I’ll admit that the first time I ever bought anything from the Pastelitos Papichy’s food truck — which has been located in the same plaza as LA Fitness and Five Guys Burgers & Fries south of County Line Rd. and west of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in New Tampa for about two years — was a few months ago, when I first heard that owners Ruben Caridad and his son, Ruben, Jr., were opening their first brick-&-mortar location in the Grand Oaks Plaza at 26242 Wesley Chapel Blvd. in Lutz (photo below).
But now, I’m definitely a fan. And, considering that one of my daughters-in-law is from Venezuela, as are the Caridads, I probably should have tried Papichy’s sooner. The entire menu is a variety of fried Venezuelan items, from savory to more dessert-oriented. Open for a few weeks at our press time, the new location is the seventh Papichy’s for the Caridads, who also have their food trucks off Waters Ave. in Tampa and in Odessa (FL) and Orlando.
Since “Pastelitos” is part of the place’s full name, I first tried a guava and cheese pastelito, which was crispy and delicious, but be warned that the guava jelly is molten-hot, but worth it! A box of 25 assorted (there also are chicken, pizza, potato-&-cheese, ground and shredded beef varieties) mini-pastelitos is shown at the top of the page.
Since then, I also have sampled the mini-empanadas (available in many of the same savory varieties, as well as filled with ham & cheese, fish, black beans, bacon, seafood & more), as well as tequeños (cheese sticks) and my surprise favorite — the mandocas (cornmeal doughnuts shaped like teardrops). They’re all just so good.
I was so impressed that I brought 100 assorted Papichy’s treats to the Volunteer Day at the future home of Sgt. Quincy Lopez in Wesley Chapel and they were all quickly gobbled up. You definitely should try Papichy’s if you haven’t already!
Lots of new restaurants are beginning to build and/or are getting ready to open in and around the Wesley Chapel area and we have updates on many of them in this issue. On this page alone, we’ll tell you about the delayed (but finally happening) Grand Opening of the new Rodizio Grill, the first-ever brick-&-mortar location of Pastelitos Papichy’s, as well as the beginning of construction of both The Cheesecake Factory and Swig soda shop.
Rodizio Grill
Clearly, the opening of the Wesley Chapel area’s first-ever Brazilian steakhouse is big news for our community, as the announcement on our “Neighborhood News” Facebook page that the opening of Rodizio Grill (2802 Grand Cypress Dr., Lutz, behind Costco and in front of Kohl’s by the Tampa Premium Outlets) was delayed from its originally announced opening date of May 28 to Tuesday, June 10, was viewed (at our press time) by a record-breaking (for us) 327,816 people, with more than 1,000 likes and 109 shares! We’ve had a couple of previous posts that reached more than 200,000 people, but this post — without being boosted — has far surpassed our previous record. In other words, you can expect big crowds at Rodizio Grill as this issue is reaching your mailbox. In the meantime, we have a sneak peek first look inside this beautiful, new restaurant (top photo) on this page. We wish franchisee Charlie Haney and his crew lots of luck.
For reservations & more info, call (813) 996-3880, visit Rodizio.com or search “Rodizio Grill – Wesley Chapel” on Facebook.
Pastelitos Papichy’s
Although the Venezuelan food truck Pastelitos Papichy’s (above left) has been stationed near the LA Fitness and Five Guys Burgers & Fries (just south of County Line Rd.& west of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in New Tampa) a for some time, a sign recently went up at the Grand Oaks Plaza on the under-construction Wesley Chapel Blvd. in Lutz (above right) announcing that Papichy’s will be opening its first-ever brick-&-mortar location in the space previously occupied by the also-Venezuelan Arepa Mia, which sadly closed at the end of 2024.
We haven’t yet been able to speak to anyone who could tell us when the new Papichy’s is expected to open, but you can expect a similar selection of Venezuelan-style empanadas, pastelitos (similar to empanadas, but round wheat dough filled with sweet guava or savory meats and cheeses), tequeños (fried cheese) and more.
For more info, call (813) 576-9970.
The Cheesecake Factory
If our post about Rodizio Grill is record-setting, there’s little doubt that if we’re able to break the story of when The Cheesecake Factory will finally open in the parking lot at the Tampa Premium Outlets, that post could double or even quadruple the traffic Rodizio Grill has generated.
But, while some rumors had Cheesecake Factory opening before the end of this year, that seems pretty ambitious, considering that the area that will one day be home to the full-service restaurant chain and cheesecake bakery (which currently has more than 200 U.S. locations) has only recently been fenced off near the mall’s main entrance. There is some heavy equipment on the site, but the parking lot hasn’t yet been leveled so that the restaurant can actually go vertical.
Swig
This rapidly-growing drive-through “dirty soda” chain featuring seasonal favorites and concoct-your-own sodas, revivers and refreshers, as well as frozen hot chocolate, sugar cookies and pretzel bites, is starting to go vertical just east of PopStroke and west of Academy Sports + Outdoors (photo above), across from the outlet mall.
Wesley Chapel/Lutz will be only the third Florida location for Swig, a Utah-based company which currently has more than 100 locations in 14 states, with agreements for 500 franchise units and plans for more corporate-owned stores. For more info, visit SwigDrinks.com.
