Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., the company behind Florida Avenue Brewing Co. and Brew Bus Brewing, has officially announced that it has purchased the former Sports + Field location on S.R. 56. The new owners will convert Sports + Field into a brewery with a beer garden, full-service restaurant and event space.
The 34,000-sq.-ft., two-floor facility in Wesley Chapel was originally opened in 2005 as $10.5-million multi-purpose fitness center that trained professional athletes while also offering fitness programs for local residents. It closed in 2015.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Brew Bus Brewing Inc., Anthony Derby, told the Neighborhood News last month that his company was taking a close look at property, located at 2029 Arrowgrass Dr., and saw a craft brewery as a missing part of the local Wesley Chapel/New Tampa scene.
“We are excited to expand our operations into Pasco County to provide the community with a family-friendly brewery, event and restaurant destination,” Derby said in a statement. “By this time next year, Pasco County residents will not only be working in our expanded operation, but also enjoying our products a bit closer to home.”
The completed deal is expected to create 46 new local jobs and more than $8.7 million in new capital investment in Pasco County.
“It’s great to reactivate a dormant property with high-paying manufacturing jobs in a unique industry,” Bill Cronin, the president/CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council, said in a press release. “A company like Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., is a win for the whole community, as they embody the live, work, play notion so important to our community’s future economic growth.”
Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., created in 2011, currently operates both a brewery and buses that travel to breweries throughout the Tampa Bay area. In addition to brewing its own Brew Bus beer, the brand expanded in 2015, with the acquisition of Florida Avenue Brewing Co., in an effort to revive one of the area’s most historic breweries. Both Brew Bus and Florida Avenue brands are distributed throughout the entire state of Florida.
“We are happy to welcome Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., to Pasco,” said District 2 Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore. “Not only are they creating jobs, but their new tasting room and restaurant will be a great destination for residents and tourists alike. Breweries are a huge part of the tourism market.”
A rendering of the new outpatient center for cancer patients is to the right of the main AdventHealth Wesley Chapel hospital (while the existing AHWC Wellness Plaza is to the left). (Rendering courtesy of AdventHealth Wesley Chapel)
Plans to expand the services at AdventHealth Wesley Chapel (AHWC) have been in the works for more than a year, but for hospital president and CEO Denyse Bales-Chubb, the most important thing was finding the right partner.
She is convinced the hospital has done just that.
On May 21, AHWC and the Moffitt Cancer Center officially broke ground on a new outpatient center to serve cancer patients as part of a new medical office building on the AHWC campus.
The new medical office will be the bookend on the south side of the hospital along Bruce B. Downs Blvd., with the similarily-sized, existing Wellness Plaza on the north side.
AHWC president and CEO Denyse Bales-Chubb
“We believe that the community here in Wesley Chapel is in need of having some cancer specialists they would be able to access, so it was natural we would go and talk to Moffitt,” Bales-Chubb said at the packed groundbreaking event. “They have the expertise, the awards and the skills we are looking for in our community.”
According to Bales-Chubb, the second medical office on the hospital’s campus also is necessary because the first one is full and cannot add anymore physicians. One of the pressing needs AHWC was looking to fill was cancer treatment. “It’s a natural fit,” she said.
The groundbreaking for the three-story, 100,000-sq.-ft. medical building was attended by more than 100 community members, local leaders and officials from AHWC and Moffitt. It was heralded as a breakthrough moment for medical service in Pasco County.
Nearly a third of that space will be used for the cancer outpatient center. AHWC’s own spine institute, which has outgrown its current space in the Wellness Plaza, also is moving the services moving into the new building.
A close-up artist’s rendering of the new medical building at AdventHealth Wesley Chapel.
The rest of the space will be used for other services and Bales-Chubb hinted that more partnerships could be on the way.
“The best interest of the patient is the only interest to be considered and, in order that the sick may have the benefit of advancing knowledge, a union of forces is necessary,” said Dominic Sarafin, the vice president of strategic alliances and network for Moffitt, quoting something Dr. William J. Mayo, M.D. (founder of the original Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN) said in 1910. “It is a sentiment we share today.”
