Italian restaurants are sweeping Wesley Chapel and Land O'Lakes to the culinary delight of their residents.
By JAMES THORNER
Published April 4, 2004
Maybe it's the mozzarella bubbling atop baked ziti. Or the tangy sauce ladled onto thin stretch dough. Or the whiff of oregano. Whatever it is, central Pasco County appears to be turning into Little Italy.
Like a yeast dough rising over the rim of a bowl, new pizza and pasta establishments are spreading like mad across Wesley Chapel and Land O'Lakes, the heart of Pasco's new suburbia.
The area has long attracted pizza chains. Pizza Hut, Domino's, Hungry Howie's, Westshore Pizza and ABC Pizza come to mind. But local taste buds apparently crave new sensations.
The newest addition will be Bosco's Italian-to-Go in a shopping strip on State Road 54 near Land O'Lakes' Carpenters Run neighborhood. A Bosco's is already parked in a Wesley Chapel shopping strip east of Interstate 75.
Wesley Chapel is also due for a Johnny Carino's Country Italian Restaurant near SR 54 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.
It's another of those open-flamed kitchen/rustic decor chains represented by Carrabba's Italian Grill and Romano's Macaroni Grill.
Other recently opened pizza joints include Pizza Mania in the Shoppes at New Tampa and Amici Pizza & Deli on SR 54 west of Interstate 75.
Building a big reputation for good Italian food is the 3-year-old Benedetto's Italiano Ristorante in Village Lakes Shopping Center in Land O'Lakes.
Chef and owner Ben Pumo's place climbed once again this year onto Florida Trend magazine's list of the state's top 500 restaurants.
But nothing matches the saucy expansion of the family-run restaurants operating under the name Suprema.
The Marchica clan opened Pizza Suprema south of SR 54 on Collier Parkway in 1999 and followed it up last year with Pizza Suprema II next to SuperTarget on Bruce B. Downs and County Line Road.
Two months ago, Suprema Italian Restaurant, less of a take-out joint and more of a sit-down place, fired up its ovens near Publix in Collier Commons shopping centers.
Patriarch Luigi and matriarch Lina come from Porto Empedocle on the Italian island of Sicily. With the addition of adult sons Frank and Joseph, the family juggles its growing empire.
"The difference is that we make everything from scratch. Fresh dough, fresh sausage, real chicken," Frank Marchica said as he paused from twisting dough into garlic knots and slapping them on a metal tray in his pungent Land O'Lakes pizzeria. "You get a lot these franchises, they're not as fresh as us."
Adds father Luigi: "We're not McDonald's here. We cook to order."
New bedroom communities in Pasco grew at a clip of nearly 6,000 homes last year. Land O'Lakes and Wesley Chapel, within easy driving distance of jobs in Tampa, accounted for most of the growth.
Combine that with the popularity of Italian, which polls consistently rank as the overwhelming favorite among ethnic food in the United States, and you've got a winner of a business.
The nightly bustle at Benedetto's has forced Pumo to enclose his outdoor solarium. That will help him serve dozens more diners under candlelight each night.
"Business is awesome," Pumo told the Times earlier this month. "Fridays and Saturdays are just insane."
Pizza Villa, in the same shopping center as Benedetto's, doesn't appear to be hurting, either. A bit farther west, near SR 54 and Gunn Highway, a Clearwater restaurateur plans to open Captain's Italian Restaurant.
One of the biggest culinary expansions will occur with the projected 2007 opening of Cypress Creek Town Center mall southwest of Interstate 75 and State Road 56.
In their boldest move yet, the Marchicas are trying to line up a lease in the 1.5-million-square-foot mall. Food court, here they come.
"We're a mom-and-pop joint. We've got the whole family working here," Frank Marchica said. "Now we're expanding like crazy."
- James Thorner covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at 813 909-4613 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4613. His e-mail address is thorner@sptimes.com
