Good morning, East of Tampa family.
Friday night football is not on Friday this week. Hillsborough County moved the whole slate to Thursday, and nearly every game kicks at 7:00 instead of 7:30, because Friday is September 11 and this year is the 25th anniversary. If you have a kid on a team, in a band or on a sideline, that is the whole message.
Let's get into it.
Brandon Crossroads Bowl | A bowling family that has been at this for 67 years. Thirty-six of them on Crater Lane.
Bill and Gloria Boje opened their first bowling center in St. Louis in 1959. In 1990 Bill and his son Jeff built Brandon Crossroads Bowl here, 40,000 square feet and 40 lanes, and for the better part of two decades it had the most league bowlers per lane of any center in Florida.
Bill died in 2020 at 92. Jeff runs operations now, his sister Christy runs finance and HR, and Gloria is still the matriarch. Same family, same street, thirty-six years.
Here is why this week. It storms every single afternoon between now and Sunday. BCB has 40 lanes, an arcade, billiards and a full kitchen doing pizza, wings and burgers, and Bowlapalooza is $6.99 plus tax Monday through Friday from 3 to 5 with free shoes. Sunday morning from 9 to noon is the same price.
If you are down in South County, The Alley at SouthShore is the same family and the same answer. 42,000 square feet at 10221 Big Bend Road in Riverview, with an arcade, a grill, a sports bar and Team Trivia every Wednesday at 7. Between the two houses that is 82 lanes with the air conditioning on, and both of them are big supporters of local businesses around here, which is something you notice when you run one.
609 Crater Lane in Brandon. Call Brandon Crossroads Bowl at (813) 621-2363.
Photo: The Alley at SouthShore
Six days, and every one of them turns in the afternoon. (Source: National Weather Service Tampa Bay)
⛅ Tuesday: 91, 60%. Heat index up to 101. Scattered storms all day, then likely after 4 p.m. The morning is your window.
⛈ Wednesday: 92, 70%. Mostly sunny until about 2, then it goes. That is the shape of every day this week.
⛈ Thursday: 92, 70%. Storms likely after 2 p.m., and kickoff is at 7:00. Look at the radar before you leave for the game.
⛅ Friday: 92, 60%. Isolated storms early, showers later. The 9/11 ceremony is a morning event, which is the dry half of the day.
⛈ Saturday: 92, 70%. Morning sports should get through. The afternoon is a coin flip.
⛈ Sunday: 92, 70%. Same as Saturday. Get out early or get wet.
No heat advisory is in effect this morning, and at a forecast heat index of 101 we are not close to the line. This is just a normal wet September week.
Patriot Day at Veterans Memorial Park is Friday morning, and this is the 25th anniversary. Color guard, rifle salute, taps, and an escort of the 135 pound steel beam from the Twin Towers that lives at the park. JROTC cadets from county high schools lead parts of it. Afterward there are demonstrations from the Sheriff's drone team, MacDill's military working dogs and the Coast Guard. Free, outdoor amphitheater, 3602 N. U.S. Highway 301.
Friends of the Riverview Library book sale runs Friday and Saturday. Friday 1 to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the community room. Free to walk in, books priced at the sale, and the money stays at the Riverview branch. Riverview Public Library, 9951 Balm Riverview Road.
Figure drawing at the Firehouse is Thursday, 6 to 9 p.m. A live model, timed poses, bring whatever you draw with. Adults 18 and up, $15 cash at the door, no class commitment and no series to sign up for. Firehouse Cultural Center, 101 First Ave. NE, Ruskin. Reservations are not required but they will take one at 813-645-7651.
Line dancing at Bruton Memorial is tonight, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Free, instructed, walk in. Space is limited and it is first come first served, so get there a few minutes early. Moody Community Meeting Room, 302 McLendon St., Plant City.
Tampa Taiko drumming at Bloomingdale Regional is Monday, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Live Japanese taiko for ages 6 to 12, which is a loud hour and a genuinely different one. Free, Room 219, 1906 Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico.
East of Tampa Local Sports covers high school football and volleyball across the county with game cards, final scores, Athlete of the Week and school calendar posts. Some of them run 10,000 to 50,000 impressions. One school, football and volleyball plus school calendar and admin posts, is $250 a month for six posts or $500 a month for twelve, three month minimum. If you want a local kid's name in front of the whole county with your logo under it, start here.
Photo: East of Tampa Local Sports
Three closures start this week, all of them pipeline work, and two are on roads you use every day.
