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On Aug. 10, District 15 U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Brandon) made a speaking appearance at the 2&2 Restaurant (located at 33835 S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel) owned by Kruth (Kurt) and his wife Suzie Sombutmai (photo above).Â
At the speaking engagement, which also was supported and attended by the East Pasco Chamber of Commerce, Congresswoman Lee made it clear that she believes the âBig Beautiful Billâ recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump, âwill definitely help small businesses and seniors,â even though the lawâs detractors say that it favors large corporations and billionaires and will cut funds for programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Leeâs district also includes all of New Tampa and she has an office in Tampa Palms. The former Hillsborough Circuit Judge and Florida Secretary of State said that even though the Hillsborough portion of her district leans âmore blue than red,â she is able to âreach across the aisleâ and work with Democrats âwhenever necessary,â such as the bill she co-sponsored with Dist. 14 Rep. Kathy Castor to fight human trafficking.
The Hub At Lexington Now Has 13 Confirmed Tenants, With Just A Couple Of Spaces Still Available. Hereâs The List!

Remember how excited you were when The KRATE at The Grove container park opened? Get ready for a similar feeling, as The Hub at Lexington â which is being developed by the same group that built The Hub at Bexley off S.R. 54 in Land OâLakes â is bringing something âfar beyondâ the usual strip retail plaza, according to Courtney Bissett-Hayes of Center Connect Development.
âWe currently have thirteen tenants confirmed for The Hub at Lexington,â Bissett-Hayes says, âand we have just a couple of spaces still available.â
Nine of the confirmed tenants are restaurants and/or beverage providers, along with one golf simulation business called The Clubhouse, a barber shop called Headlines, the Lexington Nail Lab and Suncoast Charging, an Electric Vehicle charging “experience.”
On this page is a collage of the logos of eleven of the 13 tenants, with two of the restaurants (both marked with an [*] in the collage) â La Creacion Bistro and Island Grill â not having logos available at our press time.
âThe Hub at Lexington will be a great, upscale place for families to dine and enjoy,â Bissett-Hayes says. âWith nine artificial trees providing a large shaded area.â

Yes, the wait is finally almost over. The Hub At Lexington, which we first told you about nearly two years ago, is finally almost ready (photo) to unveil this 40,000-sq.-ft. Hub where you can âSip, Savor & Socializeâ on the southwest corner of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and Lexington Oaks Blvd., in front of the Sentosa apartments.
The brother-&-sister partners of Center Connect Development â Paul Bissett and Courtney Bissett-Hayes â expect the first of the 13 announced tenants to begin opening sometime early next year, as the six buildings are now being turned over to those tenants for build-out. Those tenants include nine local and regional restaurants in six buildings and The Clubhouse golf simulation experience and more.
âWe donât like to announce whoâs coming to our developments until the tenants are all finalized,â says Bissett-Hayes. âWe donât like having premature announcements or misinformation getting out there until the tenants are committed and we like to keep it fresh in the minds of those in the area since they should be opening within the next several months.â
And, like the super-successful Hub at Bexley, Bissett-Hayes says, âThere will be live music Friday and Saturday nights, pop-up markets twice a month and seasonal holiday events that will begin when tenants open for business.â
The Hub at Bexley is anchored by the popular BellaBrava Italian restaurant and will soon add BellaBravaâs sister restaurant, Stillwaters Tavern, on an outparcel of that Hub.

But, despite rumors that either BellaBrava or Stillwaters was coming to The Hub at Lexington, neither one is part of our areaâs equally exciting new lineup of food & beverage providers â a couple of which are familiar names to fans of the KRATE at The Grove container park.
The first of those is La Creacion Bistro, which is a sister restaurant to La Creacion Express in the KRATEs, but Bissett-Hayes says the new restaurant will be serving breakfast, lunch and dinner with a completely different menu than what they serve at the KRATEs..

The other locally familiar name is the Brew Bar Self Pour, which will share a space with Urban Crunch Creamery Café.
The Brew Bar/Urban Crunch combo will offer self-pour beer and wine, similar to what the Brew Bar offers at the KRATEs, plus ice cream, açai, coffee and perhaps most important of all, frozen drinks like daiquiris. âIt was very important for us to hit this category and Urban Crunch was selected over two others in this category.â
Urban Crunch has a sister location in nearby Odessa that also serves breakfast and brunch items, but the Urban Crunch at The Hub will not be serving those items.

