Fab Finds; Bread Pudding, Butterflies and Bennett's

If you are visiting or have friends visiting the Southwest Florida area for the holidays, I have a few new Fab Finds to help you both entertain and feed the family.

Reuben's Catering is now open to the public, only it's called Reuben's Smokehouse! Look for it on US41 in Fort Myers in the former Miami Connection location. Reuben serves up amazing comfort food like cheesy mac-n-cheese, green beans, coleslaw, homemade rolls and LOTS of flavorful meat, smoked everyday! SO good!

Chef Reuben has even bottled his own hot sauce. The beer and wine license just came in so the stash is in the process of getting stocked!

One thing you DONT want to skip is dessert and  the carmel, chocolate chip bread pudding. It's good enough to make you wanna fight over so, get your own!

The Shell Factory Nature Park in North Fort Myers opened it's new Butterfly Garden this week. It was fun tasting Lobetia wines, that appropriately enough have a butterfly on the label,  while watching awkward kids try not to squish or step on the beautiful creatures during the butterfly release.

The Nature Park is a family friendly, local find with, some amazing animals like alligators, owls, big cats, birds and lots more. Oh, and you don't have to go the middle east to ride a camel, they have one of those too!


I also checked out progress on the new Bennett's Fresh Roast on Sanibel Island. The downtown Fort Myers coffee shop has gained international attention for outstanding, made from scratch donuts and fresh roasted coffee. It's also the place to see and be seen.

Bennett's much anticipated opening on Sanibel will happen within weeks. I've seen the space and it looks great! Lots of light and lots of seating including outdoors. There is even a parking spot where you can plug in your Prius!



Lobster Lady Seafood in Cape Coral has a new chef and work is currently underway on some new menu items. I sampled this tasty tuna appetizer this week and it was fantastic. The garlic sesame peanut noodles were a delight.

I can't wait to see what new creations come out of the kitchen.