As expected, the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted unanimously to put a temporary moratorium on new applications and approvals for multifamily dwellings at Tuesday’s BCC meeting in Dade City.
The 180-day moratorium was approved by a 5-0 vote, following a reading of 50 emails submitted by residents that were unanimously in favor of the pause.
Commissioner Mike Moore, who represents District 2, which includes most of Wesley Chapel, spearheaded the moratorium. He claims that the moratorium area, which is between S.R. 52 to the north and S.R. 54 to the south, as well as U.S. 41 to the west and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. to the east, is oversaturated with apartments. Moore says the argument against more multi-family entitlements is centered on developers attempting to rezone property to build more apartments and townhomes, as opposed to using the property for its original commercial purposes.
Opponents of the moratorium, like Eric Garduno of the Bay Area Apartment Association, argued multi-family residences play a vital role with providing affordable housing in a market where the median home price is rising.
According to Realtor.com, the median list price of homes in Wesley Chapel is currently $320,000; according to Zillow.com, it’s $288,000.
However, the residents who emailed the county — mostly from Seven Oaks, where a proposed apartment complex on Eagleston Blvd. was the impetus for the moratorium — cited concerns about schools, traffic, road safety and the ability of the current infrastructure to handle additional people.
The county intends to collect data over the course of the 180 days, and will decide if there is indeed oversaturation, as Moore claims, and what should be done about it.
Garduno says he is confident the data will show there is a high demand for multi-family dwellings.
Moore, however, believes otherwise.
“We do need to analyze and look very closely at the impacts multifamily can have in the area when it comes to economic development, when it comes to public safety, traffic, schools, infrastructure,” Moore says. “This gives us the time to do it…we can really, really dig in and see what impact these are going to really have.”
Despite the still-looming spectre of Covid-19, the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel (which meets Wednesdays at noon at Omari’s Grill at Lexington Oaks Golf Club) is still hosting special events for the community in our area.
On Mar. 13, the club put on an awesome “Pasco 911 Grease is the Word” singalong event that featured Pasco Firefighters and Sheriff’s Deputies singing songs from the Broadway hit (and hit movie of the same name) “Grease” for a $5,000 Grand Prize, donated by T-Mobile, at Land O’Lakes Heritage Park. The event, which also featured an Elvis impersonator, a Classic Car Show and at least 200 socially-distanced spectators, was a tremendous success, with Pasco Dep. Christina Demas named the winner of the $5,000 Grand Prize. The firefighters and deputies in attendance announced that the money would be donated to the families of fallen law enforcement officers Michael Magli (Pinellas Sheriff’s Office) and Jesse Madsen (Tampa Police Dept.).
Two weeks later, on Mar. 27, the Wesley Chapel Rotary held a unique Drive-Through Egg Hunt event at the Wesley Chapel District Park, with more than 250 vehicles driving past decorated vendor vehicle booths, where they were given brightly colored eggs with candy and other kids’ treats. There were even gift baskets with prizes like gift cards and scratch-off Florida Lottery tickets for adults won by many of the attendees. Club president Jodie Sullivan was excited about the turnout and the event itself.
Rather than rest on those laurels, the Wesley Chapel Rotary also will host a Charity Golf Open (to benefit the Pasco Sheriff’s Office Charities & WC Rotary community projects) on Friday, April 30, at Lexington Oaks Golf Club (26133 Lexington Oaks Blvd.). The event will feature lots of great prizes, including a car courtesy of Parks Ford, a Sandals vacation, trophies and more. The cost to enter the 4-person scramble is $100 per player.
Brian and Amy Makarski had the safe life, with secure, well-paying jobs in Baltimore working in the copier industry, in the middle of a pandemic when many people were losing jobs and too many of those who weren’t were living in fear.
However, while everyone else may have been hanging onto their jobs for dear life, Brian and Amy decided to do the opposite.
They let go.
They took their hobby of cooking and catering, married it to an investment in a food truck and moved full-time to New Tampa to start Charm City Eats, a mobile eatery specializing in authentic Maryland crab cakes — broiled, not fried, and don’t forget the Old Bay seasoning — and other tasty regional dishes.
