Nibbles and Bytes

Full Circle Pizza Gets New Owners!

It’s always difficult to know how a popular local mom & pop restaurant will go once the original owner sells the business. However, in the case of Full Circle Chicago Pizza, located in the Pebble Creek Collection, it seems that new owners Julia and Freddy Nova are off to a great start.

Freddy, who previously worked as a sous chef at the historic Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, NJ, and Julia, continue to serve New Tampa’s most authentic Chicago-style deep-dish and thin-crust pizzas (and they now serve deep-dish pizza every day), but they also have expanded Full Circle’s already impressive menu.

My favorite dishes so far are the chicken & broccoli with garlic & oil shown above (with garlic knots) and the Chicago Italian beef sandwich with melted mozzarella. I’ve also been told that the jumbo wings and the Italian sausage parmigiana sandwiches also are excellent.

Full Circle Chicago Pizza (19651 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Unit B-2) is now open every day for lunch and dinner. For more info, call (813) 994-3700 or visit FullCircleChicagoPizza.com.

Why You Should Be A Samantha Taylor Fitness Sister!

As we’ve chronicled in these pages several times, Samantha Taylor Fitness (STF) now has five Tampa Bay-area locations — including one at 26908 Ridgebrook Dr, Suite 101, off S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel.

Since all five locations are for women only, it can be tough for a man to understand why so many women love and appreciate Samantha and her amazing staff.

I understand it a little more clearly now, because I joined my wife Jannah (who trains at the Wesley Chapel STF studio) for Samantha’s most recent celebration for her six-week challenge participants. Held at the Hilton Garden Inn near the Suncoast Pkwy. (off S.R. 54), Jannah and I were among 220 people in attendance, including many husbands/significant others of the participants, and Samantha said she had a waiting list because she had to close off attendance at that number. 

Challenge participants from all five studios were on hand (having lost about 1,500 pounds between them in only six weeks!).They enjoyed a special Keto die-friendly dinner, but there was electricity in the air as Samantha and her sorority of women who work out together in classes (many also do one-on-one personal training), and her compassionate staffers, received a variety of honors. 

Which women won which prizes (there were some great ones) wasn’t particularly important to me, but if you’re a woman who wants to get in better shape, feel and look better, in the company of others who share your goals, I now know that you can’t beat Samantha Taylor Fitness. What a great night!

For more info, visit SamanthaTaylorFitness.com or call (813) 377-3739.

Here & There, This & That

• I wasn’t particularly surprised to learn that Primebar in the Shops at Wiregrass mall had closed (the always-changing menu was never great and the drinks were the priciest in our area), but I was a little stunned that Union 72 BBQ next to and owned by members of the same group that also owns The Brass Tap, closed the same week. 

• Speaking of the mall, our friend Wendy O’Neill recently moved her Creativity Unpinned store from the former Gymboree location to the former Crazy 8 location. Congrats on the move, Wendy!

• If you’re looking for something fun to do with the kids this summer, I suggest a visit to the Licciardello Stables equestrian center, located at 3007 Sunset Ln. (just east of Livingston Ave.) in nearby Lutz. 

I was on hand for the North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon cutting event at the stables, judging by the multitude of happy kids in attendance (photo, right), it’s worth checking out this summer! For more info, call (813) 951-1690 or visit LicciardelloStables.com and please tell them that Gary from the New Tampa Neighborhood News sent you!

The Morgan Auto Group is one of the biggest in the state, with 36 total dealerships, and certainly one of the biggest in the Tampa Bay area, with WC Nissan being the 12th under the Morgan umbrella (which also includes MINI of Wesley Chapel).  — GN