Cliff and Pat Schertz got engaged at Roadhouse Café. Years later they're co-owners of it. When Marc and Sherri Neeley closed the restaurant in April 2025, people offered to buy the brand or help it relocate. Marc Neeley told The News-Press that the couple "decided to partner with longtime customers who actually became engaged at the restaurant."
The partners are reopening as "Roadhouse 2.0," and the location tells you something about south Fort Myers dining this season. The new Roadhouse is going into Miners Plaza at 15501 Old McGregor Blvd. The same back corner of that plaza already has Echo, a restaurant built on a chef's own comeback. Our neighborhood's newest sit-down dinners are mostly familiar names, and two of them now share a parking lot.
What Roadhouse 2.0 keeps, and what it adds
For 18 years, Roadhouse was in Gulf Points Square off San Carlos Boulevard. Marc and Sherri Neeley opened it there in 2007. The News-Press said they closed because the lease was expiring and the plaza's future was uncertain.
The reopening is meant to feel like the old room. Neeley told the paper, "We tried to use as much of the old stuff as possible," and the chandeliers and other pieces from the original dining room are coming back. He also said most of the staff is returning and "the menu is almost identical too." The News-Press described the original as a white-tablecloth place known for steaks aged at least 28 days, very dry martinis, and live music.
Most of the changes are about size and use:
| Detail | Original Roadhouse | Roadhouse 2.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Gulf Points Square, off San Carlos Blvd. | Miners Plaza, 15501 Old McGregor Blvd. |
| Size | Just under 6,000 sq. ft. | 7,500 sq. ft. |
| Bar | Piano bar | Piano bar returns, bar doubled in size |
| Private dining | Not listed | Two private dining rooms, one usable as an event space |
| Outdoor seating | Nothing like the new patio | Patio seating 48 at 12 four-tops |
The private rooms are what's newest for a regular. The News-Press said one of them can host functions such as rehearsal dinners. The patio is new too. "We didn't have outside seating like this before," Neeley said. He also said the facade over the patio will look different from the rest of Miners Plaza: "It will look like a New York City building."
When it opens
The date has already moved once. On Oct. 15, Neeley told The News-Press, "We're a bit behind the original schedule. However, we're hopeful for an early November opening." He added that customers were already calling about reservations, though it was still too early to book.
That early-November window is opening now, and no date had been announced as of late October, so check before you drive over. The Roadhouse Café website says reservations will open through OpenTable "soon." If you want a table in the first few weeks, watch that page and the restaurant's Facebook account.
The restaurant that got here first
Echo opened in Miners Plaza on June 12, 2025. It's in the old Poppy's Pizza space at 15501 Old McGregor Blvd., Unit 8. Chef Ryan Kida built a loyal following at Yabo, which the News-Press called a local foodie mecca from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s. He later cooked at Sunshine Seafood on Captiva. His partner is Krissy Giltner, who owned Poppy's Pizza for 16 years.
The menu is split between the two partners. Kida's half includes asiago gnocchi, lasagna, a shrimp bisque under a puff pastry crust, and a bone-in, pan-seared chop. Giltner's half is New York-style thin-crust pizza with homemade dough and sauce, plus wrapped meatballs and salads. Kida explained the name to The News-Press in January:
"Echo is what we have both done before. This is what we did and what we've put out there. Now we're back. It's pizza and my food coming together, coming back. It's an echo of it all."
Roadhouse 2.0 is working from the same idea: bring back a place people already loved, in a bigger room, a few miles from where it started.
The neighbor that kept its formula
Cape Cod Fish Co. is in the same plaza. It calls itself a "Wicked good" seafood restaurant and also runs a fresh seafood market. The News-Press reported in October 2024 that new owners Markus and Lisa Fleischhauer planned to keep its menu, staff and decor.
All three restaurants have done some version of the same thing. Cape Cod Fish Co. changed owners and kept its formula. Echo brought back a chef and a pizza menu that regulars already knew. Roadhouse is moving its staff, menu and dining room fixtures across town. When Roadhouse opens, the plaza will have a seafood house, a chef-driven Italian and pizza spot, and a white-tablecloth steakhouse with a piano bar, all at one address.
Finding your way in
Miners Plaza doesn't show off what's at the back. When the News-Press listed Echo among its local gems in January, it said the restaurant is "tucked away in the (way, way) back" and gave directions:
- Pull in and go around Planet Fitness.
- Keep going past a handful of vacant storefronts.
- Park between the longtime nail salon and Cape Cod Fish Co.
- Echo is in the old Poppy's Pizza space, Unit 8.
Roadhouse's new space is described as next to Planet Fitness and a few doors down from Cape Cod Fish Co. and Echo. Once its New York-style facade and patio are finished, it will likely be the easiest of the three to spot from the lot. The vacant shops the News-Press mentioned in January sit between these restaurants, and a 7,500-square-foot steakhouse is the biggest addition to that stretch.
Savour is just up the road at 15301 McGregor Blvd., Unit 1. Chef-owner Matt Geiger took over the former Azure space in 2025 and serves global dishes on a French foundation, with shareable small plates. That gives this short section of McGregor four sit-down options for a night out.
Elsewhere in south Fort Myers this fall
Most of this fall's other openings in south Fort Myers are quick stops:
- Whataburger opened Sept. 10 at 12916 S. Cleveland Ave., in the former Aussie Grill space, and is open 24 hours.
- Twila Mae's opened Oct. 23 at 18011 S. Tamiami Trail, Unit 30, in San Carlos Plaza. It's the first restaurant for a family business that grew out of Southwest Florida farmers markets. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, and you can customize the bread, chicken salad flavor, toppings and side.
- 7 Brew Coffee marked its grand opening at 9101 College Parkway at the end of September and the start of October.
The biggest sit-down change on US 41 is still a while off. The News-Press reported in September that Bahama Breeze at 14701 S. Tamiami Trail, near Six Mile Cypress Parkway, is scheduled to close in May 2027, with no exact date set. Darden plans to reopen the space as a Yard House in June 2027.
That leaves Old McGregor with most of this season's new sit-down capacity in south Fort Myers. It comes from a restaurant moving into a bigger room, a chef and a pizza maker teaming up again in a back corner, and a fish house whose owners kept it the way regulars knew it.
When a favorite restaurant comes back a few minutes from home, it's a good time to think about what your own place is worth. If you live near McGregor and want to know, Adolfo Diaz can put together a free home valuation that reflects what's changing in your part of south Fort Myers, in English or Spanish.