Tag: Wesley Chapel

Totally Blu Pools For Pool Repairs, Supplies, Service & Even Lawn Care

Over the past 16+ years in the pool service business, Totally Blu Pools co-owner Sunil Mohammed says he’s seen it all.

His business has survived the last major U.S. recession (2008-09), the pool-building boom and supply chain shortages of the Covid era (2020-22) and pretty much everything in between.

So, what made Sunil and his wife Rashmi Maharaj decide to finally open their first-ever brick-and-mortar store in the Publix- and Home Depot-anchored Summertree Plaza at the corner of S.R. 54 and Eiland Blvd.?

“There are just so many new homes being built here in Wesley Chapel,” Sunil says. “And, most of them have swimming pools. I felt there was definitely room for a new mom-and-pop pool supply store here. Plus, we live 5-10 minutes away from the store.”

Unlike pool supply chain stores, Sunil is able to reassure his customers that he only carries quality pool supplies and will help them keep the water in their home pools clean, with the right pH levels and that he will stake his 16-year reputation on his ability to keep them happy.

“We give good service,” Sunil says, “and I know we have the best prices.”

And, Sunil adds that even though Home Depot is located in the same plaza, “the Home Depot guy is not our customer. He already knows what he’s looking for and wants to take care of his pool himself. We attract the customers who are new pool owners or who have no idea how to take care of their pools and who want to ask questions of someone who has that expertise.”

*Sunil and Rashmi’s son Savir tests the quality of a customer’s pool water.*

Part of that expertise is testing the pool water for what Sunil calls “the four basic food groups” of your pool — chlorine (or salt) level, the pH, as well as calcium and stabilizer levels. “We have everything you need to make sure that all four levels are properly balanced,” he says. “If all of those levels aren’t correct, you could have a problem.”

And, although Sunil says that he handles both residential and commercial clients, “We are really focused now on residential pools. Back in 2008-09, we had mostly commercial clients, but when that recession hit, we could have lost the business. So now, I’m very selective about taking on commercial clients. I have to know who they are.”

He adds that because of Totally Blu’s great reputation, some developers do get in touch with him to service or even help design their community pools, including Siena Cove and Bridgehaven here in Wesley Chapel.

*Totally Blu Pools stocks a wide selection of pool cleaners.*

“I have licensed contractors working with me,” Sunil says, “so now, not only can I service your pool, I also can help complete, refinish or repair your pool. With all of the fallout from local pool companies that didn’t treat their customers fairly during Covid, we may even get into designing and installing pools in the future, too.”

Totally Blu Pools also has a current special on an ICHLOR salt chlorine generator from Pentair. Sunil says you can buy it for $1,000, “or, if you become a new service customer with me, I will install one for free. In that case, I would still own it and I’d take it back out if you fire me, but I know it’s a great deal. I love Pentair because the replacement parts for their systems are so much less expensive than others.”

Totally Green Lawns, Too

For the last four years, Sunil also has had his Totally Green Lawn Service. Even though he had never had a lawn service before, when one of his pool customers asked if he knew anyone who could cut their grass, he said he could do it. Four years later, he now has 700 residential lawn accounts, mostly in the Wesley Chapel area.

“We cut, do the fertilizing and even pesticide application (in partnership with another company that is licensed to do that),” Sunil says. “We can take care of your pool and your lawn.”

Sunil adds that giving back to the community also is important to him, and he has raised funds to help buy ice time for the Wiregrass Ranch High hockey team that his son Savir plays for (although Savir actually attends Wesley Chapel High).

“We have helped people who couldn’t afford their lawn or pool service,” he says. “And we currently have a promotion where if you spend $50 with us, we’ll give you a $5 discount and match that with a $5 donation to a local elementary school in need.”

Totally Blu Pools is located at 32781 Eiland Blvd. For more information, call (813) 788-7665, or visit totallybluh20.com.

Family-Owned One-Stop Landscape Supply For Expertise & Quality Service!

At One-Stop Landscape Supply on S.R. 54, just west of Eiland Blvd. and across the street from the New River Branch Library, owner Elijah Pratt says his family business is the culmination of generations of his family’s experience in the industry.

“Our family has worked in landscape businesses from my great-grandpa down to me,” says Elijah. From lawn maintenance, to landscaping maintenance and design, and now the garden center, the decades of experience help Elijah to understand what customers need when they visit One-Stop Landscape Supply.

