The Search For Wesley Chapel’s Favorite Fried Chicken Has Begun! 

So, which is our readers’ favorite fried chicken place in the Wesley Chapel area? 

We’re still nowhere close to the answer to that question, but as the publisher and editor of the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News, I’m proud to say that after months of effort and roughly 50 total volunteers who said they wanted to be judges, the contest is at least under way. Round 1 was completed on July 23 and Round 2 is taking place on July 30, or the Wednesday after this issue was printed. The Grand Finale, where our nine judges will finally get to pick their favorite mild and spicy chicken, hopefully will be completed before school goes back in session on August 11. 

Picking the nine judges was not an easy task. Of the 50 people who volunteered, I originally planned to only have five judges. But then, I thought, what would happen if more than one of the people we picked ended up not being able to be there for Rounds 2 and 3? I decided that a couple more couldn’t hurt — it would even allow us to employ Olympic-style scoring where we could throw out the high and the low and just use the other seven scores for each restaurant, if I wanted. 

At any rate, the nine people selected, from left to right in the top left photo, were: Bill Johnston (aka Colonel Sanders himself!) and his wife Suzanne Reno of Quail Hollow, Aaron “Dion” Rocha of New River Township, Cindy Cooley of Tampa Palms, Dion’s wife Suzanne Rocha, the father-daughter duo of Joshua & Zoe Paine of Heritage Isles and the son-&-father team of Karson (the self-proclaimed & costumed “King Chicken Wing” and Jason Centeno of Live Oak Preserve (and yes, a certain editor is in there, too). 

The first round was a blast for yours truly, the judges and even for Jannah, whose unenviable job it was to go and pick up the chicken from the first five restaurants. I thought we were going to split the number of places into one group of 5 and one group of 6, but I forgot to include one chicken place that recently added tenders to its menu, so Round 2 will now have the mild and spicy chicken tenders from seven places being sampled. A few other things I have to mention: 

1) Because we are bringing the chicken from multiple locations to one central location, the judges know that none of the chicken will be as hot or as moist as it would be at each of the places. 

2) None of the chicken was served with sauces for fear that the judges would figure out whose chicken was whose too easily. But again, it also keeps each place’s chicken from tasting its best. 

3) I have to thank president & CEO Hope Kennedy and office administrator Darlene Hill of the North Tampa Bay Chamber for allowing us to use the board room in the Chamber’s beautiful, new office in The Shops at Wiregrass for all of the rounds of the contest. 

4) I also have to thank our photographer/videographer Charmaine George for not only shooting still pictures, but also videotaping all of the proceedings. When we’re ready to announce the winning restaurants, we will do so as the premiere episode of our “Neighborhood Newsmakers” podcast. Look for updates about that event on our “Neighborhood News” Facebook page. 

5) Yours truly didn’t sample all of the chicken nor did I try to influence the judges in any way.

Wanna Win a Pair of Tickets to a Lightning Playoff Game?

The weekend we went to press with this issue, the Tampa Bay Lightning had just clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, which are scheduled to begin the weekend of April 19-20 — and it just so happens that the Neighborhood News will have a pair of tickets to every home playoff game this season, for the first time ever! 

Of course, that opening weekend is my next deadline weekend, so if the Lightning open Round 1 at home at Amalie Arena, Jannah and I will be unable to attend that first game — whether it will be held on Saturday the 19th or Sunday the 20th. 

Of course, if the Bolts start Round 1 on the road (and we probably won’t know what place the team will finish in the Atlantic Division, or who for sure they will play in Round 1, until the NHL season ends on Apr. 17), our area’s craziest Lightning fan (Jannah) and I would be able to attend. There also was still a possibility at our press time that the Bolts could finish first in the Atlantic, which means the team would receive a first round “bye” and wouldn’t start its playoff run until the second round. 

But, no matter how things shake out, we are going to give away our two (2) tickets to Playoff Game 1 with a fun online-only contest! All you have to do is visit CLICK HERE and tell us 1) Which restaurant in downtown Tampa is your favorite and why (in 50 words or less) and 2) Your favorite all-time Lightning player! We will select one winner and one alternate (in case the winner can’t use the Game 1 tickets, based on when it will be played). 

We also will be selling (with the permission of the team) our tickets to any games we can’t attend ourselves, as the Bolts try to advance to win the team’s fourth Stanley Cup, so anyone who wants to buy two tickets should call our office at (813) 910-2575 and leave a message with your name and phone number and we will call you back! 

Why Do We Offer Contests? Check Out These Happy Neighborhood News Readers! 

When I first bought the Neighborhood News back in Feb. 1994, I knew I wanted to get people not only reading what we put into print, but also engaging with our content. 

One of the ways I decided to make that happen was to put contests in these pages. We started with things like labor-intensive, Gary-created crossword puzzles and Fantasy Baseball and Football contests, trivia contests (which have now been rendered obsolete with the advent of Google) and our most popular annual contest, our Reader Dining Survey & Contest, which is still going strong some 30 years since I started it. 

Over the years, I’ve added other contests, such as our “Big Game Squares,” “March Madness” and “Oscars” contests, but the timing from when either the Academy Awards nominations are announced or the teams are set for the sports contests hasn’t always worked with our every-four-week deadlines. 

This year, however, we were able to make both the “Squares” and “Oscars” (the latter with the delay in the announcement of the nominees and the televised broadcast both delayed by the California wildfires) contests work with online-only entries. 

