Another "Tips and suggestions thread" Traveling to Fort Myers

[1LuvCane]

Hahaha on chill days I would go to Heavenly Bisquit and then take the food to Big Carlos pass.

Just Walk to the very end of the point and fish, sip on coffee and enjoy some of the best cinnamon rolls on the planet lol

No question. My spots are new pass and san Carlos pass. I wade on the gulf side of the bridge. Cinnamon rolls are top notch. Another obstacle to overcome. You have to get there before they run out.

 

[1LuvCane]

I was wondering about the cruise to Key West and if it was worth it.
Definitely something I am considering since we have never been there either.
Thanks.

Boat ride abd Key West? Win win in my book..

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Not there Grouper Sandwich....Timmys Nook had the Best...I'd find it hard to fathom the Green Flash has a better one....And what's with the name "The Green Flash"??....Sounds like a Cheap Brothel...

The green flash is the light on the horizon as the sun goes down. That's what they said, anyhow.

 

[SemperFiddleCane]

if you happen to wander into the Cape(coral) theres quite a few good breweries to choose from. 8 foot, big blue and big storm among others. Neverminds is also a really good foodie spot along with Nice guys Pizza which is like 3 minutes away walking distance(Both are on Cape coral pkwy). the Matlacha area(Northwest Cape coral), St. James city, Bokeelia and Pine island as a whole are worth the drive if you want the small town Island vibe. theres small beach sports on the south end of St. James city and a ferry to Cayo Costa, Which is Fking amazing, in Bokeelia. Solid restaurants as your driving into matlacha as well and AWESOME fishing off the matlacha bridge if you're into that.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

**** CanesinO, small world again; you and I were there at the same time. My first on passenger carrying gig was captaining The Mary Kincaid for South Seas Plantation. There were two of us Jeff Star, the dock-masters son and I. We'd run lunch and dinner cruises to Cabbage Key and Useppa Island. If you ever made one of the bad weather crew parties at Cabbage Key (Canadian Terry was the dock-master at Cabbage) when all the retsteraunt help from Useppa and Cabbage got together during that time, we probably had some beers together.

Man the Bubble Room was one of the best ever - that parchment grouper they used to do, or the blackened prime - and those wicked deserts. I heard it changed haven't been there in quite a while. Mucky Duck was fun, Tween Waters...

TheOriginalCane what years were you there? I ran a corporate yacht for the guy who owned Dominos Pizza and the Detroit Tigers, I'd work out of South Seas alot over the winters from 1984-91.

OP just avoid Ft Myers Beach unless you are a fan of Atlantic City.

I was there in the 2000s. Monaghan also put all the land together and founded Ave Maria University, out near Immokalee. He's a super-Catholic and all the land out there by Ave Maria has restrictions so that the retailers can't sell condoms.

For the record, I'm Catholic too, so people don't get the wrong idea here.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

I left Kings Crown at South Seas end of 82...and went to Tween Waters as a Sous Chef....At that time..there was only 3 Restaurants at South Seas...Kings Crown...Chadwicks and Captn Al's...I was a Line Chef 5 nights a week at the Crown...and worked Sunday Brunch at Chadwicks as well...At Tween Waters there was only the Crows Nest...and No See Um Bar Poolside...Im still friends with Tony Lapi and his wife Angie, owners of Tween Waters...

DId a birthday party weekend for one of my best friends (also a UM alum) at Tween Waters, must have been 2006 or 2007. Everyone took boats out and his wife (also a UM alum) drove him out there. Good times.

 

[Cognizantphotos]

Stay away from little Pakistan.

 

[HurricaneinLA]

Lol...Traffic??...**** no....All you saw was the Sanibel Stoop...Lol...Had a car when I lived there (72 Bonneville)...but really didn't need it...I biked everywhere...except if I had to run to Baileys for some stuff on Sanibel....It was even better in the 70s....No 7-11s or Circle Ks....They weren't allowed on the Islands....Now...you have 5 or 6.....Back then...Bowmans Bch and Turner Beach were the place to go...the small concrete bridge that was before the turn onto Old Captiva Rd was Wooden....

