In case you missed it, Balanced Foods, the six-store chain which started in Woodlands, TX, is now open in the former La Prima Pizza location next to Super Target in the North Woods Plaza at 1211 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (just north of County Line Rd.).
I’ve already visited multiple times and enjoyed both lunch- and dinner-sized portions of fresh, healthy, house-made entrées like the roasted vegetable and tenderloin entrée (pictured) and the city grilled chicken with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. There are different lunch and dinner entrées, and all come in small, medium and large sizes to fit your diet, taste and budget.
Balanced Foods also offers a variety of snacks, from its own freshly made chunky chicken salad dip (served with gluten-free crackers, apple and celery sticks), to packaged items like yummy ChipMonk banana chocolate chip sunflower Keto Bites and addictive ICON Meals peanut butter vanilla Protein Popcorn. For more info, visit BalancedFoods.com or call (813) 778-4874 and please tell them you read about them in the Neighborhood News. We also plan to do an update on the explosion of healthy eating locations in Wesley Chapel in a future issue. — GN
Wolf’s Den Closes; First Watch To Open 2nd WC Location?
For those of us who prefer mom-and-pop restaurants to chains, this may not be great news for you, as Wesley Chapel recently lost the always-popular Wolf’s Den Restaurant located on S.R. 56, but will apparently soon have a second location of First Watch, The Daytime Café, on S.R. 54, about a mile east of BBD, in the same plaza as Baybreeze Dental (see story below left).
Wolf’s Den owner Tony Carbone, who had to close temporarily a couple of times earlier this year because of a lack of help in the kitchen, closed for good before the end of August. “It was time,” he told me. “It’s been a real struggle with employees this year.”
Meanwhile, First Watch, which has a Wesley Chapel location in the Shoppes at New Tampa plaza on BBD south of S.R. 56, as well as in the new Village at Hunter’s Lake plaza on BBD in New Tampa and on S.R. 54 in Lutz, has not yet confirmed that it will open next to Baybreeze Dental, but we’ve been told by multiple sources that the currently empty end cap in that plaza (also home to a BayCare Medical Group office) will be a First Watch. — GN
Baybreeze Dental Hosts A Chamber Ribbon Cutting!
Congratulations to Ronak Parikh, D.M.D. (Doctor of Dental Medicine), the owner of the new Baybreeze Dental office at 28868 S.R. 54 (call 813.377.1822), and his family and staff, for celebrating the Grand Opening of the office with an outstanding North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon-cutting event Photo) on Sept. 8. Attendees got to enjoy tours of the modern new cosmetic dentistry office, great food by Glory Days Grill (located almost next door), plus delicious desserts from Nothing Bundt Cakes & Crumbl Cookie. — GN
WC Quick Bites
• Cluckin’ Fun To Replace Hardee’s?
A month or so ago, a new banner sign went up on the former location of Hardee’s on Wesley Chapel Blvd. (next to Goodyear Auto Service) announcing that Cluckin’ Fun, an apparent chicken restaurant, was going to replace the burger chain, but as of the day before we went to press with this issue, the sign was gone and we have no further info about Cluckin’ Fun.
• Shake-A-Salad To Open At KRATE
We told you last issue that Provisions Coffee & Kitchen was the first former shipping container to open at the KRATE container park at The Grove. It looks like the second crate to open, within a month or so, may be Shake-A-Salad, a new salad-and-wrap concept from fellow transplanted New Yawkas with fresh, tasty and healthy food options and homemade dressings. Visit ShakeaSaladfl.com. — GN
“Last year wasn’t…that good. I didn’t run a very good race at Regionals. But it definitely motivated me on a new level . Not making it to State probably helped me. It got me more fired up for track.”
— Cypress Creek High junior Zack Poekert
For most cross country runners, the offseason is all about putting in the miles. However, after putting in the miles before his sophomore season, Cypress Creek’s Zack Poekert switched things up a bit for 2021.
Instead, the Coyotes junior built more “tempo” runs — longer distances at a slower pace, shorter distances at a faster pace — into his training regimen and the results are paying off this season.
After winning a preseason jamboree in Palmetto — his first-ever first-place finish in high school — Zack reeled off four straight top-5 finishes against stiff competition, including a first-place finish at the River Ridge Invitational, and has emerged as a State contender in Class 3A.
Getting in the tempo work this summer, he says, has made him stronger and more confident.
“I notice the difference,” he says. “It made me a lot more confident going into these meets knowing that my training was there, and that I could compete with these (other runners) now.”
