'Dream come true': Hurricane Ian-destroyed Matlacha restaurant to open Cape Coral location
It was just too good for Erik Lebsack and Kyle Sherman to pass up.
And so they didn’t.
The owners of Hooked Island Grill will open a new location at the corner of SE 10th Place and SE 47th Terrace in South Cape near Club Square. It’s taking over the spot vacated by Big Storm Brewing in September. It was also home to JoAnn Elardo’s Big Blue Brewing from October 2016 to August 2020 and a bingo hall before that.
“We couldn’t say no,” Lebsack said. “The building, the location. It’s right at the heart of the entertainment district. Right on the corner of Bike Night, the New Year’s Eve ball drop, the Pride event — all right there. It’s a dream come true. This one we couldn’t say no to.”
They found out they got the coveted spot just before Christmas.
“We were a little surprised,” Lebsack said. “We had some stiff competition. We knew the (building and property) owner (Elardo) liked our concept, liked our food and wanted to keep it local. We also have Franco Russo as a minority partner. It worked out good for us.”
It will be the second operating Hooked location for Lebsack and Sherman. They opened one in the Gulf Coast Town Center a year ago after Hurricane Ian destroyed their original Matlacha restaurant.
With Two Meatballs in the Kitchen and Stones Throw along Cape Coral Parkway, it will be the third restaurant in South Cape for Russo and his sixth overall (with Two Meatballs in Fort Myers and Fresh Catch and Junkanoo on Fort Myers Beach).
“We had talked about doing a project with him already,” Lebsack said. “Kyle worked for Franco before we did Hooked. We all have different ideas and all the things we’ve done have been successful. It seems like a pretty good group. We’re excited.”
Pizza is in the plan
And they already have plans for the building.
Take the back brewery room for example.
“That’s going to be its own pizza place,” Lebsack said of the space that will have a different name than Hooked. “It will be sealed up and have its own entrance. We want to cater to the nightlife. Hooked will be open regular business hours, but we will serve slices late night out of there on big bar nights.”
"We will have a pizza oven on one side," said Sherman. "We'll just have things that can be cooked in that oven — pizza, calzones, stromboli, knots. The other side will be for ice cream."
As for the restaurant overall, it will have its own style.
“Each location is a little different,” Lebsack said. “Matlacha is nothing like Gulf Coast Town Center. The vibe is different. It’s not come in a swimsuit and bare feet. We went from beach shabby to beach chic.”
The South Cape location is also going to have its own feel as well.
“It won’t look a ton like Fort Myers,” Lebsack said, “But it will have the same color scheme and the same really cool bar treatment. But in our typical fashion, we will make it look like something no one has done in this area. We do things that don’t look like other places. I think it will fit right in with the entertainment district. It’ll make a really good addition to the area.”
A menu months in the making
The menu, which Lebsack says they’ve been working on for months, falls into the same category. It’s been going through the idea, then trial and error stage to make sure it can be served in a timely fashion.
“We don’t want to be the same as everybody else,” he said. “We always want people to walk away with an experience that wows them. We want them to think the food is amazing. We don’t want to do just different. It needs to be really good.”
Think lobster meatballs with shrimp, panko and a vodka sauce served over gnocchi. Or the sushi dog which has been a big hit in the Fort Myers restaurant since its opening. Or the tropical pineapple bowl and Magnum Mary — a weekend brunch favorite with crab, lobster roll, shrimp, sausage, bacon and even cheese curds and more.
And you can expect the snow crab special — all you can eat within two hours for $40 on a select day or two — at the new location too.
“We started on the menu in October and keep tweaking it,” Lebsack said. “We’re looking for the wow factor. It has to taste just right and be easy to execute.”
The finished product will roll out in the Gulf Coast Town Center location where the Cape Coral staff (a job fair will be held in early February) can be trained and ready for the Cape opening.
“I think March is a fairly realistic timeline,” Lebsack said. “I’ll say we hope that’s how it works out. If we can go earlier, we will. If it’s later, that’s fine. We aren’t going to open just to be open. We pushed to open in Gulf Coast Town Center so we could get people back to work and establish something normal after the hurricane.”
Is Matlacha still a go?
Even when Lebsack and Sherman opened in Fort Myers, they still planned to rebuild the Ian-destroyed Matlacha location.
“Our intention was to go back to Matlacha,” Lebsack said. “We’ve met with the landowner half a dozen times. Each time we think we’ll get started, we don’t. We have zero control over it. We keep waiting.”
And if Matlacha is a go?
“If the opportunity arises, we will still go back,” he said “That’s home. Being on the water is a feature you can’t create. If we are allowed to, I’ll get back there. I’m not sure we will make it another Hooked since there will be one in Cape. It may be a different concept but our goal is still to get back out there.”
In the meantime, season’s coming and there’s the busy Gulf Coast Town Center Hooked, plus the new Cape one.
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“It’s pretty unbelievable, the amount of people excited to see us on this side of the bridge,” Lebsack said. “We’re only 15 minutes away from the original location and a lot of customers are saying they can’t wait. It’s a homecoming of sorts. Not all the way home, but it’s a homecoming.”
Hooked Island Grill, coming to 4721 SE 10th Place, Cape Coral; open at 9924 Gulf Coast Main St., Suite 130, Fort Myers in the Gulf Coast Town Center, (239) 313-7142; follow Cape Coral and Fort Myers locations on Facebook
Robyn George is a food and dining writer for The Fort Myers News-Press. Send news to [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Hooked Island Grill to open in former Big Storm spot in Cape Coral