I grew up in Cape Coral....Speaking of the Bubble Room...In 1982 the Sous Chef there was a friend of mine..Was a Johnson & Wales Grad...I'd eat there once a week...and always got something compted....Alot of us Chefs would meet at the Mucky Duck after work...which is close for anyone on Captiva...or Sanibel for that matter...for me...the Duck was literally across the street from South Seas....and I had a killer Apt on Premises...My absolute Go to back then was Letizia's next to the Lighthouse on Sanibel...no longer there unfortunately...Back in the 70s and early 80s is when both barrier islands were Breathtaking...not that they aren't still Gorgeous...but back in the day it was a truly special place..

That is great that you got to spend so many years there back in those days. It is such a laid back beach place and has that vibe. One of my favorite places and have been going since 1981. A good friend married some golf pros daughter from what I can remember and were always having crazy parties back in the early 80s on Sanibel almost every other week hanging out on those beaches and beach homes. Been taking my kids there since they were real young and they still go there now that they are adults and my son lives in Ft Myers. The Mucky Duck, Chadwicks, Dock Fords, Bowmans beach, Tween Waters, South Seas so many other places.

Did a couple of movies down there and did a documentary on the artist Robert Rauschenberg who had a house on the beach close to the South Seas. Rauschenberg had a large art studio at or next to his house with silk screen work and bits and pieces of metal works all through the place he would sell for a fortune. Long time ago.

That hurricane sure blew out all of those Australian pines and changed the look and if I can remember the channel between the two Islands ended full of sand for a while. Still a beautiful place and the houses are not cheap.

​

​

 

[SWFLHurricane]

That is great that you got to spend so many years there back in those days. It is such a laid back beach place and has that vibe. One of my favorite places and have been going since 1981. A good friend married some golf pros daughter from what I can remember and were always having crazy parties back in the early 80s on Sanibel almost every other week hanging out on those beaches and beach homes. Been taking my kids there since they were real young and they still go there now that they are adults and my son lives in Ft Myers. The Mucky Duck, Chadwicks, Dock Fords, Bowmans beach, Tween Waters, South Seas so many other places.

Did a couple of movies down there and did a documentary on the artist Robert Rauschenberg who had a house on the beach close to the South Seas. Rauschenberg had a large art studio at or next to his house with silk screen work and bits and pieces of metal works all through the place he would sell for a fortune. Long time ago.

That hurricane sure blew out all of those Australian pines and changed the look and if I can remember the channel between the two Islands ended full of sand for a while. Still a beautiful place and the houses are not cheap.

​

​

Don't forget the Sports Illustrated Cover...
"Christy on Captiva"

 

[theribdoctor]

Mom's on Ft Myers Beach for Cinnamon Rolls, and the best **** Cuban sandwich I've had.

In Ft. Myers, The Farmers Market Restaurant..the food is diner style...but some of the best pie I've ever had.

Downtown house of pizza for a real good New York style pizza.

Doc fords is good if formulaic, SOB is good for smoked oysters, and pretty good wings.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Almost forgot about this, Jeff Lindsay lives (or lived, I last saw him in 2007) in Cape Coral. He's the author of the Dexter novels (set in Miami, of course). He's also married to a niece of Ernest Hemingway.

 

[Silver King]

I was there in the 2000s. Monaghan also put all the land together and founded Ave Maria University, out near Immokalee. He's a super-Catholic and all the land out there by Ave Maria has restrictions so that the retailers can't sell condoms.

For the record, I'm Catholic too, so people don't get the wrong idea here.

Very familiar with it, had a reunion with some of my NAIA teammates in Texas in June and the little brother of the TE who played next to me (Small Catholic College) was just named President of Ave Maria.

Probably my fault, when Tom Monaghan bought his first yacht in 1984, he wanted to keep it on the east coast at Turnberry Isle - he was new money and impressed with Pam Beach. His idea was partly to entertain corporate guests that included incentives for his store manages - if a manager pulled $25K in a week, they won a week's cruise on 'Tigress'. Then we entertained his family and his execs.

