Operating partner Dave Rathbun (photo) says he is often amused when he sees people trying to leave his popular Stonewood Grill & Tavern after a meal, only to bump into a neighbor or someone they know and delaying their exit.
Those moments, as much as any other, are when Rathbun can smile and truly appreciate the success of his restaurant.
“We tried to create a culture where it feels like the ‘Cheers’ of New Tampa,’’ Rathbun says.
And indeed, for Rathbun, it is a place where everybody seems to know his name, because they keep coming back.
The friendly and welcoming atmosphere, the familiarity between the customers and Rathbun and his carefully selected staff (the folks he says “bring the place to life”), and a menu and bar area that almost never fail to deliver one of the best dining and imbibing experiences around are why, once again, Stonewood Grill & Tavern is the Neighborhood News “Best Restaurant in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel,” as voted on by our readers, for a second straight year.
Stonewood, a Tampa Palms staple since opening in September 2002, beat out Bonefish Grill and newcomer Noble Crust — the reader’s top pick for best new business (see list, on pg. 50) — which are both located in Wesley Chapel, for the top spot.
“It’s just an honor to have people vote for you,” Rathbun says. “I’m humbled by every vote.”
Despite a not-so-great location — Stonewood is tucked behind a 7-Eleven and McDonald’s on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., just north of Commerce Park Blvd. — it has thrived as an upscale family restaurant because, well, Rathbun is kind of like family. He has lived in North Tampa for more than 20 years, including Richmond Place the last 16 years. He knows most of his customers, and their kids, and where those kids go to school.
“It’s wonderful to work in the community where you live,” he says.
Stonewood, a small chain which has 10 locations statewide, is best known for its steaks and seafood. Rathbun says the restaurant receives all of its steaks from only three different plants in Iowa, and “it’s all Midwestern beef, aged for 28 days, then hand cut to our specs and cooked the way you want them.”
The restaurant has popular main dishes like delightful short ribs with butternut squash ravioli, hearty grilled rosemary and garlic lamb loin chops, tender oven-baked herb-encrusted grouper and cedar plank roasted salmon in an apricot mustard jalapeño glaze, to name a few.
Or, you can hunker down at Stonewood’s popular bar and order tavern wings or oak grilled shrimp or anything else from the full lunch or dinner menu.
“One of my customers once told me, ‘You know, I can come in here and have a real nice dinner and a bottle of wine with my wife and celebrate an event, or I can come in with my guys and have a burger and a beer at the bar and watch a basketball game,’” Rathbun says. “They love the flexibility.”
A new and improved lunch menu, plus weekday specials which can be ordered at the bar or at your table, also help keep people coming back.
For example, on Tuesdays, Stonewood offers specials on craft beer and craft burgers (see photo). Wine Down Wednesday features half-off discounts on almost a dozen wines, and Thursday is Stoli Martini night.
“We offer something for everyone, and I really like that I’ve been able make so many relationships with my customers over the years,” Rathbun says. “I’m glad so many people enjoy it.”
Stonewood Grill & Tavern is located at 17050 Palm Pointe Dr., Tampa Palms. For info, call (813) 978-0388 or visit StonewoodGrill.com.
Can a futuristic Bus Rapid Transit system help ease traffic in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel? A study by the Florida Dept. of Transportation says it could.
Any hopes for a light rail line connecting the Tampa Bay area have now taken a backseat, as local officials seem ready to embrace a 41-mile Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system from Wesley Chapel to St. Petersburg.
That was the recommendation of Jacobs Engineering, which conducted a $1.5-million study funded by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) on Jan. 19, when the study was presented to the Tampa Bay Transportation Management Area (TMA) Leadership Group in Tampa.
The proposed route would run along I-275 from Wesley Chapel to the University of South Florida, through downtown Tampa and the Westshore and Tampa International Airport areas and over the Howard Frankland Bridge into downtown St. Petersburg.
