As part of AdventHealth’s commitment to community-based health care, the hospital company’s AdventHealth Zephyrhills is hosting a FREE “Grand Opening Community Celebration” tomorrow — Sunday, April 27, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. — to unveil the new freestanding Meadow Pointe ER! The event will include food trucks, safety education, giveaways and of course, preview tours of the new ER! For more info, visit MeadowPointeER.com.
When Julio and his wife Ximena Rodriguez first opened the original Don Julio’s Mexican Restaurant in the Palms Connection plaza on E. Bearss Ave. seven years ago, the restaurant was an homage to Julio’s mother Esther Rodriguez (or Doña Esther). Esther began putting her cooking talents to good use in the late 1980s and early ‘90s by selling her authentic Mexican cuisine out of her garage in West Tampa after her husband, the original Don Julio, passed away when her three children were still young. She did well enough to put all three kids through college.
As we reported last year, since then, Julio and Ximena opened a much larger restaurant, with a full-liquor bar, in the City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center, which has really helped increase the Rodriguez family’s exposure in the community “and brought in a lot of new customers,” Julio says.
But, just a few days before we went to press with this issue, Julio and Ximena had moved the original Don Julio’s two spaces down in the same plaza — to the much larger space previously occupied by Bearss Tavern & Tap. “It just got too packed on the weekends at the old space, Julio says.
I promised Julio that Jannah, photographer Charmaine George (who took all of these pictures), her boyfriend Brendan and I would visit the “new” location to not only check out the much larger space but also to sample some of Doña Esther’s “autentica” recipes we hadn’t tried before.
And, it just so happens that Doña Esther (center in above photo, with Ximena and Julio) was helping out in the kitchen on the day we visited — and yes, we definitely sampled! We started by sharing the huge Don Julio’s Sampler (photo right) from the “Antojitos/Cravings” menu. The sampler includes crisp taquitos (we had them filled with chicken), a tamale (corn dough stuffed with pork, wrapped in a corn husk and steamed), a sope (handmade thick corn tortilla topped with refried beans, lettuce, onions, cheese and sour cream; we added ground beef to it), a tostada (similar to a sope, but flatter; we added carne asada steak to it), nachos (we added pastor and ground beef) and our new favorite, the perfectly cheesy quesadillas to which we added shredded chicken.
We each also ordered a main course. Jannah got her usual fave (although it was her first time having it at Don Julio’s) — the ground beef enchiladas (with refried beans and a red guajillo chile sauce). Charmaine really enjoyed her taco salad (bottom right photo) with tender carne asada steak. Brendan also raved about his chimichanga al pastor (marinated pork cooked on a vertical spit; left photo), which also was stuffed with plenty of cheese and topped with melted cheese).
I also tried the Bistec Ranchero (below), which is round steak cooked (and covered) in an amazing combination of tomatoes, onions and serrano peppers. The steak itself was not quite as tender as the carne asada, but the flavor was truly fantastic.
The new restaurant itself is beautiful. Julio says, “It took us six months to build this out, but we’re very pleased with the result,” including the authentic Mexican Talavera tile behind the bar (bottom left photo). We’d have to agree.
And, speaking of the bar, the newest Don Julio’s still features an incredible selection of tequilas and mezcals, some very upscale and rare, but all at very reasonable prices. Brendan, previously a long-time bartender, said his strawberry margarita was “spot on,” Charmaine savored her tequila sunrise and Jannah raved about the white sangria. I, of course, also had no complaints about my Woodford Reserve bourbon.
Julio promises that both locations of Don Julio’s will be throwing “the best Cinco de Mayo party in town” the weekend of May 3-4, “and the big final blowout on Monday, the 5th.”
“We’ll have DJ music, drink specials and, at the Bearss location, we’ll be serving quick and easy tacos from our food truck outside,” he says. “Plus the new location has this huge outdoor patio, so come check us out!”
