This fall, chefs and owners with Michelin-level résumés are opening restaurants in Odessa, and both of them chose casual formats. One is a sit-down comfort-food kitchen inside a pumpkin farm on Boy Scout Road. The other is a sushi-and-ramen counter at a Gunn Highway shopping center, built around takeout. One opened in September, and the other is expected this fall. Their first season overlaps with Hillsborough County's plan to close part of Gunn Highway and with a Suncoast Trail trailhead that FDOT is keeping shut, so a weekend here this season takes some routing.
A Spiaggia résumé, cooking brunch at a pumpkin farm
Raprager Farms at 16907 Boy Scout Road called its September 18 opening a grand reopening, and it reopened with something it didn't have before: a real restaurant. The Land O' Lakes-Lutz Courier reported that Whizk & Brew is owned by executive chef Jessica Tomlinson. She graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and cooked at Michelin-starred Spiaggia in Chicago, The Bristol, Ford's Garage and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse. According to the same report, she became a vice president on the corporate side of hospitality before opening her own kitchen. Co-owner Lance Tomlinson and head chef Joe Himes complete the leadership team.
The menu is comfort food. Breakfast includes a birria brisket burrito, chorizo biscuits and gravy, and brown butter buttermilk pancakes. Lunch and dinner include a smashburger, brisket and frites, and bacon scallion mac and cheese.
The hours matter most if you plan to eat here instead of doing the festival:
| Whizk & Brew restaurant | Fall Pumpkin Festival | |
|---|---|---|
| Friday | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. |
| Saturday | 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. | 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. |
| Sunday | 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. | 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Admission | None outside major festival dates | $19 |
The farm's restaurant page lists weekend breakfast from 9 to 11:30 a.m., but it also says breakfast is not served during the Fall Festival and that hours can change for special events. The festival runs on select Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through November. The farm lists September through November as its season but doesn't post a date-by-date schedule. On any given weekend, the pancakes may or may not be on offer. That's worth checking before you drive out for them.
The $19 festival ticket covers the farm animals, hayrides, a petting zoo, a bounce pillow, a corn pit, a hay chute slide, a passion fruit maze, and field games such as cornhole and giant Connect Four. Axe throwing, a zip line, pony rides and gem mining cost extra. On select October nights after 6 p.m., the farm adds a ghost-story hayride, the Bog Monsters haunted maze, Halloween photo spots and an animatronic dragon. The farm's Farmville retail village also has two new tenants, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Cold Stone Creamery.
The same choice, made by Koya's owners on Gunn Highway
Two weeks before Whizk & Brew opened, Eric and Adriana Fralick announced a restaurant for Odessa that follows the same pattern. The Tampa Bay Times reported that the couple opened Noble Rice in a small Hyde Park space in 2016, later moved it to Water Street, and launched Koya. Koya is a nine-seat tasting-menu restaurant and was the first in the area to win a Michelin star. Their Hyde Park restaurant Kinjo opened in 2025 and earned a Michelin recommendation in its first year.
The new restaurant, Toro, is planned for the Shoppes at Starkey Crossing at 2290 Gunn Highway. It's named for the fatty tuna belly. Fralick told the Times it will be more casual than the couple's other restaurants. It will still offer sushi and nigiri similar to Noble Rice, with fish bought at auction at Tokyo's Toyosu Market. The Times listed bluefin tuna otoro, uni, kanpachi, shima aji and madai, along with ramen bowls and specialty maki. Fralick described the focus as "takeout done right."
Toro wasn't open yet when this was written. In early September, Fralick was still hiring and building the menu, and he said the restaurant "could open in October." As of October 12, we couldn't find a confirmed opening date, published hours or a final menu. Treat it as coming soon until the owners announce a date.
Taken together, one opening and one planned opening show where serious cooking is landing in Odessa this fall. Each team picked a format meant for regular use: a farm kitchen where you don't need a festival ticket to eat on most days, and a sushi counter designed around the drive home.
