The first Lotte Plaza Market in Rockville, MD. The upcoming location at the old Sweetbay Supermarket will look similar.
Lotte Plaza Market has filed plans with the City of Tampa to renovate the former Sweetbay Supermarket off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., next to the Home Depot, as it prepares to open what will be New Tampa’s largest Asian marketplace.
The renovation project on the 49,432-sq.ft. building, roughly 11,000 square feet of which will be storage and cooler space, will transform the inside of the former grocery store into a marketplace that sells Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese food items and ingredients, a wide selection of meats and fresh fish and seafood and a huge variety of fruits and vegetables not found at American grocery stores.
The Lotte Plaza Market also will include at least three restaurants in its food court, as well as a bakery and a tea stand.
The renovations will cost roughly $4.5 million, according to the plans. The owners of the small Maryland-based ethnic grocery store chain focusing on Asian groceries and goods purchased the old Sweetbay Market for $7 million in January of 2021.
The Sweetbay building closed in 2013 and has been unoccupied since. KNK Tampa, Ltd. bought it in 2001 and leased it to Kash n’ Karry for a 20-year term beginning in November of that year. Kash n’ Karry operated under the lease until June 14, 2006, when its Belgian parent company Delhaize America, Inc., converted it into a Sweetbay. But, despite its rebranding, Sweetbay never gained the popularity of nearby Publix or Walmart stores.
In October of 2013, Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo Holdings bought 72 Sweetbay stores, plus the leases to 10 other underperforming Sweetbay locations that had already been closed. One of those leases belonged to the New Tampa location, which had six years remaining on it, but Bi-Lo Holdings declined to do anything with the property other than pay the rent until the deal expired in 2020.
Founded in 1976, Lotte Plaza Market is considered to be one of the premier Asian and international groceries in Maryland and Virginia, where it has 12 locations. The mini-chain also has one location in New Jersey, and opened the only other Florida location in Orlando on W. Colonial Dr. in February 2019.
Lotte Plaza Market is hoping to open 50 new locations by 2030. — JCC
Zukku-San Sushi Bar & Grill, located on the north side of S.R. 56, just west of I-75, has been my favorite Japanese restaurant in our area since the day it opened.
I love sushi, and Zukku-San has an incredible variety of some of the best sushi in our area, but for me, it’s always been more about everything else on Zukku-San’s delicious menu that sets it apart from its competition.
Co-owner Ferdian Jap and co-owner/executive chef Gia Tran have created something special in their unassuming space next to Crumbl Cookie. And, while Zukku-San is an elegant, but still casual, sit-down restaurant with a full premium liquor bar (with craft cocktails like the lychee nut martini and coconut mojito shown center right on this page), Ferdian and Gia actually started together with more of a fast-casual poké-bowl-and-sushi-“burrito” concept in Tampa’s Armature Works, with a similar location also open in Charlotte, NC, and they are getting ready to open a similar concept called “Ato” in the KRATE Container Park at The Grove (Ferdian says Ato likely won’t open until late May or early June).
And, since they’re obviously not busy enough with just those eateries, Ferdian and Gia also have an Astro Craft Ice Cream location in Armature Works, and plan to open a second Astro location where Great Clips closed on the north side of S.R. 56. next to Mellow Mushroom. The signage is up at the new Astro Ice Cream, but Ferdian says the new location likely won’t open until June or July (more on that below).
But, this article will focus on Zukku-San, which continues to add new favorites to my list every time I try anything new.
The Best Starters!
I have been raving about the Starters at Zukku-San from Day One, including the most perfect deep-fried gyoza (pork dumplings) with house-made Ponzu sauce, crispy vegetable spring rolls served with an amazing semi-spicy orange chili sauce, skewered traditional Japanese chicken and beef tenderloin yakitori (with fresh veggies; there’s also shrimp and veggie-only varieties) served with teriyaki sauce, steamed or garlic edamame, crispy fried Karaage chicken served with spicy mayo and a wonderful tuna tataki, plus it’s the only place I know of that serves Tempura a la Carte options.
The tempura is lightly battered and fried to golden perfection and allows you to order individual portions of your favorites.
