I was excited to see a sign posted next to Fine Ink Studios (the former location of Pinotโs Palette) that Haraz Coffee House was โBrewing Soonโ at 1722 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., in the Publix-anchored Shoppes at New Tampa of Wesley Chapel plaza.ย
Iโll admit that Iโd never heard of Haraz before, but any coffee shop that isnโt Starbucks that opens in our area is definitely worth a try and Harazโs website says that the brand and founder Hamzah Nasser are โon a mission to share the rich heritage of Yemeni coffee with the world. By sourcing the finest beans and honoring traditional craftsmanship, we bring the bold, authentic flavors of Yemen to every cup. As we expand across the U.S., weโre committed to creating unforgettable coffee experiences that connect communities and celebrate culture.โ
Since starting off in Detroit in 2021, Haraz has grown to 31 locations in 13 states (with the closest one to us, and the only one in Florida, in Orlando), with 185 more โin the pipeline.โ
Whether you like traditional lattes or cappuccinos or prefer Turkish, Saudi, French Press or cold brew coffee, or even coffee with cardamom, ginger or other spices, Haraz has got you covered.
Thereโs also hot chocolate, green and matcha tea and pistachio and saffron lattes. Haraz also features milk cakes, cheesecake & cinnamon rolls, and sells items like coffeemakers and bulk coffee.
I called the Orlando location but they said the Wesley Chapel shop is owned by another franchisee, so they had no idea when our Haraz is expected to open. Of course, weโll keep you posted, both in these pages and on our Facebook page.
Taylor Gardner Gutters owner Taylor Gardner is proud of his new location in Dade City, but he and his crew (photos below) are still installing and repairing gutters at homes and businesses in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa, too. (Photo by Charmaine George)
Although Gardner Gutters had been serving the Tampa Bay area since Ed Gardner established it as a small business in Lutz in 2000, Edโs son Taylor has grown the business immensely since taking it over in 2020 and renaming it Taylor Gardner Gutters.
Itโs grown so much, in fact, that the business outgrew its previous location in Land OโLakes and recently moved to four acres in Dade City.
โWe have 15 vehicles on the road every day,โ Taylor says. โOur front two acres are filled with trucks, trailers and an employee parking area. Itโs more space than we need right now, but I know weโll end up growing into it.โ
Taylor Gardner Gutters installs and repairs gutters, soffits and facias, and also offers gutter cleaning, which keeps the gutters on your home or business working properly and in good repair.
Taylor says that adding gutters is the least expensive thing you can do to protect the value of your home, ensuring that Floridaโs famous summer downpours donโt destroy its foundation or even its aesthetic upgrades.
โProtecting the foundation of your home is the main purpose of gutters,โ he says, โbut they also protect your paint and will help your grass and sod last longer, too. Gutters protect anything on the outside of your house to help it stay in great shape for as long as possible.โ
Without gutters, Taylor says water is much more likely to settle at the base of your homeโs foundation. With that saturation, the water can cause erosion to the side of the home, leading to cracks in the stucco and window ledges and forming unsightly trenches. Water under the home also can cause wood floors in the home to pucker or pop.
Taylor first joined the business to help his father after serving in the Marines for nine years, including a tour of duty in Iraq. He used his experience and his Business Administration degree from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, to start a different career, but came home when his dad needed his help after receiving a cancer diagnosis.
Taylor took over the business when Ed passed away, and Taylorโs older brother, Brandon, who had decades of experience working with their dad, led installations. Unfortunately, Brandon was then diagnosed with cancer as well and passed away just eight months later.
So now, Taylor continues the legacies of his dad and older brother, running the business in a way that would make them both proud.
Photo provided by Taylor Gardner
โOur installers are great, and we have several who have been with the company more than 15 years,โ Taylor explains. โThey know exactly what theyโre doing.โ
Thatโs important to Taylor because his company offers a lifetime warranty on its installations. He says this is what sets Taylor Gardner Gutters apart from its competitors.
