Fresh Catch Bistro | Coconut Point Estero, FL

Prolific local restaurateur Franco Russo is expanding his dining portfolio again with another location of his renowned Fresh Catch Bistro. The interior demolition and buildout of the new seafood restaurant began in a freestanding outparcel fronting U.S. 41 near the northern edge of Coconut Point.

Russo signed a lease in mid-April to take over the vacant longtime restaurant space at 7991 Plaza del Lago Drive. Until 2022, this address was home to the local T42 tapas restaurant and bar for a brief time, but it hosted a franchise of the TGI Friday’s hospitality chain for many years.

Hurricane Ian forced Russo to relocate his original Fort Myers Beach restaurants, Fresh Catch Bistro and Junkanoo Below Deck, to a new location on Estero Boulevard. He also operates locations of Two Meatballs in the Kitchen in south Fort Myers and Cape Coral; and recently launched Stone’s Throw restaurant, as well as co-launched Hooked Island Grill in Cape Coral.

The new Estero location of Fresh Catch, set to open this fall, won’t include a Junkanoo, which have been neighbors for years, but Russo doesn’t want to lose that successful connection. He plans to implement some Junkanoo-style items on an expanded menu.

“My plan for this Fresh Catch Bistro is a little bit different,” he said. “I’m certainly going to take the best and the favorites of what we’ve done over the last 15 or so years. I want to expand upon the menu and make it more than just your kind of upscale seafood. We want to do some burgers and we want to do some pastas and we want to do some more affordable items for everyone to kind of grasp a bigger audience.”

Fresh Catch’s biggest food and drink sellers are its grouper and martinis, Russo said.

“We have a bunch of different grouper dishes and we serve it different ways. It’s definitely been our top seller from day one,” he said. “We are really well known for our happy hour, our discounted martinis and appetizers that people love.”

Stay tuned for the grand opening of Fresh Catch Bistro this fall in the building previously home to TGI Fridays at Coconut Point. With a mix of classic favorites and exciting new additions, this upscale casual restaurant is set to become a new favorite in Estero.