Whether someone is looking for a few plants or wants a complete overhaul of their entire yard — or somewhere in between — One-Stop Landscape Supply is ready to help with a wide variety of products and exceptional customer service.

*One-Stop stocks large varieties of beautiful plants (above), as well as flower pots and supplies (below).*

“We have nursery and garden center expertise and plant knowledge,” says Elijah, “We pretty much always have someone walking around with you, talking through ideas and answering questions, such as which zone a specific plant goes in or how a certain tree will work in a specific location in your yard.”

Many times, that person walking around with you is One-Stop store manager Jay Ewanish. While he’s not part of the family ownership that includes Elijah and his dad, Matt, Jay has been at the store since it opened in July 2020.

“We’re a family-owned business, so we take a lot of pride and joy in our work,” Jay says. “We always have smiles on our faces.”

Jay explains that he previously worked for his brother in a family-owned business, so he takes his responsibility very seriously. In a corporate environment, a single employee might not be too concerned if each and every customer is happy, but it’s different at One-Stop.

“It’s just plants, but people take pride in their lawns here in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa,” Jay says. “So, I learn more, to be sure I’m giving out the right information.”

Jay adds that the store’s Google reviews — an average of 4.9 out of 5.0 stars — speak for themselves, as many customers rave about the great experience they’ve had, and often mention Jay and Elijah by name.

“People pick us because of the knowledge we have and the pride we take in everything we do,” Jay says. “We go above and beyond for every customer.”

Chuck Battino lives in Forest Oaks in Wesley Chapel and says he’s a frequent customer of One-Stop Landscape Supply, purchasing many palm trees, shrubs, topsoil and mulch since the store opened three years ago.

“When you call,” Chuck says, “there’s always someone knowledgeable who can answer your questions and give you recommendations.”

He adds that when he bought his new home, it needed a lot of landscaping work. Purchasing a few items at a time from One-Stop Landscape Supply was a budget-friendly way to improve his yard over time. He says every recommendation given to him has worked out well.

“I’ve lived in Wesley Chapel for 10 years and, based on my experience, I can say they are the best — the most accommodating and the least expensive company in the area.”

Chuck adds that he often takes advantage of the delivery service, which has impressed him. “The delivery staff is well trained and they are hardworking people,” Chuck says. “Most of the time they can deliver within a few hours and it’s right to my home.”

In addition to the wide variety of plants and trees at One-Stop Landscape Supply, the store offers a selection of rocks, mulch and soil. Its 3,000-sq.-ft. warehouse also is stocked with fertilizers, irrigation products and tools.

Elijah says he works with many homeowners who have just moved into a new home. Often, they’ve built a new house and want to upgrade their builder-grade landscaping. But, some homeowners call or stop in after they have purchased a home that’s new to them and they want to re-do their entire yard.

For those clients, Elijah schedules an appointment to come to your home for a free consultation, then uses software to map out a design for your front yard, back yard, or whatever area of your home you want to spruce up. He then provides an estimate that can include delivery and installation.

He says that, typically, homeowners are looking for low-maintenance plants and materials, so once they are installed, they don’t require a lot of time or effort to sustain.

Elijah adds that many new customers find One-Stop Landscape Supply when they see what a great job the company did for one of their neighbors.

“We’ll do one house in a section of a neighborhood we haven’t been in before,” he says, “and, all of a sudden, a bunch of the neighbors are calling.”

Since One-Stop opened in July 2020, its customers have had to navigate ongoing road work on S.R. 54 in front of the store. While that has been a challenge, Elijah hopes the end is finally in sight.

“We’ve been told the construction will be completed in August,” he says, “and then, we’ll finally be able to put up a sign.”

He hopes the sign will help his business to be more visible to passers-by and help customers find it more easily.

Coming from the west, One-Stop Landscape Supply is on the right and is easy to turn into. However, coming from the east, Elijah says there’s now a median, so customers need to pass One-Stop on the left, then make a U-turn to get back to the store. Alternately, he says anyone coming from the east can turn left at the new Taco Bell. That road leads to a back gate at the store that is open whenever the store is open, allowing drivers to get to One-Stop without having to make that U-turn.

One-Stop Landscape Supply (34100 S.R. 54) is open Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday. It is closed on Sunday. For more information, follow One-Stop Landscape Supply on Facebook (@OneStopLandscapeLLC) and Instagram (@OneStopLandscape). Or, call (813) 355-3480, visit OneStopLandscape.com.

