Congratulations to the owners of the new Tous les Jours bakery franchise at 27209 S.R. 56 — in the former location of Capital Tacos.
Like the Tous les Jours inside the Lotte Plaza Market in New Tampa, the Wesley Chapel location offers a large selection of freshly baked croissants, pastries, donuts, breads and more — in both sweet and savory varieties — as well as cakes, coffee drinks, teas, smoothies, lemonades and much more.
Photographer Charmaine George and I visited the new Tous les Jours and the first thing we both noticed is how much nicer and more spacious the new location is than the one in the Lott Plaza Market food court. There are several tables, as well as couches, for enjoying your purchases inside the shop, which in no way still resembles Capital Tacos.
As for the baked goods, among the sweet options we sampled are an almond croissant, a large Mont Blanc pastry (which is like a huge, crispy outside-flaky inside cinnamon roll), a strawberry croissant filled not only with super-fresh strawberries, but also whipped cream and a mini caramel apple pie. The savory items we’ve tried include a ham-&-cheese croissant, spinach and feta pastry (which is both sweet and savory), a croque monsieur sandwich (a French-style ham and cheese sandwich) and a sausage onion pastry, which is like a hot dog surrounded by a pastry with onions, cheese and ketchup. There also are several different kinds of milk breads, full bread loaves stuffed with whipped cream and so many more. We haven’t tried any of the cakes yet, but give us time!
As for beverages, I’ve enjoyed both the vanilla latte and caramel macchiato and Charmaine and I agreed that the fresh, thick, hand-spun mango smoothie was delicious. There also is a huge selection of hot and iced teas available and more!
Tous les Jours is a French-inspired, Korean-owned chain of bakeries with 1,700 locations around the world, including more than 100 (and growing) in the U.S. The Wesley Chapel Tous les Jours is open every day from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information, call (813) 388-5612 or visit tljus.com.
The cast of the New Tampa Players’ “Preview” performance at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center on March 25.
Although there’s no doubt that there were (and still are) more major news stories coming out of Wesley Chapel in 2023 than there were in New Tampa, zip code 33647 certainly had any number of big news stories of its own the past 12 months. Below are the five that made the biggest splashes.
1. The New Tampa Performing Arts Center Opens!
“Grease” officially opened NTP’s 2023-24 season in July of 2023. (Below) The group known as “Save Pebble Creek” helped get a redevelopment plan for the community’s shuttered golf course rejected by Hillsborough County.
It took more than 20 years for it to become a reality, but the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC) did finally open in March of 2023, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a New Tampa Players (NTP) “Preview”show. The NTPAC was dedicated to the memory and in honor of NTP founder Doug Wall, who passed away nearly six years before his dream of a local place for his theatre troupe to perform came true.
I was in the cast of the first show of NTP’s 2023-24 season — “Grease,” which was true to the original Tony Award-winning Broadway version, but also incorporated songs from the hit 1978 movie starring John Travolta and the late Olivia Newton-John. The Performing Arts Center’s first-ever Fall Festival was held in September and was followed by “Shrek The Musical” in October. NTP will next host performances of “Dreamgirls” (see ad on pg. 5) in February.
2. Pebble Creek Redevelopment Plan Rejected!
As 2023 came to a close, we still had no idea what will happen to the former Pebble Creek Golf Club golf course, which has been shuttered since July of 2021.
The plan submitted by GL Homes to redevelop the 149-acre golf course property into 251 single-family homes was rejected on July 17 by the Hillsborough County Commission by a vote of 5-2, as Commission Chair and District 2 (which includes all of Pebble Creek)
Commissioner Ken Hagan told his fellow commissioners that the feedback he had received from the residents of Pebble Creek was overwhelmingly against the GL Homes plan, leaving property owner Bill Place with few options moving forward for his property.
With three County Commission seats — including Hagan’s District 2 — up for grabs in a presidential election year, it’s possible that Place is waiting to see how the election changes the Board’s makeup before trying again to redevelop his land.
3. Lotte Plaza Market Opens!
Lotte Plaza Market’s Grand Opening in November was attended by hundreds of New Tampa residents and continues to attract large numbers of people for everything from its Korean beauty products (below) to its Sijang Eatery food court.
While the opening of the new Aldi supermarket in the former Ruby Tuesday location in New Tampa did receive some fanfare a few years ago, it was nothing compared with the expectations and reaction to the opening — finally! — of the new Lotte Plaza Market Korean/Asian grocery store in the former Sweetbay/Kash N Karry location next to Home Depot.
The long-vacant 49,000-sq.-ft. store became the 15th link in the Lotte Plaza chain (the only other Florida location is in Orlando) of Korean/Asian superstores on Nov. 3 and immediately attracted large crowds of people (photos on next page) of all backgrounds and nationalities to its huge selections of produce, fresh fish, meat and groceries, as well as its unique Korean beauty products and its Sijang Eatery food court, which features a half-dozen eateries never before seen in our area.
Although the crowds have died down somewhat since that opening month, there’s no doubt that Lotte Plaza Market’s opening is still one of the biggest 2023 news stories for New Tampa. If you still haven’t visited it yet, what are you waiting for? It literally has something for everyone!
4. Live Oak Property Sale To Help Build Pride Park
The developer of Anand Vihar in Pasco County purchased an adjacent parcel of land in Live Oak from Hillsborough County that will help the county pay for its planned rec center at Pride Park.