While the debate over fixing the transportation woes in Tampa Bay has raged for more than a decade, including two highly-publicized failed attempts at a light rail voter referendum in 2014 and 2016, BRT is seen as a quicker and cheaper option and a potential jump start to the development of a much-needed and elusive transportation system to help ease the area’s overcrowded roads.
“I think that’s what the citizens want — we need a solution now,” said Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay (formerly Greater Wesley Chapel) Chamber of Commerce.
A 9-mile CSX rail between USF and downtown Tampa also was considered as an option by Jacobs Engineering, but those construction costs were roughly $600 million, with $9-$12 million in annual operating costs, and would take 10 years to build.
That’s more costly and time-consuming than BRT, which has estimated costs of around $400 million for a project that would be ready in five years, with $5-$7 million in annual operating costs.
“This is not the ultimate end game for transit in the Tampa Bay region, nothing even close to that,” said FDOT District 7 Secretary David Gwynn. “What this would hopefully be is a first step that could start to generate transit ridership, that would be able to get federal money started into the process and build ridership. Hopefully over time, those other elements, whether they are bus, rail or some form of technology that evolves, can be built upon this project.”
BRT systems in other cities and countries are considered much higher quality than your typical bus routes, and are defined by their dedicated lanes, which avoid congestion and make for faster travel.
In Tampa Bay, the BRT route would have a dedicated lane for a majority of the route, although that lane may be only a reinforced shoulder in certain parts, or toll lanes planned for the new Howard Frankland Bridge. In some areas, a dedicated lane will need to be constructed. But, by converting many of the existing lanes into BRT-dedicated lanes, as opposed to building a rail line to cover the entire 41 miles, would reduce the cost of the project by $2 billion.
And, BRT utilizes sleeker, more modern-looking buses equipped with WiFi, making it a more palatable choice for those who have previously ridden on regular HARTline buses.
“Can we not use the word bus?,” asked Kathryn Starkey, Pasco’s District 3 county commissioner. “We need a sexy, cool, futuristic name.”
The three-county BRT line recommended by Jacobs Engineering would have 17 intermodal stations, which would serve as transportation hubs, and have been shown to spur growth in the urban areas where they are placed. The proposal shows stations in Wesley Chapel at S.R. 54 and I-75, as well as one at S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd.
Allen said she was pleased with the reception BRT has received, and that Wesley Chapel was included. Allen says thousands of residents in Wesley Chapel and Pasco County leave for work in Tampa and St. Petersburg every day.
The six-story, 125-room Hilton Garden Inn on Silver Maple Pkwy. will open this summer.
For years, Pasco County has grappled with attracting tourists and giving them a place to stay.
Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) and a planned RADD Sports Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex, as well as the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO), the Shops at Wiregrass mall, the massive “connected city” project and dozens of local restaurants will help take care of attracting visitors.
In a few months, a long-standing problem of finding beds for all of those visitors’ heads will be solved as well.
During the months of June and July, Wesley Chapel expects to see three new hotels open along the burgeoning S.R. 56 corridor, joining the Holiday Inn & Suites that opened last year next to FHCI (and the Hampton Inn & Suites, which has been open for many years).
“The two industries (tourism and hospitality) go hand in hand,” says Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay (formerly Greater Wesley Chapel) Chamber of Commerce. “It’s almost like you can’t have one without the other.”
Barring any weather delays, a six-story, 125-room Hilton Garden Inn on Silver Maple Pkwy., across S.R. 56 from FHCI, is scheduled to open in June, a 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites is expected to open in June or July a few miles to the east (in the Wiregrass Ranch development), and the six-story, 132-room Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center will open in July at the Cypress Creek Town Center across from TPO.
The newest hotels have all been planned since late 2015.
The Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center
Impact Properties is building the Hyatt Place, and recently hosted a “topping off” event to show off its progress. Impact just began building the $24-million hotel last summer. The Hyatt Place will share the north side of S.R. 56 with a host of new restaurants and retailers (see story on page 6).
