New waterfront restaurant adds boat slips, jobs to Cape Coral

CAPE CORAL, Fla. —

For a city known for its miles of canals, finding a place to pull up a boat and walk straight into a restaurant isn’t always easy in Cape Coral. A new waterfront dining spot along Bimini Basin is looking to change that by bringing dock space, jobs and new public access to the water's edge as it prepares to open its doors in the coming weeks.

Bimini Basin Seafood & Cocktails is expected to open within about two weeks, with dock access following shortly after once final permits are cleared. The restaurant will seat more than 250 guests and include 32 boat slips just outside the entrance, allowing boaters to tie off and head straight inside.

“We have two gigantic garage doors that open up. We believe in open-air restaurants,” said Beau Perry, division manager for Phelan Family Brands. “The marina is big enough to host large boats — you can get 40-, 50-, even 60-footers in here.”

Much of Cape Coral’s canal-front property is already lined with homes, duplexes and condominiums, leaving limited room for large commercial projects on the water. Developers say assembling the parcel for this restaurant took years, and permitting added more time, but city leaders have increasingly encouraged projects in the Bimini Basin area that include shared shoreline access rather than exclusively private use.

“The reason we come is for the sunshine and the water," said visitor Julie Kieffer. "There's just a few restaurants that we go to that are on the water. So if you add more, I think it would be great."

Beyond dock space, the restaurant is also expected to bring about 100 jobs to the area, with hiring still underway as construction crews put the final touches inside. A grand bar sits in the middle surrounded by colorful walls filled with funky signs and fish.

"We're going to have pasta dishes. We're going to have pork. We're going to have beef. We're going to have steak," said Perry. "We have the big parking garage at Bimini Square where customers can park and we'll have valet."

For many visitors, the draw is simply another place to sit by the water. For boaters, it’s the convenience of having another dock-and-dine option in a city surrounded by canals but often short on boat-up restaurants.

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