Good morning, East of Tampa family.
Sumner beat Strawberry Crest 55-0 last Friday. Tonight the Stingrays host a state-ranked Tampa Bay Tech team that is also 1-0, and it is the one local game worth changing your plans for. Full slate below, plus a $3-a-bag book sale, a closing-weekend thriller in Ruskin, and a Sunday you should plan indoors.
The #1 Meat Man | Shawn shows up at your house with the whole box.
I buy from Shawn McCranie personally. That is the entire reason he is in this newsletter. He runs The #1 Meat Man out of the east side, and the pitch is simple. One delivery, one freezer, and you stop making the 5 p.m. decision about what is for dinner.
The Premium Family Meat Box is $220. That is 24 steak burgers at 12 pounds, 24 all natural chicken breasts at 9 pounds, individually packaged so you are not thawing a brick, and a 10 pound box of Duroc pork tenderloins. Do the math on 31 pounds of protein against a Publix cart and it is not close.
Football season just started, which means six weeks of Friday nights where nobody is cooking a real dinner at 5:30. Fill the freezer before the schedule fills up.
Photo: The #1 Meat Man
Fill out the order form below to get in touch with The #1 Meat Man.
☀️ Friday: 92, 50%. Storms hold off until after 2 p.m., so the morning is clean and the 7:30 kickoffs should be fine.
🥵 Saturday: 93, 40%. Heat index to 103. Get the yard work done before 11 or do not do it.
⛈️ Sunday: 92, 90%. This is the wet one. Move anything outdoors to the morning and have a backup plan for the afternoon.
(Source: National Weather Service Tampa Bay)
$3 a bag at the Ruskin library book sale. The Friends of the Ruskin Branch run their mini book sale today and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. They hand you the bag, you fill it, it costs three dollars. Cash only. 26 Dickman Dr. SE, Ruskin.
Closing weekend for "Murder, Denied" in Ruskin. The Firehouse Cultural Center runs the psychological thriller tonight and Saturday at 7:30, with a Sunday matinee at 3. Tickets are $25 for members and $30 for everyone else. Online booking is closed and seating is tight, so call 813-645-7651. 101 1st Ave. NE, Ruskin.
Free Tampa Museum of Art on Balm Riverview Road. "Made in Florida," a poster exhibition drawn from the museum's collection, is up at the Riverview Public Library today and Saturday during branch hours, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free, no registration, no drive downtown. 9951 Balm Riverview Rd.
Alafia River State Park, $5 a car. Open 8 a.m. to sunset all three days at 14326 S. County Rd. 39 in Lithia. Given Sunday's 90 percent, the trails are a Sunday morning move, not a Sunday afternoon one.
Game of the week: Tampa Bay Tech at Sumner, 7:30. Both teams are 1-0 and both won ugly-big. Sumner put 55 on Strawberry Crest without giving up a point. Tampa Bay Tech handled Lake Gibson 27-6 and comes in ranked around 30th in the state. Sumner played into a regional final last November. Two winners, one of them ranked, at Stingray Stadium on County Road 672. That is the drive.
Photo: Osprey Observer
The rest of Friday night, week two.
Freedom at Newsome, 7:30. The Wolves are 1-0 after beating Land O'Lakes 31-24.
Durant at Strawberry Crest, 7:30. Durant is 1-0 off a 49-7 win over King. Crest is coming off the shutout.
Bloomingdale at Middleton, 7:30. The Bulls are 1-0, 26-15 over Hillsborough.
Parrish Community at Riverview, 7:30. The Sharks are 0-1 and home.
Robinson at Spoto, 7:30. Spoto is 1-0.
East Bay at Chamberlain, 7:30. The Indians are 1-0 after a 43-7 win.
Brandon at Mulberry, 7:30.
Morgan at Lennard, home tonight.
Plant City opens its season at Fletcher in Jacksonville, 6:30. That is the one game that does not kick at 7:30.
