Category: New Tampa

By Bonnie Mason

Body hair is increasingly looked upon as a nuisance by both men and women. And, although waxing and electrolysis still have their place and are recommended for certain body areas and skin types, laser hair removal has exponentially gained popularity. Continue reading

Where there is smoke, there may be fire. And, where there are smoking needs, there is Best Smoke Shop & Hookah, with everything smokers need and more, plus a hookah lounge coming soon.

If Best Smoke Shop & Hookah — located just east of I-75 on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel — doesn’t have it, owner Dean Refai says that he will get it for you. Since 2012, Refai’s shop has been the epicenter of smoking supplies, carrying everything from hookahs and waterpipes to cigars and E-cigarettes, plus everything in between.

“We know everything there is to know about smoke,” Refai says. “I think Wesley Chapel needed a store like this.”

Refai decided to open Best Smoke Shop after some friends recommended it as a good entrepreneurial venture. Before opening the shop, Refai was working for a car dealership in Tampa, but says he wasn’t happy, so he and his wife decided to open a smoke shop. The doors opened to the original location, on E. Fowler Ave. in Tampa, in 2007.

Seeing a need, and already living in the area, Refai decided to move Best Smoke Shop to its current Wesley Chapel location in 2012.

“We sell everything about smoking,” Refai says. “If customers don’t see what they’re looking for, I will special order it for them.”

However, it’s not often that Best Smoke Shop doesn’t have what its customers are looking for, Refai says, because of his constant travel around the country to attend industry conventions, where all of the latest smoking- related products are always on display.

“Our inventory is always rotating,” Refai says. “If I see something new at a show, I get it. I try to keep up with everything new that comes out.”

Refai says that products can even change as quickly as month-to-month, as new fads begin to trend. One of the more recent examples, he explains, is electronic smoking. To keep up with the popularity of E-cigarettes and even E-hookahs, Refai keeps his shop stocked up with all the latest flavors from 7’s E Cigarettes, some of which contain no nicotine.

“(E-cigs) are good for helping people to quit smoking cigarettes,” Refai says. “I carry liquids that contain less nicotine than most cigarettes and some flavors that have little to no nicotine. I’ve had about 60 customers tell me that E-cigs have helped them quit smoking cigarettes in the past few months.”

Instead of smoking actual tobacco leaves, E-cigarettes vaporize a liquid and produce no actual smoke. Customers simply purchase and plug a liquid-filled cartridge into the battery-powered E-cigarette.

“Because they have the habit of holding something in their hands, (E- cigarettes) still give them the feeling of smoking without actually smoking,” Refai explains.

Of course, if a customer isn’t interested in quitting smoking cigarettes, Refai says, they also have the option of purchasing the cartridges that contain the normal amount of nicotine as a traditional cigarette. He adds that, in addition to not getting the typical cigarette odor on your clothes from smoking cigarettes and the convenience of still being able to “smoke” them indoors, E-cigarettes give smokers the option to wean themselves off of their nicotine addiction at their own pace.

The store also carries everything necessary to roll your own cigars and cigarettes at home, including Raw-brand cigarette-rolling papers. Best Smoke Shop also carries a wide range of different tobacco brands.

Don’t feel like rolling your own? Best Smoke Shop also carries traditional cigarettes, as well as a variety of premium cigars from popular brands such as Cohiba, Garcia y Vega, Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta.

The store also carries a variety of vaporizers, pipes and water pipes, for tobacco use only. Refai says his top- selling water pipe brand is Roor.

If you enjoy hookah smoking, Best Smoke Shop carries several brands, the most popular being Khalil Maamoon, Refai says. Hookahs vary in size from a few inches tall with one hose, to decorative hookahs that are several feet tall with multiple hoses.

Refai is in the process of adding a hookah lounge to the shop, complete with couches and even a belly dancer, but he says that he still is working out the details with Pasco County.

Refai insists: everything in the shop is legal to sell.

“It’s a clean smoke shop,” he explains. “We believe in clean business. We don’t sell anything that is illegal.”

Besides the wide range of smoking products, Refai says his customers will come back for Best Smoke Shop’s surprisingly low prices, something he makes a point of checking at other shops when he visits other cities.

“I just went to Houston last month and saw prices that were 70 percent higher than mine,” he says. It was the same thing when I was in Miami. We have the lowest prices in the area. I go out and search shops and online and make a conscious effort to keep our prices low.”

But, don’t just take his word for it.

“I come here all the time and the prices are the best around,” says a Meadow Pointe resident named Scott. “Dean knows what he’s talking about and always has the newest products. Before I came here, I would always get stuff on- line, but Best Smoke Shop is cheaper than (shopping on) the web.”

Tracy, a Quail Hollow resident, adds, “(Best Smoke Shop) is a great place. It has lots of good products and is always clean. I try to support local merchants whenever possible and Dean always has such a great selection.”

