Noble Crust Has Taken Wesley Chapel By Storm!

WHEN I first heard that Noble Crust was planning to open in The Shops at Wiregrass mall a couple of years ago, my fiancé Jannah and I immediately starting visiting the original Noble Crust on 4th St. in St. Petersburg to sample the menu.

We both immediately became fans of Noble Crust’s unique Italian fare with a Southern accent. And, although I still wish Noble Crust owner TJ Thielbar (a former managing partner at Bonefish Grill), Wesley Chapel managing partner Will Perez and Chef Rob Reinsmith would expand the menu at Noble Crust a little, what can you say about a mall restaurant that isn’t open for lunch during the week and isn’t open Mondays at all but is still packing in crowds of happy fans every day it is open?

The food and drinks are excellent — and priced very fairly —  the atmosphere is more like something you’d find in New York or Miami than in “The Chap” and the fact that Chef Rob regularly changes the menu and adds unique specials every month or so does keep me (and a lot of other people) coming back and hungry for more.

My favorite starters at Noble Crust include the amazing kale Caesar salad topped with a uniquely soft-cooked egg. The Caesar is special because I usually prefer something more traditional and I’m not the biggest kale fan, but between the gooey egg yolk and the definitely different Caesar dressing, well, let’s just say the salad works for me.

I’m also partial to Noble Crust’s Ricotta Gnocchi, which are homemade potato pastas with pancetta, black pepper cream, parmesan and pecorino cheeses and scallions. The gnocchi were first introduced to Wesley Chapel at the 2017 Taste of New Tampa at Florida Hospital Center Ice a couple of months before the local Noble Crust opened in July.

One of the special appetizers we loved was the cauliflower gratin, which is baked to perfection and covered with cheese, crumbled bacon and bread crumbs, which somehow tenderizes the cauliflower and gives it a crispy coating. You also can’t go wrong with any of Noble Crust’s unique pizzas — from the basic Margherita to the Noble Pig (topped with house-made sweet fennel sausage and large slices of amazingly tasty pepperoni). I haven’t yet tasted the pretzel-crusted calamari, but it looks delicious, too.

Although my favorite main dish is probably still the grouper special with chimichurri sauce (on a bed of perfect garlic whipped potatoes and succotash), I also love the chicken fried chicken parmigiana, served with bucatini (a thick, but hollow spaghetti), the rigatoni & beef short ribs, the double-cut pork chop, the tender, tasty beef, veal and pork meatballs also served with bucatini and the southern fried chicken with Tabasco-honey, black pepper gravy, apple & fennel slaw and your choice of mac n’ cheese or those roasted garlic whipped potatoes. Other side dishes include four-cheese grits, garlicky greens, crispy fingerling potatoes and fried green tomatoes with lime yogurt.

Brunch & Sunday Gravy!

For those who enjoy getting out of the house for a unique Sunday brunch (served beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday), Noble Crust has got you covered, too.

The brunch features great breakfast items like fried chicken and waffles, a southern “Benny” (poached eggs, country ham, fried green tomatoes and brown butter Hollandaise sauce on a buttermilk biscuit), a definitely different egg sandwich (with applewood bacon, scrambled egg and pimento cheese on a garlic butter brioche bun; add avocado for just $1.50 more)  or a goat cheese frittata (with heirloom tomato, caramelized onions and Hollandaise sauce). There’s also short rib “Benny” and meatball smash sandwiches that I haven’t yet sampled.

I also still haven’t yet tried Noble Crust’s Sunday Gravy, which includes house antipasto, garlic bread with pesto + ricotta, homemade pork gravy with spaghetti or grits in a family dinner setting. It costs just $19 per person and your first glass of wine is complimentary.

Dessert is a true treat at Noble Crust. My favorite so far has been the thick, dense, creamy slab of peanut butter pie, although I also enjoyed the warm chocolate budino (with salted caramel, cookie crumbles and fresh whipped cream) and the lemon buttermilk pie and bourbon pecan pie also seem to be pretty popular.

In other words, while Noble Crust may not be a traditional Italian restaurant, it is Wesley Chapel’s most unique new eatery and certainly is among my favorites in our distribution areas.