Company policy is that any customer who experiences a warranty issue will have the problem inspected within 48 hours and fixed as soon as possible โ no matter how many years itโs been since the gutters were originally installed.
โOne of reasons weโve been successful in this business is because we always answer the phone, especially if thereโs a problem after installation,โ Taylor explains.
He contrasts that with many of his competitors, who are often just one-person companies doing as many jobs as they can, without employees to keep up with other things, such as going back and fixing something if it isnโt right.
โMy focus from the beginning has been to really hit customer service as our number one priority,โ Taylor says. โWe give people what they ask for at a very reasonable price.โ
Taylor says some of his customers have been coming back to the company for two decades, since his dad first started the business.
The companyโs lifetime no-leak guarantee is a another unique way Taylor builds those lifelong relationships.
โAll gutters will leak eventually,โ he says. โMine wonโt leak for at least 10 years, but if they do and you still live in that house, call us and weโll fix it.โ
He has one team that is dedicated to only doing repair work, even if itโs not a job originally done by Taylor Gardner Gutters. The repair team also handles any warranty calls that come in.
โAfter the hurricanes last year, that team was very busy,โ Taylor says, with homes that had a gutter or piece of soffit that came down. โNine times out of ten, itโs not something we did wrong โ sometimes itโs because a customer has done no maintenance โ but as a courtesy we still take care of the problem. They then tell their neighbors how much they love us and how good we are, and thatโs really good for our business.โ
Itโs also good for his business that there is such a construction boom in our area. Taylor Gardner Gutters also works with several homebuilders to install gutters on newly built homes, including many of the new neighborhoods in Wesley Chapel, such as The Ridge, Winding Ridge, Valencia Ridge and all David Weekley Homes throughout the area.
Photo provided by Taylor Gardner
Those builders are growing in other areas, too, such as further north in and around Brooksville. And, Taylor says his business is expanding into Lakeland, which he describes as โeven crazier in construction than Wesley Chapel.โ
In addition to helping homeowners, the company installs, repairs and cleans gutters on commercial building for business owners.
Taylor Gardner Gutters just did its largest job ever, replacing gutters at the CENTCOM building at MacDill Air Force Base.
โIt was a huge job on a seven-story building that took us four weeks,โ Taylor says.
Taylor Gardner Gutters has 200+ reviews on Google, with an average rating of 4.8 stars out of 5. Recently, Scott Hutchison said the companyโs crew โarrived on time and did a fantastic, professional, careful, and respectful job of adding new gutters to my two-story metal roof.โ
Scott added that he highly recommends Taylor Gardner Gutters, writing, โ[The] house looks great! No more water pooling up near my foundation.โ
Taylor Gardner Gutters is now located at 10301 U.S. Hwy. 301 in Dade City and serves homeowners in Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando, Polk and Citrus counties, including New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. For more info, visit TaylorGardnerGutters.com or call or text (813) 515-0844.
(L.-r.) Reggie, Ryder, Erica & Ryleigh invite you to check out Final Touch Quality Cleaners, which will make sure every inch of your home, apartment, business or Airbnb will be sparkling when they leave. (All photos by Charmaine George)ย
Reggie Wakefield and Erica Poniatowski, the owners of Final Touch Quality Cleaners, have become mine and Jannahโs friends over the course of the last two years, since they took over cleaning our previous apartment and especially, since they have been cleaning our larger, new apartment at the Silversaw Apartments.
Jannah first met both Erica and Reggie at her Business Networking International (BNI) meetings. Erica joined the group and we all hit it off instantly.
Both Erica and Reggie have cleaned our place, but Erica is more focused on her career as a Realtorยฎ with Great Western Realty in Tampa, while Reggie…well, Iโll let him tell you.
