City Ballet’s Paula Nuñez will choreograph pieces especially for the NTP production.

Coming up next is a production called “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later,” which is a follow-up to “The Laramie Project,” a show about the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. “10 Years Later” is from the same creators, looking at what happened in the decade after that tragedy.

“Lots of people do ‘The Laramie Project,’” explains Paine, “but I haven’t seen ‘10 Years Later’ done anywhere in this area.”

“The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later” opens on Friday, October 15, at Uptown Stage. Tickets are available at NewTampaPlayers.org /tickets.

In addition, this fall will mark Season 2 of NTP’s “Amazing Arts Challenge,” a reality show modeled after “The Amazing Race” on CBS-TV. It sends teams all over Tampa as a way to bring arts organizations together and share with the community all the “cool arts stuff” in the area. 

Last season featured well-known spots like the Tampa Theater and Straz Center, along with lesser-known murals, dancing companies, and more.

“We were looking for a way to brings arts organizations together during Covid,” Paine explains. “We wanted to be outside and not have people packed closely together, and give people the opportunity to watch from home but not be sitting in front of a computer for hours.”

Last season’s Amazing Arts Challenge can be viewed on the website, as well.

Anyone interested can learn more on the NTP website at NewTampaPlayers.org or by emailing Nora.Paine@NewTampaPlayers.org.