Izzy's in Fort Myers is complicated, and good — JLB review (2024)

Izzy's in Fort Myers is complicated, and good — JLB review (1)

To properly review Izzy’s Fish & Oyster, you have to let some things go.

Yes, it’s another downtown Fort Myers restaurant involving the Kearns Restaurant Group (the company’s seventh, if my math’s right, six of which line First Street).

Yes, it marched in and took over the former home of the long-beloved French Connection.

And, yes, the concept — New England-style seafood as filtered through the original (though now defunct) Miami location — seems a bit odd.

That’s a lot of baggage for some.

I get it.

But then you sit down, you look around, and you think: Where am I?

Izzy’s exudes cool. It oozes it from every nook and cranny. It comes from the massive squid painted onwhite-washed brick in the soaring main dining room, and from the cloud-gray wainscoting tacked beneath it. It’s in the aqua-colored glass tiles lining the bar and the white-marble tables on which you dine.

If Ford’s Garage is Walt Disney, Izzy’s is Ralph Lauren — pair your finest blazer with a crisp pink polo shirt and you’ll blend right in.

Izzy's in Fort Myers is complicated, and good — JLB review (2)

Credit Izzy’s chef-creator Jamie DeRosa and his wife, Amy, for this vibe. She hails from Rhode Island, and it was a road trip through her tiny home state (with their daughter Isabela, aka Izzy, in tow) that led the couple down this chicly New England-ish path.

Jamie, a chef whose resume includes stints with Wolfgang Puck and Geoffrey Zakarian, is the curator of Izzy’s menu. Chef de cuisine Joe Bonavita Jr. — he’s worked with the likes of Todd English, Grant Achatz and Graham Elliot — is the menu’s executor.

And, from what I’ve eaten, that menu is in very good hands.

It isn’t a fancy menu. It’s a fairly straight-forward one, actually, offering many of the same dishes you’d find at any roadside clam shack from Rhode Island north through Maine.

But Izzy’s does so with finesse.

Also: Izzy's makes its downtown debut

And: Izzy's closes in Miami, full-steam ahead in Fort Myers

The hunks of lobster in its lobster rolls are first poached in butter. That rich, lobster-tinged butter goes right back onto the lobster in the case of the warm lobster roll. In the case of the cold one, that butter is whipped into a scratch mayonnaise that lightly cloaks yet more lobster, holding it together ever so gently lest it topplefrom the sides of the toasted, split-top bun (which, mind you, is also brushed with lobster butter pre-toasting (Lobster Inception, you might say; also: I’m drooling)).

Izzy's in Fort Myers is complicated, and good — JLB review (3)

There are whoopie pies and Del'slemonadeand an array of East Coast oysters brimming with briny-sweetliquor.

Whole-belly Ipswich clams, all juicy and chew-ily delicious, come spilling out of a different roll. Traditional stuffies (huge quahog clam shells stuffed with smoky bacon and buttery breadcrumbs) impressed, as did a simple order of calamari speckled with hot peppers.

But it was Izzy’s non-New England dishes that most struck me.

Its linguine with clams was half noodles, half briny, shell-on littlenecks brightened by lemon and the background heat of chilies. Its grass-fed rib eye was just as excellent, served with a silky puree of potatoes and a hodgepodge of mushrooms — frilly oyster mushrooms, slender-stemmed enoki — with sautéed rapini as a lusciously bitter sidekick.

The catch of the day, pompano of late, was delicious in an olive tapenade with preserved lemon and yet more greens. Add a side of Brussels sprouts, caramelized with pistachios and apples, and it’s no longer a “New England” restaurant, just a quite good one.

Which isn’t to say it’s a perfect one.

Izzy's in Fort Myers is complicated, and good — JLB review (4)

Early on Izzy’s seemed hurried and harried and confused. A few weeks in I had a half lobster roll with a burnt bun and a cup of watery, slightly fishy chowder that had me worried. The bread on a hogfish Reuben was also burnt, and, while perfectly tasty, I’m just not a fan of hogfish for this sandwich. It’s such a sweet and delicate local fish. It’s a shame to lose that subtlety to Russian dressing and ‘kraut.

Izzy’s service also seems to have evened of late. The staff seems more genuine now, more authentically happy to banter with you while timing courses nicely.

co*cktails have always been an Izzy’s strength, from a verdant green number infused with tequila, cucumber and lime, to a hopped-up take on a pisco sour that’s just as foamy and sweet as it should be.

On my most recent visit to Izzy’s, I lingered over a ganache-coated Boston cream pie for a few rich minutes. The mayor of Fort Myers sat a couple tables over, with Chef Bonavita keeping an eye on him from the bar.I watched a couple different Kearns reps saunter past while chatting with managers,their linen button-downs — possibly Ralph Lauren? — neatlymatching the decor.

Izzy’s has a complicated background.

But as a restaurant, it's doing just fine.

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Izzy's in Fort Myers is complicated, and good — JLB review (5)

Jean Le Boeuf is the pseudonym used by a local food lover who dines at restaurants anonymously and without warning, with meals paid for by The News-Press. Follow the critic atfacebook.com/jeanleboeufswflor @JeanLeBoeuf onTwitterandInstagram

Izzy's Fish & Oyster

2282 First St., Fort Myers

Food:★★★

Atmosphere:★★★½

Service: ★★★☆

Price: $$$-$$$$

Call: 337-4999

Web:izzysftmyers.com

Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday

Noise level: Loudwhen busy, but within the realm of conversation

Etc.:Full bar, outdoor seating along First Street, kids menu, summer happy hour specials from 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

Samplemenu

Starters

• New England clam chowder, $5

•Sugar snap pea salad, $9

• Maryland crab cake, $15

Entrees

• Fort McCoy Farms burger, $15

• Gulf shrimp scampi, $22

• New Bedford scallops, $25

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What the symbols mean

★ - Poor

★★ - Fair

★★★ - Good

★★★★ - Excellent

$ - Average dinner entree is under $10

$$ - $10-$15

$$$ - $15-$20

$$$$ - $20-$25

$$$$$ - $25 and up

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Izzy's in Fort Myers is complicated, and good — JLB review (2024)

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