And, as if the prices weren’t low already, check the Best Smoke Shop ad on page 18 for a coupon that’s good for an additional 20-percent off select items.

Best Smoke Shop & Hookah is located at 28411 Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54) and is open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m., and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sunday. Do you want to know if Dean carries a specific product? Call the shop at 991-1188 or visit BestSmokeShopFlorida.com.

And, don’t forget to “Like” the shop’s Facebook.com page, where new products are announced as they arrive.

 

By Gary Nager

Photos by Matt Wiley

So, with the local housing market finally showing signs of recovery, isn’t it time you made some much-needed upgrades to your home, whether to get it ready for sale or to make it a more beautiful place for you and your family to live?

Well, our friend Hui You and her staff at Cabinet & Stone International (located on N. 56th St. in Temple Terrace, between Busch Blvd. & Hillsborough Ave.), have always had great ideas for providing the best-looking kitchen and bathroom cabinets and granite and other stone countertops for your home, and as always, there are some new arrivals you should check out even if you’ve been through the Cabinet & Stone showroom before.

For about four months now, Cabinet & Stone — which has its own factory in China which produces the amazing cabinet lines designed by Hui and her staff here in Temple Terrace — has been featuring two exciting new all-wood cabinet designs, one being a sleek, Santorini white and the other in Manhattan espresso. The styles of the two new lines — which brings the total different cabinet and color choices available at Cabinet & Stone up to eight — are the same, only the handles are different, but they look totally different because of the handles, the cabinet configurations and the countertops you choose to go along with them.

Best of all, in addition to kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities available in the new Santorini white and Manhattan espresso colors, Cabinet & Stone also can create an entire closet system for your home in the same colors and styles.

With so many cabinet choices available now at the 30,000-sq.-ft. warehouse and showroom, Hui says Cabinet & Stone has had to split its existing showroom into two parts — one just to display bathroom cabinet and stone selections and the other is the new vanity and closet design center. She adds that she didn’t begin promoting the new design center right away (it’s been open for several months) because, “We wanted to make sure everything was perfect with the new designs first. Even without really promoting them, we have still sold a lot of them because when people see them in the showroom, they want to buy them and everybody really seems to love them.”

She says the new designs are skewed towards younger buyers because, “A lot of the people buying new houses are younger families who want a younger, more modern look,” she says, “and all of the colors and styles you see on our website (CabinetnStoneIntl.com) are Cabinet & Stone brands that we’ve designed.”

The deign center is also a great place to see all of the beautiful and popular new vessel sinks and vessel sink faucets that you find in modern, contemporary bathrooms you see in many new model homes. You also will find the also-popular under-mount sinks in the design center.

A Little History & More

According to its website, Cabinet & Stone International has been serving the greater Tampa Bay area as a family-operated business for more than 10 years. The families involved in the business have been involved with woodworking for more than 25 years in Fujian, China, where they have their factories and granite quarries. The company directly imports cabinets and granite counter tops, thus eliminating the “middleman” cost and Cabinet & Stone’s prices are very competitive. With a total of more than 70,000 square feet of warehouse space, the company is one of the largest distributors of pre-made cabinets and granite countertops on the east coast of the U.S.

Whether the order is from Grand Cayman or Upstate New York, a single cabinet order or a container, Cabinet & Stone is capable of meeting your needs.

“We believe that no job is too small or too big,” says Hui. “If you need your kitchen or bathroom yesterday, we can do it because everything is stocked here at the warehouse, so unless we’re out of stock on an item, there’s no wait or turnaround times.”

But, with new container shipments arriving from China every month, Hui says that you won’t even be waiting long for items that are temporarily out of stock, either.

“No one is going to get you your countertops or cabinets faster than we are or beat us for quality,” she says. “And whenever we check other company’s prices we know that we are saving our customers money.”

And, Cabinet & Stone has many customer testimonials to share, including this one from a customer named Anne.

“I just wanted to let you know how good the job looks and how much we appreciate your professionalism throughout the entire process. We will recommend you to all of our friends. Thanks again, and keep up the good work.”

All of the cabinets at Cabinet & Stone are 100-percent real wood, including oak, maple and birch. There are seven unique door styles each with designer selected colors in stock. All of them are solid wood fronts and plywood boxes and shelves stained in the same color as the front and there are absolutely NO particle boards The hardware also is top-of-the-line: full- extension, heavy duty glides, soft close glides, and six-way adjustable hinges.

The company also specializes in granite in many colors you need in any edges you want, in addition to our in-stock unique selections. We have both 2cm and 3cm in thickness.

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For information about Cabinet & Stone International (6606 North 56th St., Tampa 33610, call 887-5658 or visit CabinetnStoneIntl.com. Bring in the Cabinet & Stone ad on page 48 and New Tampa customers will receive 25-percent-off their purchases. Ask at the store for details.