I explained that it was a little more lowkey over on the west coast, close to a number of Spring Training sites and that Turnberry probably wouldn't want 20-something year-old store managers running around. I pestered him to let me show him, Boca Grande, South Seas, Long Boat Key Club. He told me he heard Naples had more millionaires than anywhere per capita, so I got him at the Naples Yacht Club for New Years Eve '84 - The Tigers had just won the World Series in his first year of ownership, so it was no problem getting in. He liked it and I got to spend about half the time closer to home even though I worked the east coast a lot - Pier 66, Bahia Mar, Bayside, Marriott, etc. Then Great Lakes in the summer where corporate HQ was, and half of that in Detroit for baseball season. So I kind of had to force him over to the west coast. I'm not sure had he hired an east coast captain if Ave Maria ever would have happened - at least on this coast, anyway. My dad always told me I didn't need six years of college, "to run a **** boat." But they hed me because I had a Masters. Then he sold me a schooner he bought that my partner and I ran as a windjammer for 28 more years.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Very familiar with it, had a reunion with some of my NAIA teammates in Texas in June and the little brother of the TE who played next to me (Small Catholic College) was just named President of Ave Maria.

Probably my fault, when Tom Monaghan bought his first yacht in 1984, he wanted to keep it on the east coast at Turnberry Isle - he was new money and impressed with Pam Beach. His idea was partly to entertain corporate guests that included incentives for his store manages - if a manager pulled $25K in a week, they won a week's cruise on 'Tigress'. Then we entertained his family and his execs.

I explained that it was a little more lowkey over on the west coast, close to a number of Spring Training sites and that Turnberry probably wouldn't want 20-something year-old store managers running around. I pestered him to let me show him, Boca Grande, South Seas, Long Boat Key Club. He told me he heard Naples had more millionaires than anywhere per capita, so I got him at the Naples Yacht Club for New Years Eve '84 - The Tigers had just won the World Series in his first year of ownership, so it was no problem getting in. He liked it and I got to spend about half the time closer to home even though I worked the east coast a lot - Pier 66, Bahia Mar, Bayside, Marriott, etc. Then Great Lakes in the summer where corporate HQ was, and half of that in Detroit for baseball season. So I kind of had to force him over to the west coast. I'm not sure had he hired an east coast captain if Ave Maria ever would have happened - at least on this coast, anyway.

Yeah, if not for you, he might have had to build Ave Maria out in Pahokee!

I've tried to explain this to people (and some of this difference might now be breaking down), but the east coast of Florida is predominantly east-coast people (particularly New Yorkers) due to I-95, while Ft. Myers-Naples was much more midwestern due to I-75.

I know some folks from Dade-Broward-Palm Beach are starting to move over to Lee-Collier because the houses are (relatively) cheaper.

 

[UMFarArcher]

Tips and Suggestions?

Never take a sleeping pill and laxative together.

 

[1LuvCane]

Tips and Suggestions?

Never take a sleeping pill and laxative together.

Cagalera....

 

[rok]

Visited Tigertail Beach on Marco Island yesterday and it was fantastisch.

 

[JD08]

Visited Tigertail Beach on Marco Island yesterday and it was fantastisch.

Love breakfast at Nene's Kitchen.

 

[Tad Footeball]

Let me preface this with the caveat of I was drunk every time I've had it but I love the pizza at this spot in downtown Fort Myers.

Downtown House of Pizza

Downtown House of Pizza in Fort Myers Florida. Authentic New York pizza. Order Online, Pickup, Delivery. Visit us in Downtown Fort Myers to watch our pizza chefs at work in the open kitchen.

downtownhouseofpizza.com

 

[Tad Footeball]

Visited Tigertail Beach on Marco Island yesterday and it was fantastisch.

Great spot. When my late grandmother used to visit me down here she'd always insist on going to that beach.

"C'mon, it's just a short ride. I like the beaches over there better."

4 hr round trip later...

 

[miamicanephins]

Here is your pizza joint. My understanding is this is Indiana style, the square pepperoni.