While only about 100 people total entered this year’s “Big Game” and “Oscars” contests, that doesn’t mean that folks like (l.-r. above) Eddie Mancuso of Highwoods Preserve, who won the Grand Prize of $200 (he chose Stonewood Grill & Tavern); Lianne Kowiak of Arbor Green (with me), who won $100 (and picked Ulele); and Wharton High alum and West Meadows resident MaeLee Rich — who has been entering our contests since her teens and who won one of the two $50 prizes (to Hungry Crab Juicy Seafood) in the Squares contest — weren’t thrilled to win those Squares prizes. The fourth Squares winner, Allison Smith of Pebble Creek, hasn’t yet received her $50 gift card to Grillsmith. 

We also have three winners in our “Oscars” contests. Our Grand Prize winner — one of only two contestants to correctly pick the winners in six of the seven major Academy Awards categories, chosen at random, was Meadow Pointe resident Dawn Kidle, who wins a $200 gift card to B&B Theatres at The Grove. The other tied contestant was John Bailey of Palatine, IL, who not only doesn’t live here — he says he searched “Oscars Contests” online and entered all of them! — Illinois doesn’t even have a B&B Theatre, so I mailed him a $60 gift card to AMC Theaters. There were four contestants who correctly picked five of the seven categories and that winner, drawn at random to receive the $60 B&B gift card I bought for John, is Gail Bialk of Watergrass. I just gave Dawn her prize (4th photo above) and I plan to give Gail hers soon! 

We also now also have 25 local residents who have told us they want to be judges in our contest to pick the Wesley Chapel area’s favorite chicken restaurant. I’m still working out the details of how that contest will work, but I think we now have enough potential judges to make it happen! Look for details in our next issue (hopefully)! 

So, why do we still have contests, with prizes we almost always pay for ourselves (we occasionally have had a restaurant agree to donate prizes, but that’s pretty rare)? Since most of us will never win the Lottery or hit it big in Vegas, it’s nice to have much better odds of winning one of our contest prizes — and my pleasure to provide them. Congrats, winners! 

Enter Our FREE, Online-Only ‘Oscars’ Contest; Plus, Just How ‘Chicken’ Are You?! 

Oscar nominees Monica Barbaro & TimothĂ©e Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown” (Photo: IMDB)

We’ve only been able to even have an Academy Awards/ “Oscars” contest a few times in the past because of the timing of when the nominees are announced to when the annual Academy Awards are held vs. our deadlines for our print issues of the Neighborhood News.. 

As devastating as the uncontrolled wild fires in California have been, the fires caused both the announcement of this year’s nominees and the televised red carpet gala itself to be delayed — so much so that we actually have time to finally include this FREE contest again this year — and you could win some great prizes. 

If you’re a movie buff, you probably have seen many of the films included in this year’s list of finalists/nominees. 

But, even if you’re more like me — the only nominated films I’ve seen are “Wicked,” the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” and Best Animated Film nominee “Inside Out 2” (the latter thanks to mine and Jannah’s granddaughter Rosie) — you have a chance to win some great prizes by simply telling us which films and actors YOU think will win the coveted gold statuettes. 

Here’s How The Contest Works: 

CLICK HERE and provide us with your REAL (you’d be surprised how many entries with fake names we receive in our contests every year — I know I’m always surprised) first AND last name, the community you live in, email address and daytime phone number. In addition, we ask each entrant in this contest to please pick the winner in each of the following major Oscars categories: 

1. Best Picture 

2. Best Actress 

3. Best Actor 

4. Best Supporting Actress 

5. Best Supporting Actor 

6. Best Director 

7. Best Animated Feature Film 

If only one entrant picks the most winners in those seven categories, that person will win a prize package to the B&B Theatres at The Grove, which could include movie tickets, popcorn, dinner and drinks, valued at about $200. 

However, if more than one entry has the same number of correct picks, the winner will be drawn at random from all tied entries. Each of the other tied entries will receive two top-level B&B movie passes. 

That’s all you need to do/know. Please note that we already have posted a link to the contest page on our “Neighborhood News” Facebook page and will do so again at least once each of the two weeks between when you receive this issue in your mailbox and the ABC-TV telecast of the Academy Awards on Sunday, March 2. 

At our press time, we only received a little more than 20 entries, so the contest would appear to be wide open. But please, get your entry in no later than Saturday, March 1, at 11:59:59 p.m., to be eligible! 

Please note that B&B Theatres at The Grove is not affiliated with this contest. 

So, Just How ‘Chicken’ Are You? 

Despite all of the nasty online comments about the sheer number of chicken places now located in or adjacent to Wesley Chapel, the fact is that we probably wouldn’t have so many chicken-only (or predominantly chicken) places if there wasn’t a demand for them and, it seems, that most locals have both their favorites and least favorites among the following (in alphabetical order): 

Chicken Guy! 

Chick-fil-A 

Chick’n Fun 

Dave’s Hot Chicken 

Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken 

PDQ 

Popeye’s 

Raising Cane’s 

Slim Chickens 

Sweet Krunch Korean Fried Chicken 

Zaxby’s 

Since I am not the biggest “fast food” chicken enthusiast myself, I decided to give those of you who claim to be true lovers of fried chicken an opportunity to be judges in a Neighborhood News-sponsored contest to find Wesley Chapel’s favorite fast-casual chicken place! 

I haven’t figured out all of the details yet of how it will work or when it will be (or if any of the places listed will agree to be part of it), but if you’re interested in being one of the judges, please email me at ads@ntneighborhoodnews.com with your contact info (name, daytime phone number & community you live in) and “I want to be a chicken contest judge” in the subject line!