Even before Hurricane Ian flooded 3 Pepper Burrito’s downtown Fort Myers location with 2 to 3 feet of water last year, the restaurant’s owners planned to do something different.  

The flood gave co-owners Justin O’Brien and Tim Goff plenty of challenges, but it also gave them plenty of time to build a new brand.  

Their flagship restaurant, one of six corporate locations the duo owns, reopened last month at 2231 First St. Next week, it will be joined inside by a new and separate concept, Burgers with Attitude.  

As crews build burritos and bowls at the front of the 2,800-square-foot space, crews will be assembling single-, double- and triple-patty burgers on the west side of the space.  

“We started brainstorming on what was needed for downtown, and we came up with this smash-burger concept,” said Goff, a 2002 Cape Coral High School graduate, “because there’s no real fast-casual burger concept in the downtown area.  

“You can add as many patties as you want. The biggest difference in all of Southwest Florida, is really there’s no concept like this. Just like 3 Pepper, we’re going to build that burger right down the line for you. Burger comes out the back, it gets wrapped up, and you’re out of here in a matter of a few minutes.”  

O’Brien, a 2003 Cape Coral High graduate, has known Goff since elementary school. They got their restaurant starts with Pita Pit as area franchise owners. At one point, they owned eight locations across the region. They sold their last Pita Pit in 2019, turning their focus to 3 Pepper Burrito, which they founded in 2014.  

They bought the First Street building, which was built in 1925, in July 2016 for $760,000, property records show. Inside, it’s pretty much a new building, they said. They installed gas lines for the rebuilt kitchen and redid all of the interior following last year’s flood. They also hired professional street graffiti artist Brian Weaver to paint the Burgers with Attitude walls.  

“It was very important to us, because we didn’t want it to feel just like 3 Pepper,” O’Brien said of the new concept. “We wanted that separate brand to feel like a separate brand, almost as if you’re walking into a separate storefront within the restaurant.  

“That’s why we really wanted to change the color scheme and keep away from the red and black on the 3 Pepper sign.”  

3 Pepper burritos start at $9, while a single burger will start at $7. O’Brien and Goff are hoping to start serving the first burgers Oct. 11.