Entering Our 2023 Reader Dining Survey & Contest Is Easier Than Ever!

Whether or not you’ve ever entered one of our previous Reader Dining Survey & Contests, I hope you’ll consider entering at least once this year.

Yes, while we still have at least three (there could be more) free dining prizes, from $35 to $100 — to the restaurant of your choice, no less — we’re making it easier than ever before for you to enter.

Instead of a full page or more of different dining categories, all we’re asking you for is to answer one or two questions in every issue between now and Thursday, November 16, and you’ll receive one entry into those random prize drawings for each Survey question you answer.

This issue, we’ll start with one question that asks you for FIVE (5) answers — “Name your Five Favorite Restaurants (of any kind) located in Wesley Chapel or near the Tampa Premium Outlets (aka Lutz).” 

For your entry to be valid, you must name five different restaurants. If you only name one or two restaurants or fill in the name of the same restaurant in all five spaces, you’ll only have one or two votes counted and your entry will not be eligible for any of our prizes.

Then, in each of the next five issues, we’ll ask you to name only one or two of your  favorites — for example, your Favorite Chinese Restaurant, Coffee Shop or Pizza Place — and we’ll give you one additional entry into our random prize drawings for each valid entry you submit. We feel as though this should stimulate more people to enter the contests, because the task won’t be as daunting as having to completely (or nearly completely) fill out an entire page of favorites.

As always, there’s no purchase necessary to enter or win a prize. All we ask is that you follow the following rules:

1. Enter by filling out the entry form in the issue or by filling the form out online by clicking HERE. 

2. You can drop your filled-out entry form in the mail (send it to “2023 Neighborhood News Dining Contest,” 2604 Cypress Ridge Blvd., Suite 102D, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544) or even email it to us at Ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com. *Note-Entries filled out on our website do not need to be mailed or emailed to us.

3. Please check the address and zip codes of the restaurants you choose, as only votes for restaurants in zip codes 33543, 33544 and 33545 (Wesley Chapel) and zip code 33559 (Lutz, within 1-2 miles of the S.R. 56 exit off I-75) will be counted as “Wesley Chapel” votes. When we ask you next issue for your “Five Favorite Restaurants (of any kind) in New Tampa,” only restaurants located in zip code 33647, or in the Oak Ramble Plaza on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (in zip code 33613) and in or near the Palms Connection Plaza on E. Bearss Ave. (zip code 33559) will be counted as “New Tampa” votes.

4. In order to be eligible to win any of our free dining prizes to the restaurant of your choice, your entry form with a response to at least one of our questions over the next five months must include your name, full mailing address (including your zip code), the community you live in (Avalon Park Wesley Chapel, Seven Oaks, etc.), a daytime phone number where you can be reached and your valid email address.

We look forward to seeing how this year’s contest shakes out. Good luck!

Check Out ‘Grease” At The NTPAC!

If you love songs like “You’re the One That I Want,” “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” “Grease (Is The Word)” and “Beauty School Dropout” from the Broadway musical and subsequent movie (starring John Travolta and the late, great Olivia Newton-John) “Grease,” I can personally guarantee, in all sincerity, that you will not be disappointed if you check out the New Tampa Players (NTP) production of the 1972 Tony Award winner later this month. 

The performances will be presented at the all-new New Tampa Performing Arts Center (PAC) off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. the weekends of July 21-23 and July 28-30 and tickets are already selling very well.

“We had less than 100 tickets left (of the 350 available for each performance) for the two Sunday matinee shows (on July 23 & 30),” said NTP producing artistic director Nora Paine shortly before we went to press with this issue. “We definitely expect to sell out all six shows.”

The hard-working cast (photo above), under the direction of G. Frank Meekins with choreography by Sarah Walston, features the tremendous talents of Dylan Fidler as Danny, Olivia Carr as Sandy, Kyle Fisher as Kenicke and Alyson Gannon as Rizzo. But honestly, as someone excited to be playing a minor character (Vince Fontaine) in this show, the entire ensemble is amazing.

For tickets & more information, see the ad below or visit NewTampaPlayers.org. — GN

Zio’s NY Bagels Now Open In Pebble Creek Collection!

The last time New Tampa had its own bagel place, it was called The Ultimate Bagel, which closed its location in Tampa Palms about 20 years ago. 

In other words, the people in the community just south of Wesley Chapel have been waiting quite a while for a true New York-stye bagel place to open in zip code 33647.

Well, the wait it over, as Jeff Cofini (left in photo) and his nephew Nick Cignarella have opened Zio’s New York Bagel & Deli in the Pebble Creek Collection (at 19651 BBD Blvd.) and yes, the bagels are legit! 

My fried egg, bacon and cheese (photo left) on a sesame bagel was outstanding and Zio’s has not only your favorite bagel varieties, but also everything cheddar, cheddar bacon (with real strips of bacon baked in) and more.

Breakfast, including freshly-made omelets, is available all day, but don’t forget the Boar’s Head meat-and-cheese sandwiches, like The Melvin (below, left) with pastrami,, corned beef, melted Swiss & cole slaw.

For info, call (813) 388-9498 or visit “Zio’s New York Bagel & Deli” on Facebook. — GN, photos by Charmaine George & GN 

Check Out The New Azteca D’Oro Mexican Restaurant!

All Photos by Charmaine George

Congratulations to co-owners Victor and Armando Ramos of the ninth family-owned location of Azteca D’Oro, in the space previously occupied by Cantina Laredo in the Shops at Wiregrass.

