Sanibel breakfast, lunch restaurant returns, much to our delight
Trasi Sharp is in constant motion shortly before her restaurant's 2 p.m. closing on a recent Thursday.
She greets customers one minute, then dashes off toward the kitchen.
Returning moments later, she places a towering to-go order on the counter, then heads across the dining room to catch up with a table of three.
That typical day for Sharp, who co-owns Over Easy Café on Sanibel with partner Liza Clouse, begins around 4 a.m.
“I start cooking, prepping for the guys,” she said, sitting down for a quick chat. “That way they don’t have to be in so early. I’ve been here most days since we opened, except Mondays and Tuesdays.”
Make that reopened. An “Ian waterline, 9-28-22” plaque hangs about 7 feet up on the back wall near the restrooms.
It’s a solemn reminder of what happened to the restaurant, to her and Clouse’s home and pet store, and to their lives 20 months earlier.
Sharp is uncharacteristically still as she shares the harrowing tale.
The destruction of Hurricane Ian
“We left for (Hurricanes) Charley and Irma,” she said. “But with my 89-year-old mom, two great Danes and a French bulldog, we decided to stay. The house was raised up five steps and we thought it was going to Tampa. It was a pretty dumb decision.
“The house across the street hit our house. People’s cars came over our house.”
They tried to escape to their neighbor’s house but “people don’t realize how powerful the surge is.”
When it was all over, they were all eventually airlifted out — Sharp, Clouse, mom and the three dogs, one weighing more than 200 pounds — from a strip of beach that took them 90 minutes to get to when it would have taken two minutes a few days earlier.
Family and friends, locally and across the country, learned they survived when a photo of them all crammed into the Black Hawk was broadcast on CNN.
“It’s been a struggle, but we’re alive,” Sharp said.
The beginning of Over Easy
Sharp and Clouse bought a part-time home on Sanibel in the late 1980s and owned restaurants from Kansas City to Delaware for 35 years before making Sanibel their full-time home in 2003.
“Since I was little, I always came here,” Sharp said. “I loved it. When I was little, I told my mom I would live here one day.”
In 2004, they opened Island Paws after realizing Sanibel “needed a pet store.”
When Amy’s Over Easy Café (which was Calamity Jane’s when Sharp visited as a child) became available in the same plaza three years later, they jumped back into the restaurant business.
Under their watch, Over Easy Café — anchoring the plaza where Periwinkle Way ends at Tarpon Bay Road — became an island favorite for locals and visitors as much for its scratch menu as for its warmth, comfort and hospitality.
Then Hurricane Ian came along.
They put all their resources and energy into rebuilding the pet-friendly café which meant making the painful decision to close Island Paws.
Over Easy held its grand reopening on March 17.
“Seven feet of water swirled around inside like a blender,” Sharp said. “Every single thing in here is new.”
For Sharp and Clouse, who comes to the restaurant a little later in the day, it was important to rebuild everything as close to how it was.
Same feel, same look, same menu
“It feels good to go to someplace familiar after losing so much,” Sharp said. “We’re not finished inside yet.”
The red and gold farmhouse chic vibe is back, radiating through that roomy and comfortable dining room. Seating is available at the breakfast bar and tables inside or on the pup-friendly covered patio.
The from-scratch breakfast and lunch menus will look familiar to returning customers too.
“People were a little nervous at first that we weren’t going to bring back their favorites,” Sharp said. “They really wanted to feel a sense of sameness and we wanted to make sure everyone got what they wanted.”
And there is plenty of wonderful to choose from.
Over Easy is deservedly known for its giant, made-fresh-daily cinnamon rolls. They literally and not figuratively melt in your mouth in cloud-like bites of dreamy goodness. When they and an equally delicious orange version don’t sell out during the day, they are reinvented into a bread pudding that certainly will.
Benedicts are a hit too. Our smoked salmon benny — one of six on the menu — was a large serving of two eggs, salmon, capers and red onion on a toasted English muffin with oh-so-good Hollandaise sauce.
Egg sandwiches, omelets, scramblers and skillets are also available for all-day breakfast as are French toast, pancakes-a-plenty, fruit, cereal and sides.
“The Benedicts and omelets go well,” Sharp said. “French toast and pancakes too.”
Lunch kicks in at 11 a.m. and also includes options galore.
“We serve a lot of Summer Salads,” Sharp said about the colorful island favorite topped with mandarin oranges, strawberries, dried cranberries, red onions, candied pecans, crispy chow mein noodles in a refreshing raspberry pecan vinaigrette.
Our Summer Salad with chicken was in wrap form, allowing the crunchy and chewy textures to combine with each flavorful bite.
Twenty-plus sandwiches are available as are more wraps, salads and good-sized burgers.
“I’m from the Midwest,” Sharp said. “We have very good burgers.”
Let's eat: Want award-winning seafood, sandwiches and more? Here's where to go from Sanibel to Naples
Even with a steady flow of customers, our server was quick, courteous and pleasant.
“We’re back with the same servers, same cooks, same food,” Sharp said. “Most of them have been with us for 10 to 17 years. They all wanted to come back. We reopened for them and our customers. If they didn’t want to come back, we wouldn’t have reopened.”
Over Easy Cafe has long been a favorite of mine. Welcome back.
Over Easy Café, 630 Tarpon Bay Road, Sanibel; all-day breakfast from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily (lunch is 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.); 239-966-5114; overeasycafesanibel.com and on Facebook
Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at rhgeorge@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Over Easy Cafe reopens on Sanibel Island to our delight
