Category: Business

Ford’s Garage On The Way

Ford’s Garage, which mixes the vibe of old school service stations with burgers and craft beers, is one step closer to becoming one of Wesley Chapel’s new neighborhood hot spots.

Eric J. Hendra of Hendra and Associates, a consulting engineering and surveying firm in Tampa, officially submitted a preliminary site plan application for Ford’s Garage of Wesley Chapel in March to Donna Huber, Pasco County’s Senior Development Review Technician.

The restaurant will be located adjacent to the Pollo Tropical on the Northeast corner of S.R. 56 and Grand Cypress Drive (east of Wesley Chapel Blvd.) directly across from the Tampa Premium Outlets.

It will be owner Marc Brown’s fifth Ford’s Garage location. Brown, of South Tampa, started the chain in Fort Myers in 2012, later added locations in Estero and Cape Coral and recently opened a location in Brandon.

The project, wrote Hendra in the preliminary site plan application, will be a “local restaurant with nostalgic vehicles highlighting the Ford’s Car manufacturer products.” Brown and his ownership group has a licensing deal with Ford Motor Co., so car enthusiasts will enjoy the attention to detail if previous locations are any indication.

The Ford’s Garage menu generally focuses on a vast selection of burgers, chicken, steak and salads, and a variety of popular macaroni and cheese variations according to many reviews on Yelp!. It also boasts more than 150 different types of craft beers in bottle and on tap.

There will be 7,211-sq.ft. of indoor seating, and a 1,192-sq.ft. patio area, according to the proposed site plan. The restaurant will include “static mounted Ford Vehicles for icons located within terminal islands along with a antique non-working fuel dispenser.”

There will be 92 parking spots.

Attorney Kevin Astl Leads Brandon Legal Group’s Local Office

His shingle outside his office may state that his area of expertise is family law, but Kevin D. Astl is a man who wears many hats.

He’s the compassionate listener who hears it all and gently nudges a box of tissues across the table; he’s the gimlet-eyed analyst who parses statutes to find the perfect legal weapons to argue your case; he’s the family man whose 9-year-old’s artwork adorns his office walls; and he’s the rock-and-roller who goes home and takes the stress of his day out on a drum set. Most important is that Astl is an attorney you can trust to fight for your child, your family and your livelihood.

Astl is the managing attorney at the Brandon Legal Group’s New Tampa/Wesley Chapel office, located in the Central Bank building on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (just east of the corner of BBD and County Line Rd.). He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Political Science in 1996 from the University of South Florida, and in 1999, received his Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University in Macon, GA.

At the local office of his firm (one of the three Brandon Legal Group offices in the Tampa Bay area), Astl handles all aspects of family law cases, but also has extensive experience in more than 35 aspects of law, including criminal, business and corporate law, music and entertainment law, as well as personal injury and medical malpractice cases.

Astl says that Brandon Legal Group is a, “full-service law firm. We have 7 on-staff attorneys, each very experienced in their own right.”

He adds that, in other words, “If I can’t help you with your legal needs (myself), there almost always is another lawyer in the firm who is able to help.”

Not Your Typical Lawyer

Astl says he was a musician before he was a lawyer and he still enjoys creative writing, songwriting and playing. “Playing drums keeps me sane,” he says.

In addition to belonging to legal organizations like the Florida Bar Association (since 1999), Florida Bar Family Law Section, Florida Bar Criminal Law Section, Florida Bar Association Entertainment and Sports Law Section and American Inns of Court Tampa Family Law Inn, Astl’s affiliations also include the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Florida Motion Picture and Television Association, and the Florida Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

“People can represent themselves, but the law is an extremely technical and complex endeavor,” Astl says.

What Astl offers clients that they cannot get on their own is not just nearly two decades of experience, but also a familiarity with case histories and with the vagaries of the various local court systems, courthouses, clerks and judges in the many surrounding counties.

Astl’s disarming friendliness and wry sense of humor help him connect with clients, and they also help him preserve his peace of mind in a field that can often be fraught with tension. He has to regularly fight client stereotypes about the billing habits of lawyers; and not a week goes by that a client doesn’t want to check Astl’s advice against something out of TV’s “Law & Order” or Google. “There’s more disinformation out there about what we do than information,” he sighs.

As someone who considered studying sociology or psychology before deciding on political science and, ultimately, the law, Astl enjoys not just the hustle and bustle of the courthouse, but also the more subtle sizing up of witnesses and personality assessments he has to conduct, often within moments.

Amy Mackler says she hired Astl to represent her during her divorce five years ago, and it’s a decision she says she’s thankful she made.

“He doesn’t come across as your typical attorney,” says Mackler, who now lives in St. Petersburg but was a New Tampa resident for 22 years. “Regardless of if your case is finished, he continues to maintain a relationship. He’d call and check up, follow up and make sure everything was good in my life.”

