2022 Reader’s Choices By Category

Favorite New Restaurant
1. The LIVING ROOM
2. The Grill at Morris Bridge
3. Miller’s Ale House
4. Carrabba’s Italian Grill 
5. Chuck Lager America’s Tavern

One of the most anticipated new restaurant openings in Wesley Chapel in 2022 was the opening of the second location of Dunedin favorite The Living Room in the Shops at Wiregrass.

And, it would appear that our readers were not disappointed, as The Living Room (see ad on pg. 26) dominated the “Favorite New Restaurant in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel” category in this year’s survey, despite (because of?) the opening of so many new places to eat at The KRATE Container Park at The Grove.

Obviously, the locals are enjoying the food, craft cocktails and ambience owners Christina and Zach Feinstein (with scissors above) have brought to Wesley Chapel.—GN

Favorite Breakfast
1. FIRST WATCH
2. The Brunchery
3. Brunchie’s 
4. Keke’s Breakfast Café
5. Cracker Barrel

We thought the addition to the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa area of more local breakfast joints the past few years might make repeating as Favorite Breakfast a tough task for perpetual survey champ First Watch.

Well, we were wrong.

First Watch’s breakfast, brunch and lunch items continue to be popular with our readers. From avocado toast to pancakes (banana nut crunch, yum!) to omelettes, frittatas and skillet hashes, you can throw a dart at the breakfast menu and hit something delicious, decadent and healthy or indulgent. And, you can wash it all down with a Kale Tonic, Morning Meditation fresh juice or even a Bloody Mary or Mimosa. — JC

Favorite Coffee
1. STARBUCKS
2. Provisions Coffee & Kitchen
3. Bean Bar Co.
4. Dunkin’ Donuts
5. Coffee Speaks & Tea Talks

We’d be lying if we told you that we thought Starbucks had the best coffee around, but what they do offer is unmatched — a variety of hot and cold coffees, mochas, lattés and frappuccinos with never-ending options.

Because of that variety, ordering drinks at Starbucks is truly an art form. Order just a plain old cup of hot coffee and you have a choice of 20 syrups (sugar cookie syrup? Yes, please!) or sauces to add to it, eight different sweeteners and 10 different kinds of milk — like soy, oat, almond and coconut (and you can get any of them steamed…or not.)

That may not be for everyone, but try telling that to the lines of folks in every Starbucks drive-thru. — JC 

Favorite Dessert/Bakery
1. NOTHING BUNDT CAKES
2. Crumbl Cookie
3. Publix
4. Bakery X
5. Urban Sweets

Sometimes, a restaurant or eatery can get caught up in trying to do too much.

But, that’s not the case at Nothing Bundt Cakes. It does bundt cakes and nothing but (duh!). Delicious, moist, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth bundt cakes.

Since opening at the Shops at Wiregrass in 2017, Nothing Bundt Cakes has been a perennial favorite in our dessert category, previously winning top honors in 2018.

You can choose between 11 flavors (including one gluten-free) in different sizes — bite-sized bundtinis, mini bundtlets or special-order full-sized bundt cakes — and, well, boom: perfection. — JC

Favorite Dessert/Frozen
1. TWISTEE TREAT
2. Ice Dreammm Shop
3. Bruster’s Real Ice Cream 
4. Cold Stone Creamery
5. Culver’s

It should probably come as no surprise that an ice cream place that is actually shaped like an ice cream cone would be our readers’ Favorite Frozen Dessert, unseating last year’s winner — the Ice Dreammm Shop.

Twistee Treat has locations in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, and serves up 30 different flavors of soft-serve ice cream in cups and cones, dipped and topped with more than a dozen different kinds of cookies and candy. It also makes Waffle Tacos, Cookiewiches and sundaes to order. The twirl ice cream cones are a favorite of customers.

What truly separates Twistee Treat from the rest, however, is the convenience of the drive-thru, especially when you have a carload of kids. The “big ice cream cone building” is great for making visits quick and hassle free. — JC

Favorite Indian Restaurant
1. MINERVA
2. Saffron
3. Ice Spice

Due to the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel’s ever-growing Indian population, as well as the slew of new Indian restaurants popping up in the area over the past few years, we decided this would be a good time to add a Favorite Indian Restaurant category, and we’re not that surprised that Minerva is our first winner — and only three Indian places garnered enough votes to even make our list.

Minerva, located in the New Tampa Center at the corner of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and New Tampa Blvd., opened in June 2016, and many instantly became fans of the restaurant’s authentic Indian flavors, ambiance and lunch buffet (photo, right).

Minerva tries to hit all the right notes with its popular butter chicken, chicken tikka masala and chicken, goat/lamb, fish and vegetable biryani (mixed rice) dishes. Be sure to check out the biryani specials Thursdays and Sundays and, of course, the impressive lunch buffet for dine-in only.

