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Chicken salad eatery & new KRATEs in our Nibbles & Bites updates! See pages
New Tastes Coming To The Shops At Wiregrass!
Everyone knows how excited I am about the impending opening of The Living Room in the former location of Ciao! (and Pagelli’s before that) in the Shops at Wiregrass, but the expected soft opening of The Living Room later this month isn’t the only new thing to get excited about at the mall.
Also coming soon to the mall are Leonidas “The Preferred Belgian Chocolate” and Crazy Sushi, both of which will be located on Paseo Dr. at the Shops. No opening dates have been announced for either newcomer, but Leonidas already has joined the North Tampa Bay Chamber, so definitely stay tuned! — GN
Nova Pizza Replaces Windy City!
As this issue hits your mailbox, a new NYstyle pizzeria should be open to replace Windy City Pizza (formerly Full Circle Pizza) in New Tampa’s Pebble Creek Collection.
Nova Pizzeria, from former Full Circle owners Julia and Freddy Nova, was expected to open the first week in August, so it (hopefully) should be open as you’re reading this.
Although Freddy says he knows a lot of customers miss the Chicago-style deep-dish and thin-crust pizzas at the old Full Circle (and from the short time Windy City was open), “My experience before Full Circle was with New York-style pizza and Italian specialties, so we hope the New Tampa community will come give us a try and enjoy the new Nova Pizza! — GN
Congratulations to Tammy and Brad Cochran of Tampa Bay CSC, for opening their fifth location (including the one on N. Dale Mabry Hwy. in Lutz) of Chicken Salad Chick, located on the Wesley Chapel Blvd. extension south of S.R. 56 (in the new building next to Zaxby’s), on Aug. 2, which was after this issue went to press and about two weeks later than the Cochrans originally had planned, due to permitting issues.
North Tampa Bay Chamber CEO Hope Allen helped the Cochrans with those permitting issues so that they would be able to open, as planned, on the 2nd.
We hope to post a video on our Facebook page of the actual opening day — where the first 100 people in line won a free scoop of chicken salad every month for a year (including one winner who received one scoop a week for a year) — around the time this issue reaches your mailbox.
“We’re thrilled to bring Chicken Salad
Chick to the Wesley Chapel area,” Tammy says. “We’ve already received tremendous support from the local community. We have no doubt that our Wesley Chapel Chick family will fall in love with the food and hospitality, just as we did.” We didn’t yet know the opening day for the adjacent Ann’s Spa & Nails Lounge, nor Fat Rabbit Celebrates Five Years In New Tampa!
Congratulations go out to The Fat Rabbit Pub, located at 16029 Tampa Palms Blvd. W. (in the City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center) for celebrating its fifth anniversary. Always near the top of the New Tampa rankings in both our Reader Survey and with yours truly, Jannah and I visited Fat Rabbit for its anniversary celebration on July 16.
Executive chef Cole McBride, who has been coming up with the Fat Rabbit’s unique better-than-bar-food dishes from Day One, offered a number of specials for the day, including those top-rated wings topped with “Apocalypse” wing sauce (which has earned an 8/10 on the “heat” scale), a red velvet cake/cheesecake dessert special (photo, right, shown with the Rabbit Lager special served in a 5-Year Anniversary glass, while supplies last) and a new burger that Cole says is being added to the menu: “The Rabbit 13 (photo below),” which is a short rib and brisket patty topped with tortilla strips, roasted poblano peppers, pepper jack cheese and pico de gallo (shown on the side here), topped with a creamy queso cheese sauce and served with your
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for the as-yet unnamed seafood restaurant set to open at the other corner of the same building, but will keep you posted.
The photo above is of the Chick’s chicken salad BLT (with a cup of tomato bisque soup as a side). The left photo is of the WC Blvd. location’s interior. (Photos by Charmaine George)
For more info about Chicken Salad Chick (25038 WC Blvd., Lutz), call (813) 993-4506 or visit ChickenSaladChick.com — and please tell them we sent you!. — GN
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choice of the greatest tater tots in our area, crispy fries or the awesome, super-crisp onion rings shown here for just $1 more.
Perhaps best of all (at least for me) is that Cole says he should soon be bringing back his weekly fresh fish specials. So good!
For more info, call (813) 252-3004 or visit FatRabbitPub.com. — GN
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More and more new restaurants have been opening at the KRATE Container Park at The Grove at Wesley Chapel and the word is definitely getting out that KRATE is a great destination for a wide variety of cuisine types from all over the world.
Although it wasn’t open at our press time, Bakery X (pronounced “Eeks”) Authentic French Bakery had a sign inside saying that its soft opening would be on Aug. 3, a few days after we went to press with this issue. If you love authentic French croissants, breads and pastries as much as I do, this is another KRATE to get really excited about.
Also opening at the KRATEs the weekend we went to press was Ato “Edible Art,” the sister restaurant to Zukku-San Sushi Bar & Restaurant on S.R. 56 (see ad below). Ato features a variety of “curated” and create-yourown masterpiece poké bowls (above left) and sushi burritos (being made above center) as well as some of our favorite Zukku-San appetizers (including both the sautéed, eel-sauceslathered Zukku dumplings and the fried gyoza dumplings shown top right).
And, while Ato is well worth a trip to the KRATEs on its own, but there are other newbies to try, too.
The Flipn’ Fries Factory opened as promised (near Bebo’s Cheesesteaks & Rhythm Pon de Grill Jamaican Cuisine) in July and although the menu only offers French fries with a variety of toppings, the fries are crispy and always served hot and delicious, no matter what you toppings you choose — whether you pick one of the Flip’n Fries menu favorites or make-your-own. Jannah and I were surprised how much we loved the bacon & beer cheese fries (top right photo) from the menu, which are loaded with real bacon and topped with the mildest beer cheese sauce ever.
Mediterranean food lovers also should try the new Falafel Factory, which is located next to Palani’s Hawai’i Noodles (and congrats to Palani’s for winning a “Best of the Best award as Best Asian Restaurant from the Tampa Bay Times). We enjoyed the organic chicken shawarma wrap (right), which comes with hummus and your choice of up to four of the Factory’s fresh veggie salad bar toppings. Other options at the Falafel Factory are, of course, falafel (fried chick peas balls) pita and wrap sandwiches, a pita burger and even a classic hot dog and a variety of fresh salads.
Other eateries at the KRATEs that also are getting close to opening, albeit without yet announcing their respective opening dates, are Boba Mac’s (mac & cheese and boba teas), Café Zorba Greek Cuisine, Pisco Express Peruvian Chinese Cuisine and 365 Café.
Oh, and a big shout out to my new best friends, Tracy and John Dimillo of Urban Sweets, for serving the best chocolate chip cookie sandwich I’ve had in years! I already loved Tracy’s cupcakes and other desserts, but you have to try the cookie sandwiches! — Gary Nager; Ato photos above by Charmaine George
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