Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., the company behind Florida Avenue Brewing Co. and Brew Bus Brewing, has officially announced that it has purchased the former Sports + Field location on S.R. 56. The new owners will convert Sports + Field into a brewery with a beer garden, full-service restaurant and event space.
The 34,000-sq.-ft., two-floor facility in Wesley Chapel was originally opened in 2005 as $10.5-million multi-purpose fitness center that trained professional athletes while also offering fitness programs for local residents. It closed in 2015.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Brew Bus Brewing Inc., Anthony Derby, told the Neighborhood News last month that his company was taking a close look at property, located at 2029 Arrowgrass Dr., and saw a craft brewery as a missing part of the local Wesley Chapel/New Tampa scene.
“We are excited to expand our operations into Pasco County to provide the community with a family-friendly brewery, event and restaurant destination,” Derby said in a statement. “By this time next year, Pasco County residents will not only be working in our expanded operation, but also enjoying our products a bit closer to home.”
The completed deal is expected to create 46 new local jobs and more than $8.7 million in new capital investment in Pasco County.
“It’s great to reactivate a dormant property with high-paying manufacturing jobs in a unique industry,” Bill Cronin, the president/CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council, said in a press release. “A company like Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., is a win for the whole community, as they embody the live, work, play notion so important to our community’s future economic growth.”
Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., created in 2011, currently operates both a brewery and buses that travel to breweries throughout the Tampa Bay area. In addition to brewing its own Brew Bus beer, the brand expanded in 2015, with the acquisition of Florida Avenue Brewing Co., in an effort to revive one of the area’s most historic breweries. Both Brew Bus and Florida Avenue brands are distributed throughout the entire state of Florida.
“We are happy to welcome Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., to Pasco,” said District 2 Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore. “Not only are they creating jobs, but their new tasting room and restaurant will be a great destination for residents and tourists alike. Breweries are a huge part of the tourism market.”
If you are looking for authentic, and tasty, Australian cuisine, the Walkabout Australian Bakery & Café is open at 18430 Livingston Ave. (at Sunset Ln.) in Lutz.
Owner Regina McColl is a truly authentic Australian, from Melbourne, but we’re fortunate that she has brought the flavors of her home country to within 10-15 minutes of most New Tampa residents.
The bakery goods are truly unlike anything I’ve had in the Tampa Bay area. There’s a square one that looked like it could be chocolate and peanut butter, but is actually caramel inside and it’s absolutely addictive. Sorry that I neglected to take a picture of it, but there’s no doubt I’ll be back.
Regina McColl
Walkabout, which celebrated its Grand Opening with a May 2 North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon cutting, also serves great food, like the thick-cut prime rib, with mashed potatoes and broccoli shown left. Regina also put out finger foods like yummy traditional meat pies (similar to empanadas), and spinach ricotta feta triangles for the Chamber event. Oh, and of course, there’s beer and wine, too, mate!
For more info, visit AussieBakeryCafe.com or call (813) 953-1085, and please tell Regina I sent you!
The Man Cave’s Grand Opening
Another great locally-owned business that recently cut a ribbon was The Man Cave Haircuts for Men, which actually celebrated its one-year anniversary on April 1 with a North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon cutting.
Located in the Pinebrook at The Grove plaza at 27419 Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54) in Wesley Chapel, owner Katie Galentine has created a shop that is less barber shop and more salon for men, but with a variety of unique décor touches that make any man feel right at home — like spray bottles that look like bourbon bottles and shelves made out of tires. You also get a shampoo, with a complimentary steam towel, scalp massage and walk-ins and appointments are welcome.
For more info, call (813) 574-8405, or visit the-man-cave-haircuts-for-men.business.site and tell Katie and her crew the New Tampa Neighborhood News sent you!
The price simply wasn’t right for the developers Bill Place chose to buy and turn the Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC) into new homes, so the PCGC owner is turning to a new development group.
13th Floor Homes, a Miami-based investment management firm, was chosen late last year from a group of bidders interested in razing New Tampa’s oldest golf course in favor of a new housing development. Following months of inspections and meetings with homeowners, 13th Floor has withdrawn its interest.
“They got to end of the inspection period and wanted to change a lot of the terms,” says Place. “We didn’t want to change the terms.”
Place and his wife Su Lee own Ace Golf, which bought PCGC in 2005.
While the exit of 13th Floor from the process was a disappointment for Place, he said there were seven developers that had originally submitted bids to purchase the 6,436-yard golf course, which opened in 1967. So, it’s on to the next group of potential suitors, which Place would only describe as “major homebuilders.”