The oven-baked garlic naan is always a favorite, and Minerva offers a host of Indian drinks (including beers) and desserts. — JC

Favorite Greek
1. HUNGRY GREEK
2. Little Greek
3. Acropolis Greek Taverna
4. Cafe Zorba
5. El Prince Mediterranean

Although it hasn’t won this category every year we’ve asked our readers to tell us their favorite restaurants, The Hungry Greek on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Wesley Chapel has never finished lower than second in this suddenly-more-competitive category.

And, there’s a good reason for that: Hungry Greek offers a consistently good product — from gyro sandwiches to kabobs to Greek salads — all at always-fair prices with outstandingly quick service. In fact, even though the line at the counter where you place your order can sometimes be long, especially at lunch time, you’re never kept waiting more than a few minutes.

And, Hungry Greek also offers a selection of decadent desserts and even Greek beer to go with the huge portions of delicious food.

Hungry Greek’s success here — and at the original location in West Tampa — surely has contributed to the rise of eight other locations in and around the Tampa Bay area, with the latest opening soon in San Antonio. — GN

Favorite Burger
BURGER 21
2. Red Robin
3. Ford’s Garage
4. Bacon Boss HQ
5. Five Guys
6. Burger Monger
7. Bubba’s 33
8. Culver’s
9. Fat Rabbit
10. Frammi

With arguably more competition than any other category, Burger 21 continues to dominate the Favorite Burger category of our annual Reader Survey.

Dating back to 2013, Burger 21 has never not won the category, whether it was just New Tampa or New Tampa and Wesley Chapel combined. In fact, Burger 21 has been such a force it actually finished as New Tampa’s favorite overall restaurant in 2015 (after finishing second overall in 2014).

That’s a pretty amazing feat.

Readers continue to flock to the local chain’s Bruce B. Downs Blvd. location, due to a variety of different ways to get their burgers, all served on toasted brioche buns. You can get anything from regular cheeseburgers to a variety of Burger 21’s specialty burgers, like the limited time chimichurri burger. There are chicken, seafood and veggie options, as well. The fries are always nice and crispy, and don’t leave without capping your meal without one of Burger 21’s creamy, hand-spun shakes. — JC

Favorite Asian Restaurant
1. LIANG’S BISTRO
2. Asian Buffet
3. Yamato Japanese Steakhouse
4. Zukku-San Sushi
5. Umu Japanese & Thai

When you speak of perennial favorite restaurants in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, there’s no doubt that few (if any) have been as dominant as Liang’s Bistro.

Since completely revamping a defunct Burger King 20 or so years ago, Liang’s has been voted — by a wide margin every year — as either your “Favorite Asian” or “Favorite Chinese” Restaurant (or both) every year since.

And honestly, while Liang’s isn’t a traditionally authentic Chinese or even New York-style Chinese restaurant, its combination of NY-style egg rolls and BBQ spare ribs — plus everything from Mongolian-style beef, chicken or shrimp to more Japanese-style teriyaki chicken or steak and fried rice, with a few Thai and Korean BBQ-style and even fresh fish and vegetarian dishes thrown in — have kept Liang’s at the top of our readers’ annual list.

Of course, the fact that it also is our only upscale sit-down Chinese restaurant, also serving beer and wine, hasn’t hurt, either. — GN

Favorite KRATE
1. BACON BOSS HQ
2. Shake-A-Salad
3. Blush Wine Room
4. TJ’s Hot Dogs
5. The Fry Room

It was a simple concept started by Josh and Christy Norland in 2015 — let’s make something everyone loves…bacon!

In 2022, that one idea gave birth to the Bacon Boss HQ.

Rarely disappointing, what began as a food truck has now become the biggest hit at the new KRATE at the Grove, according to our readers.

Items like the John Gotti burger (with Gouda cheese and bacon jam), the Nicky Santoro spicy burger (mango jalapeño relish!) and Mafioso Patty Melt (bacon-infused burger inside a bacon grilled cheese!) are all favorites.

And, while the smoked brisket over creamy mac & cheese (above), chicken wings and Fat Tony tater tots topped with mac & cheese and bacon may not be good for your waistline, they are good for your soul. (But, if you tell your personal trainer we said that, we’ll just deny it.) — JC

Favorite Steak
1. STONEWOOD GRILL & TAVERN
2. Outback
3. Texas Roadhouse
4. Longhorn
5. Grillsmith
6. TrebleMakers
7. Grill at Morris Bridge

When Stonewood Grill & Tavern opened in Tampa Palms 20 years ago, it was a more upscale version of an Outback Steakhouse, as its founders had previously been Outback executives. Our Tampa Palms location was the First Stonewood on Florida’s west coast, and it was an instant hit with New Tampa residents and, eventually, with residents of Wesley Chapel, too.

Now, however, despite so many new restaurant options in both of our distribution areas, Stonewood is still our readers’ favorite New Tampa eatery and this year, it officially also has your favorite steak in both communities.