Another exciting option, with a sister location in the River Hills Plaza in Valrico, is The Landing Bar & Grill, which is where youâll want to watch all your favorite sports. The Landing in Valrico has a huge menu, with unique appetizer options like Aztec chowder (white bean chicken chili), traditional pierogies, Cajun fish bites and even pizza fries (a large order of fries topped with mozzarella and pepperoni, served with marinara.
Sandwiches include a meatball hoagie, Philly cheesesteak and even a California chicken sandwich. Or, sample entrées like grilled, fried or blackened grouper, salmon or jumbo shrimp dinners, a low-carb grilled chicken dinner with broccoli, plus great salads, wings, pizzas, flatbreads, pastas and much more.

Again, we havenât seen The Landingâs Hub menu yet, but you know weâll keep you posted!
Also coming to The Hub at Lexington is The Monkâs Indian Fusion Cuisine, which has a dozen locations in Indiana, Colorado and nine in Texas. This âDesi-Chineseâ eatery combines the different flavors of India and China in one location, with a huge variety of samosas, dosas, naan breads and Indian entrĂ©es like paneer or chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, a variety of biryanis and vindaloo options and much more.

Among the Chinese entrĂ©es are Sichuan, chilli garlic and Manchurian sauces with gobi (cauliflower), paneer, chicken or shrimp. The other Monkâs locations even have my favorite Indo-Chinese dish â wok-tossed hakka noodles and fried rice with your choice of meat or veggies.
Speaking of Asian cuisine, The Hub at Lexingtonâs lineup also will include Saigon Pho Wesley Chapel, which has a location called Banh Mi & Boba at The Hub at Bexley. Like Banh Mi, Saigon Pho will feature Vietnamese fare featuring pho noodle soups, grilled plates and banh mi sandwiches.

Still another interesting option is Farmerâs Milk, which is a cafĂ© and bakery with a sister location in Hollywood, FL, that sells everything from whole cakes, French croissants and Russian sourdough rye breads called borodinsky, plus breakfast items, including syrniki, which are small, pan-fried pancakes made from mild tvorog (aka âFarmerâsâ) cheese that are sweet enough to enjoy as a dessert. There also are eggs Benedict and other options. Farmerâs Milkâs website says its menu is âpacked with wholesome dishes emphasizing healthy eating and high-quality products.â

But wait, thereâs still more! You cinnamon roll fans will flip for Cinnaholic Gourmet Cinnamon Rolls, which started in California and today has more than 100 locations across the U.S. and Canada, including one on S. Howard Ave. in South Tampa. The 100% plant-based rolls, plus brownies, cookies and more, are âall made with the highest quality ingredientsâ and you can custom-design your own rolls with everything from âOld Skoolâ vanilla frosting to caramel apple pie frosting and one I will have to try â the âShake, Rattle & Roll,â with peanut butter frosting, pretzels, banana slices and homemade peanut butter cups. Are you kidding me?
The final restaurant on the list is Island Grill, which is billed as a Caribbean fusion restaurant, but we donât have any additional info or a logo to show you yet. âThey are still finalizing their menu,â Bissett-Hayes says. âBut, it will be very authentic because the principal is from the islands.â The hope here is that there will lots of fresh fish and seafood on that menu.

And then thereâs the âgolf simulation experienceâ known as The Clubhouse. Although there are multiple such businesses across the country by the same name â some of which are also restaurants and/or sports bars â Bissett-Hayes says this incarnation of The Clubhouse is a start-up entertainment venue unrelated to any others I found online and will not serve its own food or beverages.
âIt will have six golf simulators and a putting green,â she says. âCustomers will be able to order food and drink from our restaurants to be delivered or brought in while at The Clubhouse.â
The Clubhouse will have some PGA teaching pros who will be offering lessons. So far, it has commitments from local pros at courses like Lake Jovita and Hunterâs Green Country Clubs.
Bissett-Hayes says that The Clubhouse also will be sampling some small merchandise items like balls, gloves and some branded clothing items like golf polos. These are mainly just for fun and if someone needs some balls (although all of the bays will come with balls). Another possible service would be club fittings with whatever club partner they end up using. But, she says, âthat probably only be once or twice a year and would be more of a partnership with the club maker and the orders would go directly to them.â



