New restaurant: Owner of hurricane-closed Olde Fish House is back with new venture
A slice of normalcy returned to Lisa Dence’s life on May 2 when she opened Salty Girls Island Café on Pine Island.
“I think we are going to do well here,” said Dence, who also owns the Olde Fish House on Matlacha. “I’m excited to serve the community again and be back to work. As exhausted as we are, it’s great seeing a lot of familiar faces and meeting new people on the island.”
When Hurricane Ian hit Matlacha in September, Dence “lost everything” including the Olde Fish House.
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“Twelve years were washed away,” Dence said of her popular waterfront restaurant on Matlacha Pass, known for its fresh seafood right off the docks. “Our life savings are gone. There are some days I can talk about it and some days I can’t.”
The restaurant’s brand-new equipment, plumbing, roof and electrical were all damaged by the storm.
Dence spent the month after the storm out in the community, feeding those in need with the help of World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit providing fresh meals to the frontlines after a disaster occurs.
“They donated a food trailer to me,” Dence said. “We are going to get it up and going soon.”
In order to do that, she needed a commissary and that’s where Salty Girls comes in.
A new home near Pine Island center
“We knew we needed a home base to cook out of,” Dence said. “We knew Island Grill (in St. James City) wasn’t coming back and there were no breakfast places out here.”
Salty Girls, open for breakfast and lunch, took over the spot left vacant by Little Lilly’s Island Deli on Stringfellow Road in Bokeelia, just north of the four-way stop in the Island Exchange center.
Dence redid the space from “top to bottom” by painting and installing a new floor, ceiling tiles, air conditioning and equipment.
The restaurant, with indoor and outdoor dining, seats about 70 and is smaller than Olde Fish House.
“I love this and am very grateful,” Dence said. “But it’s completely different from Olde Fish House. I wanted it that way. But it’s like going from baseball to football. That was a well-oiled machine and we could do it in our sleep. That was lunch and dinner and now we are doing breakfast and lunch. We are rolling with it and learning.”
Eat-in or take-out breakfast and lunch
A few Olde Fish House favorites are on Salty Girls’ menu, including the coleslaw, shrimp po’boy, Reuben and fresh catch of the day, mullet and grits “when we can get mullet” and shrimp and grits.
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The new menu has an Asian flair with fried rice, tuna poke, boa bun slider and Asian slaw.
The lunch items feature a variety of classic offerings — from a gourmet grilled cheese and hamburgers to Philly and crab cake sandwiches. There are salads, soups and a no meats eats section with egg salad, very veggie wrap, beyond burger and more.
“We will scale it back at some point,” Dence said. “We wanted to give options and see what the customers like. So far the fried rice, Reuben and chicken salad have been popular.”
The breakfast menu is chock full of egg, potato, toast and meat combinations, pancakes and breakfast sandwiches. It’s served until 11 a.m., then kicks over to lunch.
“It’s too hard to do both at this time with the size of the kitchen,” Dence said.
Salty Girls also does a lot of to-go orders. Calling ahead, especially around lunchtime, is highly encouraged.
More to come
Besides the new restaurant and the Olde Fish House trailer, plans for a Salty Girls grab-and-go with coffee and breakfast sandwiches at Pineland Marina are also in the works. Dence expects to have that going by Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s all a little overwhelming,” Dence said. “There are a lot of emotions. But we are so thankful to this community. A huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders.”
Salty Girls Island Café, 10700 Stringfellow Road, Bokeelia; open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday (brunch only) from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Closed Saturdays for the summer beginning in June. Hours are subject to change; (239) 558-4912; find it on Facebook.
Robyn George is a food and dining writer for The Fort Myers News-Press. Send scoops and news to [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Owner of Matlacha's Olde Fish House opens Salty Girls on Pine Island