Our most recent order (left) included four pieces each of carrots, sweet potatoes and zucchini (only $2.95 per order each), as well as a whole soft shell crab ($9.95), which was cut into bite-sized pieces for us.
Other a la carte tempura options include shrimp, tofu, broccoli, while giant squid, avocado, hamachi (yellowtail snapper) collar, asparagus, onion, red and jalapeño peppers and whole lobster tail. So good!
On our most recent visit, we also ordered the chef’s special spicy bluefin tuna chu-toro crudo, which has thin slices of bluefin tuna (which is a fattier tuna they call medium-fatty, than their regular ahi tuna tataki appetizer), topped with jalapeños and scallions in an incredible sriracha/chili-based spicy sauce. It’s also served with a side of seaweed salad.
The Best Entrées!
We’ve usually stayed pretty basic when it comes to our favorite entrées “from the Wok & Grill” at Zukku-San, but on our most recent visit, we tried three new dishes (in addition to our usual chicken fried rice) and no one was disappointed.
Grilled short ribsUdon Noodles with fried tofuSoy butter glazed baked salmon
My favorite was my grilled short ribs, which are marinated in Asian pear juice, grilled to perfection and served with jasmine rice and sautéed veggies. These aren’t your fall-off-the-bone short ribs; they’re more like Chinese-style BBQ spare ribs, but the flavor is definitely unique.
Photographer Charmaine George ordered the wok-fired Udon Noodles with fried tofu and we all raved about the sauce covering the chewy soft noodles, the tofu and the sautéed broccoli, onion, carrot, red peppers and zucchini. Like Zukku-San’s fried rice and wok-fired hibachi (egg) noodles, you can order them with just veggies, chicken, tenderloin steak or shrimp, too.
Of course, Jannah and I also had to bring our granddaughter Rosie with us, since Zukku-San has been her favorite restaurant since she was just over a year old. Rosie and her mom Lauren love all the starters we order (the carrots are her favorite) and the perfect California roll, but her dad Albert also raved about the soy butter glazed baked salmon entrée. Lauren also always gets a Mexican roll, with tempura shrimp, avocado, cucumber, sesame seeds, masago (fish roe) and spicy mayo.
For those who only crave sushi, try Zukku-San’s Masterpiece sushi rolls like the shrimp volcano and lobster Masterpiece roll.
Zukku-San also has a wide variety of nigiri (sliced fish on rice) and sashimi (no rice), hand rolls, as well as sushi and sashimi palettes with from 24 pieces of up to four different sashimis (for $50) up to small and large sushi palettes with as many as six Masterpiece rolls or 8 classic or hand rolls for $120.
For lunch, Zukku-San has make-your-own poké bowls with rice or mixed greens, up to two proteins (try the panko chicken and ahi tuna), up to two sauces and up to three toppings, as well as Bento Box lunches with short ribs, chicken teriyaki, shrimp tempura or sushi-only, served with ginger salad, pork gyoza and miso soup.
Zukku-San Sushi Bar & Grill is located at 25916 Sierra Center Blvd.) and is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner (although the lunch menu isn’t available on weekends). For more info, visit ZukkuSushi.com or call (813) 419-1351.
Astro Ice Cream Set To Open!
For those of us who love ice cream, the announcement that Zukku-San’s owners also are opening a second location of their Astro Craft Ice Cream in our area is very much welcome news.
The Armature Works location features a variety of unique flavors that, according to its website, “feature new twists of traditional flavor combinations that reflect the diversity of our Tampa Bay community & honor its rich history.”
Ferdian says no one else has flavors like creme brulée café con leche, whiskey cookie dough, Tampa guava cream cheese or banana pudding peanut butter cookie, Ybor spiced run toasted coconut meringue pie, or options like ice cream sandwiches made with real pressed Cuban bread from La Segunda Bakery (photo above). “The bread gets crispy and the ice cream stays cold,” says Ferdian. Wow!
Stay tuned to these pages for updated on Astro Ice Cream’s expected opening.
Tucked away in Angus Valley, one of the few remaining places in Wesley Chapel that business and residential development haven’t touched, Jeff Hajari gets back to nature.