The outpatient center will offer medical and radiation oncology services and will be designed to accommodate oncologists to deliver chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation therapy to patients, said Dr. Lewis Harrison, chair & senior member of radiation oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center.
Dr. Harrison also said the center at AHWC will have 20 examination rooms, 22 infusion suites and will accommodate two linear accelerators —which customizes the radiation treatment to focus on the tumor or cancer cells without damaging surrounding tissue — for radiation therapy services.
Full-length glass will provide patients the opportunity to look outside and see trees and nature, contributing to the overall patient experience.
The new $44-million facility also will offer cancer screenings and survivorship programs for post-treatment patients.
The building is expected to be completed by the fall of 2020.
A Little History…
The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer & Research Institute was founded as the state’s cancer center when it opened on the campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa in 1986. As one of only 50 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, Moffitt has gained national acclaim over the years for its research and patient care.
“The mission has remained the same — to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer,” said Sarafin. “It drives everything and everyone at Moffitt. As the state grows and ages, the ACA estimates more than 130,000 (Floridians)…. will learn they have cancer this year. We are joining with AdventHealth, in the hopes that this project will make a difference in their lives.”
Bales-Chubb also noted that it is a big step for Moffitt to be able to bring its renowned cancer treatments and access to clinical trials closer to patients in our area who need it.
“To me, it says they want to make sure they are taking care of the community,” she said. “Instead of just saying you come to us, it’s more of we are going to come to you…we want to bring our services to you, where you live and where you work.”
AHWC, formerly Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, opened in 2012 as Wesley Chapel’s first hospital, and in 2016, doubled its emergency department from 18 to 35 rooms and went from 83 private patient rooms to 143 while adding three floors and 111,993 sq. ft. of new space during a $78-million expansion.
I’m not going to say that Jamaican cuisine has ever been among my top favorites, but I will say this — as a native New Yorker who has previously sampled some well-known Jamaican restaurants in Manhattan, there are a number of dishes I’m going to keep going back to the new Hummingbird Jerk House to enjoy.
Owner Patrick Murrel, a Hunter’s Green resident, and his family invite you to sample truly some of the best Jamaican cuisine I’ve had the chance to try, especially in Tampa.
The Hummingbird Jerk House, located in the space previously occupied by Dairy Queen, on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in North Palms Village (next to Oakley’s Grille), features everything from authentic meat patties to items I’ve previously never (and still haven’t) tried, such as cow foot and butter beans (with dumplings) and what is billed on the menu as the Jamaican National Dish called ackee and saltfish.
According to Hummingbird’s website, Patrick is from the Westmoreland province of Jamaica and grew up in the town of Sav-la-mar, next to Negril. The website says his “mama teach him to cook,” and from the items I’ve sampled so far, I’d say she taught him well!
The Best Fried Chicken?
Chicken is obviously a staple of Jamaican cuisine, based on the Hummingbird Jerk House’s menu. And, not surprisingly, three of my favorite dishes are the jerk chicken, the brown stew chicken and some of the best fried chicken I’ve had at any kind of restaurant in Tampa. The fried chicken is super-crisp, but still tender and served on the bone, with a side of Patrick’s signature and super-tasty brown stew sauce, plus sides like white rice or rice and peas (beans), plantains and veggies, which are usually either sliced carrots or carrots and cabbage. I’d love to see some additional veggies on the menu, but the sliced carrots are particularly tasty.
Jerk chicken dish.
Lead video editor Gavin Olsen and I both also enjoyed the jerk chicken at Hummingbird Jerk House, although it doesn’t have quite as much kick as some jerk chicken I’ve sampled. Even so, it is full of flavor and there’s always a couple of different hot sauces on the tables, if you need a bigger jolt from your jerk. There’s also BBQ and curry chicken on the menu, but I hadn’t sampled either at our press time.
Speaking of the brown stew sauce, for those who crave sauce all over their chicken, there is a brown stew chicken on the menu, which is basically similar to the fried chicken but covered with the sauce. The brown stew sauce also is tasty on Patrick’s whole snapper, although he’ll warn you that the whole snapper does have bones, so it’s a little bit of work to enjoy this zesty dish.