Noble Crust (28330 Paseo Dr.) is open Tues.-Thur., 4 p.m.-11 p.m., 3 p.m.-midnight on Fri., 10 a.m.-midnight on Sat. & 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on Sun. For reservations (not required, but suggested, visit Noble-Crust.co or call (813) 703-2682.

Despite Promotional Concerns, DICK’s Lacrosse Tournament Is Back

The 13th annual DICK’s Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions (ToC), dubbed as the national championships for the sport of lacrosse, is once again scheduled to be played in Wesley Chapel at the end of the month.

However, the once-friendly relationship between host Pasco County and Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE), LLC, which puts on the event, has become a little bit frosty, as the county is claiming KSE is not holding up its end of a deal the parties agreed to in 2016.

As a result, the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners voted on Dec. 12 to reduce the amount of money the county pays the tournament organizers from $90,000 to $20,000.

According to a letter sent to KSE’s Stephen Stienker, the county is claiming that KSE agreed to promote Pasco County in exchange for the $90,000 annual rights fee the county previously paid to KSE each year.

Administered by the Pasco County Tourist Development Council (TDC) and collected from a local-option tourist development tax on transient lodging like hotels, motels and campgrounds, the $90,000 is roughly half of the county’s budget for sports event sponsorships.

Adam Thomas, who replaced Ed Caum as the Pasco County director of tourism in September, said that as a new employee, he was going through various contracts and checking to make sure the deliverables were being met. After some research, Thomas determined that was not happening in KSE’s case.

“None of the agreement was being met,’’ Thomas says.

That included displaying the county’s name or “Visit Pasco” slogan and logo on the websites of 60-plus qualifying tournaments in 22 different states for the DICK’s ToC, as well as in newsletters, backdrop banners, apparel, mentions in news and press releases and on trophies.

Thomas said that when he visited the websites of the qualifying tournaments, many weren’t even active, and on the ones that were still active, he says there was not a single mention of Pasco.

Videos were supposed to be created by KSE as well, promoting the DICK’s ToC and Pasco County.

“It is a long laundry list of deliverables and obligations that weren’t being done,” Thomas says.

The county has requested a full and detailed accounting of the expenditures of the $90,000 paid to KSE for the 2016 event and expenditures already made for the 2017 ToC.

According to Florida Statute 125.0104, any money from the Tourist Development Tax earmarked for promotion has to be spent on promotion.

“I do want to see the audit of 2016,’’ Thomas says. “If that money is being spent on something else, like operations or salaries, that’s a bigger problem.”

Thomas said this year’s DICK’s ToC, scheduled to be played Dec. 29-31 at Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. and Wesley Chapel High on Wells Rd., will still go on, but the letter to KSE says it will take whatever legal remedies are necessary, from withholding payment or even terminating the agreement.

This is the second year of the two-year deal — with an option for a third year — Pasco County signed with KSE in May of 2016.

“We don’t want the tournament to cancel,” Thomas says. “It brings a lot of people and fresh dollars to our economy. I just want the return on investment from the agreement that was signed by KSE and the county. I don’t want them to cancel the tournament at all.”

The ToC website, at NDPLacrosse.com, has made some changes and is currently referencing Pasco County twice, while also displaying a large bright yellow “Visit Pasco” logo.

The DICK’s ToC started in 2006, and has been held in Wesley Chapel every year since 2008. Hosted by the Wesley Chapel Athletic Association (WCAA), the county says the tournament has an estimated annual economic impact of about $3 million.

As many as 115 teams have competed in the ToC, although in recent years, those numbers have declined. In 2015, there were 73 teams participating, and last year’s event attracted only 53 teams.

Tj Fitzsimons, the Wiregrass Ranch High lacrosse coach who has coached some of the Pasco Lions teams from the WCAA at the tournament in the past, said he was told just under 70 teams are slated for this year’s event.

Teams earn bids at regional qualifying tournaments to compete for the DICK’s national championship across five divisions – Rising Stars (graduation years of 2019, 2020 and 2021), Elite (2018-2021) and 9U-10U through 15U.