On this day, he is tending to his bees, all eight hives of them. It doesn’t take a lot of work, really, now that he has been doing this for two years, but he works to keep his hive small and strong.
In his kitchen, his countertops are filled with 16 oz. mason jars of the sweet elixir his troops have produced, roughly 400 pounds in all during his most recent harvest.
A large wedge of beeswax sits nearby on the floor, below a counter of vials filled with propolis (“bee glue”), a byproduct of the hive used by people with diabetes to heal wounds, combat allergies and even soothe toothaches.
“Bees are amazing,” Hajari says. “There are so many benefits to everything they produce.”
Which is part of the reason why Hajari is so fascinated by them. Truth is, we couldn’t live without bees, as they, along with butterflies, pollinate approximately 75 percent of the world’s flowering plants and 35 percent of the world’s food crops, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Hajari, 59, was born in Kerman, Iran, and came to the US in 1987 to start a new life. He settled in New York and began a career as a home improvement contractor, but then relocated to Florida and eventually bought a home in Angus Valley.
With an affinity for nature and being self-sustaining, Hajari started with chickens and goats in his backyard, and while his attempts to make goat’s milk failed, he did successfully manage to make some soap.
But, he really wanted his own honey. Because he returns to Iran every year to help take care of his mother, barnyard animals required too much care. So, three years ago, he bought his first beehive from a woman in Dade City for $250. He transferred the hive in his truck, and says that setting it up was, well, a bit painful.
“I got stung like crazy,” Jeff says. “Probably 20-25 times. But, it was okay.”
Hajari continued to add more hives — at one point he had 12-15. But, they were weaker hives, and he has found by limiting the hives to eight or so, he has a stronger, healthier group able to resist attackers like ants and other pests. Two years ago, he designed a new entrance for the beehive to fight against varroa mites, who were capable of wiping out an entire colony.
Hajari says he learned how to keep bees like you would learn about anything — the internet and trial and error. He watched documentaries and YouTube videos, read articles and purchased a beekeeping suit. Handy with wood working, he constructed frames for the bees to expand their honeycombs. He has made mistakes, losing bees and entire hives. “Like anything, there is a science to it,” he says.
Every few months, his kitchen becomes a laboratory, where he extracts the honey from the combs and bottles it.
“It takes two days to get it all done and jarred and ready,” Jeff says. “It’s a labor of love. As long as I have enough for my coffee and tea, and my friends.”
He says that the taste each time is different, and that it all depends on what flowers were pollinated. One of his recent batches was particularly dark and bitter.
“I don’t know why, but my honey looks almost like coffee,” he says. “I’ve been to stores but I have never seen anything that looks that dark. It’s extremely dark. But, I read where the darker the better, as it has more antioxidants and antibodies. So I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m good with it.’”
He sells his honey and propolis on Facebook marketplace, which you can find by searching “Local Honey Wesley Chapel.”
Hajari will even come remove a colony of bees from your yard, if need be.
“It’s a hobby, and it’s fun,” he says.
But, there’s always something new to learn, and Hajari has now added mushroom hunting — “Not the crazy ones, the edible ones” — to his nature quest. He joined a group that goes hunting in places like Ocala National Forest, the Croom Wildlife Management Area in Brooksville and even Hillsborough River State Park. One trip yielded a basket of Chanterelle mushrooms, which he cooked up. “I’m addicted to them, they were so good,” Jeff said.
Because he has so many trees and logs in his backyard, he ordered a mushroom growing kit and is hoping to produce Shitaki, Golden Oyster and Lion’s Mane mushrooms in his own backyard. He said it takes a year.
And,before he left for Iran recently, he planted a banana tree, avocados, blueberries and blackberries.
“I just like to be self sufficient,” he says, “especially when it comes to nutrition. I want everything organic, and I like to produce it myself.” What’s next for Jeff? He’s not sure, but he seems to be just beginning. “I always like to try something new,” he says.
A long-running saga at Heritage Isles has come to an end after more than 20 years and repeated efforts by many residents to activate the entrance gates at the front of their community.
Heritage Isles residents voted in favor of asking the City of Tampa to transfer ownership of the community’s roads to its Community Development District (CDD), which will lead to the security gates once again becoming functional.
