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Wesley Chapel will add to menu

At least three new restaurants will heed the hue and cry of hungry homeowners near Bruce B. Downs.

By JAMES THORNER
Published August 6, 2005

WESLEY CHAPEL - Steak, sushi and American-style casual food are coming to what has been a restaurant-impoverished stretch of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

Developers of a project called the Shoppes of Wesley Chapel, half a mile north of State Road 56 fronting the Seven Oaks neighborhood, have landed two sit-down restaurants.

One will be an independently owned Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar of 6,500 square feet, according to the developer, Jon Wittner of Strategic Development LLC.

The other is an chain restaurant along the lines of a TGI Friday's, Ruby Tuesday or Bennigan's. Ruby Tuesday and Bennigan's already operate a couple of miles down the road in New Tampa. An Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar also sits nearby on State Road 54.

"We hope to start construction in the next four months," Wittner said.

After years of being a culinary Antarctica, central Pasco County has become a dining hot spot.

The parent company of Outback Steakhouse - which also owns Bonefish Grill and Carrabba's Italian Grill - has grabbed a site beside the Meadow Pointe neighborhood at Bruce B. Downs and Aronwood Boulevard.

Chili's Grill & Bar and Johnny Carino's Country Italian are recent arrivals. Expanding the dining opportunities are independent restaurants like the Caribbean-themed Rapscallion's on U.S. 41 in Land O'Lakes.

The Shoppes of Wesley Chapel is poised to serve thousands of homes along Bruce B. Downs. (Seven Oaks, west of Bruce B. Downs, plans 7,000; Wiregrass Ranch, across the street, plans 14,000).

Existing neighborhoods like Meadow Pointe on County Line Road and Saddlebrook on State Road 54 are underserved, Wittner said.

"Everyone I've talked to within 5 to 6 miles of there say they desperately need restaurants," he said.

Restaurants are only part of the project. The Shoppes is expected to have 42,000 square feet, much of that space a two-story retail/office building behind the restaurants at Bruce B. Downs and Vanguard Street.

[Last modified August 6, 2005, 01:36:22]