“We were incorporated in June, left our jobs to concentrate full-time on it and started distributing food to focus groups in Maryland to get the recipes just right,” said Brian. “Then, we sold our house in October.”
Neither of them have any regrets. Amy says they have never worked harder in their lives, and are physically exhausted by the end of most days. Some days, she says it feels like they have worked all 24 hours.
“I wore heels and a suit and ran a sales team, sold high-ticket items, but this, this is physically taxing,” says Amy, who was born in Baltimore. “The amount of dishes, the amount of prep sauces, it’s physically demanding. But, it’s more fulfilling working for yourself.”
Brian, a New Jersey native who attended the University of Central Florida in Orlando, had been commuting back and forth from K-Bar Ranch to Baltimore, where Amy lived, for the past decade or so. In fact, he says he was one of the first K-Bar residents in 2012 when he built the home that is now the Makarskis’ full-time residence.
When Covid hit, however, the family — they have four kids ages 7, 9, 13 and 14 between them — was in Baltimore and quarantined, not leaving the house for months. When they finally did leave, it was for a new life.
“Everyone seems to be shocked that we would do that,” Brian says. “Giving up (nearly mid-six figures) to run a food truck? But, we felt we were stable enough financially to do this. We planned it out. We had all the angles covered. A lot of people thought we were a bit nuts. But if we don’t do it now, we’re never gonna do it”
Even before moving to Florida, Amy had arranged bookings for their first two months in Tampa Bay. She and Brian took advantage of a Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC) food business incubator in Dade City to help launch, and business has been even better than they expected. After meticulously laying out a business plan with reasonable projections, Brian says that, after four months, Charm City Eats was way ahead of our forecast. Our success, we feel, has been spectacular.”
Brian says they are filling a void. On his many trips to the Tampa area, he couldn’t help but notice the lack of true Maryland fare in the area. He and Amy even did a tour of Tampa Bay and Orlando, trying every crab cake they could find and found them all lacking.
Brian says the food sold at Charm City Eats is as authentic as it comes. Nothing is frozen, and they prepare everything fresh daily in a commercial kitchen they rent space from in Lutz. Everything is made from scratch — and even the actual food truck was built from scratch.
In addition to focus groups in Maryland, the Makarskis say their own creativity helped forge their menu.
The crab cakes are the food truck’s specialty. Two of their most popular menu items are The Double Down Sandwich, a crab cake topped with hot blue crab dip, and the Crabby Patty is a quarter-pound grass-fed Angus beef burger topped with the blue crab dip. The dip is Amy’s grandmother’s secret recipe, and Amy says she makes up to 16 quarts of it a day.
While the name of their food truck is a nod to one of Baltimore’s nicknames — “Charm City” — so are some of the menu items. The Wire is a nod to the legendary HBO crime drama series, which is based in Baltimore. The pickle-brined, double-dredged Sweet Heat chicken sandwich, with tangy cole slaw, is a best seller. Brian said he spent six months perfecting the sweet heat chicken.
Though you’ll have to ask for it because it’s not on the menu, Brian and Amy (left) say The Gronk sandwich has been a top seller since the Tampa Bay Bucs started their Super Bowl run.
And, The Gronk has become a best seller as well, but it’s not on the menu. You just need to be in the know to order it. Named for Tampa Bay Bucs’ tight end Rob Gronkowski, The Gronk is truffle crab Mac and Cheese stuffed inside a Crabby Melt.
“It’s probably been our best seller since football season,” Brian says.
While Amy and Brian spend a lot of time in the truck, they have two cooks who work full-time as well.
“Amy and I have certain expectations,” he says. “(The food) needs to look the way I want it to look.”
Amy and Brian don’t intend to spend the rest of their lives in front of a fryer. This is not their end game, they say. They are already close to opening a second Charm City Eats truck in Las Vegas, where they finalized expansion plans and got married this past New Year’s Eve.
They see a lot more major expansion in their future. And no, they have no interest in opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
“We nixed that idea before we were even incorporated,” Brian says.
Chappie Friess
Instead, the Makarskis take great pride in finding unique, popular spots to set up their truck. Trying to zig while everyone else is zagging, Brian says. They have been to various breweries (including Florida Ave. Brewing Co. on S.R. 56), dozens of local neighborhoods (such as Epperson Ranch, Arbor Greene and Cory Lake Isles), festivals like the Great American Redneck Biker Bash in New Port Richey and private catering events.