โI was cleaning houses and apartments in New York City when I was seven or eight years old, when my mom used to take me and one of my sisters (Brittany) with her. We were both young, so we thought she was just doing favors for our neighbors, but we later found out she had made a business out of it!โ
He adds, โWe were both kind of chunky kids, so we loved cleaning food trucks because they would pay us with free food!,โ he laughs.
And, although Reggie got into the home alarm business when he and Erica graduated from the same high school in southern New Jersey, he says, โIโve just always loved to clean! I get a feeling of satisfaction when I leave someoneโs home or business sparkling.โ
So, when both he and Erica made the decision to move from New Jersey to Florida, after both of them left different alarm companies, it was Reggie who pushed for them to start their own cleaning service in the Sunshine State, especially since Brittany, the sister he used to clean with when they were kids, already owned a successful โsisterโ cleaning company in Norfolk, VA.
The couple ultimately settled in nearby Lutz and Erica became the public face of the new Final Touch Quality Cleaners โ despite Reggieโs winning smile and hard-to-resist personality โ so he could focus on the cleaning side while she ran the business and handled the billing and marketing.
โEven though sheโs great at it, I know that cleaning isnโt Ericaโs thing,โ Reggie says. โWhen Erica said she wanted to get her real estate license, I was happy for her to go for it.โ
In the meantime, Final Touch has continued to grow, with all-5-star reviews on 16 reviews on Google. Customer Jackie P., in a 5-star Google review, says, โIโve used Final Touch Quality Cleaners for everything I have! My home and my business! They do phenomenal work and their detailed approach is very reassuring. They also make our appliances look like new each time they leave and we always have a great smelling house afterwards. 10/10. Will always recommend and use.โ
One thing Iโve noticed when Reggie cleans our apartment is how methodical he is. We havenโt had an actual office for him to clean, but I can imagine how he would be able to expand what he does for us for a much larger space.
Speaking of larger spaces, after Erica and Reggie met Rock & Brews general manager Kareem Nelson at a BNI function at the restaurant a year ago, they immediately were hired to clean it.
โKareem told me they had an in-house cleaning crew they werenโt happy with,โ Reggie says. โI told him โI got youโ and weโve been cleaning it ever since. Iโm sad theyโre closing it, not just because weโre losing a commercial client, but because Kareem has been so great to work with.โ
So, as of now, Reggie says he and Erica are focused on finding another big commercial account to replace Rock & Brews.
โWe have a crew and we all work the commercial accounts together to get it done โ not just fast, but right!,โ he says. โWeโll always make sure your office, restaurant or other place of business always looks as good as your home when we finish cleaning.โ Reggie and Erica also are happy to clean your Airbnb, and provide move-in, move-out and post-construction cleans, too.
Final Touch also is looking to hire additional cleaners after an amazing occurrence with part of their crew. โWe had a couple working for us but they recently won a million dollars on a scratch-off ticket!,โ Reggie says. โAt first, they said they would keep on working…after all, a million dollars isnโt worth as much today as it once was… but they ended up leaving anyway.โ
Erica and Reggie have a daughter named Ryleigh and a son named Ryder and you can see how much they love their little family.
โWeโve got to make it work for them,โ Reggie says, โand I have no doubt we will.โ
New clients who mention this storywill receive 10% off their first clean with Final Touch Quality Cleaners. For more information and a free estimate, call (813) 530-5591 or email FinalTouchQC@gmail.com.
New Tampaโs Hillsborough County public schools continue to earn impressive grades from the Florida Department of Education, which released its 2024-25 School Grades Report earlier this month.
All but one of New Tampaโs elementary and middle schools earned an โAโ grade, with Tampa Palms earning a โBโ for the second year in a row, after many years of consistent A ratings.
Two New Tampa schools improved from a B to an A. Heritage Elementary earned an A after dipping to a B in 2023- 24. Turner Bartels K-8 earned an A after several years of earning Bs.
โWe are so proud of everyoneโs hard work,โ says Heritage Elementary principal Mary Booth. โItโs a true team effort from teachers and staff, plus our students work so hard and our families are supportive.โ
The six schools that maintained their A status include Chiles, Clark, Hunterโs Green and Pride elementary schools and both Benito and Liberty middle schools.
