Downtown Cape Coral restaurant, taproom suddenly closes
A hand-written sign positioned just inside Big Storm Brewing’s expansive dining room greeted customers Friday.
It read, “September 8th, our last day open.”
The closing is sudden for the spacious restaurant and taproom on the corner of SE 10th Place and SE 47th Terrace in downtown Cape Coral near Club Square.
Big Storm first came to Cape Coral after taking over the small taproom in the old Cape Coral Brewing Co. space on Miramar Street in early 2018. Cape Coral Brewing, which opened in September 2015, was the city’s original craft brewery.
Then during the pandemic in October 2020, Big Storm gained more than 4,000 square feet and a restaurant when it moved to its current location in the former space occupied by Big Blue Brewing. JoAnn Elardo, the owner of Wicked Dolphin Rum Distillery and the driving force behind the Cape Coral Animal Shelter, opened Big Blue on Oct. 1, 2016, after renovating the former bingo hall space. Big Blue closed in late August 2020.
When Big Storm moved into the 9,800-square-foot building two months later, it featured indoor and outdoor seating along 47th Terrace, a full menu of hand-crafted pub grub, tableside service and lots of award-winning beers.
Those beers — 24 on tap on the last day — featured IPAs, pale ales, lagers, wheat beers, stouts and more. Bromosa, an American IPA “brewed … for the tangerine lovers,” was a best-seller.
Along the way though, orders switched to being placed at the bar and after Hurricane Ian came through, beer was no longer brewed on site. Crowds, which once packed tables inside and out, seemed to dwindle.
The sudden closing was surprising as it seemed to be business as usual with weekly trivia being held the night before closing. No announcement had been posted on bigstormbrewing.com or on its Facebook or Instagram pages as of Friday night.
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The Cape Coral location was one of five Big Storm Brewing Co. (founded in 2012) taprooms in Florida, including Odessa, Orlando, Ybor City and its base in Clearwater. Fat Point Brewing, owned by Big Storm parent company Seaboard Craft Holdings, recently opened at University Town Center in Sarasota.
Robyn George is a food and dining writer for The Fort Myers News-Press. Send news to rhgeorge@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Big Storm Brewing Cape Coral informs customers Sept. 8 is its last day