Brandon Boulevard gets a microtunnel starting Wednesday, at North and South Moon avenues. It runs about two weeks, and it goes to a 24 hour operation Thursday into Friday with night lighting. Otherwise crews are on it 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
South Kings Avenue loses its southbound exterior lane from south of Ronele Drive to Dali Drive starting today, for about four weeks. It reopens nightly, except September 15 through 18, when it is closed around the clock for concrete work.
FishHawk Boulevard closes its north sidewalk on Monday, between FishHawk Ridge Drive and the FishHawk Sports Complex. Use the south side and cross at FishHawk Ridge Drive or FishHawk Crossing Boulevard. The project page has all three.
Give yourself the extra ten minutes. The rain is going to take the rest.
Prima Italian Kitchen is at 1020 East Bloomingdale Avenue in Valrico, which some of you will recognize as the old Shrimp Boat. They say so themselves on their own site, which is a nice piece of honesty for a place that took over a room people had been going to for years.
They make their egg semolina pasta in house and cure their own pancetta, bacon and guanciale. The thing to order is the tableside spaghetti carbonara at $19.99, because they finish it in front of you with pecorino and egg yolk, and nobody else around here is doing that. The stuffed flounder with shrimp, scallops and crab is $21.99, the cast iron meatballs are $11.99, and the 24 hour braised short rib is $27.99.
Open Monday through Thursday, 4 to 9. It is a Tuesday and it is going to rain at dinner time. Call (813) 661-3838.
Photo: Prima Italian Kitchen
Photo: Prima Italian Kitchen
REAL ESTATE CORNER
House of the week: 5924 Cherry Oak Drive, Valrico. Five bedrooms, three baths, 2,654 square feet on a third of an acre inside the gates at River Hills Country Club. One story, three car garage, private pool, backing onto the 14th hole.
The update list is the part that matters: roof in 2017, air conditioning and water heater in 2020, engineered hardwood in every bedroom the same year, and new windows throughout in 2025. That is the list you want to read before you write an offer, not after.
$797,000, which works out to $300 a foot. HOA is $447 a month. Built in 1998.
Danielle Plumstead is the listing agent on this one. If you want to walk it, call Team Plumstead at (813) 495-2136.
Photos: Team Plumstead, Red Sash Realty
Two more agents on the east side. There are three real estate agents in this newsletter and they all work the same streets, which is great for you! If you are buying or selling out here, you should be talking to somebody who actually lives out here.
Madison Patron sells residential real estate with Foundation Realty Group across the same footprint most of you live in. 813-955-9092.
Tabatha Pugh is a licensed Florida broker associate with Keller Williams Realty Smart, working out of Plant City. She has been licensed since 2017 and she knows that side of the county better than the search portals do. 813-476-8457.
AROUND TOWN
The county budget hearing is Thursday night and it is open to you. Commissioners take public comment on the FY27 budget and the tax rates at 6 p.m. at the County Center downtown, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., with a second hearing September 24. You can sign up to speak online 48 hours ahead or in the lobby that night. Here is how.
The school district reached a pay deal for support staff. Hillsborough County Public Schools and the teachers' association agreed on more than $2.4 million in salary increases for education support professionals, the bus aides, paraprofessionals and clerical staff who run the building around the teachers. Everybody eligible moves up a level, anyone already at the top gets a one time $1,500, and the district keeps covering the full employee health premium. It is tentative until employees ratify it and the board signs off.
An Apollo Beach 14 year old made Team USA. Aspen Henderson is one of six athletes named to the USA Goalball Women's Youth National Team, and she is trying to get to the world championships in Kazakhstan in late November. Goalball is played with a 2.8 pound ball with bells inside it. She was born legally blind, and she is about a third of the way to the $7,000 it takes to get her there.
Ford's Garage is coming to Riverview. The chain now lists 10704 Palmetto St. on its own locations page. No opening date is posted yet, so this is a confirmed address rather than a confirmed date.
Plant City brings back Wheels in Motion on September 19. A community bike ride at McIntosh Preserve, 7:30 a.m., open to every skill level. The city put it back on the calendar last week.
FRIDAY NIGHT IS THURSDAY NIGHT
Week three is done and week four moves up a day. Every one of our twelve plays Thursday, September 10, and the county has almost all of them at 7:00 rather than 7:30.
Here is how week three went, biggest margin first.
Armwood 35, Plant City 0.
Alonso 53, Riverview 7.
Sumner 43, Gaither 14.
Durant 42, Kathleen 10.
Lennard 32, St. Petersburg Catholic 14.
East Bay 26, Gibbs 14.