Hillsborough County has had a plan in place to build an indoor rec center and expand the outdoor facilities at Pride Park (just south of Pride Elementary) for some time. The county also has owned an unused 61.89- acre parcel of land intended to be a county park, but didn’t have enough money to construct facilities at either location.
That is, until Anand Vihar (in Meadow Pointe) developer Santosh Govindaraju decided to purchase (for $6 million) the unused park site in Live Oak, which means the county will be able to begin construction on the Pride Park rec center early this year.
5. Early Storm Causes Damage In New Tampa
he unnamed first major storm of 2023 hit New Tampa hard on June 4. Fortunately, no other major storms blew through our area (or Florida) for the remainder of the 2023 hurricane season.
Thankfully, 2023 was a relatively quiet hurricane season throughout Florida, especially coming on the heels of 2022, which saw two major hurricanes decimate portions of the Sunshine State.
And, although Florida and New Tampa were virtually unscathed by any of the 20 named storms (including seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes) that hit the Atlantic in 2023, our area received an early dose of hurricane-like Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera had to call for assistance to remove uprooted and downed trees in several New Tampa neighborhoods.
After a packed opening day & ribbon cutting last Friday & an even more crowded opening weekend, the Lotte Plaza Market is open every day, with huge varieties of Asian groceries, plus fresh fish, produce & meat departments, home & beauty products & six different food court restaurants!
Look for the full story in the Nov 14 New Tampa & Nov 28 Wesley Chapel issues!
A sampling of food items at SGD So Gong Dong Tofu & BBQ.
With the large population of Asian people living in both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, there’s no doubt that a lot of folks in both of our distribution areas have been excited about the long-awaited opening of the Lotte Plaza Market, the latest link in the largest (with more than a dozen units) chain of Asian supermarkets.
Well, that wait is about to end, as Lotte (located at 17605 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.) has not only scheduled its Grand Opening to the public for Friday, November 3, at 9 a.m., yours truly got to walk around — and take pictures of all of the departments — at the nearly-finished store shortly before we went to press with this issue. And, even though I’m not Korean or of Asian descent, I am truly excited about this 49,000-sq.-ft. former (and long-vacant) Sweetbay (and Kash N Karry before that) store, which is much more than just another supermarket.
The interior of a Tous Les Jours bakery at another location.
Yes, there are massive bags of rice, a huge variety of Ramen noodles and many other Asian staples. But, the thing that got me most excited, as you might expect, is that our Lotte will have at least five different options in it sizable food court (called Eatery Sijang), all of which are serving different Korean cuisine, although there also is a renowned South Korea-owned French bakery chain, called Tous Les Jours. The other food court options, which are sure to be packed every day, include Luna Tea, BB.Q Chicken, SGD So Gong Dong Tofu & BBQ and JAWS Topokki.
Check the pics on this page for not only under-construction food court pics, but of the fresh seafood, butcher shop, grocery and Lotte’s unique gifts and housewares. For more info, visit LottePlaza.com. — GN
(Above, l.-r.) The ordering kiosk at the New Tampa Lotte’s Eatery Sijang & samples of JAWS Topokki’s food & galbi fried chicken from BB.Q. Chicken that may be on the kiosk.
I feel bad that I didn’t know in advance that Tessa’s Sweet Café (located at 18101 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., across from the AMC movie theater), which was home to some of the most delicious Korean-style fried chicken ever, was closing.
Well, not only did Tessa’s already close, it’s already been replaced by the Kabob Café & Grill, an authentic Pakistani eatery that opened just a few days before we went to press with this issue.
Even though I lived for years in New York City, which has every type of international cuisine, I had never sampled Pakistani food before, so I tried Kabob Café’s chicken kabobs (left photo) and a sparkly mango-peach boba tea (there are 18 varieties of boba teas) and both were tasty. The kabobs were not skewered cubes of meat, but were instead well-spiced (but not overly spicy) sausage-style tubes of ground chicken.
For those who still don’t know where the Kabob Café is located, it was best-known as the long-time home of Sukhothai before becoming Tessa’s.
Although the restaurant’s management is planning to expand the menu, the opening menu features chicken or mutton korma (cooked with yogurt, onions & spices), plus Pakistani versions of several Indian-style dishes, such as chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, chicken or mutton biryani, plus four different vegetarian dishes.
For more info, call (813) 405-8740 and tell them I sent you! -GN
Lotte Plaza Market Could Open By Sometime In September!
The opening of the new Lotte Plaza Market in the former location of a Sweetbay supermarket (next to Home Depot) has been one of the most hotly anticipated in New Tampa.
And, although we still have no official confirmation about when New Tampa’s Lotte Plaza Market is expected to open, my most recent visit to the construction site of the #1 chain of Asian and Korean supermarkets in Maryland and Virginia (with 14 total locations, including one each in New Jersey and Orlando) revealed that not only has a sign finally gone up on the building, but also that the interior renovations to the long-vacant 49,432-sq.-ft. building were actually nearing completion.
Every Lotte location features fresh (and unique) produce, meat and fish departments, as well as a food court serving a variety of cuisine types. On my most recent visit, I met one such food court tenant, who told me that the building had not yet had (or passed) all of its needed inspections before it could open, but that he was hoping our Lotte could open “by late September or October.” — GN
