WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — For the past 15 years, The Shops at Wiregrass has been in the heart of Wesley Chapel.
The outdoor mall features more than 120 shops and businesses, plus dozens of restaurants from local business owners to major national chains.
"Think it's a sense of place. And as I said, this is the downtown area, I feel like, of Wesley Chapel," Marie Hartman, general manager at the Shops at Wiregrass, said. "People always need a place to go and congregate and just sit and relax. I mean, we're in the process of doing a lot of improvements to elevate the experience here."
You can find weekly and yearly events at the Shops at Wiregrass, especially during the cooler months.
We talked to locally-owned businesses at the Shop at Wiregrass.
Rocks, Crystals and Gems
Rob Lewis and his wife started their brick-and-mortar three years ago. You can find all kinds of rocks and gems from 16 different countries around the world.
"We do source out, you know, outside of the country. So Madagascar, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Libya, Mexico, Brazil, Peru. But we had to figure out how to ethically source things, we had to figure out how to effectively source material that would sell out very quickly. So we had to figure out the supply chain side of it. Overall, success was really dependent on Wiregrass. Our foot traffic here is amazing. The client base is amazing."
Yamato
Yamato is a Teppanyaki restaurant run by a father/son duo. Eric Han's father was a professional soccer player in Korea, but moving to America forced him to find a different career. That's when he became a sushi chef, and now, Han is following in his father's footsteps.
"I grew my passion for restaurants when I first started my restaurant job in high school part time. And I fell in love with the whole system. The cooking part, serving part, meeting people, talking to people, making people happy, putting smiles on their faces, and decided to, you know, take that path in my life. And then, hopefully, one day, I can have a restaurant or bar of my own."
You can check out all of the events, stores and restaurants at the Shops at Wiregrass by clicking here.