The rest of your top-5 steak places appear below and none of them are in New Tampa. — GN

Favorite Sushi
1. ZUKKU-SAN SUSHI BAR & GRILL
2. Sushi Cafe
3. Umu
4. Bonsai
5. BlueFin
6. Yamato

Considering how many restaurants there are in both of our markets that serve sushi, it’s almost hard to believe that the five restaurants on this list put so much distance between themselves and any of their competition.

Even so, Zukku-San won the Favorite Sushi category by a fairly wide margin with our readers. We don’t know if that’s due to Zukku-San’s artistic interpretations of your favorite rolls, hand rolls and sashimi or if more people come to Zukku-San for its variety of other Asian-inspired dishes (you can check out Ato, the fast-casual concept from the owners of Zukku-San on pg. 32) and stay for the sushi, but we’re guessing it’s a combination of both factors.  — GN

Favorite Full Liquor Bar
1. THE BRASS TAP
2. Florida Ave
3. Fat Rabbit
4. Stonewood
5. Joe Whiskey’s
6. Bahama Breeze
7. Noble Crust
8. Falabella Bistro
9. Glory Days
10 (tie) Peabody’s
10 (tie) Chili’s

Considering that it became popular as a place serving a huge variety of craft and micro-brewed beers on tap at lower prices than any of the beer-oriented restaurants located in the Shops at Wiregrass, we were surprised that The Brass Tap didn’t place in this year’s top-5 Favorite Beer/Wine Bar category (see pg. 28) with our readers, but finished first in the Favorite Full Liquor Bar category — as we separated the two types of bars for the first time. 

There is no doubt, however, that The Brass Tap offers a cool vibe and is the choice of many of our readers, regardless of what type of alcohol they prefer to imbibe. It also allows you to bring in food ordered from the restaurants at the Shops. — GN

Favorite Latin Restaurant
1. RICE-N-BEANS
2. Latin Twist Cafe
3. Las Palmas
4. Lima Peruvian Cafe
5. Mojo Grill

One thing we had noticed over the years of this Reader Survey was that restaurants serving Latin cuisines other than Mexican food weren’t being given enough credit by our readers.

So this year, with all of the new restaurants, especially at the KRATEs, serving a variety of Latin cuisines, we decided to ask our readers to pick their favorite Latin restaurant that didn’t focus on fajitas, enchiladas, quesadillas and burritos.

The result was that virtually every Latin restaurant serving something other than Mexican food registered a decent number of votes.

There was no doubt, however, that the Puerto Rican cuisine served at the ever-popular Rice-N-Beans was the winner in this category. Serving authentic mofongo, chicharrons, pan-fried whole snapper and even a chilled octopus salad, Rice-N-Beans also offers an upscale atmosphere, a reasonably priced bar and evening entertainment that none of the other non-Mexican Latin places on our list can boast.

And, owner Cindy Cruz says the Rice-N-Beans Express on S.R. 54 in Lutz (west of the Tampa Premium Outlets) should open soon. — GN

Favorite Mexican
1. VALLARTA’S
2. Cantina (CC Blvd)
3. Señor Tequila
4. Cantina Laredo
5. Don Julio

Vallarta’s is coming pretty close to making us retire the Favorite Latin & Mexican Restaurant categories (don’t worry, amigos, we’ll give you another shot next year!).

Despite closing its New Tampa location a few years back, Vallarta’s is once again the most popular place our readers choose for Mexican food, even if the only local location is in Wesley Chapel.

The sizzling fajitas are always a hit, and the variety of tacos, nachos, burritos and quesadillas is impressive and can be served with steak, chicken or beef. 

Or, you can go veggie with just beans and rice.

Vallarta’s also nails one of the most important attributes of a Mexican restaurant — the price, which absolutely is affordable, especially the lunch specials and combo plates; the atmosphere, which is festive and loud; and the drinks, which are always large (e.g., “big as your head” margaritas!) and are often on special. — JC

Favorite Thai
1. THAI LANNA
2. Arroy Thai
3. Umu
4. Palm Thai
5. Thai Ruby

A confession — I have been surprised for years that Thai Lanna hasn’t been named the Favorite Thai restaurant more often, because it really is superb.

It’s about time our readers agreed. (OK, rant over).

Tucked away in the corner of a gasoline-anchored strip mall on Cross Creek Blvd. in New Tampa, Thai Lanna may be hard to find — kind of like a treasure box for varied flavors — but it’s worth the effort.

The dinner menu offers a variety of authentic and traditional dishes like its top-selling Pad Thai, Pad Woon Sen and Massaman Curry. All of the fried rice options also are exceptional, and there are many curry dishes — red, green, yellow and even pineapple — from which to choose.

The expansive menu features a host of noodle, seafood, duck and vegetarian dishes, as well as fresh sushi and sashimi (photo).

