The Bubble Room, a popular Captiva Island restaurant since opening in 1979, has been shut down since Sept. 28, when Hurricane Ian flooded the inside and wiped out all of its kitchen equipment.
In the ensuing weeks, managers Stephen and Rachel Peach focused on cleaning up the mess. They also began searching for ways to bring back what had been a thriving dessert shop sooner than the restaurant, which took on more damage.
They found a way. This will mark the third weekend in which The Bubble Room will be selling its iconic cakes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday through Sunday on the back side of Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre in Fort Myers.
A cake costs $63, or slices are sold for $9.50.
“It’s been a heckuva long road,” Stephen Peach said. “We’re ecstatic to be back selling cakes. The lines were amazing. It renews the drive to keep going.”
On Jan. 27, its first Friday open at the Fort Myers location, a line of more than 200 people filed toward the back of Broadway Palm and went on down Royal Palm Square Boulevard.
The Bubble Room and Broadway Palm share Sysco as their food distributor, which connected the two businesses.
“It wasn’t right after the hurricane,” said Will Prather, owner of Broadway Palm, which is celebrating its 25th year of putting on plays while serving dinner. “Everyone was in shock mode for a couple of weeks. But shortly after that, I got an introduction. I had to finish what I had to finish, which was completing the kitchen and getting the space for them. We agreed to the terms.”
The Bubble Room had to wait about six weeks for its catering license. Now, the only waiting is for the cakes.
Prather and the Peach family couldn’t believe the success and length of the lines.
“They were overwhelmed,” Prather said of that first weekend. “I kept warning them, because we were getting tons of phone calls. People just keep calling about The Bubble Room. They don’t even want dinner theater tickets.”
Prather was half-joking, but said the business relationship has worked well for both sides. “They’re putting in a brochure with every single purchase,” he said of his dinner theater. “We’ve seen new customers who have never been here before. It’s invaluable. I’m very happy with the relationship. We’ll keep doing it as long as the demand’s there.”
The Red Velvet, White Christmas, Orange Crunch and Moist Chocolate are all being made and sold from behind Broadway Palm.
“We ran out within three hours. Of cake. Totally,” Stephen Peach said of the first weekend. “So that tells you a little bit about what we thought was going to happen versus what actually happened. It was a pleasant surprise. We got straight to work. We started baking more.”
The dessert room on Captiva will reopen, but not for at least several more weeks. At least until the dessert room reopens, they will continue selling the cakes behind Broadway Palm.
“We do not have a timeline on the restaurant right now,” Rachel Peach said. “It needs a lot of work. We’re just not able to give any sort of timeline on the reopening of the restaurant.
“It’s definitely going to take longer than we would like. But we’re excited to get back to work and start baking again.”
