A Beef O’Brady’s became an Irish pub. A container-park unit that has burned through four concepts became Korean fried chicken. That’s Wesley Chapel’s summer in two sentences.
Here’s every restaurant we can confirm opened in Pasco County this summer, newest first, with what was in the building before it.
July 18 — 1916 Irish Pub, Wesley Chapel
27315 Wesley Chapel Blvd., at Old Pasco Rd., in the Towne Centre at Wesley Chapel plaza — the one that was Winn-Dixie for years.
It replaced a Beef O’Brady’s, and by the account of the reporters who went in, it doesn’t look dramatically different inside. The menu is the change.
Owner Chuck Jamieson already runs 1916 Irish Pub locations in Brandon, Plant City and Lakeland, and owns Second Plate Catering. His stated goal was an Irish pub with an upgraded menu rather than a sports bar with Guinness on tap.
What’s been sampled and rated well by Neighborhood News: haddock fish and chips, the Rebel’s Reuben (corned beef, sauerkraut, melted Swiss, house-made Thousand Island), and the Irish stew — marinated braised beef slow-cooked in red wine, Guinness and a house demi-glace, with celery, carrots and onions, topped with mashed potatoes and served in a garlicky sourdough bread bowl.
That stew was the reviewer’s pick of the three.
June 26 — K-Crunch Fried Chicken, Bowls & Fries
5888 Grand Oro Ln., in the KRATE at the Grove container park. Phone (813) 550-8243.
This is the honest part, and it’s the reason to pay attention rather than assume it’ll last: that unit has been through several Indian restaurants, then Chicken Boss, then TJ’s Hot Dogs, and most recently Curry Club. It is one of the harder addresses in the county.
K-Crunch is independently owned — not a chain link — which makes it the outlier in Wesley Chapel’s Korean fried chicken run. Sweet Krunch started that locally about two years ago in the Shoppes at New Tampa on Bruce B. Downs, and Bonchon arrived at The Hub at Lexington a couple of months back. Both of those are regional or international chains.
Early reporting from Neighborhood News rates the fried chicken as genuinely crunchy and the seasoned fries as worth ordering. Whether it sticks where four others didn’t is the open question.
May 20 — Bonchon, The Hub at Lexington
Bonchon has been a mall-food-court name for years — order at a counter, take a number, wait for double-fried wings. The Wesley Chapel location threw that out.
It’s Bonchon’s second Tampa Bay location but the first built as a full sit-down restaurant: table service, a real bar program, roughly 70 seats plus an outdoor patio. Full story here.
November 2025 — Food + Beer, Wesley Chapel
The former Shuckin’ Shack pad on Wesley Chapel Blvd., now a sports pub that keeps a scratch kitchen running well past midnight — which is genuinely rare in this county after 10 p.m.
It’s the eighth location of a Sarasota-born chain founded by Mike Whalen and Casey Daniels, who met working a restaurant floor. Full story here.
Open, but no firm opening date published
All open, all covered in full elsewhere. We couldn’t confirm a specific opening date for these, so rather than guess at one they sit after everything we can date.
- Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine — third location, at The Shops at Wiregrass next to Brighton Collectibles. Ebru paintings, silk carpets and handmade glassware inside; lavas, babaganoush, moussaka and slow-braised lamb on the menu. Turkish, not Korean, whatever a few aggregators claim.
- The Hub at Lexington — not a restaurant but the reason several of these exist. A mixed-use development at Wesley Chapel Blvd. and Lexington Oaks Blvd., opening in phases, anchored by Brew Bar Self Pour, where you pour your own by the ounce off a wall of taps.
- Cotee River Creamery & Desserts — a second storefront at 6745 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., pushing north from the original New Port Richey shop. Scratch-made ice cream on a rotating flavour lineup.
What the pattern says
Five of the eight are in Wesley Chapel, and three of those are inside developments that didn’t exist a few years ago. Pasco County is the tenth largest county in Florida and grew 2.72% in the last year alone. Wesley Chapel is up 29.5% since the 2020 census.
Restaurants follow rooftops. That’s what this list actually is.
The other thing worth noting: two of the openings are replacements rather than new construction — a Beef O’Brady’s and a much-recycled container unit. New Port Richey and Zephyrhills aren’t in this list at all, which says something about where the money is going.
Elsewhere in the county
For what’s already established rather than newly opened: the waterfront restaurants, and what’s on across Pasco this August.
Opening dates, addresses and dish details for 1916 Irish Pub and K-Crunch reported by Gary Nager for Neighborhood News. If you know of an opening we’ve missed, tell us.