SPECIAL SECTION Season’s Eating
Creative chefs make the holidays special at these area favorites
The Prawnbroker Restaurant and Fish Market,
Fort Myers There’s no question that a happy patron is a restaurant’s best advertisement. In this case, The Prawnbroker Restaurant and Fish Market is “top of line and consistently good,” says Wanda Hardin, at the McGregor Boulevard establishment’s seafood market for takeout. The Cape Coral resident, her husband, and friends regularly dine here. “Friday night is date night at this place,” she says. “The food is absolutely wonderful.” Still smiling and chuckling, Hardin and her husband and another couple exit the coolness of the restaurant into the steamy afternoon sun.
The man behind the counter is shaking his head. He understands Hardin’s enthusiasm— he has heard many tributes to the store’s fare over the years. He is also responsible for executing the menu. “I’ve heard this many times,” says executive chef Bill Sidoti. “Our guests are really passionate.”
The Prawnbroker is a component of a ten- store restaurant group in Florida, which includes the University Grill in Fort Myers and Matzaluna on Sanibel Island. So, the expectations are high, says Sidoti. And the team works to make the holidays that much more special, focusing on New England– style seafood fare, swordfish Rockefeller, cured salmon, grouper, snapper, and whatever’s in season and deliverable from Fort Myers Beach.
Sidoti, now forty- six, trained at the Johnson & Wales University culinary school, working after graduation at venues in Ohio and Palm Beach, Florida. His family owned a pizzeria, so Sidoti has fry oil running in his veins. His favorite holiday memories include “being very busy, very high pressure, and very high volume,” he says. “And very fun.”
The Prawnbroker Restaurant and Fish Market, 13451- 16 McGregor Boulevard, Fort Myers, 239- 489- 2226, prawnbroker. com
Cristof’s on McGregor,
Fort Myers Chef- owner Cristof Danzi says his restaurant, Cristof’s on McGregor, has been a patron favorite from its opening in fall 2011. That’s not easy in a market stuffed with quality dining. “It’s just a great place,” says Danzi. “And the holidays are extra special.”
Cristof’s on McGregor racks up favorable responses and a filled house with its casual dining menu and great atmosphere in a restored Old Florida home. But the holiday fare is gaining momentum, says Danzi. Florida- style tradition is part of the attraction: grouper, butternut squash, fresh veggies,
Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille,
Sanibel Island It feels like a comfortable hangout, yet Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille is a serious restaurant. And its executive chef is just as serious about plate presentation, especially at the holidays.
“It’s more extravagant, with a Christmas flair,” says executive chef Kristopher Zook of the holiday menu at the hugely popular Sanibel Island location. “I call it comfort food with a Gulf twist.”
At a kitchen presentation of holiday favorites, Zook worked a pecan- encrusted seafood dish that included sweet potatoes and herbs and sun- dried cherries. In his holiday menu, Zook also favors using squash, rutabaga, parsnips, carrots, and dried fruits like cranberries and the cherries. Fresh white fish is often the centerpiece of his dishes. “Everyone loves it,” he says. “At least they’re always coming back.”
Doc Ford’s is a secure destination in Zook’s many travels over his relatively young career. A North Fort Myers native, he start- ed at age fourteen in a dish pit, shifting to grill work and eventually training at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, considered the Harvard of the culinary trade. Upon graduation, Zook migrated back to Southwest Florida, training in an upscale hotel and several of the marquee kitchens that seem to attract the best young talent. One Cape Coral kitchen where Zook worked, for example, would crank out two thousand meals a day, in season and before the 2008 crash.
That type of training either breaks a chef or creates an expert with extreme focus and intensity, which absolutely describes Zook, now thirty- five. “It made you want to be the best,” he says of his work history. “And now I am able to use it [ at Doc Ford’s]. I love it.”
Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille, 975 Rabbit Road, Sanibel, 239- 472- 8311, docfords sanibel. com