The conference center addition fills another area need, says District 2 Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore. “This is going to be a great development all around,” Moore said during the Hyatt Place event. “When you talk about a convention center, that has been something that has been a big need in Pasco County, especially on the east side. You won’t have a problem keeping it full.”
Impact president Dilip Kanji said he has had his eyes on the Cypress Creek location for years, patiently waiting for the right moment.
“I’ve been looking at Wesley Chapel since 2012,” Kanji says, citing the Cypress Creek Town Center’s permitting woes dating back to 2007. “If you remember, (our interest) goes back to the days when the mall was going to go there, the problems with the wetlands and the Army Corps of Engineers, all that stuff, so we just kept looking. But, Wesley Chapel has arrived, Pasco County has arrived, everyone wants to be here. We had an idea for what we wanted to do; we were just waiting for the right time.”
Kanji said his company also eyed the Shops at Wiregrass mall and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel areas in Wiregrass, as well as the area near FHCI (where the Holiday Inn Express is today).
“There’s been the potential (for a hotel) in the area, but the place we always wanted to be was on that (the west) side of the interstate,” he said.
A Little History…
Impact Properties was founded in 1981, two years after Kanji, a biochemist at the time, visited San Francisco and stayed at a family-run hotel that he fell in love with. He decided, without the benefit of any business schooling or real estate courses, to enter the business.
Impact Properties president Dilip Kanji
“I never stepped in a lab again, and never looked back,” said Kanji, who works closely with brother and VP Nash Kanji, whom he describes as a construction “whiz.” They started with a small motel in Gainesville that Kanji says his attorney at the time joked was known as a “no-tell motel.” Since then, Impact Properties has grown into an award-winning development company, owning and managing more than 25 hotels, and was awarded the key to the City of Tampa by then-Mayor Dick Greco for developing the Hilton Garden Inn in Ybor City, the first hotel to be built in the historic district in more than 100 years.
Impact Properties currently owns a hotel in Gainesville, two in Jacksonville and two in Tampa, including The Westin on Westshore Blvd.
The company also is developing a hotel in Treasure Island, FL, in addition to the Wesley Chapel location, which Kanji says is one of the most coveted areas around.
Speaking Of Hot…
Kanji says people have asked him if he’s building his next hotel in downtown Tampa or St. Petersburg, and when he tells them no, they ask why, because those are the hot areas.
“I don’t even go where it’s already hot,” Kanji says. “We identify an emerging area, growth areas that are going to be hot. And, we get there first.”
He says that was his plan when he built a hotel in Brandon years ago, the first he says to do so on the old I-75 bypass. “The interchange wasn’t even working,” he says. “We identified where Brandon was going — it was the bedroom community of Tampa — and we identified that area as hot. We got there first. There were growing pains. We did not hit our numbers the first year or two. But, we said we will control the market.”
In the case of Wesley Chapel, however, Impact Properties will be entering a market that is already considered hot, and growing crowded quickly — landowner Bob Sierra said at the “topping” event that if the Hyatt Place is successful, Kanji has an option to build a second in the Cypress Creek Town center.
In addition to the three hotels set to open this summer, the RADD Sports Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex – which could open in spring of 2019 — will have a 120-room Marriott-branded Residence Inn on site, and the Brightwork Crossing development north of S.R. 54/56 and west of C.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Blvd. has stated plans in 2016 to build an unnamed hotel with up to 150 rooms on that site.
Also, plans were filed with the county in August for a proposed, also-unnamed160,000-sq.-ft. hotel to be located behind the Walgreens at the S.R. 54 and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. intersection.
A report in 2016 by consultants analyzing the potential for a sports complex in Wesley Chapel pointed out the lack of hotel rooms in the area. And, while it still made a sizable economic impact (estimated at $3-million a year), it has been believed that one of the main beneficiaries of the DICK’s National Lacrosse Championships held at Wesley Chapel District Park the last several years were nearby Hillsborough County hotels, such as those in New Tampa, which took in 60-75 percent of the tournament’s teams and visitors.