As small business owners, Brian says it’s hard work and there are certainly endless obstacles to overcome. But, they have never been happier. He says a good night in the truck is more satisfying than his last $10,000 commission check with the copier company. And sure, he misses his ties and suits, but when someone stops by to pick up dinner for the family because the food is so good, he bursts with satisfaction.
“When someone tells us our food takes them back home and should be illegal it’s so good, that gives us more joy than selling a copier ever did,” Brian says.
If you want to check out where Charm City Eats will be next, or see what else is on the menu, visit CharmCityEats.com.
After six months on a strict diet, Raj Guntuku enjoys a potato chip after receiving a new kidney from Joel Morales.
It was an ordinary December day and Joel Morales was getting ready to put the latest issue of the Neighborhood News into the recycling bin.
But first, he wanted to see what was going on in New Tampa, and maybe pick up a suggestion for a place to grab some dinner. Since moving to K-Bar Ranch from Ohio in late 2019, Joel and wife Shelby had practically been quarantined the whole time due to Covid. Maybe this night would be the one they would finally venture out.
So, he started thumbing through the pages.
Then, he stopped. A picture of a 13-year-old boy named Raj Guntuku, and his 70-pound Golden Doodle Benji, caught his attention. “I’ll probably never forget it,” Joel says. “It was such a cute picture.”
Joel read the story. Raj needed a kidney. His parents were desperate.
Then, the strangest darned thing happened. Almost immediately, Joel decided he was going to give Raj his kidney.
On March 4, just a few weeks after meeting for the first time and passing all of the required tests, Joel was wheeled into an operating room, and four hours later, his kidney had been transplanted into Raj.
“A miracle,” says Raj’s mother Radha.
Just a few days later, both Raj, who friends and family call “Bunny,” and Joel returned home from the hospital, and they were online playing Fortnite together on the Xbox.
“Joel is so happy to see him happy,” Radha says. “I don’t know if we will ever meet anyone like that in this world again, but we are so fortunate to have him.”
Raj has a new lease on life, and Joel is glad he could help.
So, the question remains, why did he?
“It seems strange to say, but when I read the article, it just seemed like the obvious thing to do,” says Joel. “I had done a tiny bit of research after I read the article, just to see the long-term impacts of donating a kidney, and it was surprising to me. It seems like there’s really nothing I have to watch out for or need to be careful of. I can’t take any more ibuprofen, and I have to eat enough protein, but to me it’s just life as normal. It just seemed obvious that there’s this poor 13-yr-old kid with his life ahead of him, and I should do what I can to help. Thank God I ended up being a match.”
Joel Morales
A wholesaler for Nationwide Insurance, Joel says he doesn’t regret his decision, even if some of his friends and co-workers questioned his sanity.
“My boss said, ‘Hold on, let me see if I understand this — you have never met this boy, you never met this family, you have no relationship with them whatsoever, and you just decided to give your kidney to him?,’” Joel says. “That was the moment I probably understood it was a little bit crazy.”
But, the only person he really had to convince was Shelby, and her primary concern was what if their 2-year-old son Leo, or another family member, needed a kidney one day?
“My thought process was, if you look at the stats, the chances of one of our children or someone in our family needing a kidney are extremely low,” Joel says. “But, the chances of Raj needing a kidney is 100 percent. He needs one. He might not get one.”
It was only a 10-minute conversation. Joel said he probably had that look in his eyes, where Shelby knew he wasn’t going to be talked out of it. Besides, he reasoned, “Hopefully now, we’ve got some good karma coming our way.”
Radha says Joel certainly deserves it. Before he read the article about Raj in the Neighborhood News, she had been relying on a growing list of 15 or so potential donors who had stepped forward after a television report on Thanksgiving Day.
More names were added as time went on. The Neighborhood News article about Raj’s plight hit mailboxes on December 8.
“You put in a great article which was super detailed,” Radha says. “When I read it, I even started to get emotional, even though it is our own story. So many people told us they read it.”