Zack Poekert (left), with coach John Hoffman, after his fifth-place finish at the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala on Sept. 3 (Photos courtesy of the Poekerts)
Zack, who broke 17 minutes for the first time at the jamboree, broke 16 minutes for the first time when he ran a 15:58 to finish fifth at the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala on Sept. 3.
Zack has been ranked as high as No. 18 in the state according to flrunners.com, and earlier this season had the third-best time in Class 3A.
Zack says his goal this year is to run a 15:30, a steep drop from the 16:30 or so he has been averaging. But, he is motivated and ran a 15:43 in his River Ridge win.
He was a freshman on the Coyotes team that made it to the State meet in 2019, and as a sophomore in 2020 helped the team win its first-ever district championship. However, the Coyotes did not qualify for a return trip to States, and Zack just missed going as an individual.
A strong track season (4:28 in the mile, 9:48 in the two-mile) has him ready for a bounce back.
Zack’s passion for running started when he was younger, running with his mother Ronda, a former track and cross country standout for Plant, who helped the Panthers to the 1991 and ‘92 State cross country championships.
When Ronda got back into running after years away from the sport, Zack asked if he could join her. Together, they trained and eventually ran in a handful of 5K races, like Miles for Moffitt and Gasparilla. Eventually, Zack got to the point where he was leaving Ronda in the dust.
“I would see him at the beginning of the race, and at the end of the race,” says Ronda, laughing.
His passion for the sport, however, grew quickly during his freshman year at Cypress Creek, buoyed by his trip to the State meet.
Ronda gives credit for Zack’s success to his coaches, John Hoffman and Elsa Rehberg, and dad Bryan will occasionally go over the course with his son.
When Ronda does have a tip to lend, it’s usually about the mental aspect of racing, and strategy. Primarily, running your own race even if the rest of the field decides to go out either too fast or too slow, and then maintaining where your tempo needs to be during the race, is paramount to success, she says.
“It’s 100 percent,” Ronda says. “If you let that slip throughout the race, it can throw off everything.”
That’s good advice in a tough District 3A-2, which features last year’s State runner-up Sunlake High and standouts like Colby Robbins and Alex Pena. Poekert already has run against both at multiple meets this season, finishing behind them by roughly 10 seconds in a few races, with more head-to-head opportunities to come. That competition will make Poekert, and the rest of the Coyotes, better by season’s end.
Poekert says he is looking forward to the challenge.
“Our team is really young but you can see that they are starting to get really good,” Poekert says. “But if we don’t go as a team, I plan on getting back to States as an individual. My goal is to run that 15:30, and be All-State at the State meet.”
Although I have owned and been the editor of the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News for more than 27 years, about ten years ago, I started noticing that a number of businesses had plaques on their walls that displayed the Business and Dining Feature stories we’ve written about them.
Gary Nager Editorial
Because my staff and freelance writers have always done such a great job writing these Business Feature stories, I certainly could understand why those businesses were proud to have our masthead and the stories we worked hard to create displayed on their walls.
But, yours truly? Not so much.
I just couldn’t understand why those businesses wouldn’t just ask me if I could create plaques for them, since my hyperlocal business was the one that did the interviews, took the pictures, wrote, edited, published and directly mailed those stories to tens of thousands of their neighbors — and virtually all of those stories brought those businesses in new customers and stimulated interest in their businesses that they never had before.
Instead, a big part of the reason they never thought to ask me was because there have been businesses out there — at least two that I know of (more on them below) — who (originally) would purchase a subscription to the Neighborhood News and send those businesses proofs of the stories that we sweat blood to create in order to sell them those plaques.
The more of these plaques I’ve seen in those offices, restaurants and retail establishments — and there have been hundreds of them I’ve seen personally over the years — the more my blood boiled. Plus, we made it even easier on these not-local businesses to use our work to create those plaques by posting electronic versions of every New Tampa and Wesley Chapel edition of our publications on our website.
I was at one of my advertiser’s locations when my blood boiled over. Although that advertiser admitted that she “wasn’t sure” if the person from the company that reprinted our work on the plaque at her office represented their company as being “affiliated” with us, she was under the impression they were and went ahead and spent nearly $200 to have them create the plaque that so ticked me off.
The two companies who seem to be lying in wait for us every time we publish a new issue are “That’s Great News” and “In The News” and I have had words with the local sales reps for both companies, because whether or not it’s illegal for them to use our published content without our permission (it’s not), I am tired of them using our masthead, logo and content we work so hard to publish to make money in a business that we could do ourselves. And, I’ve warned both companies that the time was coming when I would do just that.