Armwood is in Ramsey, New Jersey, at Don Bosco Prep, 7:00 our time.
Send us a final, a photo or a highlight and we will run it. Scores, students, coaches, all of it.
Advertise with East of Tampa Local Sports. Game cards, final scores, Athlete of the Week and school calendar posts across Hillsborough high schools, some of them hitting 10,000 to 50,000 impressions. One school, football and volleyball plus the school calendar and admin posts. $250 a month for six posts, $500 for twelve, three month minimum. Here is the version that sells it: a Sumner kid goes for 150 yards tonight, Monday morning his card is in every feed in Riverview, and your business name is on it. A local kid gets recognized, and a local business gets credit for doing it. Details here.
Photo: East of Tampa Local Sports
Victoria Street is closed in Brandon, and it is going to stay that way. Tampa Bay Water has Victoria closed to through traffic from Limona Road to North Parsons Avenue for open-trench pipeline work, Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. North Kings Avenue is already closed at Victoria. North Knights and North Moon are next.
If Victoria is how you get to Parsons, use Brandon Boulevard or Lumsden during the day. Brandon High families should know the sidewalk is closed east of North Kings, and the walking detour runs south to Sadie Street then north on Kings. The alerts page is updated as each road goes down.
Presented by WeWed.
The reservation is the easy part. Sitter booked, table booked, and forty minutes in you are both on your phones because neither of you knows what to talk about that is not the kids or the calendar.
Yolonda Young runs WeWed out of the east side. Most people call her Coach Lovey. Twenty years of prevention and wellness work, and her whole thing is working on the pattern before it turns into a crisis.
She put together a free one-page guide for our readers. Five questions, ten minutes, run it before you walk out the door. Grab The 10-Minute Check-In here.
Photo: WeWed
Where to go this weekend.
Sunset Bar & Grill at Little Harbor, 602 Bahia Del Sol, Ruskin. This is the sit-down one. It faces west over the water, it takes reservations, and Friday's storms clear out before dinner. Book it and get there before the sun does.
Photo: Sunset Bar & Grill
Sunflower Cafe, 3452 Lithia Pinecrest Rd., Valrico. Locally and family owned, right in the Valrico and Bloomingdale core. Dinner runs 5 to 9. The Beef Bulgogi is $17.95 and the Rainbow Bowl is $14.95. They run a 10 percent military discount on Tuesdays, which is worth knowing for next week. Menu here.
FishHawk Pizza, 7013 Lithia Pinecrest Rd., Lithia. The after-the-game answer. Open 11 to 9 daily, chicken parmesan $16.11, baked ziti $14.55, and a small margherita at $13.74. If you are coming off a 7:30 kickoff, this is the one still on your way home.
Photo: FishHawk Pizzeria
Chick-fil-A opened at Balm Road and 301 with 120 jobs. The new Riverview restaurant at 14310 S. US Hwy. 301 opened Aug. 20 under owner-operator Lorena Kurtjian Hernandez, who came here from Argentina at 10 years old. The company put $25,000 into Feeding Tampa Bay to mark the opening.
Photo: Chick-fil-A
An 1886 farmhouse on SR 60 is getting a $1.65 million restoration. The Moseley Homestead sits on 14 acres you have driven past a thousand times. Hillsborough County has $1,650,000 on the books toward the restoration, and the Timberly Trust runs its second annual family picnic on Labor Day, Sept. 7, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Winthrop Barn Theatre in Riverview. Barbecue, live music, a raffle. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, $10 for ages 6 to 16. Call 813-477-8332, they are not sold online.
Ten of eleven speakers told Plant City to reconsider its license plate cameras. At the Aug. 24 commission meeting, residents lined up against the city's Flock Safety readers on privacy grounds. Police told commissioners there are 18 cameras up and 22 more going in, and that the system has contributed to 101 cleared cases and 11 arrests, including a homicide arrest and four stolen vehicle recoveries, with data purged after 30 days. Same meeting: city attorney Kenneth Buchman said he is retiring in January after 35 years. The agendas and packets are public.