And, save room for the Mango Delight (mango sticky rice). It might just be the best dessert in New Tampa. — JC

Favorite Italian
1. VIA ITALIA
2. Falabella Bistro
3. Noble Crust
4. Olive Garden 5. Frammi
6. Oronzo
7. Amici Pizza

One of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel’s most highly-regarded restaurants, Via Italia has been near the top of our readers’ favorites since Roberto Maganuco opened it in 2020.

And, why wouldn’t it? Via Italia mixes a great atmosphere with wonderful Italian food that is arguably the best you’ll find in our area.

But, the compliment that you hear most about Via Italia, and one that rings louder than any other when you’re talking about any ethnic restaurant, is authentic.

There are few, if any items on the expansive menu that don’t drip with authenticity, from more than 20 different kinds of wood-fired pizza to nearly just as many pasta dishes (like the tagliatelle Bolognese above). Just reading the menu is enough to get your mouth watering.

And, don’t forget to try out the variety of bruschetta options, or a high-end charcuterie board, filled with imported meats, cheeses and dried fruits from Italy. — JC

Favorite Beer/Wine Bar
1. FLORIDA AVENUE BREWING CO.
2. Blush Wine Room
3. Brew Bar (KRATE)
4. TrebleMakers
5. Double Branch
6. Fat Rabbit
7. Mr. Dunderbak’s
8. Brass Tap
9. Grill at Morris Bridge
10 Bru Growler Bar (BBD)

Although the menu has changed multiple times at Florida Avenue Brewing Co. since it first opened a few years ago, we were still a little surprised the former location of Sports + Field on S.R. 56 didn’t finish in the top-25 Favorite restaurant category with our readers this year.

However, Florida Ave. did dominate our first-ever “Favorite Beer or Wine Bar in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel” category.

No other local bar or tavern in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel offers both craft beer made on the premises AND full liquor, and the recent opening of Florida Ave.’s perhaps-largest-in-Florida on-site brewing operation at its Wesley Chapel location certainly has helped its popularity among our beer-drinking readers. And of course, cutely-named favorites like “You’re My Boy, Blue” and “Noggy By Nature” — and the opportunity to sample them all — haven’t hurt Florida Ave.’s popularity, either. — GN

Favorite Pizza
1. 900º WOODFIRED & NY
2. New York New York
3. PizzaMania
4. Amici
5. Cappy’s
6. Via Italia
7. Marco’s
8. Noble Crust
9. Fratelli’s
10 (tie) Taste of NY
10 (tie) Best NY

It may be time to crown owner Steve Falabella the King of Pizza in the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area, as once again his 900º Woodfired Pizza is the reader’s pick for Favorite Pizza in our distribution areas.

900º has developed a loyal following in Wesley Chapel, in part due to the omnipresent Falabella, who has two popular pizza locations in Wesley Chapel and also has opened the popular Falabella Family Bistro.

The Shops at Wiregrass mall location put Falabella on the map, as the only local eatery serving both woodfired Neapolitan-style and delicious New York-style pizza. Made with crispy crust and topped with a sauce made from six different tomatoes and Grande cheese, as well as any other toppings you might like, 900º Woodfired & 900º New York Pizza have been our readers’ choice for years.

Like a perfect pizza topping, though, the topping on Falabella’s success is the consistency of the product and the always-friendly efforts of those serving it. — JC

Favorite American Restaurant
1. CHUCK LAGER AMERICA’S TAVERN
2. Grillsmith
3. Stonewood
4. Bubba’s 33
5. Texas Roadhouse 6. Cheddars
7. Glory Days
8. BJ’s Brewhouse

Not only is Chuck Lager America’s Tavern Wesley Chapel and New Tampa’s favorite American restaurant, it came very close to taking top honors for favorite restaurant in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, finishing second to fellow Shops at Wiregrass favorite Noble Crust. 

That’s likely a testament to the delicious food, crafted by celebrity TV chef Fabio Viviani.

The restaurant offers an impressive drink menu of wine, beers and craft cocktails, and its appetizers — especially the giant pretzel dusted in parmesan — are popular, too.

The burgers come in different varieties and sandwiches like the smoked brisket grilled cheese also are popular.

The pasta, chicken and seafood dishes also are generally highly praised. You can’t go wrong with the prosciutto, goat cheese and fig jam flatbread, but you can also get it with many different toppings. And, an added bonus is the weekend brunch menu! — JC

Favorite Chicken/Wings
1. BUFFALO WILD WINGS
2. King of the Coop
3. Fat Rabbit
4. Chick-fil-A
5. Wingstop

There are almost endless ways to get your chicken at Buffalo Wild Wings, whether you want it on a salad, on a sandwich, on a wrap or even on a bar pizza.

In fact, the Buffalo tender stacked burger, grilled chicken Buffalito and Nashville hot chicken sandwich are some of BWWs most popular items.