Well, that time is now. I want all of our advertisers and readers to know that you no longer have to utilize either of these two companies to preserve our business, dining and news stories — and we will even do it for less!
The plaque (right) preserving the Dining Feature story about Acropolis Greek Taverna that appears on pgs. 38-39 of this issue is the first sample of what we can and hope to do for everyone who wants to display our work.
We offer a variety of plaque and border colors and have the ability to modify the story to fit on any size plaque to fit in any space you have on your wall. And, you don’t have to be a current advertiser to have a plaque created. We guarantee professional work direct from its source and 100% satisfaction.
To order your plaque of any story from any issue of Neighborhood News, email me at ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com.
Pastor Garrett Hamblen says now that people are working from home, “They’re so isolated, so we do a lot to cultivate developing friendships with other families” at his Spark Church, which meets in a movie theater at the Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment.
When most people think of going to church, a movie theater may not be what they have in mind.
But, that’s exactly where Spark Church meets every Sunday at 10 a.m.
Pastor Garrett Hamblen says the Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment (located north of S.R. 54, just west of I-75) has been the perfect location for his young church, which launched just six months ago.
“We love the movie theater,” Garrett says. “It’s newly renovated and the facility is amazing. From a tech standpoint, we have a huge screen and a nice sound system. Plus, everybody’s been there at some point, so they know what to expect.”
Garrett says movies start shortly after the service ends, and the other amenities at and coming to The Grove — such as the KRATE container park, a mini-golf course and more — make it a very desirable location for families to gather.
“I think that whole area is going to be like the center of Wesley Chapel,” Garrett says, “and we’re thankful to be in the middle of all that.”
On Sundays, the church takes over one wing of the theater, offering worship in a large theater, kids’ church in a smaller theater, and a nursery in a birthday party room. He describes the kids’ areas as “locked down” for safety, in a corner of the building where no public traffic passes by.
“A typical service is very modern, with worship music and lyrics on the screen – not hymns,” Garrett explains. “It’s a time of exciting worship, with a message that’s relevant to you today. We talk about what is happening in the world today, and what the Bible says about it.”
The recently-concluded summer series included a costume contest with prizes for those who were dressed in their most summer-y outfits, including gear like bathing suit trunks and Hawaiian shirts. He says Spark Church offers a very fun atmosphere and everyone is friendly.
Garrett and his wife, Katterine, were married in March of 2020. He says they went on their honeymoon and when they returned, everything had changed. They were basically “the last wedding” before everything shut down due to Covid.
They now live in Wesley Chapel, just a few minutes from the movie theater where the church meets.
Another perk of meeting at the theater is that it already has procedures in place to ensure good air and surface sanitation, plus temperature checks at the front door. The church follows local and theater requirements to take precautions against the spread of Covid.
Garrett says there’s plenty of room to spread out and masks are not currently required, but many people do wear them. A wristband system allows people to choose a color so others know if they want to be greeted with close contact or keep their distance.
An “Outreach Church”
Garrett describes Spark Church as an “outreach church.”
“The big thing is that we’re here for the community,” he says. “We’re here to see lives changed in Pasco County.”
He explains that means the church is connected to schools, law enforcement, nonprofit organizations and the government and is available to help in all of these areas in the community.
As for the church’s name, he says, the it comes from the church’s mission, which is “to spark life change throughout our communities.”
Garrett says he moved to the area several years ago, when he took a job at Loving Hands Ministries, a drug rehabilitation program in Dade City. He also recently served as young adult pastor, then executive pastor, for Calvary Assembly of God in Dade City.
He is licensed as a minister through the Assemblies of God and also has a Bachelor’s degree in Business and an MBA from Indiana State University in Terre Haute.
“I’ve worked with Restored Hope, and in partnership with Habitat For Humanity and Meals On Wheels and most of the organizations that do good in our county,” he says. “At Spark Church, this is our focus.”
He says that problems facing the community — whether it’s something like homelessness due to a lack of a homeless shelter in Wesley Chapel, or human trafficking — “aren’t going to be fixed by one little church,” but that he hopes that Spark Church will prove to be part of the solution.
“It’s going to take all of us working together,” he says. “I believe we can do much better.”
Garrett is a member of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, which he says is starting a major project to build a home for victims of human trafficking in Wesley Chapel. “Spark Church intends to be a big part of it.”