One of those qualifiers, the Derek Pieper Memorial Cup, is held in Wesley Chapel every year in mid-November.

Game times each day will be held from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information, visit NDPlacrosse.com/Default.aspx?tabid=493987.

Plans To Widen & Improve Curley Rd. Getting Fresh Look

The connected city projected is not only bringing fast internet and Crystal Lagoons (see pgs. 1 & 4) to Wesley Chapel, it will also result in some local road improvements, as the county preps for additional traffic in the future.

A 2005 route study that recommended widening Curley Rd. (C.R. 577) is getting a re-evaluation, due to development in the area that is expected to increase traffic. Curley Rd. makes up the connected city’s western border.

Also, Clinton Ave. is being extended to the west and will become the new re-aligned S.R. 52, which runs along the connected city’s northern border in San Antonio.

A steady crowd (photo) showed up to participate in the route study re-evaluation Open House held Dec. 6 at Saint Anthony of Padua Catholic Church Parish Center in San Antonio.

Local residents were allowed to view the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) plans for east-west re-aligning of S.R. 52, which is expected to begin in June of 2019.

The county hopes to complete its right-of-way acquisitions by the spring of 2019.

The Curley Rd. project itself is even further off. While minor improvements will be made where Curley connects with the realigned S.R. 52, right now, it is unlikely anything will be done with widening it or re-routing where it connects with Prospect Rd. (579A) before 2030.

“Because of connected city (east of Curley)and the Villages of Pasadena (a development on the west side of Curley Rd.), things have changed,’’ said Panos Kontses, project manager for the Pasco County Engineering Services Department. “What we analyzed then has changed, so we are doing a refreshing of the study.”

The study is looking at widening Curley Rd. from two to four lanes (from one lane in each direction to two lanes in each direction) from north of the Wesley Chapel schools on Wells Rd. to north of the S.R. 52 re-alignment.

The road would have one sidewalk, and a 46-foot grass median that could allow for the expansion of the road to six total lanes.

Also presented at the open house were three alternatives for a Curley Rd.-Prospect Rd. intersection, north of Tyndall Rd.

Prospect Rd. is an east-west road that curves north before ending at Curley (after Curley curves west).

New plans call for extending Prospect west to Curley, where the two roads will intersect. But, Prospect will become Mirada Blvd. and run northwest through another connected city/Crystal Lagoon development called Mirada.

Residents were asked to weigh in on three options: a single signalized intersection, a roundabout with right turn bypass lanes or two signalized offset “T” intersections for the Curley Rd./Mirada Blvd./Prospect Rd. intersection.

According to traffic studies, Curley Rd. currently handles roughly 7,200 vehicles a day, but by 2041 is projected to have 21,000 vehicles traveling on it each day.

Likewise, Prospect Rd. is expected to increase from 6,200 to 15,100, and once the intersection is complete, Mirada Blvd. will be handling 11,900 vehicles daily.

“It is a ways off,” Kontses said. “All we’re doing right now are the planning studies. We don’t (currently) have the funding for design or construction of this project.”

Ready For Something Truly Unique? Try New Tampa’s El Pescador Restaurant!

I wish I had a dollar for every time a New Tampa or Wesley Chapel resident has told me, “I wish something other than another chain restaurant would open here.”

I, of course, have been among the loudest of those voices, always lamenting that every time we get a new place — even if it isn’t a chain — it’s still too similar to too many other eateries we already have here.

Well, one thing I can assure you is that the casual, new El Pescador Mexican Restaurant Taqueria & Seafood in the Publix-anchored New Tampa Center plaza isn’t like any other Mexican place we already have, nor is it like any other fresh seafood place I’ve sampled anywhere. Seriously.

Although it is owned and operated by the same family that owns some of the local Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurants, El Pescador truly specializes in fresh seafood.