However, day by day, many potential donors had dropped out. Some were talked out of it, others were worried about being able to afford missing work, and some just changed their minds.
Raj and Joel meet for the first time. (Photo courtesy of the Guntuku family)
Soon, a carefully curated spread sheet which, Radha says, had as many as 30 names on it at one point, had red lines through most of those potential donors, and only four remained.
Then, Joel called. He asked Nehru, Raj’s dad, to explain the process. Joel says he told Nehru it sounded as if he had explained all this before, and Nehru said he had. But, few had followed through, and it was becoming frustrating.
Joel, however, was in it to the finish. He filled out the paperwork, got tested and, on Feb. 24, was approved to be Raj’s donor. The surgery was scheduled.
The families finally met at Raj’s Tampa Palms home a few days later.
Everyone was too nervous to eat, and they just ended up nibbling at the Olive Garden and Liang’s Bistro takeout Radha had picked up. Raj, however, was bursting with joy.
It was a great night, both families say. Raj and his sister Bhavika, a senior at King High, thought Joel was “cool,” Shelby spent the night cracking jokes and Joel left knowing that he had a made a great decision.
On the way home, he turned to Shelby and said he hoped the Guntuku family liked him.
“You’re giving Raj a kidney,” Shelby said. “I think they like you fine.”
And they both laughed.
On March 4, Raj and Joel went in for the surgery. Joel was home after two days, while Raj came home on March 9. The families have spoken via FaceTime every day since.
Thanks to Joel, Raj has a functioning kidney and was able to enjoy a happy homecoming after the successful kidney transplant surgery earlier this month.
Raj had been sick for much of 2020. In early September, he vomited after waking up one morning, and it happened again a few weeks later. He went and had bloodwork done, and the results concerned his doctor. In October, Raj was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is characterized by the gradual loss of kidney function. He was Stage 5 at the time, and his kidneys were operating at less than 10 percent of their normal function.
Raj has been on a strict diet ever since, and will need to watch what he eats now that he has a new kidney. He told Joel the first thing he was going to do after receiving his kidney was eat a slice of cheese pizza.
However, his diet will have to be limited. He will need to eat healthier, but Radha says Raj is ready for that challenge. At a Super Bowl party a month before his surgery, everyone was celebrating the Tampa Bay Bucs’ victory with cupcakes.
“I would like to eat,” Raj said, “but sadly, I cannot. No thank you.”
Raj’s immunity will be lower than it used to be, and special care will need to be taken for the next 90 days. He is on seven medications, gets his blood tested twice a week, and has to stay out of the sun.
He is eager to shoot some hoops, but contact sports like soccer and football are off limits. His dream to be a grand master at karate, which he has been taking since he was 4, may be in peril, but Radha says they will have to decide on that later.
It is likely that Raj will have to go through this process again, in 20 or 30 years, so he needs to maximize the health of this kidney. “He knows he needs to be careful,” Radha says.
As for Joel, he was off the pain medication in a week and doctors say he’ll be fully recovered in 4-6 weeks.
“They really just said stay away from contact sports, so my future NFL career is no longer an option at the ripe age of 28,” Joel says.
He’s back at work, and every once in a while he thinks about the selfless decision he made. He doesn’t regret it for a second.
“I don’t think I knew, even today, just how big a deal this was, which probably helped with the nerves,” Joel says. “I genuinely just felt like this was the obvious thing to do. I may not have thought about it as much as I probably should have, but even if I had, I still think the outcome would have been the same. It was definitely well worth it.
“I’d say I’d do it again, but I can’t. You can only do this once.”
As a native New Yorker raised on bagels and lox (aka smoked salmon) and bacon, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches, but who has been living on the west coast of Florida since 1993, one of the hardest things for me to find in our area has been true, New York-style kettle-boiled-then-baked bagels that tasted anything like those I had been enjoying since I was a child.
Yes, there is a place in North Tampa, another in Clearwater and one in Brandon, but until recently, no such “legit” bagel place has existed in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel.
Daniel Kurland is a New Jersey native who first moved to the east coast of Florida and was living in Vero Beach when he first tried a Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. bagel.
“I grew up on bagels,” Daniel says. “Every town in New Jersey had a couple of bagel places. But, when I moved to Florida, it was hard to find good bagels.”