From what I’ve seen during my multiple visits to the restaurant, the more popular snapper seems to be the escoveitch, which is available bone-in or as a filet (which is likely how I will try it in the future). The snapper is fried and then covered in onions, sliced carrots, scotch bonnet peppers, pepper and vinegar. There’s also jerk salmon on the menu, although I don’t usually enjoy salmon other than smoked and on a bagel.
Meat patties are a popular item at the Hummingbird Cafe.
I haven’t yet sampled the ackee (a Caribbean fruit) and saltfish (cod), but many of the Hummingbird Jerk House’s regulars rave about it. I did, however, sample the Japanese coco bread with saltfish, a doughy appetizer which is slightly sweet from coconut milk.
Other Jamaican staples I’ve sampled at the Hummingbird Jerk House include the oxtail and the curry goat.
I’ve never been the biggest curry fan (although Jamaican curry is different than Thai or Indian curry) and I don’t go out of my way to eat goat, but I really enjoyed the oxtail. It is “stewed down” with Jamaican herbs and butter beans in a savory brown sauce and is very tasty and tender. It does take a little work to get at all of the available meat, but trust me, it’s worth it. I definitely also plan to try Patrick’s beef stew — which is only available Thur.-Sun. Other menu items include Rastaman vegetable stew, soups (including Manish-Water, or goat soup), chicken wings and roti skin sandwich wraps with curry chicken or goat, jerk chicken or veggies.
Breakfast, Too?
Patrick is proud to have recently announced that he is now serving authentic Jamaican breakfast favorites on Sat. and Sun. mornings (8 a.m.-11:30 a.m.). Among the breakfast items are salt mackerel, ackee and saltfish with cooked green bananas, dumplings and more, plus porridges of cornmeal and oats.
And of course, any time you walk into a place and the music of the great man himself — Bob Marley — is playing, you’re bound to feel good. And, at the Hummingbird Jerk House, you’re also likely to leave satisfied.
Hummingbird Jerk House (17631 BBD, Unit F) is open 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sun., and every other day 11 a.m.-10 p.m., except it is closed on Mon. For more info, visit HummingbirdJerkHouse.com or call (813) 512-2558.
Nupur Lala bought some time by asking for it to be used in a sentence. A hint of a smile crossed her bespectacled face. Inside, she was bursting.
Meena Lala watched her 14-year-old daughter intently. There had been one scare during the Scripps National Spelling Bee, but that was a few rounds back, on the word “poimenics,” maybe the only time she had gotten nervous.
But not now. Not on this word.
“L-O-G…”
Odalys Pritchard remembers the moment like it was yesterday. She was on the edge of her seat, watching her Benito Middle School eighth grader on ESPN trying to spell her way into history.
“I remember seeing the smile and the confidence when they gave her the word,” Pritchard says. “I knew she knew it.”
“…O-R-R…”
Right before she was given the final word, Nupur caught a glimpse of the event organizers preparing the trophy for the winner.
“It felt like a dream,” she says, and she wasted no time, quickly spelling the winning word.
“…H-E-A!”
When Nupur nailed the final word at the 76th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee on June 3, 1999, she jumped as high as she could two times, stopped to tuck her shoulder-length hair behind each ear, and jumped again, her yellow placard designating her as Speller No. 165 flailing about with her arms.
She grabbed the big trophy, raised it up to the sky and smiled the widest of smiles.
“It didn’t feel real,” says Nupur, now age 34. “I remember jumping up and down, and wondering ‘Is there going to be ground beneath me when I land?’”
***
Twenty years later, she remembers every detail, from the hero’s greeting she received at Tampa International Airport to receiving a key to the city to a slew of television cameras eager to record her every move.
There were banners declaring “Busch Gardens Spells Champ N-U-P-U-R” and local daily newspaper headlines calling her “The goddess of spelling.” The Neighborhood News (see pg. 36) called her “Super Nupur.”
