Andrew & Michelle’s craft beer crawl

Hey hey everyone. Thanks Mom for asking me to write a post on your blog. My mom was asked to write a story about Fort Myers Beach after the hurricane for a magazine that she writes for regularly called Bay Watch News. While Michelle and I were visiting her over Christmas holidays we thought it would fun to all head to the beach together. My mom, to do her story and Michelle and I to do a craft beer crawl. You can catch my mom’s story in the February issue of the magazine.

Our pub crawl  started at Crazy Dingo with the folks and our pal Tank. Tank loved walking around checking out the animals. He particularly liked the donkies.  I thought we’d start here so my mom could do a bit of shopping at the farmers market they advertised. There wasn’t much of one. We thought it would be busier and they would have more stuff at their market. Having said that, I think the parents had a pretty good time hanging out with us (and why wouldn’t they?). This place has something for everyone. It’s very kid friendly with a playground and bait to feed the fish. They grow their own fresh ingredients that they use to brew their small batch beers. Farm to pint!

Really cool spot! This bar/restaurant is right before the bridge to Sanibel. They have a great  “Shuck Bar” to grab some oysters. You can bring your own  Catch Of The Day and they will cook it! Busy Saturday afternoon. The bar is a big fishtank! They have live music, great views, decent food, good atmosphere. Apparently an amazing spot for sunsets.

This brewery was in a strip plaza on route to Fort Myers Beach.  If you like craft beer it’s worth a trip to check it out. They have a good selection of beer and a food truck out back. It was decently busy the day we were there.  A solo artist was playing some good music. They often have live music with local artists and some touring bands too. We liked this place but there were more places to hit before sunset.

So, This spot was not on our list that day. We randomly walked by and saw big patios right on the water and decided to pop in for a drink just to check it out. Boaters can easily pull up to  the docks for lunch and if you’ve been out fishing hey will clean and serve your catch too! It’s a great location on San Carlos Blvd. Bartender mentioned that they do a lot of private functions here and will cater events too. It’s a popular spot but quite expensive. This was a quick in and out for us.

This is definitely a tourist hot spot. It was busy but not cheap. A very cool place though and definitely worth stopping in. We sat at the outdoor bar on the swings which was pretty unique. The dining room is open air. It was busy and probably a good party at times – there’s an adults only bar area outside too. No kiddies allowed.

We walked down to the beach and found a really cool pop-up style bar called La Olah. You can’t miss it, situated right in front of the old elevator shaft.  They had a small beach patio and then a deck off their trailer-style bar – we stayed for a beer and chatted with the bartender. This place was busy and a great stop for cocktails – they have live music at times – there’s a food truck attached next door too.

License to Chill Bar at Margaritaville – Busy and Touristy – Lot’s of sports to watch. By the time we got this place it was later afternoon. Enough time for the visitors to have had plenty of cocktails. It was lively. They have games to play out on the lawn and  a great view of the Gulf and sunsets. We had heard so much about this place we wanted to see what all the hype was about. Fun enough but not a craft brewery so it wasn’t really on our list to see.

We wandered down the beach and then found another little pop-up kinda place right on the beach on the sand. This is coming soon called The Beach Bar. This place had an amazing band!! The main guy is Biscuit Miller, he plays with his  5 or 6 piece band. Must see. Great atmosphere. Everyone was up dancing. We got to enjoy the sunset over the Gulf in the background. Best spot we hit for sure. Who knew we saved the best for last. It’s approximately at Canal St off Estero Blvd

By the end of our crawl we definitely needed some food. We wandered a little further down Estero Blvd. It got dark and seemed very quiet. We found a taco truck on the side of the road. VERY good Mexican food. With full bellies and a healthy buzz going on we managed to get an Uber to take us back to my mom’s where we’d be hitting the hay early.  We didn’t really think the timing through on the whole pub crawl. Next time we won’t do it with an early flight home the next day.

It was a fun day!