Daniel says he was a steady customer of the Vero Beach Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. before he moved to near Wesley Chapel three years ago and says, “I was shocked by the lack of not only good bagel places, but of breakfast places in general. Not even a Denny’s or an IHOP.”
So, Daniel, who has had many previous careers, including a “dot com” business that he sold. He owned and operated a bar in Ft. Lauderdale before moving to Vero.
“Owning a bar, I liked being part of the community and I was looking for that feel again,” he says, when he found what he believed to be a perfect location for a Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., on S.R. 54, just west of I-75, in an existing strip center at the front of developer Mark Gold’s fast-developing Grove property.
OK, Let’s Talk Food!
Daniel says that the thing he first liked about Brooklyn water Bagel Co. was the fact that just about everything is made in-house, using water that is “Brooklynized” right in the store.
“We use the water to not only make the bagels, but also our coffee (more on that below) and our desserts (ditto),” he says. “I really think it makes a difference,” and the location’s growing roster of regular customers seems to agree with him.
“Our most popular ‘regular flavors’ of bagels are probably the everything and plain,” he says. “If we ever run out of those, we might as well close our doors.”
And, while my personal favorite Brooklyn Water Bagels are the Black Russian (pumpernickel) with (sesame) seeds and the white sesame and poppy seed varieties, Daniel says that there are a few other flavors he can rotate in and out.
For example, although he always has cinnamon raisin bagels in his bagel bins, he recently has been selling cinnamon crunch bagels that are proving to be pretty popular, and others like blueberry and egg that can be rotated into the selection. “We’ll even do an olive cream cheese in the spring.”
My favorites at Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. are the “Williamsburg,” with authentic Nova Scotia-style smoked salmon, cream cheese and tomato (I hold the onion it comes with) or a bacon, egg & cheese on a double-toasted bagel. But, Daniel says the “not-spicy” chorizo sausage sandwich shown below is among his favorites, as are the made-to-your specifications fluffy omelettes next to the chorizo sandwich above. Photographer Charmaine George added spinach, mushrooms and bacon to that omelette, which was served with two crispy hash brown “cakes.”
Chorizo sausage sandwich
Also available are the “Brooklyn,” with bacon, sausage and ham, eggs and cheese, and the “Jersey Boy,” with Taylor ham, eggs and cheese. There’s also a “Greenpoint” with scrambled egg whites, spinach, mushroom and Swiss on a scooped, toasted whole wheat bagel. You can even get fresh avocado on a bagel.
Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel
Lunch, Coffee & Dessert!
The lunch menu is limited to tasty NY-style basics — a corned beef Reuben (with sauerkraut, Swiss and 1000 Island or spicy mustard on rye), a turkey or pastrami Reuben (with the same toppings) called “Rachel,” and tuna and chicken salad melts. I have tried all but the chicken salad and so far, so delicious.
I’ve also made my own sandwich from the Brooklyn Sandwich Board with corned beef and pastrami, although there’s also house-roasted chicken and even whitefish salad. Charmaine also enjoyed the roasted chicken, bacon & avocado wrap above.
Don’t miss the beverages, either. I’m kind of addicted to the Brooklyn Infusion coffee, flavored with vanilla, caramel and Kahlua, although there also are dark and medium roasts, as well as decaf and pumpkin spice varieties. The same flavors are available cold, too, as iced coffee “Cubstas,” and there’s also CinnaBuzz coffee with extra caffeine. There’s even actual coffee-flavored ice cubes at the coffee bar and fans of authentic egg creams will find New York’s beloved Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup and soda fountain seltzer.
The decadent dessert options include legit black-&-white and chewy chocolate chunk cookies, plus house-baked muffins, in flavors like cookies & cream and a mixed-nut “stud muffin.” Daniel says the only dessert items not baked in-house are the variety of different rugelach, a rolled Jewish-origin pastry available in chocolate, cinnamon, apricot and other flavors.
Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is located at 27835 Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54), Suite 101 (next to the new King of the Coop chicken). It is open every day, 6 a.m.-3 p.m. To place an order or for more information, call (813) 775-2275 or visit BrooklynWaterBagel.com.
