Category: Featured

Wesley Chapel 2017 Year in Review: People

(l.-r.) Zezura, son Jordyn, daughter Aryanna and Patrick Ruddell have made their Mini Doughnut Factory in South Tampa one of Tampa Bay’s hottest spots, and hope to bring one to Wesley Chapel one day. (Photo courtesy of Lindsey Meyer)

It Was A Busy Year For Locals Making Their Mark

From online stars to booming business, from reality competition shows to good old-fashioned game shows, Wesley Chapel saw its share of residents get their 15 minutes of fame in 2017.

Back in August, Florida Hospital Center Ice was home to “Tampa Bay Idol,” an audition for the new incarnation of “American Idol,” which will now air on ABC-TV. The local tryout was hosted by Channel 28-WFTS-TV’s “ABC Action News,” and more than 400 people showed up to audition.

Over the past 12 months, we have introduced you to Wesley Chapel residents and “Idol” hopefuls Brittany Collins, 28, who is a third-grade teacher at Heritage Elementary in New Tampa, and Caloi Koelndorfer, a 16-year-old junior at Wiregrass Ranch High.

“It was awesome,’’ Caloi said of her audition. “I just let it go and tried to have fun.”

Those who got the thumbs-up – including both Brittany and Caloi – were awarded a “front-of-the-line” certificate to the next round of tryouts, held in Orlando. Unfortunately, both of their “American Idol” journeys ended there.

We’ve heard that one Wesley Chapel resident and two “Tampa Bay Idol” contestants may have made it to the next round of auditions. But, that’s still all we know at this time. The show doesn’t air until March, so we’ll keep you posted if a Wesley Chapel resident appears on it.

Then, in October, we watched NBC-TV’s “The Voice,” catching glimpses of 16-year-old Wiregrass Ranch High junior Alexandra Joyce. Her audition and subsequent battle round were reduced to montages on the show, so the hit show’s audience didn’t get to really appreciate the full extent of the teen’s talents.

After three chairs turned around for Alexandra –— those of Academy- and Grammy-award winner Jennifer Hudson, Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine and country crooner Blake Shelton — she joined Jennifer’s team. But, Alexandra’s journey on the show ended in her first battle round.

“I think it’s definitely been kind of a stepping stone for me,” she says. “I have a single on iTunes; I never in a million years thought I would have a single on iTunes.” Alexandra’s two audition songs, Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” and Charlie Puth’s “One Call Away” are both still available.

In November, Wesley Chapel resident Christopher Moody’s stint on the CBS-TV daytime game show “Let’s Make A Deal” aired.

Which was more memorable — that he won $18,000 worth of prizes, including a new dining room set and a 7-day trip for two to Greece, or Moody’s spot-on hot dog costume?

Moody was offered $1,000 for a box with unknown contents — then $1,400, then $2,000.

“I turned it down,” Moody says. “It was just a gut feel. Right from the beginning, I was hoping I’d win a trip, I had a good hunch that is what was going to be in the box.”

Turns out he’s glad he followed that hunch.

And, we don’t want to forget to mention Zammy, the 100-pound “sheepadoodle” whose picture at the Shops at Wiregrass mall (right) went viral on the social media site reddit.

Zammy had about 600 followers on his Instagram account, @ZammyPup, before his photo hit reddit. After that, his owner, New Tampa resident Todd Pitner, says, “It went from 600 to 1,000 overnight, then 2,000 in a week, then 9,000.”

This pic of Zammy went viral after it was posted on reddit, and Todd Pitner (top right) says it has been viewed more than a million times.

Zammy continues to gain fans. As of the end of 2017, the lovable Sheepadoodle has more than 71,000 followers.

“Zammy’s just a really special dog, with a special personality,” says Todd, “and he brings joy to people.”

Something else that brings joy to people is – let’s be honest – doughnuts. Another Wesley Chapel resident we featured in 2017 was Patrick Ruddell who has made his Mini Doughnut Factory in South Tampa one of Tampa Bay’s hottest spots, with a crowd almost always out the door.

Ridell’s second Mini Doughnut Factory just opened in St. Petersburg.

At one point this year, Patrick and his wife, Zezura, were on the verge of a deal to open a store in Wesley Chapel on S.R. 56. What they thought was a done deal, however, wasn’t, as they say the leasing company reneged on an agreement.

As for opening a store in the community where they live, Patrick says, “We want it more than anything.” Here’s hoping 2018 is the year that brings Wesley Chapel its own Mini Doughnut Factory.

people Top stories of 2017

Wesley Chapel 2017 Year in Review: Sports

Hockey, Tennis & Lots Of Firsts For Area High School Teams

Wesley Chapel has had the occasional high school team break through. Saddlebrook Resort trains world-renowned tennis players. But, to call our community a sports “mecca” would be an overstatement.

That may, however, be changing.