The main issue I have with that is that I can’t eat most of the incredible variety of seafood dishes available at El Pescador because of my accursed shellfish allergy. In fact, other than the fresh fish dishes on the menu (and yes, there are a few; see below), the only shellfish dishes I can safely eat are the “Patas de Cangrejo,” or crab leg platter, the “Almejas al Ajo” (clams in garlic sauce) and the grilled octopus and sea scallops, even though I’ve never been a big octopus or scallop lover.

If you’re not allergic to shrimp, lobster, oysters, mussels, crawfish, etc., and you like to sample them in a variety of different sauces, your taste buds may have found a new home.

Let’s Start With Starters…

Before you order anything, El Pescador’s happy servers bring you the most incredibly crispy, oversized tortilla chips, with a Vallarta’s-like fresh, puréed salsa and a spicier salsa, plus a plate with a dollop of a unique tuna salad and fresh cucumbers and tomatoes.

If you enjoy fresh ceviche to start a meal, there are tuna, shrimp and tilapia varieties and the lime juice, onions and peppers combine to make a tasty appetizer. There also “Vuelve ala Vida,”a mix of shrimp, octopus, oyster and tilapia ceviche, as well as peel-and-eat shrimp and crawfish, shrimp and shrimp and octopus cocktails and “Caldo 7 Mares” and other soups.

Oyster fans can enjoy small or large plates on the half shell, fried or served “Rockefeller” style, baked with octopus, crab, shrimp and cheese. There’s also shrimp empanadas, fried calamari, cheese dip and made-to-order guacamole.

As for the fish dinners I can eat, the “Huachinango Zarandeado,” which is one of the priciest items on the menu, is a marinated whole red snapper, fileted and cooked over an open fire that truly seals in the flavor and juices. If you prefer a whole fried snapper that isn’t fileted for you, the “Huachinango al Gusto” is the whole fish with garlic, spicy diablo red sauce or creamy ranchera sauce — for about half of the cost of the Zarandeado.

Fish lovers also can enjoy fried or grilled swai (a freshwater catfish). grilled salmon or whole fried tilapia.

The most expensive item on the menu is the whole, stuffed lobster, which is heavily stuffed with shrimp, crab, scallops and octopus. Shrimp alone are available grilled, fried, spicy sautéed, with pico de gallo or sautéed in garlic sauce.

Jannah and I did sample the “small” snow crab leg dinner ($19.95), which comes with fries and rice (although you can substitute veggies), as do all of El Pescador’s House Specialties. The crab legs are yummy, but extremely messy, as the legs themselves are covered in a creamy “Chef’s secret sauce” of garlic, butter and (I’m guessing) paprika. Also available are a variety of platters, including the Vallarta Grilled Combo (shrimp, tilapia and octopus with grilled onions) and El Pescador Seafood Combo (garlic, shrimp, tilapia and scallops with rice, salad and garlic bread).

For You Landlubbers…

Whether you’re allergic or you just prefer more traditional Mexican fare, El Pescador does also have a tasty carne asada steak, very good fajitas (including the steak, shrimp and chicken Fajitas El Pescador combo pictured on the next page), chicken (including the tasty “Pollo Crema”), two kinds of pork,  marinated beef, chorizo sausage, shrimp and fish, all available in mini-tacos, tacos, burritos, or quesadilla, or create your own combo. More adventurous types can try tongue or tripe.

Lunch is a good deal at El Pescador, with steak or chicken fajitas for just $8.50 or create a lunch-size combo of two for just $9.50. Most other lunch items are just $7.95-$9.95.

Items from the kids menu cost just $6.95 each and include your choice of a cheese quesadilla, steak burrito, chicken fingers, a cheeseburger, grilled chicken burger or even grilled chicken. Kids entrées are served with rice and beans or fries.

And, El Pescador Mexican and domestic beers (try the Carta Blanca), as well as merlot, chardonnay and homemade sangria, as well as flan, churros and other tasty desserts.

El Pescador (19062 BBD Blvd.) opens at 11 a.m. and stays opens until 9 p.m. on Sun., 9:30 p.m. Mon.-Thur., and 10 p.m. on Fri.-Sat. For more info, including great coupon specials, call (813) 615-9595 or search “El Pescador Mexican Restaurant” on Facebook. Note-Some photos shown here are from Yelp.