Azteca Wesley Chapel opened on June 19 and hosted an incredible Grand Opening event the weekend of June 24-25, with a mariachi band and dancers all in traditional Mexican garb — and Victor says that mariachis will play “every Thursday, 6 p.m.-8 p.m.”

However, while the “fiesta” music was great and the completely revamped restaurant — which now features not only outdoor seating, but seats both inside and out at the extra-large bar — is beautiful, without great food, it would all mean next to nothing.

Chicken Taquitos.
Pork osso bucco.

Tableside guacamole.

Coctel de camarones (shrimp cocktail).
Combo Fajitas.

(l.-r.) Azteca D’Oro general manager Cristina Casimiro & co-owners Victor & Armando Ramos. 

But, while Azteca D’Oro definitely isn’t an inexpensive place to eat, the food options include such upscale authentic entrĂ©es as borrego (marinated, seasoned and baked lamb shank) and molcajete (steak, chicken, chorizo sausage and shrimp over onions and green peppers in a mildly spicy sauce), plus favorites like the thickest-ever chicken-stuffed taquitos appetizer (above left), which four people can share, and, of course, great combo fajitas (shown, above), of which my favorites were the pork carnitas fajitas, and a huge menu of other authentic specialties for lunch and dinner, including delicious tableside-made guacamole finished with real bacon.

Churros & ice cream for dessert? Yes, please!

And, do not miss the caramel-stuffed churros and ice cream (photo, right) for dessert! 

The ultra-premium bar features many upscale tequilas and mezcals, as well as a unique margarita flight of four different favorites, plus specialty cocktails like the Mexican classic Paloma (JosĂ© Cuervo Tradicional Reposado tequila, fresh lime & Squirt grapefruit soda).   

Azteca D’Oro (2000 Piazza Ave., Unit 170) is open every day for lunch and dinner. For more information, visit Aztecadoro.com. 

How Does Curley Rd. End At Two Different Locations On S.R. 54?

New Signage Posted At The Entrance To Chapel Crossings Community Off S.R. 54 Likely To Change

So, as I was driving eastbound along S.R. 54 (heading towards Zephyrhills), I noticed something that struck me as strange, for two reasons:

1) There were signs that said “Curley Rd.” in two different locations on 54 and

2)  It was the first time that I had noticed this phenomenon.

Now, it may not seem like that big a deal to you, but it was to me. Why?

As our editorial researcher Joel Provenzano — who until very recently worked for the Florida Department of Transportation (aka “FDOT”) and in conjunction with the transportation planners for Pasco County — pointed out, although the left turn at the original Curley Rd. sign was often a dangerous one, the plan was for Curley Rd. to be realigned to the east and come south to meet up with Meadow Pointe Blvd., leaving the existing Curley Rd. to basically cul-de-sac at the entrance to the Chapel Pines subdivision, less than a mile north of Curley’s intersection with S.R. 54. 

But, when the recession hit our area hard in 2008-09, Pasco County didn’t have the funds to realign Curley and it wasn’t until several years later that the existing intersection was even widened.

Fast forward about another decade, when Crown Community Development, which also developed Seven Oaks, begins developing the new Chapel Crossings community (see map), a pretty subdivision of about 1,100 total single- and multi-family residential units, the westernmost portion of which is the now-under-construction Story Wesley Chapel rental apartments. The only entrance to Chapel Crossings currently is on S.R. 54, at the traffic signal for Meadow Pointe Blvd.

But somehow, if you turn into that well-landscaped entrance to Chapel Crossings, the sign says that you are turning onto Curley Rd. Then, once you get into the community, the name of that same street is Chapel Crossings Blvd. What the heck?

I stopped in on at least two of the new home builders in Chapel Crossings — David Weekley Homes and Centex Homes — both of which have nice maps on their walls, showing not only their respective sections of the community, but all of Chapel Crossings. Those maps only show that main north-south thoroughfare as Chapel Crossings Blvd.

Before I continue, let me just say that I really like Chapel Crossings. It has a super-modern-looking clubhouse (photo above) that is under construction, and it will have not only a resort-style pool, fitness center and dog park, but also a lazy river. Can you say “Sold!?!”

Another interesting factoid is that, when the Story apartments are completed sometime later this summer, the long-awaited Zephyhrills Bypass (photo right) also will open — or, at least, the first leg of it — which means that Chapel Crossings could have had north-south and east-west thoroughfares providing connectivity for the rest of Wesley Chapel.

The operative words, however, are “could have had.”

Joel told me that although Curley is no longer planned to be realigned through Chapel Crossings, when he left his job at FDOT, the signs at the Chapel Crossings/Curley Rd. intersection on S.R. 54 across from Meadow Pointe (MP) Blvd. had already been ordered because the county’s GIS map already had shown the southern terminus of Chapel Crossings Blvd. to be Curley Rd.

He adds, however, that Pasco also will likely still require developers to extend Chapel Crossings Blvd. further north to meet Curley Rd. at some point in the future, which would then provide that north-south connectivity mentioned earlier, just as the extension eastward of the Zephyrhills Bypass beyond Chapel Crossings will provide the east-west connectivity for Wesley Chapel.

Confused? Yes, me too. But, Joel says that, at some point, he expects Crown will request to the county to change the name of the entire length of the existing road to Chapel Crossings Blvd., which also would add some clarity and consistency with Pasco’s Vision Road plan, and so that entire roadway would have the correct same name.

In the meantime, even a Google search of Chapel Crossings shows just the end of Chapel Crossings Blvd. as Curley Rd.