Consider in 2017 alone: Wesley Chapel hosted the U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey team training camp, some of the best professional women’s tennis players in the world competed in the Federation Cup semifinals at Saddlebrook, a new indoor sports facility received approval (and will break ground next year) and even the local kids made a little history at Wiregrass Ranch, Wesley Chapel and Cypress Creek high schools.

Not bad for one year.

As for ranking what we feel were the top stories, where do we start?

* The U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey team training for the 2018 Winter Olympics was huge news. We wrote about it on page 11.

* The RADD Sports indoor sports complex will break ground in 2018, and could be open by spring of 2019. While we’re still not sure how much use Wesley Chapel residents will get out of the complex, its overall local economic impact is likely to be significant.

* The Fed Cup semifinal pitting the U.S. against the defending champion Czech Republic at Saddlebrook Resort in February put a buzz in the area’s significant tennis population.

Saddlebrook constructed a temporary 3,500-seat stadium around one of the resort’s Har-Tru Classic Green Clay Courts, and it was nearly full on both days of the event, despite temperatures that were blazing.

The Fed Cup, started in 1963 as the women’s version of the men’s Davis Cup, is the world’s largest annual international team competition in women’s sports, with roughly 100 teams competing.

The semifinals were a good get for Wesley Chapel, and the U.S. delivered an exciting down-to-the-wire 3-2 win as Coco Vandeweghe and Bethanie Mattek-Sands won the final doubles match to clinch it.

Many of those who watched from the stands in Saddlebrook that weekend were also watching from their couches in November on The Tennis Channel as Vandeweghe (this time with Shelby Rogers) again clinched a 3-2 win in Minsk, Belarus, ending a 17-year Fed Cup championship drought for the Americans.

* Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) became the first team from Wesley Chapel to win a Florida High School Athletic Association football playoff game, despite a few 10-0 seasons back in the early-2000s by Wesley Chapel High (WCH).

The Mark Kantor-coached Bulls, led by 1,000-yard rusher Adrian Thomas, managed a school best-ever 9-3 record, and a 17-10 win over Lake Nona in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs (before a loss to state powerhouse Lakeland ended their season).

The Wesley Chapel softball team won almost as many games this season (19) as it had in 10 previous seasons (22), setting a school record.
(Photo courtesy of Steve Mumaw)

* At WCH, the softball team made some of its own history. Losers of 27 straight games and 43 of 44 over a three-year span at one point, coach Steve Mumaw and freshman pitcher Jordan Almasy led the Wildcats to their first playoff appearance ever. WCH won a school record 19 games, beat Robinson 4-0 for their first postseason win, and had eventual Class 6A champ Land O’Lakes on the ropes before losing 4-2 in the Regional semifinals.

* And, the new kids on the block at Cypress Creek Middle High (CCH) hit the ground running — on August 25, the Coyotes, coached by Mike Johnson, won the first football game they ever played, beating Gulf 12-0.

The closest anyone came to winning a state title in 2017?

* The WRH boys tennis team, which already won state titles in 2014 and 2015, fell short in their bid for No. 3 in four years, in April. The Bulls lost to Parkland Stoneman Douglas High 4-1 in the State Class 4A championship match, just the third time in their last 114 matches the Bulls boys have lost a head-to-head battle.

sports Top stories of 2017

New Tampa 2017 Year in Review: MAN OF ACTION

New Tampa Resident Luis Viera Has Stayed Busy Since Being Elected To The Tampa City Council

Thanks to Town Hall meetings organized by New Tampa resident and Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, City of Tampa officials are paying more attention to the people of New Tampa.

In December of 2016, New Tampa resident Luis Viera won a special run-off election for the Tampa City Council District 7 seat by only 65 votes.

He spent 2017 proving he was the right man for the job.

“I didn’t vote for him,” said Tampa Palms lawyer Tracy Falkowitz, a lifelong Republican who voted instead for Viera’s opponent (and fellow Hunter’s Green resident) Jim Davison). “But I’ve already told Luis I’ll be first in line to campaign for him next time.”

Her reasons are simple, and explain how Viera helped shape a productive year for New Tampa (while also fighting for changes in other parts of District 7, like Forest Hills, Terrace Park and the University of South Florida area).

In 2017, he mobilized hundreds of New Tampa residents in an effort to ensure the city budgeted money for Fiscal 2018 for the expansion of the New Tampa Recreation Center (NTRC). He also spearheaded the effort to build a sensory-friendly park in Tampa Palms — in part because he has a brother who is autistic — and was a strong proponent for a new fire station (Tampa Fire Rescue Station No. 23) that will be built on County Line Rd.

Viera founded the New Tampa Council, and filled its Board with leaders from as many different local communities as he could. He also started the North Tampa Veterans Council and has attended countless Home Owners Association (HOA) meetings.