The businesses that keep this free.
Environmental Protective Solutions was founded in Lithia on May 5, 2005, so 21 years this year. Adam Key is a certified mold remediator and runs the Tampa side out of the Brandon office at 2708 Broadway Center Blvd. Mold and mycotoxin removal, water damage, leak detection, crawl space encapsulation, and the repair work afterward. One-year warranty on remediation and a 24/7 emergency line. (813) 438-5937.
Photo: Environmental Protective Solutions
Tabatha Pugh is a licensed Florida broker associate with Keller Williams Realty Smart, working out of Plant City since 2017. Nine years of writing contracts in this county is the kind of thing that shows up when an inspection goes sideways. 813-476-8457.
Roof Rejuvenate SH is veteran owned and based in Lithia, serving FishHawk, Brandon, Valrico and Plant City. Jeff's crew rejuvenates asphalt shingles with a 96 percent bio-based, USDA-certified product instead of tearing the roof off. A replacement runs $15,000 to $30,000. This is a fraction of that, it carries a five-year transferable warranty, and the 21-point inspection is free. They cap at 15 to 20 roofs a month, so the calendar is the constraint. (813) 652-2777.
Photo: Roof Rejuvenate SH
Glaros Law is Steve Glaros at 350 E. Robertson St. in Brandon. He is the 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 Rd. in Bloomingdale. Pizza, wings and calzones, and the Pick 2 runs $6.99 each. (813) 436-0016.
Photo: Stoner's Pizza Joint
Madison Patron is a residential agent with Foundation Realty Group covering the same east side footprint we write about every week. Cell 813-955-9092, office 813-729-6000.
Maid Pure Cleaning is Dionne Cona, a former teacher and a mother of four, with 250-plus local customers across Brandon, Riverview and Valrico. Bonded and insured, with a 24-hour satisfaction callback, and they partner with Cleaning for a Reason. (813) 670-2004.
Photo: Maid Pure Cleaning
Fix It Today Plumbing is the same family as Environmental Protective Solutions, which is the useful part. The people who stop the leak are the people who dry the house out. Leaks, drains, water heaters, sewer lines, repiping and water filtration, flat-rate pricing and financing, across Brandon, Riverview, Valrico and Plant City. (813) 743-7793.
Team Plumstead is John and Danielle Plumstead with Red Sash Realty, working FishHawk, Lithia, Valrico and Riverview. Both are licensed Florida agents. (813) 495-2136.
Brandon Crossroads Bowl has been at 609 Crater Ln. since 1990, 40 lanes across 40,000 square feet with a pub and grill. Bowlapalooza runs Monday through Friday, 3 to 5 p.m., at $6.99 plus tax with free shoes. Its sister house The Alley at SouthShore is 42,000 square feet at 10221 Big Bend Rd. in Riverview, with Team Trivia every Wednesday at 7 p.m. and $5.99 Sun Cruiser cans. (813) 621-2363 and (813) 672-8353.
Photo: The Alley at SouthShore
Journeys by Jess is Jess in Riverview, a registered Florida Seller of Travel and a certified family travel advisor working cruises, all-inclusives, Disney and group travel. If you are thinking about spring break, this is the month to think about it. [email protected].
Got an event, a score, a photo or a business we should know about? Send it in here. We read every one.
See you Tuesday.
John
The East of Tampa Guy
Anyone that follows me on social media or has been reading this newsletter for more than a day knows that I'm a big fan of sports. I love connecting, I love football, and I love kids. I wish I could coach every high school, every middle school, and every elementary school football player in the county. I try my best to support all of them, no matter what team they're on, but when push comes to shove, there's one team that's number one, and that's my 11U Fishhawk Spartans. My coaches and I are so proud to call this our team.