Both of New Tampaโs high schools again earned a โCโ grade, as both schools have consistently, going back to 2016.
โBut, weโre making growth,โ says Taryn Anello, the principal at Wharton High. โAcross the board, weโve made gains in every category, and weโre on an upward trend. Weโve improved 22 points over last year.โ
She says she hates for teachers, students and families to feel disheartened because the schoolโs grade did not improve to a B, when the students, teachers and staff are all working so hard to make gains that they hope will show up in the schoolโs rating.
โWith the storms and the chaotic year we had, sometimes itโs a heavy lift to maintain that focus,โ Anello says. โIt wasnโt just the adults who went through those hardships, but our kids went through that, too.โ
Even those schools that earn an A recognize that boiling so many measurements into just one letter can be problematic, and may not be representative of all of the complexities of an entire school and all of the students within it. The letter grades take into account various measurements to represent student achievement, learning gains, graduation, acceleration success and maintaining a focus on students who need the most support.
For example, Heritage lost just a slight percentage in 2023-24 and dipped an entire letter grade. โIt depends on the students in front of you and their needs,โ explains Booth. โWe look at student learning gains, for example, but sometimes the tests donโt accurately measure the gains weโve seen.โ
Hillsborough County received an overall B grade from the state, which Hillsborough Superintendent of Schools Van Ayres said in an email to families was only one percentage point away from an overall A rating for the District.
โThese achievements are a result not only of the hard work of our students, teachers, support professionals and school administrators, but also of our laser-like focus on high-quality core instruction in every classroom and intentional progress monitoring to drive these impressive results,โ Superintendent Ayres said in a media release.
It was only 3-1/2 months ago that we were the first to tell you about the opening of Sushi Bowls by Kazoku Sushi (photo below) in the Pebble Creek Collection, but co-owner Cristina Chanquin admits that Sushi Bowls closed abruptly a few weeks ago. She cited issues with finding a solid team to work at the New Tampa location and a need to โfocus on the foundation of our business,โ as Cristina and her husband Sergio also own Sushi House in Ybor City.
โBut, we do serve our bowls at the cafรฉs at both the AdventHealth and BayCare hospitals in Wesley Chapel every Thursday,โ she says.
So, if you (like yours truly) were a fan of Sushi Bowls, you can still grab a tasty bowl at those local hospitals.
Is It Sushi Time Yet?
But, speaking of sushi, if youโve been wondering what happened to Ginza Endless Sushi & Hibachi next to LA Fitness at 6417 E. County Line Rd. (top photo), itโs been replaced with another Japanese restaurant โ Sushi Time Hibachi, Ramen & Seafood.ย
Now open less than three weeks as this issue is reaching you, the new owners want everyone to know that Sushi Time is not another all-you-care-to-eat place, nor does it offer teppanyaki/hibachi tables in the dining room.
It is, however, a reasonably priced, full-service, sushi-focused, sit-down Japanese restaurant with nearly 80 different sushi and sashimi options. Of course, Jannah and I first had to try โ and gave thumbs-up to โ the California roll shown above left), but weโll be back for more.ย
But, for those of you who, like us, enjoy Japanese/Asian appetizers like fried (or steamed) pork gyoza dumplings, spring and egg rolls, we did try all of the above and enjoyed them all โ especially the extra-crispy pork egg rolls.
We also sampled the chicken hibachi (which is still available, but made in the kitchen) shown right, which was loaded with large chunks of chicken and fresh veggies and served with white or pretty good fried rice. There also are steak and shrimp hibachi options and Asian favorites like Mongolian chicken or beef, General Tsoโs chicken, beef or chicken with broccoli and more. For more info about Sushi Time, call (813) 364-4545 or visit SushiTimeTampa.com and please tell the owners I sent you! โ GN