Landscape Nursery One Stop Landscape One-Stop Landscape Plants Wesley Chapel

Entering Our 2023 Reader Dining Survey & Contest Is Easier Than Ever!

Whether or not you’ve ever entered one of our previous Reader Dining Survey & Contests, I hope you’ll consider entering at least once this year.

Yes, while we still have at least three (there could be more) free dining prizes, from $35 to $100 — to the restaurant of your choice, no less — we’re making it easier than ever before for you to enter.

Instead of a full page or more of different dining categories, all we’re asking you for is to answer one or two questions in every issue between now and Thursday, November 16, and you’ll receive one entry into those random prize drawings for each Survey question you answer.

This issue, we’ll start with one question that asks you for FIVE (5) answers — “Name your Five Favorite Restaurants (of any kind) located in Wesley Chapel or near the Tampa Premium Outlets (aka Lutz).”

For your entry to be valid, you must name five different restaurants. If you only name one or two restaurants or fill in the name of the same restaurant in all five spaces, you’ll only have one or two votes counted and your entry will not be eligible for any of our prizes.

Then, in each of the next five issues, we’ll ask you to name only one or two of your favorites — for example, your Favorite Chinese Restaurant, Coffee Shop or Pizza Place — and we’ll give you one additional entry into our random prize drawings for each valid entry you submit. We feel as though this should stimulate more people to enter the contests, because the task won’t be as daunting as having to completely (or nearly completely) fill out an entire page of favorites.

As always, there’s no purchase necessary to enter or win a prize. All we ask is that you follow the following rules:

1. Enter by filling out the entry form in the issue or by filling the form out online by clicking HERE.

2. You can drop your filled-out entry form in the mail (send it to “2023 Neighborhood News Dining Contest,” 2604 Cypress Ridge Blvd., Suite 102D, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544) or even email it to us at Ads@NTNeighborhoodNews.com. *Note-Entries filled out on our website do not need to be mailed or emailed to us.

3. Please check the address and zip codes of the restaurants you choose, as only votes for restaurants in zip codes 33543, 33544 and 33545 (Wesley Chapel) and zip code 33559 (Lutz, within 1-2 miles of the S.R. 56 exit off I-75) will be counted as “Wesley Chapel” votes. When we ask you next issue for your “Five Favorite Restaurants (of any kind) in New Tampa,” only restaurants located in zip code 33647, or in the Oak Ramble Plaza on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (in zip code 33613) and in or near the Palms Connection Plaza on E. Bearss Ave. (zip code 33559) will be counted as “New Tampa” votes.

4. In order to be eligible to win any of our free dining prizes to the restaurant of your choice, your entry form with a response to at least one of our questions over the next five months must include your name, full mailing address (including your zip code), the community you live in (Avalon Park Wesley Chapel, Seven Oaks, etc.), a daytime phone number where you can be reached and your valid email address.

We look forward to seeing how this year’s contest shakes out. Good luck!

Contest dining Dining Contest dining survey Dining Survey and Contest food New Tampa restaurants survey Wesley Chapel

Check Out The New Azteca D’Oro Mexican Restaurant!

Congratulations to co-owners Victor and Armando Ramos of the ninth family-owned location of Azteca D’Oro, in the space previously occupied by Cantina Laredo in the Shops at Wiregrass.

Azteca Wesley Chapel opened on June 19 and hosted an incredible Grand Opening event the weekend of June 24-25, with a mariachi band and dancers all in traditional Mexican garb — and Victor says that mariachis will play “every Thursday, 6 p.m.-8 p.m.”

However, while the “fiesta” music was great and the completely revamped restaurant — which now features not only outdoor seating, but seats both inside and out at the extra-large bar — is beautiful, without great food, it would all mean next to nothing.

But, while Azteca D’Oro definitely isn’t an inexpensive place to eat, the food options include such upscale authentic entrées as borrego (marinated, seasoned and baked lamb shank) and molcajete (steak, chicken, chorizo sausage and shrimp over onions and green peppers in a mildly spicy sauce), plus favorites like the thickest-ever chicken-stuffed taquitos appetizer (above left), which four people can share, and, of course, great combo fajitas (shown, above), of which my favorites were the pork carnitas fajitas, and a huge menu of other authentic specialties for lunch and dinner, including delicious tableside-made guacamole finished with real bacon.