New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner invited her to New York and gave her tickets to see “Phantom” on Broadway. Even Hooters put up a sign congratulating Nupur.
Her parents, Meena and Nupur’s father Parag, had her write the restaurant a thank-you letter.
“In hindsight, thinking back, it was extraordinary,” she says. “I’ll never forget the way that Tampa treated me.”
Nupur is greeted at Busch Gardens after her win.
However, when she felt the most famous, she says, is when her mother was driving her home to Hunter’s Green one day, and the guard at the gate asked if that was the Spelling Bee champ in the back seat.
Meena said yes, and he asked if she could hop out and say hi. This was a time before cell phones, so he didn’t want a picture. He just wanted to congratulate her and share his admiration for her accomplishment.
“That might have been the moment I felt really famous,” Nupur says.
***
It was just the beginning, though. In 2002, the documentary “Spellbound” was released, to critical acclaim. It followed Nupur and seven other Regional champions through the 1999 Scripps Spelling Bee competition. It earned $6-million and was nominated for an Oscar, giving Nupur a second round of fame.
She never thought she would always be the Spelling Bee champ from Benito Middle School in Tampa.
“I’d say it’s the one accomplishment in my life people are still interested in,” she says. “It has stayed with me more than anything I’ve done.”
There were times, she says, that fact chafed Nupur. To be defined by something you did at age 14, when you barely knew then who you even were, and then to have so much more expected of you as a result, was frustrating at times.
“I’ve had different feelings at different points in my life about all of it,” Nupur says. “Definitely early high school, early college, I felt that there were such massive expectations from winning the Spelling Bee at 14. I was still trying to figure out who I was and where I wanted to fit in in the world. It was very difficult.”
Today, however, Nupur has found her path. As a result, it is easier to embrace being noticed by someone who recognizes her name or face.
***
Nupur attended high school in Fayetteville, AR, where her family had moved just a few months after the Spelling Bee victory. She graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2007 with a B.S. degree in Brain Cognitive and Behavioral Science, and worked for three years at the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) in Cambridge doing functional MRI research in cognitive neuroscience
She graduated with a Master’s degree in Cancer Biology from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2015. And, after earning her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, she is now doing her residency in Neurology at the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.
She hopes to do a fellowship in neuro-oncology, specifically Glioblastoma multiforme, the brain cancer that killed U.S. Senator John McCain.
***
Millions of students from all 50 states battle each year to make it to The Scripps National Spelling Bee, scheduled this year for Sunday-Friday, May 26-31, in Washington, D.C.
A Benito newsletter recognized Nupur, as well as her stiffest competition.
Nupur remembers the grind. She did her first spelling bee in Kaye Whitehurst’s seventh grade English class, merely to earn extra credit. She hadn’t even heard of the Scripps Spelling Bee, but once she discovered she was good at it, winning it became a goal.
Few remember that she actually made it to our nation’s capital for the first time as a seventh grader, when she was eliminated in the third round on the first day in 1998.
She was happy and proud, but she remembers while she was almost universally praised for her efforts, a classmate taunted her by reminding her that she didn’t win.
“I still remember that feeling. One moment you can be on top, and the next moment, you’re back to being a regular kid,” she says. “I didn’t realize how much it bothered me or how much I internalized that feeling. It fueled me for years.”
Nupur says it was Whitehurst, who had gone to D.C. with her student in 1998, and Pritchard, who is now interim deputy director for Hillsborough County’s Achievement Schools, that helped lift up her spirits.
“Teachers don’t even know the impact they make,” Nupur says. “I hope they read this and know they made a tremendous difference.”
***
With Meena (who spent many hours reading the practice words to her daughter), Whitehurst and Pritchard in her corner, Nupur was determined to get back to the National Spelling Bee in the eighth grade, and her goal was to make it to the televised portion of the event. She competed in a half dozen regional events to qualify, but says the stiffest competition was actually at Benito.
There were 249 competitors from around the country who survived Regionals and made it to Washington and 144 of them were eliminated on the first day.