Despite the lack of a sale to 13th Floor, he says the months of examination and feedback have helped guide what will be acceptable in the future.
Place also said that while the zoning exists to build 600 homes on the 149 acres he is selling, he wouldn’t even consider allowing that much development.
And, according to what he learned from focus groups organized by Pebble Creek’s two homeowners associations, there also is opposition to multi-family units and homes being built in close proximity to existing homes in the community.
“We’ve excluded all that from this next round,” Place says. “We’ll tell the next developer that these are things that have already been worked on with the homeowners and that we don’t want to backtrack.”
Place said that he didn’t originally choose the highest bidder because they wanted to come in and build rental homes. “We don’t feel that would be appropriate for the community,” he says.
Although there is a large contingent of residents opposed to the sale of the golf club (and what they fear will be a resulting loss of wildlife and green space) for any reason, the inspection period, which included lots of meetings with Pebble Creek’s HOAs and focus groups, was not acrimonious.
“Not at all, surprisingly so,” said 13th Floor corporate counsel Dan Daley. “The community, particularly the HOA members and leadership, understood the reality of the situation.”
Mulligan’s Pub
That reality, Place says, is that the golf course is losing money — he has said that 2018 revenues were down 33 percent, and profits were down 50 percent — as the golf course industry struggles nationwide.
The club currently has only 20 members, and competition is stiff. In New Tampa alone, Pebble Creek has to compete with private country clubs at Hunter’s Green and Tampa Palms, as well the recently revamped Heritage Isles on Cross Creek Blvd.
Place even said that since Ace Golf bought Plantation Palms Golf Club — which had been closed for two years and is located only 10 miles from PCGC (in Land O’Lakes) — in 2015, with the hopes of reviving it, Plantation Palms also has drawn additional business away from Pebble Creek.
While the sale of PCGC remains imminent, Place says that it currently is still business as usual. Mulligan’s Pub continues to be a popular hangout, and the club itself is booking weddings and other events through the end of next year.
“It’s physically impossible to get through the zoning and public input before then,” he says, “so we are still booking events through 2020. The one thing I have refused to do is operate like a business that is going out of business.”
When I first met Anass El-Omari and his wife Susana Herrera several months ago, I was hopeful that their plan to completely revamp not just the look of the clubhouse at Lexington Oaks Golf Club, but also the food served there would work out for them. After all, we have plenty of chain restaurants in Wesley Chapel, but we have so few non-chain, sit-down, mom-&-pop restaurants in our area with great food.
Well, if you haven’t tried Omari’s Grill & Bar at Lexington Oaks yet, I hope the pictures on this page and this short writeup will convince you to go check it out.
Anass, who is originally from Morocco, was trained at the world-renowned Cordon Bleu Institute in Paris, France, and just from the sauces he has been serving alone, his extensive training and experience is obvious.
Anass met Susana in her native Colombia, where she was working as a TV network news anchor for RCN Television (Radio Cadena Nacional) in the Colombian capital city of Bogota.
About two years ago, his varied business interests (including banking software) brought their family (they have two children together) from Colombia to Florida, first to the Grand Hampton community in New Tampa and eventually, to Wesley Chapel, where he ended up buying the Lexington Oaks golf course and restaurant, a change of ownership that took place about a year ago.
“We were planning to just buy a small vacation home in Epperson, because of the lagoon, but the kids loved it here, so this is now home.”
Oh Yeah, The Food!
The lunch and dinner menus at Omari’s Grill may be somewhat limited, but there’s no doubt that all of the dishes Jannah and I have sampled together so far have been outstanding — and Anass is always coming up with daily specials.
My favorite items on the dinner menu are the flounder almendrine, which I thought I had shown in my Nibbles & Bytes column before, and the Chef filet.
For only $14.99, the flounder is sautéed in a Mediterranean-style butter sauce, with large chunks of fresh tomatoes. The 6-oz. filet ($20.99) is super tender and served with a fresh basil and white wine cream sauce. It was served with two fresh asparagus spears and we also enjoyed a side of cheesy baked broccoli.
The Chef filet
I also love the fresh pear and brie cheese and the calamari appetizers and the Cajun chicken pasta with onions, peppers and salami in a semi-spicy Cajun cream sauce.
Although I can’t indulge in any of the multiple shrimp and lobster options on the menu because of my accursed shellfish allergy, Susana says her favorite dish on the menu is the lobster pasta, which is linguine served with generous chunks of lobster in a ginger cream sauce, with a touch of garlic and white wine.