Both award-winning Don Julio’s locations (2802 E. Bearss Ave. and 16023 Tampa Palms Blvd.) are open Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on Friday & Saturday. For more information, visit DonJuliosMexican.com or find them on Facebook or Instagram. For reservations (not required but suggested, especially on the weekends), call (813) 898-2860 (Bearss Ave.) or (813) 644-7899 (Tampa Palms).
Hey, Wesley Chapel! When your Feb 18 Wesley Chapel Issue #4-25 arrives in your mailbox, please note that an old story about Chicken Guy! is under the headline above on pg. 42 of that print edition. Below is the correct story that was supposed to run. I apologize to Rita’s Wesley Chapel franchise owners Antoine & Idalice Stokes and to developer Beat Kahli’s entire team at Avalon Park Wesley Chapel for this unforgivable boo-boo!
Avalon Park Wesley Chapel (APWC)’s downtown area is continuing the community’s tradition of great open-to-the-community events. Case in point — on Jan. 24, franchise owners Antoine and Idalice Stokes of Rita’s Italian Ice in the first APWC downtown building celebrated the store’s official Grand Opening with a ribbon cutting and a free Italian ice and frozen custard giveaway that attracted hundreds of well-wishers and frozen treat fans, as the line wrapped around a large part of The Flats at Avalon Park Apartments building for most of the afternoon.
That event, which also included a DJ, a fire truck from Pasco County Fire Rescue, District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman and the Cypress Creek Cheerleaders, as well as a Justice League-themed inflatable from Luc’s Inflatables for the kids, was paired with APWC’s first “Fourth Friday Food Truck Rally” event. At least four food trucks were on hand for this first rally, including Pane Piatto Pizza, Taco Holic, Westchase BBQ and Nacho Wagon. APWC, which continues to have individual food trucks in the downtown area on many Mondays and Thursdays, will host its next Food Truck Rally on Friday, February 28, 5 p.m.-8 p.m., which will include (please note that others may still be added) Logan’s Smoke House, Wich Press and Tampa Burger Company.
For more information about Avalon Park Wesley Chapel’s downtown (4424 Friendly Way), visit AvalonParkWesleyChapel.com
So, whether or not it’s actually Wesley Chapel’s “downtown,” there’s no doubt that the Grand Opening and unveiling on Sept. 19 of the new nearly 17,000-sq.-ft., three-story building in Avalon Park Wesley Chapel is the start of at least that community’s downtown — and the first true mixed-use (residential and commercial), urban-style (some would call it “neotraditional”) building in all of Wesley Chapel.
“This is long in the making,” said developer Beat Kahli, the founder, president and CEO of the Avalon Park Group, the developer of both Avalon Park Wesley Chapel and Orlando. “We were lucky, in 1988, to find 1,800 acres in Pasco County, owned by the Brown family — it was called the Brown Ranch —and when Mom Brown died, the IRS came in and said, ‘You have to pay a lot of taxes because you have 1,800 acres and here is your tax bill.’ And they said, ‘We’re just farming here and we don’t have that money at all.’ We bought the land for fair market value (at that time) and told them, ‘You still need to farm here for a long time.’”
And, although the original New River Township portion of Avalon Park Wesley Chapel has been around for more than a decade and there are now around 2,000 single-family homes built or under construction (with a population of about 5,000 people) in the entire development, Kahli said Bill Brown and his family were able to continue farming the vast majority of their land for “more than a quarter of a century. We would have surveyors and engineers come out and they’d call me to say, ‘Hey, there’s a guy with a shotgun here saying it’s his property. And, we’d have to tell Bill, who was a great guy, ‘Please don’t shoot our surveyors and engineers.’”
Kahli said that unlike in Orlando, “where we basically had to build the town from scratch, there was already a two-lane (now 4-lane), paved S.R. 54 here.” He also recounted the first homeowners association meeting in Orlando, when there were only about 30 homes, with the people asking him, “What’s the philosophy of the development here?,” to which he replied, “The goal is to build a town where people can live, learn, work and play. If you don’t want to leave, you don’t have to leave — and that’s the same philosophy here (in Wesley Chapel). We’re taking a big step forward with this almost-17,000-sq.-ft., $21-million building , which we have completed now, so we are having the ribbon cutting today.”