But, not Nupur. She had made it to the televised portion on Day 2, and when she did, she says a strange calm came over her.
“I met my goal,” she remembers thinking. “It was still the most surreal moment of my life.”
Nupur’s parents moved to the U.S. from a small town in central India in 1984, where Parag worked as an engineering professor at Syracuse University in upstate New York, where Nupur was born. They moved to Tampa in 1997.
Nupur’s win marked a historic shift in the Spelling Bee. Since her win, 19 spellers of Indian descent have either been champion or co-champion.
Since her win, Nupur says she did not watch the Spelling Bee every year. She confesses to a rebellious period where she didn’t want to be the “goddess of spelling” anymore.
But, when she does watch it, she says she finds herself moved by the reactions of the winners, as well as her own memories.
“It was the culmination of a lot of hard work, by me and my family,” Nupur says. “I did something very few people have, and I will forever be grateful for that moment.”
So will those who knew her, like Pritchard. Nupur’s picture commemorating her win still hangs in the front office at Benito. And, for a long time, there was a large photo portrait of Nupur displayed at the Hillsborough County School Board boardroom auditorium, until the boardroom was renovated in 2017.
“It was always nice seeing that picture,” Pritchard says. “I can’t believe it’s been 20 years. Nupur was a shining star. There’s probably a lot of people who remember her vividly.”
Victoria (Tori) Bell is the third member of her family to earn class valedictorian honors at Wharton High.
For Wharton High’s 2019 Valedictorian, Victoria “Tori” Bell, being at the very top of her class runs in the family.
Both of Tori’s older brothers, Earl and Jared, were also Wharton valedictorians. Earl is now serving in the military, and Jared is earning his undergraduate degree in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
“It was always assumed that I would follow in their footsteps, but I never felt forced into it,” says Tori, 17, who earned a 9.01 GPA at Wharton by completing several Advanced Placement STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) courses while simultaneously earning an Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree from Hillsborough Community College.
Tori, a National Merit Scholar and member of the Mu Alpha Theta Mathematics Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society, received fully-financed offers from Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of South Florida, but had her heart set on attending UF.
“My brothers both went there, and it’s always the school I wanted to go to,” said Tori, who was awarded the Benacquisto and Presidential Scholarship from UF, which will more than cover her full tuition and living expenses.
Tori says her recipe for success was, “consistency and determination with measured doses of goofing off,” which she did by playing video games, going to the gym, and enjoying lots of movies and TV shows by herself and with friends.
“I absolutely love stories,” said Tori, whose favorites include the Ender’s Game series, Marvel comic book movies, and the British drama hit “Killing Eve.”
Tori also is an avid reader who has whiled away many an afternoon at the bookstore, reading Gillian Flynn, Emily Danforth and Agatha Christie.
Her parents, Ed and Diana Bell, teach math and language arts at Wharton; however, her mother says that Tori is very self-sufficient and never asked either of them for help with homework.
Tori plans to major in Accounting, although she says that career choice is not set in stone, and plans to minor in English at UF. She’s also looking forward to living in Gainesville, closer to her brother Jared.
“My parents and family have been absolutely amazing, and I know I wouldn’t be here without them,” she said.
Salutatorian Also Headed To UF
Wharton’s salutatorian Ashley Joseph, who came in just behind Victoria with an 8.41 GPA, was, like the valedictorian, determined for success from the beginning.
“My parents taught me the importance of education from an early age,” says Ashley, 18, who took additional online and dual enrollment courses as a freshman and sophomore specifically to meet high school graduation requirements as soon as possible. “From there, I followed my passions and learned continuously.”
Ashley volunteers weekly in the emergency room at AdventHealth Tampa, interacting with patients and helping at the front desk, and works as a tutor at Kumon Math and Reading Center in New Tampa.
“My goal is to become a doctor,” says Ashley, who also will attend UF. “The ability to help others is extremely meaningful and rewarding (to me).”
Wharton High’s 2019 graduation ceremony will be held at the Florida State Fairgrounds on U.S. 301 in Tampa on Thursday, May 30, at 12:30 p.m.