The final three tenants already signed up to join The Hub at Lexington are the Lexington Nail Lab and Headlines Barber Shop, both of which have related locations at The Hub At Bexley, and Suncoast Charging. Headlines also has nearby locations on County Line Rd. in New Tampa and in The Pointe at Tampa Palms.
Meanwhile, co-founder Wesley Sima of Suncoast Charging says, “Weâre building more than just an EV charging network â weâre shaping the future of electric mobility to improve the EV charging experience: making it faster, more reliable, and accessible for all drivers. We believe charging should fit seamlessly into your journey and lifestyle. Thatâs why our stations are designed not only with cutting-edge, high-speed and dependable charging technology, but also with premium amenities that turn every stop into a comfortable and convenient experience. Whether youâre commuting, running errands, road-tripping, or managing a fleet, weâre committed to delivering the gold standard of EV charging.” Suncoast Charging at The Hub will be open 24 hours a day and customers can use a variety of different payment methods including credit card (not just a phone app). Customers also can navigate to the charging station through the Tesla app or through other in-car navigation apps like Google Maps, PlugShare, and many others.
For more info about the remaining spaces at The Hub at Lexington, call Courtney Bissett-Hayes at (813) 340-7936.


In the 31 years Iâve owned this publication, I canât recall having actually interviewed any kid raised in New Tampa who played at Wimbledon â the oldest and most prestigious professional tennis tournament in the world â or the US Open, the only tennis major played on U.S. soil (in Flushing, Queens, NY).
But now, I canât say that anymore, as Bulgaria-born Vasil Kirkov, 26, who has been raised in New Tampa since he was nine, played Menâs Doubles at Wimbledon with his partner Bart Stevens from The Netherlands â and has now also made it into the Men’s Doubles draw at the US Open.
The unseeded duo lost in straight sets (6-7[6-8], 4-6), in the first round in July at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in London â to the #5-seeded doubles team of Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool. The British duo ended up winning the entire tournament â becoming the first all-English pair from the host country to win the Menâs Doubles title at Wimbledon in 89 years â and lost only one set along the way.
âWe definitely gave them as tough a match as anybody,â Vasil says. âWe even took them to a tiebreaker in the first set. So, even though we ended up losing, I thought we played very well.â
Very well indeed for a team that only made it into the Wimbledon draw as the third alternate and had to wait for a call that said they were going to compete there. Even with that loss, however, Vasil is now ranked a career-high #78 in the world as a doubles player (Stevens is #74) and since Wimbledon, the pair made it to the Finals of the ATP Challenger Tour tournament in Hagen, Denmark, earlier this month.
Vasil says that he started his tennis âcareerâ on âthe courts in Hunterâs Green. I can still remember the first time I hit on Court 3 with my brother Kiril (who ended his tennis career after playing in college).â Depending upon which surface his next tournament will be played on (clay or hard-court), Vasil continues to practice when heâs in town at the courts at either Arbor Greene or Hunterâs Green.
He also admits that his mom Tanya used to beat him âuntil I was 11 years old, so she definitely played her part in this.â He credits his father Stoyan as his self-taught coach, even though Stoyan was never a high-level player himself.

Now standing 6â-1â tall, Vasil says he was home-schooled beginning with the seventh grade â after attending Benito Middle School on Cross Creek Blvd. for 6th grade. âI was playing tournaments all over and traveling too much to continue to attend school,â he says. âI had a lot of success in junior tournaments.â
So much success, in fact, that he says he was âalways ranked in the top five of my class [nationally] when I was 18.â In fact, at the 2017 French Open on clay in Paris, France, Vasil and his then-partner Danny Thomas made it to the finals, but were defeated in straight sets (4-6, 4-6) by the team of Nicola Kuhn and Zsombor Piros.
And, even though he had offers from a number of Division I NCAA tennis programs, Vasil decided to turn pro. âThat was more than eight years ago,â he says, âLooking back on that decision, it would have been nice to have that college experience, but Iâm happy with my decision.â
He started out playing both singles and doubles as a pro, but injuries kept him from ever rising above the #439 in the world singles ranking he achieved in 2021. For his career, Vasil has won 10 ATP Challenger Tour and eight ITF doubles titles. He began partnering with Stevens in Oct. 2024 and, at our press time, the pair had a decent career match record together of 244 wins and 180 losses. Kirkovâs career pro tennis earnings recently surpassed $200,000.
âWe know what we have to do in order to be successful,â Vasil says. âSo, thatâs what weâre focused on; not just the outcome.â
Armed with his highest-ever doubles ranking and very good recent results, Kirkov and Stevens have now made it into the 64-team Menâs Doubles bracket at the 2025 US Open. The unseeded duo will take on the also-unseeded team of N. Siriam Balaji and Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli of India tomorrow â Friday, August 29 â in their first-round match. We’ll keep you posted about this and all of Kirkov & Stevens’ matches at this year’s fourth and final tennis major, which is being played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing MeadowsâCorona Park, Queens. The Wimbledon-winning team of Cash and Glasspool is seeded #1 at the US Open.
Even though US Open play has now begun, Stoyan says Vasil is still seeking local sponsorships as he continues his pro tennis journey.
If your business could benefit from having your name and/or logo seen by a world-wide TV audience, call Stoyan at (813) 841-8014 or email K1tennis@yahoo.com.