Viera held town halls. Instead of telling New Tampa residents they needed to go downtown to argue and fight for what they thought they deserved — as so many city and county officials have told them before — he brought government officials from South Tampa here.

Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera hosted a town hall meeting at the New Tampa Recreation Center in Tampa Palms in June that attracted roughly 75 local residents who came to discuss a number of issues., especially those related to the traffic in our area.

It was at one of Viera’s first town halls, in June at the NTRC, that Falkowitz first met the guy she didn’t vote for. She was there to tell Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s Chief of Staff Dennis Rogero that it was ludicrous that the city wouldn’t expand the rec center, which had a waiting list of thousands hoping to get into the NTRC’s popular gymnastics and dance programs.

Falkowitz was angry and vocal. Afterwards, Viera spoke with her and they ended up forging a partnership that extended to the New Tampa Council and included the efforts of Tampa Palms’ Maggie Wilson and Warren Dixon, Cory Lake Isles’ Bob Parker, West Meadows’ Brad Van Rooyen, K-Bar Ranch’s Craig Margelowsky and David Burman of Cory Lake Isles, as well as others.

During the decisive and harrowing all-night City Council budget meeting in September, New Tampa had nearly 50 residents in attendance, many speaking in support of the NTRC expansion after years of failed attempts.

The budget passed — and the NTRC expansion, sensory park and Fire Station No. 23 will all begin to take shape in 2018.

Everyone involved says that without Viera, it wouldn’t have happened.

“I think that’s accurate,’’ says Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn. “Luis, through a variety of means, has made sure New Tampa’s voices are being heard, either with him advocating or facilitating those conversations between our staff and the people that live here. In both cases, it was a very, very effective means of communicating.”

Ultimately, that was Viera’s primary goal — to bring New Tampa together as one community, instead of a collection of fragmented neighborhoods. A Tampa Palms resident from 2006-12 and a Hunter’s Green resident since then, Viera says he felt New Tampa lacked an effectiveness cohesiveness.

A large contingent of New Tampa residents showed up in red shirts at both budget workshops to speak to the Tampa City Council about the importance of the New Tampa Recreation Center.

Hoping to stitch those communities together to help advocate for the area with one voice, Viera tried to be omnipresent.

“I tried showing up to as many New Tampa events as I could,’’ said Viera. “Ribbon cuttings, openings…I wanted people feeling like their elected official is accountable, and accessible.”

His efforts, which he balanced with being a father to 10-year-old son Luis and working as a trial lawyer, have been lauded.

“He invigorated a whole lot of residents,” says Wilson, a community consultant for Tampa Palms. “I’ve lived here since 1989, and never has anyone in government service been as boots-on-the-ground and as active and caring across a wide variety of issues as Luis.”

Viera also has taken up the fight to connect Kinnan St. in K-Bar Ranch to Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe, which the city and counties have so far failed to do. He has met with Pasco County officials, and discussed the matter with Hillsborough County commissioners.

Viera is quick to decline all the credit for his 2017 accomplishments, however, instead deferring to the community he is helping to spark. By connecting them to the right people, he knows he can continue to make a difference and produce results for New Tampa.

“I think he’s had a superb year,’’ Buckhorn says. “Since the day he was elected, he hit the ground running and has not stopped…he was a forceful advocate for New Tampa, and the results speak for themselves. He made sure in our budget process that the expansion of the New Tampa Rec Center was in the mix, the sensory park was very near and dear to his heart, and until the very end, he was up there fighting make sure New Tampa voices were heard.”

Luis Viera Top stories of 2017

Fill ‘er up: Crystal Lagoon topped off!

Metro Development Group announced on Dec. 26 that the much-anticipated Crystal Lagoon at Epperson is filled.

Yes, those are actual photos of the lagoon, not renderings.

To commemorate the first-ever Crystal Lagoons’ amenity in the U.S., Metro will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony next week, on Friday, January 5.

“Metro Development Group is excited to be the first to bring this amazing amenity to the U.S.,” said Metro president Greg Singleton in a press release. “We have celebrated many milestones with Crystal Lagoons over the past two years and we are proud to have earned the distinction of being the first developer to inaugurate a Crystal Lagoons’ amenity in the U.S.”

While filled with crystal clear water — maintained by ultra-sonic technology that uses sensors to monitor the quality of the crystal-clear water, and uses 100 times less chemicals than a traditional swimming pool and 50 times less energy than conventional pool filtration systems — work continues on the 7.5-acre lagoon at Epperson.

As you can tell by the pictures, some palm trees are in place but still to come: a waterslide, private cabanas, in-water obstacle platform, swim-up bar, tidal pool, restaurant, family beach, yoga lawn, an entertainment plaza, an area for special events and more.

Metro is planning an official grand opening celebration in early spring 2018, where Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps is scheduled to appear.

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.

Noble Crust