Mackler appreciates that Astl is efficient at what he does, but also that he’s open and honest.

“If he doesn’t feel like he should take your case, he’s not going to take your case just to make money,” she says. Not only did she hire him again a couple of years later for another matter, she’s referred him to many friends.

Astl is heading the firm’s northward expansion. His goals are to maintain a presence at the current Central Bank location, but also to expand to include another attorney and a paralegal by the end of the year. At the rate Astl is going — he’s signed up eight clients in just the past two weeks — that looks like an attainable goal. Although he’ll continue to do family law, he’s also interested in growing his representation of small businesses. As a 17-year New Tampa and Wesley Chapel resident, not only does he frequent local small businesses, he’s also watched numerous companies rise and fall, and would like to be able to help them succeed.

Having practiced on his own and in a large corporate environment for years, Astl loves his present setup.

“I like being part of a boutique firm,” says Astl. “It’s like I work with my friends. The way Brandon Legal Group is set up with the satellite offices, you just have to practice law,” explaining that the head office manages paperwork and finances so that he can do his job. “I can represent my clients…focus on them.”

Astl also says he appreciates the fact that the attorneys at Brandon Legal Group are encouraged to maintain a manageable workload — he has about 50 cases on hand at any given time — rather than take on every potential client. A manageable caseload means a reasonable separation between home and work, says Astl, which helps create the objectivity that he needs to be able to approach the case with clarity.

“A work-life balance is very important,” he says, especially when dealing with family law cases that can sometimes be brutal (except for adoptions; he says adopting parents are his favorite type of family law clients to represent).

Astl works toward that balance through family and creative endeavors. He tries to spend as much time as he can with his two sons: the 22-year-old veteran who served in Iraq and now attends the University of South Florida, and the 9-year-old who often spends afternoons in dad’s office.

The office of attorney Kevin D. Astl of Brandon Legal Group is located at 20701 BBD Suite 202, Tampa. For more information or to make an appointment for a consultation, call 933-7200, or email kevin.astl@brandonlegalgroup.com or visit BrandonLegalGroup.com.

SPOTLIGHT ON…NutriMost Of Wesley Chapel!

Nutri Mitze Richeson (photo, right) believes that weight loss is not synonymous with counting calories and living in the gym. She’s the health coach and director of the chiropractic physician-supervised weight loss program at NutriMost of Wesley Chapel. In fact, the NutriMost program doesn’t require exercise at all.

NutriMost is a unique weight loss program that utilizes state-of-the-art technology to create a customized plan for each patient without using prescription “diet” pills. The program shares its location with Cypress Creek Chiropractic in the Cypress Ridge Professional Park off of S.R. 56, which is the office of Mitze’s husband, Micah Richeson, D.C. (Doctor of Chiropractic).

NutriMost uses a computerized scanner (photo below) to obtain “biofeedback” from each client. The procedure evaluates the different frequencies in your body, creating a personalized “road map” of the organs, hormones, neurotransmitters and foods that most affect your weight — and the specific NutriMost supplements that can help optimize your weight loss, based on that biofeedback.

From there, clients come in once a week for weigh-ins, check ups and to learn about optional training and exercises that can keep the body in fat-burning mode.

Nutrimm According to Mitze, who received her certification as a Chiropractic Physicians Assistant in 2013 from the Cleveland Chiropractic College in Cleveland, OH, weight gain or fat storage is usually linked to other health issues. By cleansing the body of certain foods that are, in particular, harmful to you, and by using customized natural, homeopathic supplements, and teaching you how to eat and live healthier, Mitze says, “weight loss becomes an automatic result.”

For more info or to schedule an appointment, call 241-7098. Or, visit 813thin.com, Facebook.com/NutriMostofWesleyChapel or NutriMost.com, or stop in at Cypress Creek Chiro at 2304 Crestover Ln.

If You Have A Dog Who Needs Training, Check Out Don’s Dogs!

Dons Dogs4 — If you want to be able to be confident that your dog will be able to behave in any social situation, you may want to call Don Grady of Don’s Dogs. He can even make your rambunctious puppy or skittish rescue dog behave like a champion.

Don Grady says he was a whiz in the kitchen back in the 1990s and early 2000s. In Washington, D.C., he studied the culinary arts and worked as a chef, and after moving to Florida in 2004, he worked at several restaurants in Tampa.

He had yet to discover his true calling, however, even though his wife Valerie already had a pretty good idea of what it was destined to be.

Unbeknownst to her husband, she saw that a local pet store was looking for dog trainers. Don may have been hesitant about a career change, but his wife had seen him train their dog as well as some of their friends’ dogs, and decided to apply for him.

The rest, as they say, is history.

“They called, she took the phone call and said, ‘Yeah, he’d love to meet with you guys,’’’ Don recalled. Two interviews later, he was offer and accepted the job.