I will readily admit that among the dozens of Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals that I saw during my years of living in New York, âThe Music Manâ was never one of my favorites. But, I only ever saw the hit 1962 movie starring Robert Preston as the conniving Prof. Harold Hill and Shirley Jones as the lovely librarian/music teacher Marian Paroo â although I was in the showâs (barbershop) âQuartetâ in my high schoolâs performance of the classic Tony Award-winning hit.

I thought the story of Hill, the traveling salesman/con man, and his duping of a town full of weird and often stupid characters, created by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey, was just too dated and not as much fun as some others.
But honestly, to me, the New Tampa Playersâ (NTP) production of âThe Music Manâ at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center was better than the movie. And apparently, I wasnât alone. All of the people sitting around Jannah and me raved about the talented cast and their beautiful singing voices, the sets, the costumes and the 15-piece orchestra â the largest ever for an NTP production â under the musical direction of the great G. Frank Meekins. I hope director Angel Borths, choreographer Tatiana Eriksen, costume designers Shelley Giles, Heather Cleveland, Travy Stemm and Dave Giles and production manager (and NTP producing artistic director) Nora Paine and the entire cast and crew are proud. This also was the first NTP show Iâve seen with sign language interpreters (photo below)!Â

The amazing Melanie Bierweiler was correctly sassy as Marian (and did a fantastic job singing âGoodnight My Someoneâ and âTill There Was Youâ) and David Groomes didnât disappoint in the demanding role of Prof. Hill on âYa Got Trouble,â â76 Trombonesâ and with Melanie on âTill There Was You.â The âQuartetâ of Chase Reeder, Michael Bonassar, Jacey Squires and James Cass hit every note of every song, including on âLida Rose.â
Neil Bleiweiss provided great comic relief as Mayor Shinn and Becky Groomes correctly âoveractedâ as his zany wife Eulalie. Talented youngsters Nora Duffy as Amaryllis (who sang like a songbird in duet with Melanie on âGoodnight My Someoneâ) and Luke Adams as Marianâs lisping brother Winthrop (who sang to the back of the theater on âGary, Indianaâ) showed that NTP has a bright future ahead. And, Debbie Scourtes brought a lot of verve to the role of Marianâs widowed mother Mrs. Paroo, who is trying to keep her daughter from becoming an old spinster.

You could just hear the audience hissing at the showâs one villain, Charlie Cowell (played to perfection by Stephon Mikell), and Jaden Figueroa and Chloe Tort were great as the young âtroublemakerâ Tommy Djilas and Zaneeta Shinn (âYe Gawd!â), respectively.
The largest cast Iâve ever seen in an NTP production also included the super-fun and funny Pick-A-Little Ladies (Lena Wigfall, Suzann Humara, Christy Adams and Chelsea Keith), plus nearly 20 âensembleâ players young and old (including the super adorable extra-youngâns Mars Wolfe Bonassar and Elliott LeFloch).
But, I wouldnât be telling the truth if I didnât say that Gabriel Martin White as Hillâs buddy and fellow con man Marcellus Washburn was this showâs scene stealer. He got laughs â calling Hill by his real first name (âGregâ) throughout â and he brought to mind the young Dick Van Dyke in âMary Poppinsâ with his expressive face and high-flying, elastic-legged dancing. My pics did him no justice!
Great job, one & all!
Up next for NTP are another classic musical â âOklahomaâ â in October, and âThe Sponge Bob Musicalâ (yes, really) in January. Auditions for both shows have already been held (although volunteers to help with both productions are still needed), so look for announcements about when tickets go on sale in these pages and at NewTampaPlayers.org. â GN




