GARY’S 2022 FOOD FAVORITES IN NEW TAMPA & WESLEY CHAPEL

Gary’s Favorite Places For Breakfast In NT & WC

Gary’s Favorite Bakeries & Baked Dessert Places In NT & WC

Gary’s Favorite Places For Coffee In NT & WC

EggTown (formerly The Brunchery)

For anyone who wondered on line whether or not EggTown was yet another new owner of the restaurant on S.R. 56 that originally was called Wolf’s Den, fear not: EggTown/Brunchin’ is under the same ownership and has the same delicious menu as The Brunchery, which opened last year in the former Wolf’s Den location. For more info about the name change, see pg. 44 of this issue.

A breakfast place by any other name, with the same menu, tastes just as sweet for EggTown’s customers, but there’s no doubt that the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area has quite a few really good local breakfast places, as well as a few popular chain eateries to enjoy that first meal of the day.

Please note that I am not including brunch places on this list. Although I enjoy a lot of the brunch items at places like Noble Crust, Stonewood and others, I’m the type of person who eats a full breakfast every day, so Jannah and I don’t often go out to have eggs on the weekends in order to drink as many mimosas as possible.

EggTown and Brunchies on S.R. 54 are both really good, but I also love the bacon, egg & cheese and bagel & lox sandwiches at Brooklyn Water Bagel, the home cooking at Happy Hangar Café and the fried egg and fried chicken & waffle sandwiches at the Bean Bar Co.

Urban Sweets

Unfortunately, because I’m such a bread lover, it’s hard for me to pick a great bakery based on what they make for dessert alone.

To that end, while Urban Sweets at the KRATEs is definitely my favorite bakery for dessert, it was still hard to put Urban’s delicious chocolate chip cookie sandwiches with a variety of cream fillings, cupcakes and cake parfaits ahead of Bakery X, another KRATE that serves the only truly authentic croissants, brioches and varieties of French bread in either of our distribution areas. If there was another bread-oriented bakery in our area that could compete (do not say Panera, Publix or even Sprouts to me), I would give Bakery X its own category.

And, while a number of local restaurants and dessert places offer some delicious brownies and homemade cookies (including Astro Ice Cream, Ice Dreammm Shop and Hello Sweetness), the only restaurant with an actual dessert case is Falabella Bistro, where everything from the tiramisu to the chocolate mousse cheesecake is provided by 7 Layers Bakery.

And, while I do enjoy the local editions of our area’s three chain dessert places — Nothing Bundt Cakes, Crumbl Cookie and Smallcakes Cupcakery, I believe my top three are all still in a league of their own.

The Bean Bar Co.

Few people I know enjoy a great cup of coffee as much as I do and I am sorry, but I personally only drink Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts coffee when there are no other choices available.

There are a few locally owned coffee places in our area, but the top three on the list below are the only ones I really love. Numbers 4 and 5 on my list are great Italian restaurants that serve amazing cappuccinos, lattes and other coffee drinks.

But, considering that I can’t get enough of the coffee I make at home and drink at least two cups of it every day, I really have to love a place to become a regular consumer of its coffee. And, the Bean Bar Co. in Tampa Palms is the place I love best, especially the café con leches and caramel macchiatos there. I can say the same thing about Brooklyn Water Bagel Co.’s Brooklyn Infusion (Kahlua, caramel and sweet vanilla) small-batch regular coffee, as well as BWB’s Winter Wonderland blend of white chocolate, caramel and coconut.

The newest addition to the local coffee scene — Macondo Coffee Roasters — has the full gamut of coffee drinks, including being the first place where I really enjoyed a flat white (similar to a latte but with a higher volume of coffee to milk). Yum!