Today, he owns Don’s Dogs, a come-to-your-home dog training business, at least until he can find a place to call his own in Wesley Chapel or New Tampa. Don currently has about 20 clients, which is just about the maximum he can fit into a busy schedule turning unruly or shy dogs into well-adjusted and well-mannered pets.

“I was a classic chef, and I thought that was the greatest job in the world,’’ Don says. “My wife for years told me I should be a dog trainer, but I told her she was crazy because I had no formal experience like I did in culinary.”

But, as it turns out, Valerie wasn’t crazy. She was just prescient.

For years, Don had been asked by friends for tips on dog training, because his dog, Zoe, a Border Collie mix who is now 16, was so well-behaved. After four years of honing his skills at a pet store, Don felt he was ready to branch out and start his own business.

He said he was successful working in a shop, and has parlayed that — with the help of word of mouth, social media and advertising — into a busy career. He says he would like to one day open his own dog training school so he can do puppy socialization classes and teach agility skills, to name a few. Until then, however, he is staying mobile.

How It Works

Don will usually make an appointment with a new client at their home, to interact with the dog in its own environment for its first session and see how the dog’s owner reacts as well. Every dog is different, Don says, and they often require different training methods.

Puppies are the easiest to work with, with adult dogs a little harder to train. The level of training depends upon what the client is looking for — most just want a dog that behaves well at home — but 20-30 percent, Don says, desire further training so their dog can become a therapy pet, able to spread joy while visiting schools and hospitals.

“Don’s great,’’ says client Heather Moran of Meadow Pointe. “We learned from the first session he did with us. I learned and Bo (her seven-month old golden retriever) learned. Don has a great connection with the dog, and he has a good way of teaching me, too.”

When it comes to turning dogs into perfect pets by teaching them to walk nicely, come when called, drop things they shouldn’t have in their mouths and greet people without jumping on them, Don says his success rate is sky-high.

Depending upon what his clients are looking for, Don crafts a specific course for each dog. “I tell people it’s like college courses,’’ he said. “There’s undergrad, Masters and Doctorate.”

Simple obedience can take six hours of training, spread over 4-6 weeks, with the owner having plenty of homework in between lessons. The skills Don tries to teach each dog are sitting on command, leaving items alone (“Don’t look at that,” he will tell a dog), giving the owner its full attention and not jumping up on people when it meets them.

For more advanced training, he says, another six lessons are sometimes required. Don is a regular at the Lowe’s in Land O’Lakes, as well as at the Tampa Premium Outlets mall, where he will take dogs to practice what they learned in the first course.

Sometimes, it’s a morning trip when the locations are usually less crowded. As the lessons get tougher, lunchtime trips on weekends, when both places are at their busiest, are scheduled.

“He doesn’t just train in the house, he takes you out into real-world situations,’’ says Moran, who hopes Bo will take the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test when he turns 1 and go on to become a therapy dog. “I just like knowing I can take him anywhere in any situation and he’ll be able to handle it and I’ll be able to handle him.”

By the time Don is done giving a dog its second course, they are usually ready for the 10-step American Kennel Club (AKC) CGC test — the gold standard for dog behavior. Don is an AKC-approved CGC Evaluator, and can administer the CGC, AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy and AKC Community Canine programs.

Don often takes his own dogs — Zoe and Abby, a 4-year-old Pitbull mix therapy dog — to retirement centers to interact with residents as part of his Canines For Christ program. Abby also helps out with his training, by helping soothe the fears and aggression other dogs may be feeling.

Another client, Kathy Lahr, a mom to a 2-year-old Standard Poodle, says, “Tonga is the best dog I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a few, and couldn’t have done it without Don.” She says that when Tonga was 10 months old, he was “petrified of everything,” the result of growing up on 45 acres and not being around many people or cars.

“She was so shy, she wouldn’t even look up at you,’’ Lahr says. But Don changed all that. In fact, Tonga is now a regular visitor at hospitals, schools and age-assisted facilities.

Don trains 4-5 dogs a day, five days a week. He leaves one weekday open and one weekend day open for emergencies and schedule changes. He has built dozens of relationships over the years with his business, which is why he calls it Don’s Dogs. Even after training is complete, he says he always feels connected to his furry students. He will organize dog walks with some of his graduates just to touch base, or get a group of his former pupils together for a “Yappy Hour” on some restaurant patio somewhere.

Today, the classically trained chef can’t imagine doing anything else for a living. Sure, Don can still whip up an elegant dinner in his kitchen, but only after doing what he loves most during the day.

“No matter if I had a good day or a bad day, I still played with puppies,’’ Don said. “People should be jealous. It’s the best job in the world.’’

For more information, visit DonsDogsTraining.com, visit his Facebook page, or email donsdogs@yahoo.com. Don can also be reached at 784-2698.