But,  if we had to venture a guess, we’d say the most popular way folks eat their chicken at BWWs is via the mighty wing.

Whether you get your wings with the bone or without, Buffalo Wild Wings offers a long list of flavors to choose from, aside from just regular old Buffalo, teriyaki or BBQ sauce. 

Some of the more adventurous (and tasty) options include Blazin’ (proceed with caution…and definitely have a beer in hand), Caribbean jerk, mango habanero and Thai curry. But, there’s never any shame if you choose the safer lemon pepper or parmesan garlic choices, either. — JC

Kiran Indian Grocery — Treating New Tampa Like Family For 20 Years

Kiran’s son Satvik (left) is a clinical psychiatrist; her younger son Sahit is in medical school.

Kiran Indian Grocery, located on Cross Creek Blvd. in the Cross Creek Center plaza, has been a mainstay at this constantly-changing plaza since 2014. Before that, owner Kiran Vanthenapalli owned a store (from 2003-06; and an Indian restaurant, too) on E. Fowler Ave. and, from 2006-10, her store was in the Pebble Creek Collection on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.

That means that some of her beloved customers have known and trusted Kiran and her family and staff to provide their (predominantly) Indian and Pakistani spices, coffees and teas, frozen foods, meats, snacks, sweets and even hair care and other cosmetic products (and so much more) for almost 20 years. 

And of course, Kiran is perhaps best known for her amazing selection of fresh produce, with so many Indian specialty items I’ve never tasted (or even seen) before at prices that she says she knows, “no one can beat. I do my research — and no one beats my prices on produce.”

For example, she can describe the difference between coconuts used for Indian prayers and those that are meant for eating, and of course, stocks both in the store.

But actually, saying that Kiran is best known for her produce isn’t 100-percent accurate. Kiran Indian Grocery is actually best-known for Kiran herself, something that no other store of any kind can boast.

Not only can Kiran tell you where each and every one of her thousands of available items are located, she also can tell you the prices for each — all off the top of her head. That’s kind of amazing because she has so many different items and many different brands of the same types of products — e.g., she has as many different “masala” seasonings and brands as most grocery stores have beers — crammed into a store that somehow seems both much bigger and much smaller than it actually is because it offers such an amazing variety of products. 

“I can’t do my own inventory on a computer,” Kiran says. “My computer is right here (pointing to her head).”

But, Kiran’s staffers also are knowledgeable. It’s just pretty much impossible for anyone else to have memorized the prices, sizes and exact location within the store of so many different items — many of which aren’t even marked with prices.

But, if Kiran tells you what the price is on any item, rest assured that when that item is rung up at the check-out counter, the exact price she quoted will pop up.

Also stored in Kiran’s computer brain are the favorite items of every one of her regular customers. She re-orders many items based on when she knows the customers who regularly purchase those items will be back in to buy them.

“I don’t like disappointing anyone,” she says with her usual sweet smile. “If I am running low on an item you always get, I’ll hold enough of that item for you,” so you can stay stocked until she gets her next shipment of it. And, “If I only have three left, and I don’t know how soon I’ll get more, I’ll tell you to buy two of them.”

And, if Kiran does somehow run out of one of your favorites, she’ll suggest an alternative that you can try that you might end up liking better. 

A Love Of Animals

Kiran and her husband Sudeer have always also served not only their community, but people — and even animals — in need around the world. 

She has been involved — at least since opening her store in Cross Creek — with the Tampa Bay chapter of the SPCA (the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and she has donated fresh produce, rice and really anything the local chapter has needed because she is such a strong believer that people need pets and that so many of the pets in shelters can and do help individuals and families who need the kind of companionship and love that only a dog or cat can provide.

“I love the SPCA,” Kiran says. “It feels good to help them because they help so many people…and animals.”

When Covid-19 hit back in March 2020 and I started going through issues with my printer, Kiran was probably the first (but thankfully, not the only) advertiser to call me and say, “What do you need? How can I help?

She thought I said that I was going out of business. “I started crying,” she said. “I told (her husband) Sudeer, ‘We have to help our brother.’”

Even though I thankfully never got to that point and have no Indian heritage whatsoever, Kiran has been calling me her brother for years now. And, even though she seems to treat everyone who stops into the store like a member of her family, I refer to her as my sister, too. You just can’t fake her kind of genuine goodness and compassion for others.

“Gary, my brother, I’m so sorry that I’m out of your favorite chocolate bars right now,” she said to me on my most recent visit. “I also had to order (my wife) Jannah’s favorite tea. I’ll let you know when all of that comes in.”

But, it’s a big compliment to me because Kiran does also have an amazing family of which she is equally proud. Sudeer is a software engineer and their older son Satvik graduated from medical school at USF and is now a clinical psychiatrist, while younger son Sahit currently is in med school and plans to become a psychiatrist as well.