The resolution needed two-thirds, or 66 percent of the homeowners who voted, to pass; it got 77 percent “yes” votes.
“The vote cemented what the residents want, which I feel really good about,” said CDD chairman Dan Barravecchio, who spearheaded the effort. “This was really about being able to take care of our own assets…and we can maintain a higher standard for our roads (than what the city can provide).”
The resolution is now in the hands of the City of Tampa which, after conducting its due diligence, will vote on it sometime in the coming months.
If it passes, which appears likely, the Heritage Isles CDD intends to install a new system to put the gates at its Grand Isle Dr. and Sandy Point Dr. entrances off of Cross Creek Blvd. back in working order for the first time since 2003.
The gates haven’t been used because the developer, Lennar Homes, conveyed the Heritage Isles infrastructure to the City of Tampa, which said that made the eight miles of roads within the community public.
The city prohibited the gate attendant from denying entry to any vehicle, requiring “unimpeded access” to vehicles turning off of Cross Creek Blvd. into Heritage Isles.
The CDD decided to eliminate the guard service, for which it was paying $77,000 a year, and the gatehouse has remained vacant ever since.
“If we couldn’t secure the gate, and we couldn’t check identifications, then why were we paying $77,000 a year for someone that couldn’t do anything but flip a switch?,” Barravecchio asked.
Multiple attempts to get control of the community’s roads were denied. There was no legal mechanism in place to transfer the roads to a CDD, only to a homeowners association (HOA), and that required a 100% vote by homeowners.
According to Barravecchio, the city also was hesitant, due to the community’s outstanding bond debt.
Once that debt was paid off early in 2019, the CDD and its lawyers set out to have a state law written that allowed the conveyance of the roads in a community to a CDD with a 66% vote, as opposed to the 100% vote required by Tampa just to transfer it to an HOA.
“You had a better chance of winning the lottery than getting 100 percent,” says Mark Vega, the CDD district manager since 2014. In fact, Vega said he could only remember one case more than a decade ago where a community succeeded with a 100% vote, and it was actually two cases — the Huntington (42 homes) and Westover (61) villages in Tampa Palms.
Heritage Isles hired a lobbyist and began the work of having the law crafted. Piggybacking on House Bill 57, a transportation bill, Heritage Isles was able to get Senate Bill 1194 included, which authorized “governing bodies of municipalities and counties to abandon and convey their interests in certain roads and rights-of-way dedicated in a recorded residential subdivision plat to community development districts under specified conditions.”
It was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 29 of last year.
“This is groundbreaking, this is pioneer stuff,” Vegas says. “I already know of two CDDs that are excited to jump on the bandwagon, but this (Heritage Isles) is a first for the state of Florida.”
The CDD rallied support within Heritage Isles for the vote, which was held on March 18. Of the 1,020 homeowners in Heritage Isles, a total of 373 voted, with 286 voting “yes” for the community to gain ownership of its roads.
The CDD held a number of community meetings to explain their plans, conducted all the required road studies and has stockpiled more than $650,000 in its reserve funds for future road work.
Once the city approves the transfer, Heritage Isles plans to install a state-of-the-art virtual guard system at its two entrance/exit kiosks, similar to the one used by the Live Oak Preserve community off Bruce B. Downs Blvd., hopefully bringing the gate saga to an official end.
Vega says a lot of homeowners in Heritage Isles “were misled” into thinking they were buying into a gated community. Now, Heritage Isles finally can deliver on that promise.
“There isn’t a year that has gone by that the gate issue hasn’t come up,” says Barravecchio, who has lived in Heritage Isles since 2002 and has been on the CDD board since 2005. He says the effort was fueled by many of the early residents.
“The more long-time residents, they felt it was something that was taken away from them, so they had a much more personal interest in having it restored,” he says. “Those are the people that when they drive down my block and I’m out washing my car, they stop and say ‘Thank you.’”
Did you know that kids who are involved in music are more likely to score higher on standardized tests? It’s true — papers from respected journals, such as The Journal of Educational Psychology and The British Journal of Psychology have done extensive research on this matter. So, why aren’t our local public school orchestra programs supported by our public school districts?