The mahi-mahi, served with a mango salsa.
The special on our most recent visit was a super-thick cut of amazingly fresh mahi-mahi, served with a mango salsa that added a delicious touch of fruit without being overly sweet.
Although dinner currently is only served at Omari’s Grill Wednesday-Friday, it is open for lunch every day except Monday and the lunch menu features plenty of your favorite sandwiches, including Anass’ take on the classic Cuban, a Cajun chicken sandwich with bacon and cheese (of course), a Philly cheesesteak, classic BLT, as well as burgers, wings, a Buffalo chicken wrap and even shrimp tacos.
Strawberry cheesecake
I’ve only sampled Omari’s catering-style food for lunch when I’ve visited the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, which meets for lunch at Omari’s every Wednesday at noon. Anass and Susana don’t only host the club, they’re also members and say they look forward to getting more involved with the Rotary’s service projects, especially since the Lexington Oaks golf course is getting ready to close for renovations for three months shortly after this issue reaches you.
“While the greens are being resurfaced,” says Anass, “we will be really focusing on the restaurant side. We’ll do a lot more menu specials and host more special events.”
Speaking of special events, Susana says that the Easter brunch held last month “completely sold out.” But, despite lots of requests, Anass says he will not repeat the brunch special for Mother’s Day, so he and Susana can spend her special day together.
“I haven’t had a day off in 243 days,” he says. “But, I’ll be thinking about new specials.”
Oh, and before I forget to mention it, you should always save room for dessert at Omari’s Grill. All of the desserts are homemade, including an authentically French creme brulee and the totally decadent New York-style cheese cake shown in the far right photo on this page, which is served with fresh strawberries and a chocolate sauce that has other ingredients Anass wouldn’t share with me. “The sauce is a secret,” he says with a smile.
Omari’s also caters to families with an affordable kids menu (nothing more than $5) and there is a beautiful covered patio that can seat about as many people as the inside dining area, which features a premium, full-liquor bar with very reasonable prices.
For more information about Omari’s Grill & Bar (26133 Lexington Oaks Blvd.), call (813) 907-7270 or visit LexingtonOaksGolf.com and please tell Anass and Susana I sent you!
This under-construction strip plaza on S.R. 54 will be home to Glory Days Grill, Domino’s Pizza and Max’s Natural Pet Market & Salon within a few months
.As development continues at a breakneck pace in Wesley Chapel, more and more businesses are rushing to fill a need or desire. For a while, one of those business segments that had been needed and desired was sports bars.
It may soon be time to consider that need filled.
Glory Days Grill, which opened its first location in New Tampa in 2014 and has opened more than 30 restaurants since — including 10 in Florida — is coming to Wesley Chapel in the strip currently under construction on S.R. 54 being developed by Wiregrass Ranch’s JD Porter.
The business strip also will be home to a Domino’s Pizza and Max’s Natural Pet Market & Salon (see ad below), is located just west of Saddlebrook Resort on S.R. 54.
Glory Days is a sports-themed restaurant and bar, with dozens of large screen televisions. Its menu consists of traditional sports restaurant fare and does it pretty well with tasty burgers and steaks. It also offers a wide selection of craft beers and other drinks.
Although it can be classified as a chain, the Glory Days Grill in New Tampa, which occupies the space at one time occupied by Lee Roy Selmon’s, has been an active participant in the local community, sponsoring many events at the local high schools and at community sporting events. It is one of New Tampa’s more popular food and drink destinations.
Max’s Natural Pet Market and Salon will set up shop in a 2,800-sq.-ft. space in the strip and owner Paul Spalveri says it should open sometime this summer. And, although it is not expected to open until this summer, MaxsPetMarket.com is live now.
VW IN THE WC?: Volkswagen has renewed its interest in a Wesley Chapel location, filing site plans for a 27,845-sq.-ft. automotive dealership on S.R. 56.
Volkswagen of Wesley Chapel is eyeing a location on Silver Maple Pkwy., on the south side of S.R. 56, across the bust roadway from the MINI of Wesley Chapel dealership.
Plans were originally filed for a dealership in 2014, but Volkswagen’s auto emissions scandal that year put the project on hold at that time.
ALDI IS STILL COMING…HONEST!: More than three years and two different locations since it was first reported that Aldi was coming to Wesley Chapel, the super-popular, no-frills discount supermarket chain finally has the green light to put shovels in the ground.
On April 22, Aldi received final approval from Pasco County to begin construction on the new 22,335-sq.-ft. store, which will be located on the southeast corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd., in front of the Costco Warehouse.
