Award-winning waterfront Sanibel restaurant is back to business after Hurricane Ian

Wesley Brent is carrying on a family tradition.

Not only did his grandparents love Gramma Dot’s Seaside Saloon on Sanibel, but so did his parents.

And so does he and his kids.

Now Brent has taken his family’s fondness of the waterfront restaurant quietly tucked away in Sanibel Marina one step further.

“I’m the general manager here,” the Sanibel native said. “It’s decades old — one of the oldest operating restaurants on the island.”

Gramma Dot’s had a soft reopening in December, before Acme Marinas out of Charleston, South Carolina, took over on Jan. 9. A ribbon cutting by the SanCap Chamber was held Feb. 8.

Before that, the restaurant operated out of a food truck nine months after being hit hard by Hurricane Ian.

“Everything in here is new,” Brent said. “The kitchen, the floor, the roof, the walls. But it looks the same as it did before. Just brand new.”

The quaint restaurant with plank-like flooring and a high-slatted, white-beam ceiling is light and bright with walls of windows that bring the waterfront view right to your low-top table. Outside seating on the dog-friendly patio is breezy and shaded under umbrella-covered tables with even more sights and sounds of the picturesque marina.

Returning customers, by land and by boat, will see familiar faces too.

“Most of the staff is the same,” said Brent, who worked at Island Cow for 18 years. “We’ve had the same head chef for 20-plus years. Some of the waitstaff too. Not much has changed.”

This includes the seafood-focused lunch and dinner menus.

“We’ve had the same menu for 20-plus years,” Brent said. “We’re known for our coconut shrimp and Key lime pie.”

That coconut shrimp — offered with homemade pineapple sauce as a starter, on a salad or as a dinner — is a Taste of the Islands award winner along with the fried oysters, coconut curried lobster salad, bacon-wrapped shrimp and oyster dinner.

Grouper, shrimp, fish & chips and chicken tenders baskets are on the lunch-for-dinner menu along with a tuna melt and a big, 8-ounce ground sirloin burger. Salads can be topped with anything from grouper to scallops.

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Non-seafood options include filet mignon, ribeye, vegetarian pasta and chicken.

The kids menu has seafood plus chicken tenders, mac ‘n cheese and a hot dog.

And if you’re wondering, there was a Gramma Dot, aka Dorothy Stearns, who was a sailor, sportsperson, published author and artist. That Key lime pie recipe was all hers. She reportedly moved to Sanibel in the 1960s and died in 1998 at the age of 96.

As for the seaside saloon part, Gramma Dot’s originally served seafarers who could eat there before or after hitting the water.

Brent oversees the restaurant now.

“I grew up on the island,” he said. “When I was 14, I used to ride my bike to and from work. I worked my way up from bussing to general manager over 18 years (at Island Cow). When the fire happened, I came here. Then the hurricane came. Now I’m back.”

And so is Gramma Dot’s.

Gramma Dot’s, 634 North Yachtsman Drive at Sanibel Marina, Sanibel; open 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily; (239) 472-8138; sanibelmarina.com or on Facebook

Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Gramma Dot's reopens on Sanibel with new owners, same family tradition