Created For Everyone
“We have a family atmosphere, and there a lot of people who just moved here,” Garrett says. “We’re all looking for friends. Or, maybe you’re not new to the area but haven’t made friends. Especially now that people are working from home, they’re so isolated, so we do a lot to cultivate developing friendships with other families.”
He says that might be cookouts, or providing popsicles after church on a Sunday, or a fun day like a pool party. He even opens his home once a month for “Pizza with the Pastor,” just to “hang out get to know each other.”
As the church grows, Garrett says it will continue to expand. For example, life groups are launching, which he describes as, “Church in people’s homes,” and while the church focuses on families, it welcomes people in any life stage, and recently started a ministry for single, younger adults.
Garrett also has a vision to start a ministry school in the spring that will help people learn to develop of gifts they may have to use in church — whether it’s at Spark or somewhere else.
“Someone might want to sing, but their church is full of rock stars, so they learn how to develop that skill and then go back and use that gift in their church.”
Asia McGlinchey and her husband Brendan met Garrett at an interest meeting for the church last year. At that time, they were living in Belize and were visiting family in Wesley Chapel who wanted to attend the meeting. They tagged along.
“We heard the vision and felt like the Lord was leading us to join them,” Asia says, “so we moved from Belize last December and have been a big part of the church since then.”
Brendan and Asia bring their three girls, ages eight, six and six months (Asia says her youngest was born just a week after the church launched) and volunteer for the church in various ways. Asia leads the kids’ ministry and the women’s ministry, and Brendan leads music as the worship leader.
“We think that church should be more than Sunday morning,” Asia says, “and that’s their vision, too. Let’s become a family, do outreach, get into the community, become a community, and learn to be a family of believers, not just people who pass by each other on Sunday morning. We love that.”
She says their experience in a tight-knit church in Belize, which served as the center of their small community, gave them a vision of what church can be like. Asia hopes they can bring that sense of connection to Wesley Chapel, too.
“People who come to Spark Church can expect to be welcomed, whatever their background or life,” she says. “We want to get to know everyone, and we want to grow together as a family.”
Spark Church meets at The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment (6333 Wesley Grove Blvd.) every Sunday at 10 a.m. For more info, visit SparkPasco.com.
Construction crews, large machinery and those all-too-familiar bright orange cones have returned to the intersection of S.R. 56 and I-75, as work on the much-anticipated Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) has finally and officially resumed.
Superior Construction Company Southeast, LLC, was chosen by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and surety bond companies to replace D.A.B. Constructors, which defaulted on the project on July 1 and went out of business shortly thereafter.
D.A.B. defaulted on six other projects in Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties, including the S.R. 54 widening project from east of Curley Rd. to east of Morris Bridge Rd.
D.A.B. told FDOT on July 28 it could not afford to complete the S.R. 54 widening, due in part to penalties incurred by missing benchmarks on the DDI project.
Superior began work to complete the $36-million DDI on Sept. 13, which included mobilization of labor, equipment and materials, erosion control, survey, jobsite cleanup of debris and office setup. Full maintenance responsibility was transferred to the new contractor on Sept. 20.
The project, originally scheduled for completion before the end of 2021, is now expected to be finished within 10 months, likely in the summer of 2022, said FDOT spokesperson Kris Carson in an email.
Superior also currently is working on the realignment of S.R. 52 in eastern Pasco County. Pasco Commissioner Mike Moore represents District 2, where the DDI is located, and he said he was happy with the choice.
“I’ve heard great things about them,” Moore said. “And they are actually ahead of pace on the S.R. 52 project, so that’s a good sign.”
Stepping into a new project that already was more than halfway finished is unusual but not unprecedented in the construction business, especially considering the effect that Covid-19 and staffing issues have had on the entire construction industry.
“While this process is not how a typical FDOT project is executed, there are procedures in place for replacing a contractor,” Carson said. “It will take the new contractor some time (a few weeks) to clean up items from the previous contractor in order to complete the new work items. The new contractor evaluates the remaining work items and prices the items that are left to complete. Superior has already mobilized a staff and are in the process of mobilizing crews to complete the work.”
Meanwhile, the surety company put out an advertisement for bids for completion contractors on Sept. 9 for the $42.5 million S.R. 54 widening project, and were expecting to receive bids by the end of the month.
A subcontractor, Southern Precision, has been taking care of the S.R. 54 site in the meantime, with mowing, little control and filling potholes. Last week, work began on milling driveways and side streets, as well as some paving.