Hillsborough County To Vote On Fire Deal With Pasco This Week

Hillsborough County Fire Chief Dennis Jones (left) explains to local residents (including Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera) at a recent town hall that Pasco County is likely to provide emergency services to unincorporated New Tampa in the future. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Hillsborough County has elected to secure the services of nearby Pasco County to provide fire service to the New Tampa communities not located within the city limits of the City of Tampa, pending a vote this week.

“It was the mayor (Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn) who said if we didn’t like it, then go to Pasco,’’ says County Fire Chief Dennis Jones. “So, we went to Pasco.”

The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) will vote Wednesday whether or not to approve a $275,000 annual contract between Hillsborough and Pasco counties for fire services for residents in Pebble Creek, Live Oak, Cross Creek and other communities located in unincorporated Hillsborough County, such as the Branchton Park area.

The county and the City of Tampa, which has provided fire service  to the unincorporated portion of New Tampa with some combination of Fire Stations Nos. 20, 21 and 22 the past 20 years, are ending a long agreement, after the city said it was raising the cost of its service to unincorporated New Tampa from $218,000 to $1.4 million per year.

Pasco’s Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted to approve the deal on Nov. 28.

“I’m 100 percent for it,’’ said Pasco BCC chair Mike Moore, who represents most of Wesley Chapel in District 2, prior to the vote. “It’s a wash for us. We’re not making a ton of money off it, but we’re being good neighbors.”

Under the new agreement, unincorporated areas of New Tampa will primarily be serviced by Pasco County Fire Rescue Station No. 26, located in the nearby Meadow Pointe I community of Wesley Chapel.

The station is roughly 1.6 miles from the entrance to Live Oak Preserve, 1.9 miles to the entrance to the Pebble Creek Golf Club, 2.5 miles to the intersection of Cross Creek Blvd. and Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., and about 5 miles from the Kinnan St. area.

“Most communities in the unincorporated area are closer to the Pasco county fire station,’’ Chief Jones explained to a crowd at a recent New Tampa town hall (see page 6). “(Station 26) has a fire engine, rescue car and paramedic service.”

The contract is with the county, Jones said, not with just the one fire station, so other stations would also be available if needed. For example, Pasco County has Fire Rescue Station 13 in Quail Hollow, which is 7.9 miles from Live Oak Preserve, Fire Rescue Station No. 16 in Zephyrhills, which is located roughly 10.7 miles from the easternmost part of the unincorporated area, and No. 23 in Lutz, which is about the same distance from the westernmost areas.

Also, Jones added, Pasco and the City of Tampa have a mutual aid agreement. If Pasco is not available for a call, it would call Tampa for mutual aid, meaning Tampa Fire Rescue No. 21 or No. 22 (both on Cross Creek Blvd.) would provide the service.

Chief Jones also promised residents at that town hall meeting that their service would not stop, nor would they be responsible for any additional assessments.

The prospect of being serviced by a fire rescue station further away than TFR Station Nos. 21 and 22 didn’t sit well with some unincorporated New Tampa residents.

“We’re going to wait for Pasco to respond from County Line Road?,’’ asked Pebble Creek resident Craig Lewis at the town hall. “For Pasco to come down Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in that traffic? You expect us to get fire service that far away when we have two engines within a mile of my house? That is absolutely ludicrous, and is not acceptable.”

Jones said other options for a local Hillsborough County unit staged from a modular building were explored, but all of them cost more than Pasco County’s services.

“We don’t have an option, so our option is the next closest and make a deal with (Pasco),’’ Jones said.

Lewis suggested that the baseball fields on Kinnan St. be moved to Branchton Park (on Morris Bridge Rd), and replaced with a fire station to service the unincorporated communities of New Tampa.

The nearest Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Station is the University Area Station No. 5 on E. 139th Ave.

Hillsborough County District 5 commissioner Ken Hagan said at the town hall that he was hopeful residents wouldn’t notice any changes in their emergency services.

“We’re doing everything to ensure seamless service,” Hagan said. “We won’t let anything happen that will reduce the level of service you get out here, you have my word on that.”