While saturation may become an issue, the new hotels are anticipated to help the county’s tourism efforts and fill tax coffers. The county approved doubling its tourist tax, or bed tax, from 2 to 4 percent last year.
“What you’re seeing in Pasco County is quality,” Moore said. “There is a lot of time and effort put into these projects. We’ll be getting rooms filled, heads in beds…and we appreciate the help. It helps us grow, and helps us bring in additional profits to the county.”
OlympianVanessa James gave 7-year-old future ice skating star Serena Kemble a lot more than just some tights -— she gave her a memory that will last a lifetime.
A Simple Gesture By An Olympic Medal Hopeful Inspires A Young Skater At Florida Hospital Center Ice
Serena Kemble had only been figure skating a few months when she first saw Olympic medal hopeful Vanessa James at a 2016 competition at the Ellenton Ice & Sports Complex in Bradenton.
The then-five-year-old was transfixed by Vanessa’s beauty and grace, the way she glided across the ice and so elegantly twisted and turned as she leapt through the air.
And by her skin color.
“It was the first time Serena saw anyone in person skating that was her own skin color,” said Deserree Kemble, Serena’s white, adoptive mother.
“She was bouncing in her seat, as happy as she could be.”
During the Winter Olympics, which begin today in PyeongChang, South Korea, Serena is likely to once again be happily bouncing in her seat, as she hopes to see Vanessa and her partner, Morgan Cipres, who have been training at Florida Hospital Center Ice in Wesley Chapel since May, represent France as they compete for a medal in the pairs figure skating competition. The duo recently finished fourth at the European World Championships.
As she cheers on her skating idol, Serena just may be clutching a pair of new brown tights in her hands, given to her by Vanessa, a significant gesture that has left a significant impact.
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Deserree and Serena, who is 7 years old and has been skating for two years, grew dismayed by a lack of equipment for skaters of color, especially tights, which are primarily supposed to match the skater’s skin tone, while adding protection in case of falls.
“We bought her tights, but I recall they never did look right,” Deserree says. “Tights are supposed to resemble the skater’s skin tone and hers stood out. They were obviously not close to her skin tone.”
Deserree tried dyeing the tights they had, but nothing seemed to work. One competition, Serena skated without them, but fell and suffered ice burns on her legs. They managed to locate a used pair from Nyman, and by mending holes and double-layering the tights, made them last.
Deserree connected with Vanessa, whom they had met at a skating event in Ellenton, on Facebook and shared some of the difficulties she and Serena encountered being a skater of color. Having endured her own obstacles, Serena’s story touched Vanessa.
The next time she saw Serena, she vowed she would be ready. Her coach, John Zimmerman IV (a 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame inductee), and FHCI Ice Skating Director Shari Klutz, helped orchestrate a future meeting.
On Jan. 24, Deserree was on Facebook when she noticed a post announcing the final practice for Vanessa and Cipres before they headed off to the Olympics, with an autograph session to follow.
She rearranged her schedule so she and Serena could drive across the state to see Vanessa up close, although she kept it a secret. Traffic, though, caused them to miss the morning session. So, Serena free skated while they waited for the night practice session.
After a few hours, as Deserree and Serena stood at the Guest Services desk at FHCI, Vanessa came in the door and also walked up to the service desk.
“Serena was just in shock,” Deserree says of the unplanned meeting. Serena stared at Vanessa. She had no words.
“I told her, ‘You waited two years for this moment, you’re not going to say anything?,’” Deserree says.
A star-struck Serena mumbled, “She’s so pretty.”
Vanessa looked down and realized it was Serena, the little girl from Facebook who couldn’t find a pair of tights in her skin tone.
“Let’s meet after the night practice session,” Vanessa told her.
Serena got a front-row seat for Vanessa and Cipres’ practice session, where the figure skaters performed their long program, or free skate, to the tune of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence.” She excitedly provided the play-by-play for her mother.
“Serena told me every move they did that she knew the name of, and when she didn’t, she just sang their song,” Deserree says. “When it was over, Serena looked over at me and said, ‘This was the best day ever.’”