Another case in point about how Kiran treats everyone is that, when people check out at her store, she or her cashier will put coupons from other local businesses in the customers’ shopping bags. She has helped most of the Indian restaurants (as well as the new Gorkhali Kitchen Nepalese restaurant now located next to her store) and other businesses owned by people from India and Pakistan in our area this way and she says that she would be happy to do it for other businesses, too. 

“We’re all in this together,” she says.

And of course, whether you like or want to cook Indian food or not, if you’re a fan of delicious chocolate cookies or other sweet and/or salty treats, or you want the best prices in town on a most unique selection of fresh produce items, you owe it to yourself to visit my sister Kiran.    

Kiran Indian Grocery is located at 10042 Cross Creek Blvd. and is open Monday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. For more information, call (813) 994-6202, search “Kiran Indian Grocery” on Facebook or see the ad on pg. 34.

‘Kidpreneurs’ Learning The Art Of Making Business Deals

Layal (left), Nouf (center) and Alghaliah Rizq own Queen of Hearts, which sells homemade jewelry as well as other products.

On the way to school one day just over a year ago, one of the neighborhood kids that Danielle Cannon was driving to school mentioned that she wanted to start selling some of her homemade bracelets.

Cannon’s own two kids, 7-year-old Jane and 9-year-old Adam, chimed in that they were interested in selling some stuff as well.

“So I posted online asking if anyone knew of a good place to do this little thing for the neighborhood,” Cannon says.

That little thing, however, became a much bigger thing. Within a day, more than 20 families had replied that their children wanted to be a part of it as well, and the Tampa Children’s Business Fair was born.

At the end of last month, Cannon’s army of “Kidpreneurs” set up more than 40 tables at the KRATE at The Grove container park, selling everything from artwork to tree saplings to cookies to Christmas trinkets to — you guessed it  — bracelets.

“It has really grown,” says Cannon, who has poured thousands of dollars of her own money into her nonprofit fair where all the business owners are kids, ages 6-16. “Literally, the only limitation is finding places to hold it,” Cannon says.

The KRATE was generous enough to provide the space for free, although Cannon says other locations have charged as much as $1,500 to host a fair.

Cannon’s first event late last year attracted about 20 kids. The final event of this year, held at the Temple Terrace Recreation Center on Dec. 11, featured a whopping 75 tables and more than 100 Kidpreneurs.

“We would have had more but there was no more room,” Cannon says.

It was the fifth business fair of the year, and some of the young business owners — like New Tampa sisters Alghaliah (13-years-old), Layal (11) and Nouf Rizq (6) — have sold their wares at all of them.

The sisters, who all attend Turner-Bartels K-8 School, sell a variety of different necklaces and bracelets, including ones with clay beads displaying positive messages like “Kind,” “Cute,” “Love” and “Shine.”

At the KRATE fair, the trio’s Queen of Hearts business displayed an expanded product line to include pens and PopSockets (to help you hold your cell phone) and, at the Temple Terrace fair, they unveiled jewelry boxes made of resin.

“You can add colors to them,” Alghaliah says. “It looks really cool.”

The sisters have made more than $400 at the fairs. They say they wanted to learn more about entrepreneurship and the process has helped them become more confident.

“It’s been fun,” Layal says.

Cannon says the Rizqs are some of her best Kidpreneurs, even winning “Best Presentation” honors at one of the fairs. Typically, Cannon has local business owners help her choose the booths that have the “Best Presentation,” “Most Creative Business Idea” and “Highest Business Potential.”

Wesley Chapel resident Gabrielle Thompson shows off her wares at the recent Tampa Children’s Business Fair held at the KRATE at the Grove. (Photos: Charmaine George).

Gabrielle Thompson, a 15-year-old sophomore at Wesley Chapel High, was one of the “Kidpreneurs” selling blinged- out tumblers and other items from her business, jets_customs. She also does custom items if you’re looking to put a name or saying on a 12- or 20-ounce tumbler.

Gabrielle has been doing pop-ups for a few years now and was excited to join the TCBF event, and hopes to continue to do so in the future.

“It’s taught me patience and organization,” Gabrielle says. “And, money management, too, of course.”

The Tampa Children’s Business Fair encourages children to embrace all the tenets of entrepreneurship — developing a product and a brand, building a marketing strategy, setting prices and selling to customers.

Booths cost $25, but Cannon tries to return $5 to each business owner so they can walk around and network and buy things from their fellow Kidpreneurs.

Cannon hopes one day to not have to charge at all. She is hoping to land some sponsors to help cover some of the costs of running the quarterly fairs moving forward; those costs also include things like insurance and sometimes having to hire off-duty law enforcement officers, a requirement for some of the sites.

“I’m way over full-time hours working on this, but I know once people know about this they are going to love it,” Cannon says. “This is awesome, I love doing it, and the kids love it.”