*Churros & ice cream for dessert? Yes, please!*

And, do not miss the caramel-stuffed churros and ice cream (photo, right) for dessert!

The ultra-premium bar features many upscale tequilas and mezcals, as well as a unique margarita flight of four different favorites, plus specialty cocktails like the Mexican classic Paloma (José Cuervo Tradicional Reposado tequila, fresh lime & Squirt grapefruit soda).

Azteca D’Oro (2000 Piazza Ave., Unit 170) is open every day for lunch and dinner. For more information, visit Aztecadoro.com.

Azteca D Oro Azteca D'Oro mexican restaurant restaurant shops at wiregrass Wesley Chapel Wiregrass Mall

How Does Curley Rd. End At Two Different Locations On S.R. 54?

New Signage Posted At The Entrance To Chapel Crossings Community Off S.R. 54 Likely To Change

So, as I was driving eastbound along S.R. 54 (heading towards Zephyrhills), I noticed something that struck me as strange, for two reasons:

1) There were signs that said “Curley Rd.” in two different locations on 54 and

2) It was the first time that I had noticed this phenomenon.

Now, it may not seem like that big a deal to you, but it was to me. Why?

As our editorial researcher Joel Provenzano — who until very recently worked for the Florida Department of Transportation (aka “FDOT”) and in conjunction with the transportation planners for Pasco County — pointed out, although the left turn at the original Curley Rd. sign was often a dangerous one, the plan was for Curley Rd. to be realigned to the east and come south to meet up with Meadow Pointe Blvd., leaving the existing Curley Rd. to basically cul-de-sac at the entrance to the Chapel Pines subdivision, less than a mile north of Curley’s intersection with S.R. 54.

But, when the recession hit our area hard in 2008-09, Pasco County didn’t have the funds to realign Curley and it wasn’t until several years later that the existing intersection was even widened.

Fast forward about another decade, when Crown Community Development, which also developed Seven Oaks, begins developing the new Chapel Crossings community (see map), a pretty subdivision of about 1,100 total single- and multi-family residential units, the westernmost portion of which is the now-under-construction Story Wesley Chapel rental apartments. The only entrance to Chapel Crossings currently is on S.R. 54, at the traffic signal for Meadow Pointe Blvd.

But somehow, if you turn into that well-landscaped entrance to Chapel Crossings, the sign says that you are turning onto Curley Rd. Then, once you get into the community, the name of that same street is Chapel Crossings Blvd. What the heck?

I stopped in on at least two of the new home builders in Chapel Crossings — David Weekley Homes and Centex Homes — both of which have nice maps on their walls, showing not only their respective sections of the community, but all of Chapel Crossings. Those maps only show that main north-south thoroughfare as Chapel Crossings Blvd.

Before I continue, let me just say that I really like Chapel Crossings. It has a super-modern-looking clubhouse (photo above) that is under construction, and it will have not only a resort-style pool, fitness center and dog park, but also a lazy river. Can you say “Sold!?!”

Another interesting factoid is that, when the Story apartments are completed sometime later this summer, the long-awaited Zephyhrills Bypass (photo right) also will open — or, at least, the first leg of it — which means that Chapel Crossings could have had north-south and east-west thoroughfares providing connectivity for the rest of Wesley Chapel.

The operative words, however, are “could have had.”

Joel told me that although Curley is no longer planned to be realigned through Chapel Crossings, when he left his job at FDOT, the signs at the Chapel Crossings/Curley Rd. intersection on S.R. 54 across from Meadow Pointe (MP) Blvd. had already been ordered because the county’s GIS map already had shown the southern terminus of Chapel Crossings Blvd. to be Curley Rd.

He adds, however, that Pasco also will likely still require developers to extend Chapel Crossings Blvd. further north to meet Curley Rd. at some point in the future, which would then provide that north-south connectivity mentioned earlier, just as the extension eastward of the Zephyrhills Bypass beyond Chapel Crossings will provide the east-west connectivity for Wesley Chapel.

Confused? Yes, me too. But, Joel says that, at some point, he expects Crown will request to the county to change the name of the entire length of the existing road to Chapel Crossings Blvd., which also would add some clarity and consistency with Pasco’s Vision Road plan, and so that entire roadway would have the correct same name.

In the meantime, even a Google search of Chapel Crossings shows just the end of Chapel Crossings Blvd. as Curley Rd.

Chapel Crossings Curley Curley Rd. roads Wesley Chapel