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Little did Serena know that the best day ever was going to get even better.
After the training session, Vanessa signed autographs, including a copy of SKATING, the U.S. Figure Skating magazine, January issue. In the Kid Zone section of the magazine, Serena is featured, and named Vanessa as one of her skating role models.
As the autograph session wrapped up, and only Serena was left, she met with Vanessa. After a brief conversation, she asked them if they could wait around for a few minutes. Serena nodded her head.
Vanessa sped home to nearby Seven Oaks, where she has lived while training at FHCI. With music playing in her head, a beaming Serena waited in the lobby, practicing axel after axel, nearly 75 in all.
Deserree stood nearby, smiling.
Vanessa returned with gifts — tights for Serena.
The first two pairs were tights in Serena’s size, and skin tone, that Vanessa’s mother shipped her from France.
The third pair actually belonged to Vanessa. “One day,” she told Serena, “you will grow into these.”
“Serena was over the moon excited,” says Deserree. “When we were in the car driving home, Serena said she would never wash the tights Vanessa gave her, and would never wash the hand that she shook.”
Deserree chuckled. “I told her she might want to think about that, but left it there for the time being.”
Serena may have had trouble finding tights to match her skin tone, but she definitely didn’t have any trouble finding a role model who does.
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The Kembles, Deserree and Lance, adopted Serena and her 6-year-old biological cousin, Elijah, at birth, rescuing the children from their rough background, through a program with the Kembles’ church.
“It just seemed like the right thing to do,” Deserree said.
The Kembles hardly imagined that their daughter would discover figure skating, of all things, but a 2016 family trip would change Serena’s world forever.
At a ski resort in Gatlinburg, TN, Serena saw ice, and people skating on it, for the first time. She was mesmerized as the skaters whizzed by her, and begged her parents to let her try it.
A few moments later, Serena had laced up a pair of cheap, worn rental ice skates and was gliding around the ice with surprising aplomb, charming the other skaters, many of whom couldn’t help but notice.
“How long has she been skating?,” someone asked Deserree.
“Oh, about two minutes,” she replied.
When it was time to leave, Serena begged to stay. She has been skating ever since, inspired by Vanessa on that night in Bradenton, just a few months after she began. Her mother says Serena has already been in about a dozen competitions, earning nine gold medals, one silver and one bronze. She also skates with a performance team called Theatre On Ice, and is the youngest member of the team coached by Katie Nyman, who also coaches at one of Serena’s home rinks, the Space Coast IcePlex in Rockledge (near Cocoa Beach), which is known for its strong figure skating program.
Serena is heading into competition season now, and will have her first competition in a more competitive classification this March, in Coral Springs. The Florida State Games are coming to FHCI in Wesley Chapel this summer, and Serena plans to compete there.
She will be wearing her new tights.
The Winter Olympics begin Feb. 9 in PyeongChang Olympic Stadium and continue through Sunday, Feb. 25. Vanessa and Morgan will skate Feb. 13-14.
Is there any way to change something that has been hugely successful without ruffling some feathers?
Based on the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC)’s recently announced name change to the “North Tampa Bay Chamber,” the answer is probably “no.”
However, that doesn’t mean that the name change wasn’t a necessary thing to do, nor has it been anyone’s plan to throw away all of the good will that has been created by the only Chamber of Commerce Wesley Chapel has known for the last 20 years.
Even so, CEO Hope Allen of the new North Tampa Bay Chamber has been hearing some unhappiness about the Chamber’s name change from people who wonder if the newly named Chamber will still be the first place people see when they search “Wesley Chapel Chamber” on Google or Facebook.
“We still own the name and the domain name online, so we should still come up when people are searching for Wesley Chapel,” Hope says. “Once we completed our acquisition of the Greater Pasco Chamber last year, we knew we’d have to change the name. We also knew that there was no way to please everyone, no matter what name we chose.”