The native of Switzerland also pointed to the “A”-rated Pinecrest Academy charter K-8 school and the adjacent church and likened it to life in Europe, “Where towns are basically built around a church and a school.”
He also said that by having a place where people live, learn, work and play, “Some of you will become triple or even quadruple stakeholders — someone who lives, works or has a business, has kids in school and entertains, all here in Avalon Park, where we have events that already have 5,000 people attending, sometimes 25,000 in Orlando now [like the annual 4th of July celebrations]. So, the goal is to create a sense of place, a place where people feel at home and feel safe.”
And, although Kahli said he didn’t miss the mountains or especially the snow where he grew up in Zurich, the largest city in his native country, “I missed having what we are opening here — a lifestyle where you can live somewhere, get in the elevator, sit in a coffee shop or restaurant where you don’t have to get into your car for whatever you do. And, you can have your kids walk to school, which is how I grew up.”
He then thanked his entire Avalon Park Group (APG) team, as well as Dist. 2 (which includes Avalon Park) Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman and North Tampa Bay Chamber President & CEO Hope Kennedy for their support.
Weightman said, “I’m just incredibly honored to be standing here with all of you to represent the commissioners. This is a testament of the partnership between Avalon Park Group and Pasco County to build something great.”
APG senior VP of marketing & community relations Stephanie Lerrett also thanked the county, Kennedy and the NTBC, the Pasco Economic Development Council and all of the commercial tenants whose businesses will be located below The Flats at Avalon Park apartments.
After the ribbon-cutting, attendees were treated to samples of Rudraksh Indian Cuisine’s kabobs, Tallo Restaurant & Bar’s Caribbean-style sandwiches and Rita’s Italian Ices (plus food provided by Vesh Catering) and were able to meet the tenants who are all opening businesses on the ground floor of the building — ISI Elite Training, Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming, Prime Barbershop, Vet Check and dentist Dr. Hetvi Patel of Dream Dental Studio.
There also were tours of the beautiful 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments (there are 40 total) in The Flats, which are competitively priced with other luxury apartments in the area.
For more information about Avalon Park Wesley Chapel, The Flats apartments and the new downtown building (at 4424 Friendly Way), visit AvalonParkWesleyChapel.com, call (813) 783- 1515 or (813) 851-4228.
Although we told you last issue that Las Palmas Latin Grill had reopened in the same brick-&-mortar space as it was previously, at 6431 County Line Rd. (south of Bruce B. Downs Blvd., in the same plaza as LA Fitness and Five Guys), the new Las Palmas hadn’t actually reopened when we went to press with that issue, so we couldn’t show you any pictures of the place or the food.
Well, the beautiful, new Las Palmas did open as planned on Oct. 24 (a little more than two years after a kitchen fire shuttered the place) with a small ribbon-cutting ceremony and a few close friends and family getting to enjoy the full menu that had to be greatly reduced when owners Ramses and Ana Garcia had their food truck in the same parking lot following the fire.
If you’ve never had Ana’s picadillo (minced beef with olives, potatoes and tomato sauce), Ramses’
merluza a la Rusa (fried flaky white fish filet topped with egg, tomatoes and spices), vaca frita (crispy shredded beef with garlic-lemon mojo sauce), the award-winning pressed Tampa Cuban (with ham, roasted pork, salami and Swiss Cheese, mustard, mayo & pickles) or the big variety of empanadas, croquettes and Latin pastries, you need to visit Las Palmas — which will hopefully soon have its beer and wine license, too.
And, with the holidays coming up fast, don’t forget to check out Las Palmas and its outstanding catering menu for a holiday party you and your guests won’t soon forget!
Las Palmas Latin Grill is open Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on Friday & Saturday (it’s closed on Sunday). For more information, call (813) 991-5500 or visit LasPalmasLatinGrill.com — and don’t forget to tell Ramses & Ana we sent you! — GN