Mahi Nooka
Unfortunately, not many adults involve themselves with youth orchestra programs, or even bother to learn about them. But, I believe that absolutely needs to change.
My name is Mahi Nooka. I’m 14 years old and I’m an eighth grader at Dr. John Long Middle School. I have been playing the violin for four years and I was invited to give my opinion on this subject by Neighborhood News editor Gary Nager because of a disturbing pattern I’ve noticed: our local youth orchestras are not being supported by the Pasco County School District or the local community.
You see, school orchestra programs in this area aren’t well-known or funded properly. I’m in both my school orchestra at Dr. John Long and in an outside program called the Tampa Metropolitan Youth Orchestra (or TMYO). It’s well known that the arts historically have had a low priority in Florida’s public schools, especially compared to sports and other money-making activities and I don’t think that’s fair or just.
But, even within the arts, there is a hierarchy; specifically, within school music programs. Orchestra programs are almost always given a lower priority than band programs in the amount and quality of resources provided. I’ve seen bands (especially high school marching bands) get larger classrooms, uniforms, and spots on the school’s website, while the orchestra programs are stuck using the same equipment for the past sixteen years or more.
It doesn’t make sense to me, though. I know that music has the ability to change kids’ lives — it has changed mine drastically. I started in orchestra in the 6th grade (although I’ve been taking private lessons since the 4th grade) and came to love it.
In the 7th grade, my private teacher recommended that I join an outside program to supplement my school experiences, and we found TMYO, a youth orchestra program located in Hillsborough County. I auditioned for one of the four groups they had that matched my skill level best, and I loved it so much that I auditioned again this year, for the next higher group. Currently, I’m proud to say that I am sitting fourth chair in the second violin section at TMYO.
One thing I can tell you through my experience is that orchestra is like a family. It teaches teamwork and lets us form incredible bonds. I’m more confident and passionate because of it, and my fellow musicians and I are comparable to siblings. Orchestra gave me that, and I’m hoping that if orchestra programs are better nourished, other kids can have that, too.
However, whether orchestra programs can thrive or not doesn’t depend upon us as musicians. The success of these programs depends heavily upon public participation — on people like you knowing about our programs and taking the initiative to support us.
That brings us to the real question: How can you support us?
Mahi Nooka (2nd from left in front row) is a violinist in both the Long Middle School orchestra and the Tampa Metropolitan Youth Orchestra who would like to see more public support for youth orchestra programs.
Attending an orchestra concert is a great way to help. By attending, you’re showing that the kids’ hard work is not for nothing, and that someone cares. This is vital to developing confidence and allows us to practice performing in front of an audience (two essential skills for musicians).
Trust me, it doesn’t feel good when your auditorium is half-full and you’re performing for barely fifty people. This may seem like a lot of people to some of you, but think of how many people go to sporting events, especially football games.
And honestly, if nothing else, concerts are just a great way to spend time and involve yourself with the community. Though I’m not sure about other programs and schools, the concert for Dr. John Long is on Wednesday, May 4, at the Center for the Arts at Wesley Chapel, and the next concert for TMYO is on Saturday, May 14, at the USF School of Music in Tampa. The general public is invited to attend both of these events.
In addition to simply attending an orchestra concert, many local nonprofit programs have options for donations on their website. I know TMYO does (tmyo.org/make-a-donation) and so do many others in the area: the Florida Youth Orchestra (floridayouthorchestra.org/donate), and the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra (fsyo.org/support-fsyo). Donating lets our orchestras continue to exist and allows young musicians continue to express themselves creatively.
If you’re not interested in donating or attending, you can still help by spreading the word. Discussing the benefits of orchestra programs can help stir up interest in the programs, and some parents might even check out orchestra programs for their own kids. It may seem like a little thing, but it can help a lot.
And so, I’ve made my case. The youth orchestra programs need to be supported, and I’ve done my part to ensure that happens by having this article published in the Neighborhood News. I will keep advocating in the background because of my love for orchestra, but there is only so much I can do. I hope I have inspired you to take action. This is your chance to give back and make an impact — one that will be appreciated by young orchestral musicians in our community.