The road both trips run along is losing a stretch for up to four weeks
Gunn Highway is closing in its northern section. In a September 10 announcement, Hillsborough County said it will close Gunn Highway near 18830 Gunn Highway for up to 28 days, beginning on or after October 12. Crews will remove a 5-by-10-foot box culvert that is near the end of its lifespan and replace it with two 53-by-83-inch elliptical reinforced concrete pipes. The Courier puts the closed stretch between Van Dyke Road and Lutz Lake Fern Road. Citing county data via Bay News 9, it reported that about 20,000 vehicles pass through the work area each day. Citing the Tampa Bay Beacons, it put the project's cost at about $1.3 million.
The posted detour uses Lutz Lake Fern Road, Dale Mabry Highway and Van Dyke Road. The Veterans Expressway is another option, with regular tolls. The county said message boards along the detour would post updates and that it would send detour details to navigation apps.
The 28 days is a limit, not a fixed schedule. Hillsborough County project manager Samir Ahmed told Bay News 9:
"We're going to try to expedite the project if possible."
The same report said crews may work weekends to speed things up and that bad weather could extend the closure. As of October 12, we hadn't found a county notice confirming the actual start date or a revised end date. The county's road and lane closures page links to its live closure map.
In practice, a fall weekend that combines Raprager, Gunn Highway errands and Starkey Ranch has a different route this month. The closure covers one segment of Gunn Highway, not the whole road. Check the closure map before choosing a route for any specific trip.
The trailhead that stays closed until next summer
The second closure will outlast the pumpkin season by months. FDOT is building a $9 million pedestrian overpass that will carry the Suncoast Trail over SR 54. Construction began June 22, 2026, and completion is estimated for summer 2027. The contractor is Cone & Graham, Inc. Since June 23, the project page has listed the Suncoast Trail trailhead at the end of Touchpoint Drive, on the north side of SR 54 in Pasco County, as closed around the clock. The closure is expected to last until the project ends.
The trail itself stays open. FDOT says the Suncoast Trail is expected to remain open throughout construction and that a street-level crossing of SR 54 will remain for pedestrians and cyclists. Short pedestrian detours are planned while work is happening overhead. If you usually park at Touchpoint Drive, you'll need a different trailhead through next summer. Once you're on the trail, expect the occasional short detour near SR 54 while crews work overhead.
Here are both closures side by side:
| Closure | Where | What's affected | Expected end |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gunn Highway culvert | Between Van Dyke Road and Lutz Lake Fern Road, near 18830 Gunn Highway | Through traffic on that segment | Up to 28 days from a start on or after Oct. 12, weather permitting |
| Suncoast Trail trailhead | End of Touchpoint Drive, north of SR 54 | Trailhead parking and access only; the trail stays open | Summer 2027 |
A Starkey Ranch weekend that avoids both
The two closures leave a lot of Odessa untouched, including Lake Blanche Drive in Starkey Ranch. The Odessa calendar on Patch lists two events there over the next two weekends:
- Saturday, October 17, 4 p.m.: Majesty of Rock at Starkey Ranch Theater, 12118 Lake Blanche Drive.
- Saturday, October 24, 8:30 a.m.: The Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk at Starkey Ranch District Park, 11880 Lake Blanche Drive.
Patch recommends confirming details with organizers, and that applies to both events. The theater and the park are both on Lake Blanche Drive. A 5K morning on the 24th leaves the rest of the day open for Raprager's afternoon festival hours, or for its October-night programming after 6 p.m. if that weekend is on the farm's schedule. If Toro opens by then, Starkey Crossing would also be an option for a takeout dinner.
Raprager's calendar page lists Haunted Farm Nights in October and says exact dates are confirmed through its listings and announcements. For tickets and festival dates, the farm takes calls at 813-606-4242.
If you own a home near Gunn Highway or Starkey Ranch and want to know how new restaurants and road work affect what nearby buyers pay attention to, The Davenport Group can walk you through it privately. Request a Confidential Home Valuation and we'll start with your street.
