Fort Myers Beach's Shark Bar & Grill, an on-the-way-to-the-beach beach bar, has a celebrity chef, award-winning pub food, and a patio set in the sand.
Just off San Carlos Boulevard on the way to Estero Island, the Shark Bar & Grill is no ordinary beach bar.
For starters, it’s got a celebrity chef in the kitchen.
Jim Brush, who owned the Key West Key Lime Pie Company, squared off against star chef Bobby Flay in 2011 in a Food Network throwdown — and won. At Shark Bar, he’s whipping up bar favorites such as wings, grouper fingers, Cuban sandwiches and Philly cheesesteak wraps. And he also makes poutine as a nod to the bar’s Canadian owner, Denis Karda.
“It’s an authentic poutine recipe," Karda says.
“Everybody loves it. When the Canadians come in, they say it’s the best poutine they’ve ever had. Go figure. You’re going to come down to Florida and have the best poutine you’ve ever had.”
Karda is serious about what comes out of the Shark’s kitchen.
“Our kitchen is all scratch-made,” she says. “Nothing frozen, nothing in cans except sweetened condensed milk for the Key lime pie.”
In fact, she was so serious about the no-cans policy that she took the can opener out of the kitchen (but had to return it when Brush reminded her about the sweetened condensed milk).
Another thing that sets this on-the-way-to-the-beach beach bar apart is its live music lineup. Every night of the week, the Shark offers a different musical vibe. It has Motown Mondays, mellow Tuesdays, country music Wednesdays, karaoke Thursdays, reggae Fridays, steel horse Saturdays and Blues on Sunday.
The bar is open-air, surrounded by eclectic sets of tables and a cabana for lounging, all set in the sand. The atmosphere is bright and tropical.
In Canada, Karda was an X-ray technician for 20 years. She owned her own yoga studio. The Shark is her first restaurant. Karda says she bought the bar, which she opened in October 2017, after Hurricane Irma.
“It was an emotional purchase,” she says. “When there’s no power for long stretches at a time, there tends to be a lot of babies afterward. Well, this is my baby.”
Karda rode out the hurricane with friends and family in her house off San Carlos Boulevard. Afterward, they helped with cleanup around the area and in Everglades City.
“We went out with chainsaws,” she said, “and one day coming back from doing Irma relief, I was covered in muck, and the previous owner was here closing up. So I stepped in.”
Karda and her husband have been coming to Fort Myers Beach since the 1980s. They spent their honeymoon on the beach. They brought their kids to visit. She considered buying a bed and breakfast in the area, but when the space for the Shark came available, she knew it was the right fit.
“This is more me,” she says of the bar and grill.
Karda credits the success of the Shark to its team — the chef, managers, servers and bartenders. But she brings her own good vibes to the place.
“I’m a people person. I love people,” she says. “I’d say 90 percent of the people who have been in here have been hugged by me.”
Off the Eaten Path highlights independent local restaurants, the strip mall and side-street places we pass every day.
Artis Henderson is a freelance writer and author, her first book earned a New York Times Editors’ Choice; find her at artishenderson.com and on Twitter.
If you go
Shark Bar & Grill
Where: 17979 San Carlos Blvd., Fort Myers Beach
Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. every day
Prices: Most appetizers $8-$10, sandwiches $10
Call: 313-6012
More: sharkbarfmb.com