Even though Wesley Chapel has been the name (and the community) that has given the Chamber its identity the last two decades — especially during the last few tremendous growth years that are continuing to make “The Chap” one of the fastest-growing communities in both Florida and the nation — the fact is that the expanded Chamber (which also acquired the failed New Tampa Chamber of Commerce a few years ago) no longer is confined geographically to “just” Wesley Chapel.
“We are now the largest Chamber in Pasco County,” says new Board Chair and local dentist Dr. Zack Kalarickal. “But, we also serve the businesses in New Tampa, Lutz (where the Chamber recently moved to a new office), Land O’Lakes, Trinity and even north Pinellas County. And, our name needed to reflect that.”
Some of the Chamber’s members have been trying to find a way to still incorporate Wesley Chapel into the new name, even if it has to be a subhead. As the primary news media in Wesey Chapel, I also found myself wondering what anyone could do to somehow not lose the Chamber’s Wesley Chapel connection.
Although I couldn’t come up with a name that would make it work, I hope there could at least be a subhead or subtitle that says something like, “Built in Wesley Chapel; Building a Chamber to Serve the Tri-County Area.”
Whatever you call it, the newly expanded Chamber has more than 800 member businesses and has renewed its commitment to WCNT-tv — Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television.
To that end, I hope you’ll check out the next several episodes of WCNT-tv’s “Chamber News,” which feature Dr. Zack being interviewed by WCNT-tv’s Mollyana Ward (photo above), shot at the amazing Overnight Success Studio owned by Chamber member Miroslav Beck. Those segments are available now on our Neighborhood News Facebook page and on the WCNT-tv channel on YouTube.
I also hope you’ll keep an eye out for some exciting announcements about the only web-based “TV channel” serving both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. The new Chamber may be expanding beyond those borders, but we will continue to focus our energies — both online and in these pages — on our two “home” communities.
Taste 2018 Off & Running!
I’m also really excited about the plans for the 2018 Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel — on Sunday, March 25, noon-4 p.m., at Florida Hospital Center Ice (in conjunction with the new Chamber)— as the Rotary Club of New Tampa hosts the event for the second time. Last year, my restaurant committee was able to attract nearly 50 restaurants and beverage providers and about 2,000 people attended. This year, sponsorship committee co-chairs James Carner and Jason Contino already have surpassed last year’s sponsorships and I’m already at nearly 25 food and beverage providers, with just about six weeks still to go until the Taste.
Those sponsors (in alphabetical, not monetary, order) already include:
•Acme On The Go
•Audi Wesley Chapel
•Campaign of TK Hayes
•Central Bank
•Family First Allstate
•Harbor Bank
•Ierna’s Heating & Cooling
•New Leaps Academy
•Murtha & Murtha LLC
•Pilot Bank
•Pinot’s Palette
•Suncoast Credit Union
•TSYS Merchant Services
•Usman Law Firm
Among the new restaurants already committed to serving samples at the Taste are Acai Brazil, Bruster’s Ice Cream, Cappy’s Pizza, Cinebistro at The Grove, O’Brien’s Irish Pub, Pinchers Crab Shack, Taco Son, Texas Roadhouse, Top Shelf Sports Lounge and Wicked Chickens, Deviled Eggs.
For more information about the 2018 Taste, including how to pre-buy tickets or volunteer, visit TasteofNewTampa.org! And, check out our exclusive Taste 2018 Preview Section in our next issue of Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News!
Stonewood Tops List 
Despite a not-so-great location — Stonewood is tucked behind a 7-Eleven and McDonald’s on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., just north of Commerce Park Blvd. — it has thrived as an upscale family restaurant because, well, Rathbun is kind of like family. He has lived in North Tampa for more than 20 years, including Richmond Place the last 16 years. He knows most of his customers, and their kids, and where those kids go to school.
“One of my customers once told me, ‘You know, I can come in here and have a real nice dinner and a bottle of wine with my wife and celebrate an event, or I can come in with my guys and have a burger and a beer at the bar and watch a basketball game,’” Rathbun says. “They love the flexibility.”