Newsome 32, Bloomingdale 30.
Lake Gibson 15, Spoto 0.
Strawberry Crest and Brandon were both open.
Game of the week: Newsome at Lennard, Thursday, 7:00 p.m., in Ruskin. Newsome is 3-0 and the last unbeaten on this side of the county, and they got there by surviving 32-30 at Bloomingdale in the best game anybody around here has played this season. Lennard is 2-1 and its only loss is a 17-7 game against Armwood, which is a better line on a resume than the record makes it look. It is also a district opener for both. An unbeaten going on the road to a live underdog with standings on it is worth the drive.
The rest of Thursday night, week four.
Durant at Sumner, 7:00, in Riverview. Two more good ones, and Sumner is the higher ranked program of the pair.
Plant City at Riverview, 7:00.
Kathleen at Brandon, 7:00.
Bloomingdale vs Leto, in Valrico.
East Bay vs Hillsborough, in Gibsonton.
Spoto at Armwood, in Seffner.
Strawberry Crest at King, in Tampa.
Photo: Osprey Observer
If you are at a game Thursday, send us the score and a photo. Students, coaches and parents all welcome. That is how this section gets better.
The businesses that keep this free.
Environmental Protective Solutions was founded in Lithia in 2005, so 21 years this year. Adam Key is a certified mold remediator and the work is mold and mycotoxin removal, water damage, leak detection and crawl space encapsulation, plus the repairs afterward. Six straight afternoons of rain is the week a leak announces itself. One year warranty on remediation, 24/7 emergency line, (813) 438-5937.
Photo: Environmental Protective Solutions
LumaCare Integrative Wellness is new to this newsletter. Dr. Lisa Gaye Morgan is a doctorate prepared, board certified family nurse practitioner with more than 16 years in health care, and LumaCare is her concierge primary care practice at 12350 US-301 in Riverview. Integrative primary care, preventive and lifestyle medicine, women's health and midlife wellness, and metabolic health. (813) 537-3988.
Photo: LumaCare Integrative Wellness
The #1 Meat Man is Shawn McCranie. The Premium Family Meat Box is $220, and that is 24 steak burgers at 12 pounds, 24 individually packaged all natural chicken breasts at 9 pounds, and a 10 pound box of Duroc pork tenderloins. Fill out the order form to get in touch with The #1 Meat Man.
Photo: The #1 Meat Man
Caring Transitions of Riverview is also new here. Antoine Johnson runs it, he is a certified relocation and transition specialist and a member of the national senior move managers association, and the work is the job nobody in a family wants to organize: downsizing a parent, packing and resettling them, running the estate sale or the online auction, and clearing the house afterward. Riverview, Brandon, Valrico, Dover, Gibsonton and Plant City. 813-578-8656.
Glaros Law is Steve Glaros at 350 East Robertson Street in Brandon, and he is the current 2026 Honorary Mayor of East Hillsborough after raising $121,746 for High 5, the Impact Program and Raining Cats and Dogs. Family law, personal injury and estate planning. Personal injury consults are free. (813) 854-1234.
Photo: Glaros Law
Stoner's Pizza Joint is Allison Hardy's shop at 3428 Lithia Pinecrest Road in Bloomingdale. Pizza, wings and calzones, and the Pick 2 is $6.99 each. A wet week with the kids inside is what that deal is for. (813) 436-0016.
Photo: Stoner's Pizza Joint
Maid Pure Cleaning is Dionne Cona, a former teacher and a mother of four, cleaning homes in Brandon, Riverview and Valrico. More than 250 local customers, bonded and insured, and a 24 hour satisfaction callback if something gets missed. She also partners with Cleaning for a Reason, which cleans free for people going through cancer. (813) 670-2004.
Photo: Maid Pure Cleaning
Fix It Today Plumbing is the same family as Environmental Protective Solutions, which is a useful thing to know at 11 at night. The crew that stops the leak is the crew that dries the house out. Leaks, drains, water heaters, sewer lines, repiping and water filtration, flat rate pricing with financing. (813) 743-7793.
Journeys by Jess is Jess, a certified family travel advisor and a registered Florida Seller of Travel, planning cruises, all inclusives, Disney and group travel out of Riverview. September is when the winter and spring break inventory starts moving. [email protected].
Photo: Journeys by Jess
Running something the rest of us should know about? A fundraiser, a grand opening, a tournament, a church festival, a garage sale with actual good stuff. Send it in here and we will get it in front of 5,000 of your neighbors.
See you Friday.
John
The East of Tampa Guy
The Bucs are BACK!!!