For more information about the Tampa Children’s Business Fair and future fairs, visit TampaCBF.org. 

New Coach, Same Old Wildcats

Former Wharton High basketball star Shawn Vanzant is trying to lead the Wildcats back to the State tournament. 
(Photos by Mike Bitting)

If you were wondering if things would be any different for the Wharton High basketball team playing under a new coach for the first time in two decades, you can stop wondering.

In this year’s first game at home under new coach Shawn Vanzant, the Wildcats used an aggressive attacking defense that produced a slew of steals that they turned into a withering onslaught of three-pointers and transition buckets to open up a 28-7 lead en route to a 73-40 win over Steinbrenner High.

“Not much has changed,” says junior point guard Lucean Milligan, who had three steals and 10 points in the first quarter. 

Indeed. The Wildcats were off to a 10-1 start heading into the Christmas break.

Wharton made a winner of Vanzant, who was making his home debut as the Wildcats’ new head basketball coach after taking over for Tommy Tonelli, Hillsborough County’s all-time winningest coach.

In a gym where Vanzant once starred as arguably the program’s greatest player ever, it felt as if he, or even Tonelli, had never left. 

“Easy transition; I think it’s the best option we could have had,” says senior forward Chandler Davis. “He played here, and he played at a high level at Butler (University in Indianapolis, IN).” 

Vanzant is a great story that just keeps on getting better. The Wildcats added the latest chapter by beating the Warriors.

“I’m not gonna lie, it was a special moment,” Vanzant said afterwards. “I played four years here, coach Tonelli was like a father figure (to me). It was like a welcome home party.”

Karmello Branch goes up for two of his 16 points in the home-opening win over Steinbrenner.

The following night reminded Vanzant there is still work to do. The Wildcats laid an egg against a good Newsome team that returns a lot of size and experience, losing 48-39, but are currently on a seven-game winning streak.

There is no question that Vanzant is the man for the job. Tonelli, it seems, had waited for this moment for a few years, the chance to hand his program off to his star pupil. He wanted someone who could coach, sure, but it was more important to find someone who could lead, which life surely has prepared Vanzant to do.

As a kid, Vanzant’s family fell apart due to a myriad of problems, including his mother’s death right before his second birthday. As a teenager, midway through his high school career, he ran out of living options until New Tampa resident Lisa Litton and her family took him in. 

As a high school star, Vanzant led Wharton to a 29-2 record in 2007 and, three years later, he helped Butler get to within two points of the 2010 NCAA Championship, which they were denied 61-59 by Duke University and its legendary coach Mike Kryzewski. 

After a pro career spent mostly overseas, Vanzant turned to coaching and helped turn perennial basketball loser Bloomingdale High into a playoff team.

Now, he’s back home.

Vanzant and the Wildcats, regarded as one of the best teams in the Tampa Bay area, are expected to win many more, as they are coming off a 28-3 season and the program’s second Class 6A State Semifinal appearance.

Although Vanzant has the same distaste for polls as his predecessor — “They don’t mean anything” –—the Wildcats entered this season ranked by various online sites as one of the top-three teams in Tampa Bay.

“We have some things to work on, but if we do that, we’ll be good,” Vanzant said.

Milligan, a slick playmaker who can score in bunches, the 6’-5” Davis, last year’s top postseason scorer, and senior guard Christian Ayala are all key returners from the State Semifinal team. 

Senior forward Karmello Branch is another player who played at States last season, but for Class 3A Tampa Catholic. He transferred back to New Tampa.

Sophomore guard Nick Womack played for Vanzant at Bloomingdale last year, and sophomore guard Jayson Montgomery is making the transition to varsity this season look easy after scoring 16 in the home opener.

Vanzant loves what he sees so far, especially the team camaraderie and togetherness.

“Tonelli laid the groundwork, and we have a lot of guys from last year’s Final Four team,” Vanzant says. “All I have to do is come in here and not mess it up.”

Milligan and Davis both say there is no chance of that happening, because if there’s one thing that isn’t different with the change of coaches, it’s the Wildcats’ mindset.

“State championship,” Davis said. “That’s it.”

Law Office Of Elizabeth Devolder —  Compassionate Help For Families 

Attorney Elizabeth Devolder (center) and her team at the Law Firm of Elizabeth Devolder, 
located just off the Bruce B. Downs Blvd. exit off I-75. (Photo provided by Elizabeth Devolder)

Attorney Elizabeth Devolder says that, these days, she’s seeing a lot of families who have suffered through the pandemic — and even the stress of having to prepare for Hurricane Ian — and are thinking about what would happen if they or someone they love were to pass away or become incapacitated.

The Law Office of Elizabeth Devolder, which Devolder launched in January 2021, is ready to help. The boutique firm is located in the Tampa Palms Professional Center, just off the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. exit of I-75 in Tampa Palms.