American Wood Flooring Keeps Up With All Of The Latest Trends

Although we really only know each other through doing business with each other, I consider Andy Dunning of American Wood Flooring, located in the SuperTarget-anchored Northwood Shopping Center (next to Marshall’s) on Bruce B Downs (BBD) Blvd., to be a good friend. Andy is easy to work with, pays his bills and, best of all, he always gets great results from advertising in both our New Tampa and Wesley Chapel issues (he does alternate markets sometimes) and, especially, whenever we run another article about his business.

“The first article you did about me when we first opened here in Wesley Chapel (almost ten years ago) generated something like $70,000 in orders,” Andy has told not only me, but his customers, too. “And, every story has generated thousands of dollars in new orders.” He adds, “If you’re in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel and want to improve the look of your home, we have everything you need to help you keep up with all of the latest trends in flooring, whether you’re looking for real hardwood, laminate, porcelain tile or carpeting.”

And, why shouldn’t he get results? Andy runs the Wesley Chapel store as part of a family business with two locations and nearly a quarter-century of experience. He and his father (Pat) and stepmom (Marcia) have prices that Andy promises are always competitive with the so-called “super stores” and he and his family stand behind everything they sell.

Andy says, “This is still an independent, family-owned company that has been selling and installing floors in the Tampa Bay area for 23 years,” when Pat and Marcia opened the original store on U.S. 19 in New Port Richey.

That location moved to the corner of Mitchell Blvd. and Little Rd. in 2005 in the Trinity area. The Wesley Chapel/New Tampa location has been open for almost a decade and both stores offer a wide variety of flooring options to add extra appeal to any home.

So, What About Those Latest Trends?

“The most popular items people come in looking for are still the wood-look ceramic tile, which combines the rich, beautiful look of real wood and the durability of tile, and hand-scraped, or ‘distressed’ finish hardwood flooring,” Andy says. He notes that he sells a lot of the Barista Collection by Shaw wood-look tile and the hand-scraped “American Scrape” wood flooring by Armstrong.

He also says that wood-look tile has the advantage of being water resistant (“which can be important in flood situations”) and that the pre-scratched wood also is a great floor in homes with kids, since any “accidents” that may happen just add more “character” to the “already dinged up” look of the flooring.

unspecified-8 Two of the hot trends in laminate flooring are the Tarkett vinyl planks, which Andy says are quieter than most laminate floors (“There’s no hollow sound”), and the Alloc laminate floors, which have a locking mechanism built into the laminate and Alloc is therefore one of the few laminate companies to offer a lifetime limited warranty on topical moisture. “If a flower pot full of water was to spill on it, no problem,” Andy says. American Wood Flooring also carries the popular Freedom collection laminate by Shaw.

“We’re proud that so many of the products we carry, like Shaw, are ‘Made in America,’ rather than in China or Germany,” Andy says. “Yes, our exotic hardwoods are from Brazil and we do carry some German and Chinese products, but a lot of people are really looking for that ‘Made in America’ label these days.”

Another hot imported commodity at the store is the Italian porcelain by Happy Floors, which comes in 12” x 24” rectangles, instead of the traditional squares, which normally only go up to 20” x 20” — with many smaller sizes available, but usually no bigger.

You Deserve Great Service AND Great Prices!

All of the prices per square foot Andy will quote you at American Wood Flooring include delivery, installation, moving all of your furniture around for you, removal of your old carpeting, tile or flooring (with no charge for disposing of it) and, “all of our installers are in-house and have been certified to install Armstrong, Bruce and the other major manufacturers’ flooring,” Andy says. “We also give you a free cleaning kit and free felt pads to keep your furniture from scratching the floor. A lot of places charge extra for many of those same services, so our prices are even better than they seem.”

Oh, and there’s never sales tax charged on the floors (because the government doesn’t collect sales tax for major home improvements), as long as you have American Wood Flooring install it.

“We also warranty all of the floors we install for as long as you own your home,” Andy says. “Unlike the major home store retailers, the warranty is with us. At Lowe’s or Home Depot, the warranty is from the installer, not the store.”

That can lead to unexpected problems. Those warranties can be important, especially with laminate floors, which (unlike hardwood floors) are not glued to your concrete slab.

And if that isn’t enough, Andy says that, in addition to his already-competitive prices, there are always bargains to be had at American Wood Flooring, because, “We’re always being offered specials by the different manufacturers.”

And yes, American Wood Flooring does carry and install both carpet and tile, as well as wood and laminate floors.

American Wood Flooring’s Wesley Chapel showroom is located at 1285 BBD Blvd. The store is open Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m., and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information, visit AmericanWoodFlooringFL.com, or call 991-7999. And don’t forget to ask about the special financing available — 12 months with 0% interest (with approved credit).