Devolder earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) law degree at the Tampa campus of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Riverview in 2016, after a successful career in advertising and sales management. She had previously earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Corporate Communications from the College of Charleston, SC, in 1997. For five years, Elizabeth worked jointly with her ex-husband Bryan Devolder at their Devolder Law Firm.

Associate attorney Rachael Alexander was previously a case manager, working closely with Elizabeth while going to law school and helping her found the new firm. 

In her new firm, Devolder — with support from Rachael and a growing staff, including a legal assistant and case manager — continues to handle estate planning and probate matters, and Devolder’s clients say she is both smart and compassionate.

When Christine Smith’s husband died four years ago, she says she hired Devolder to help her. 

“It was really overwhelming,” Smith explains, “but she asked me things gently and slowly and spent so much time with me at one of the worst times of my life.”

Smith says Devolder’s compassion is only half of the reason she is so pleased with her experience with the firm.

“She’s also probably the smartest person I’ve ever met in real life,” says Christine Smith. “She’s really sharp.”

Elizabeth Devolder

After working out her own estate plan, Smith brought her young adult son in, too, to set up documents that would allow her to make medical decisions for him if he were to ever become temporarily or permanently incapacitated. Devolder recommends a number of documents — such as a Power of Attorney and others that may apply to your unique situation — for everyone, so that someone you choose has the authority to care for you if something unexpected happens.

 Christine then introduced her 91-year-old father to Elizabeth, who handled his documents, as well. “We’re multigenerational clients,” she says.

Devolder says she helps many families like Christine’s, who are experiencing the crunch of what she calls the “sandwich generation,” where children are becoming adults but still need a lot of support from their parents, while their older parents also are becoming increasingly needy.

“You have a lot of people depending on you,” Devolder says.

Another multigenerational client is JoAnne Tucker, a Hunter’s Green resident who first hired Devolder to help her handle her brother’s estate when he began showing signs of dementia and ultimately passed away.

“The entire process can be so confusing,” Tucker says. “But, sitting down with Elizabeth was very comfortable. She and Rachael always answered all of my questions — no matter how many times I asked — and helped me to be confident that I had all of the information I needed and knew exactly what to do next.”

Later, Tucker went back to Devolder to prepare her own documents. Then, her mother and sister worked with Elizabeth, as well.

Devolder says you shouldn’t do what you heard your neighbor did, or take a friend’s generic advice.

“My job is to take what I know about the law and apply it to a specific set of facts,” Devolder explains, “because the documents you might need depends upon the makeup of your family — such as how many kids you have, if your family is blended, if there is conflict in the family, and the makeup of your assets.”

Devolder says that the entire Baby Boomer generation will be age 65 by 2030, and that 75 percent of people over age 65 will need some type of long-term care. She says she can help you plan for that care to help your family avoid spending too much of its resources on that care.

While many people don’t want to think about the possible need for long-term care — which is required when someone needs help bathing, feeding, dressing or going to the bathroom — Devolder says that now is the time to start planning for it.

“When it was time for your kids to go to college, you didn’t first start looking at colleges the week before they were supposed to start classes,” she says. “The time to plan for that is well in advance. It’s the same with long-term care.”

Attorney Elizabeth Devolder is pictured here with her grandfather Harry Constantine Demosthenes and great aunt Electra Demosthenes Kageorge (both now deceased). Elizabeth’s new business venture, The Legacy Studio, will be a video studio located inside her law firm that will help families capture and preserve the stories of their older generations.

The Legacy Studio

Devolder’s desire to help families goes beyond just preserving their financial assets and planning for the future. She says she has a passion to help people protect their entire respective legacies, including their memories. 

To that end, she is opening up a second business located inside the law office that will allow families to preserve their older generation’s most precious recollections.

She says the idea came to her when a client told her he thought he knew the stories his grandmother told, but after she passed away, they were lost. Then, the client’s mother also passed away, and he realized her stories were lost, as well. He told Elizabeth he wanted to write his own stories down for future generations, so that those precious memories would be preserved.

The idea of preserving people’s memories resonated with Devolder, but she realized that technology allows us to do much better than just writing things down.

“How you tell the story is part of the story,” she says, adding that video is the ideal medium for preserving these legacies. So, she created The Legacy Studio to provide that opportunity for not only her legal clients, but for anyone who wants to preserve their precious memories.

She says her clients have welcomed the idea and that the studio website will be up and running soon at www.LeaveYourLegacyStudio.com, although Devolder says she doesn’t yet have a scheduled grand opening date.

She is hoping The Legacy Studio will bring families together, and allow grandparents and parents to leave their stories as a legacy for their children.

The Law Office of Elizabeth Devolder is located at 5383 Primrose Lake Cir., Suite C, in the Tampa Palms Professional Center. It is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.–6 p.m. For more info or to make an appointment, call (813) 319-4550, or visit ElizabethDevolder.com.