FMBGN-BIZ-Snug Harbor-Jason Shares How Fresh Fish And Family Built His Snug Harbor Story

A great beach meal isn’t just about seafood, it’s about trust: who caught it, who cooked it, and whether the place feels like it belongs to the water you’re staring at. We’re hanging out at Snug Harbor on Fort Myers Beach with Jason, the new operating partner, and he tells the story behind the restaurant from the inside out. From his early days working in Southwest Florida restaurants to stepping into beach life right at the start of season, Jason shares what it takes to run a waterfront favorite where locals return year after year. 

We get specific about what makes Snug Harbor different: their fish house near the bridge, local boats delivering grouper and snapper, and a kitchen that keeps recipes simple so the fresh catch can lead. Jason also breaks down the experience guests come for, including dock space for boaters, service that feels like friendship, and that iconic sunset view that turns Table One into the most wanted seat on the bay. If you’re planning a Fort Myers Beach trip, love seafood, or just want a real look at hospitality done right, you’ll walk away with clear recommendations and a better sense of what “local” tastes like. 

And yes, we talk about what to order. Jason’s must-try pick is grouper, especially the Grouper Gourmet with crab, lemon butter sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, and green beans. We also dig into rotating specials and a dish you won’t see everywhere: grouper wings made from grouper collars, marinated and flash-fried. We wrap with how to find Snug Harbor online and how their catering can help with graduation season and custom parties. 

Subscribe for more Fort Myers Beach stories, share this with a friend who loves fresh seafood, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What’s the first thing you’re ordering when you get to the water?

Snug Harbor Restaurant
Jason Jakaitis
645 Old San Carlos Boulevard, Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931
(239) 463-4343
snugharbormgt@gmail.com
snugharbor.restaurant
#SnugHarborRestaurant
#DocksideDining
#FreshSeafood
#CincodeMayo
@snugharborwaterfrontrestaurant

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Transcript

Welcome And Local Sponsors

Intro/Close 0:00

Welcome to the Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbor Podcast. No shade, sunshine, running free, five updates. Support the local community and make Fort Myers. Display all love. What is the note of the island loves to display the USA, Snug Harbor, Nervous Dellies, and the Alex King Group. They're the good neighbors and businesses that allow us to share the soul of our community with every listener. Follow the beach chair, grab a drink, and let's be able to make this island feel at home. Here's your host, Cabo Jim Schaller.

"Cabo" Jim 0:31

Welcome, Fort Myers Beach, good neighbors, to another episode. Today we're at Snug Harbor here in the beautiful bay. And we've got Jason. New new what? New owner, operator. What's your title now?

Jason’s Path Through Restaurants

Jason Jakaitis 0:44

So I'm uh the new operating partner over here at Snug Harbor. Okay. Uh on Fort Myers Beach. I got to join the team about uh it's gotta be about eight eight to ten weeks now. Really? Yeah, right at the beginning of season, I got to come in. So right right in February or so. So yeah, I got to hang out for a season and enjoy my first season on the beach. So it was really cool. Yeah, good time.

"Cabo" Jim 1:07

So let's back up the story a little bit. How does one get involved in so yeah?

Jason Jakaitis 1:12

I mean, I've always been involved in the restaurant business my whole life. Yeah, you know, I uh I was born in Illinois, okay, uh moved to Cape Coral when I was three, so spent most of my life, you know, in the Cape. Yeah, pretty much a native, yeah, absolutely. Uh, you know, went to Calusa Elementary, Calusa Middle, you know, did uh North Fort Myers High, Cape High graduate. Um, you know, got my first job at probably 15 working at the Cape Craben Steakhouse in Cape Poral, uh a local uh seafood place that did fresh seafood. So uh worked there for about three years and um moved on to uh TGI Fridays in Fort Myers. So I worked for about four years there, uh on and off, um, one season at Damon's Ribs. So worked a little bit there. Uh and then uh I saw this Italian place across the street, uh Carabas. Um I started there as a bus boy, worked there for a while. Um yeah, did that, and then you know, uh after learning the front of the house over there, back of the house, everything that there was to do, became a manager and then eventually graduated to managing partner over at um the Carabas on uh Pine Island Road and Skyline did that for the last six years, and then the opportunity uh arose to come out here and take place in uh an awesome partnership. And I joined the team with uh Nick and Peter and John over here at uh Snug Harbor and you know it was a great fit. Uh my wife is a uh local, she was born and raised on Fort Myers Beach. Her name's Roxanne. All right, she worked at um the cottage for 25 years, uh, you know, went to the beach school, went to uh uh uh Cypress Lake High School and graduated from there. So, you know, she works at Wahoo Willy's, which is a partner restaurant of us as well. So, and my son is there, and I've got my daughter here, so we brought the family down to the beach. Yeah, I mean that's what the beach really is. You know, it's uh it's more than just uh a place to hang out and go to exactly, you know, it's it's a place where family is, so yeah, and and it's cool. So we're we're having a great time.

What Makes Snug Harbor Special

"Cabo" Jim 3:25

And you know, you're part of the beach family on top of it too, you know. It's exactly the local people, you grew up here locally. Yes, absolutely. For those who aren't familiar with Snug Harbor, why don't you share a little bit about Snug Harbor?

Jason Jakaitis 3:38

Uh well, I mean, we've got the the best seafood on the beach, you know. Um, Nick, one of our partners, yeah, uh, has the fish house right over the bridge. So as you're coming over that first bridge over there, right before you go over on the right hand side, you'll see a two-story building there. That's our fish house where we've got our local boats that come in there and dock. Bring us our uh grouper, bring us our snapper, bring us our stone crab claws, which are getting ready to go out of season. Only a couple more days for that. So come in and get them. Um, but yeah, you know, just really good seafood, good home cooked meals. You know, Shift Rizzo uh does a great job with our specials. Um, so you know, our specials are constantly changing. Yeah, um but yeah, everything is just really fast, really fresh, simple recipes, you know, nothing too complicated. Just you know, you let the food do the talking.

"Cabo" Jim 4:29

Yep, yeah. And the view, because you know, we're sort of the prime spot here, right? Absolutely.

Jason Jakaitis 4:35

You got it.

"Cabo" Jim 4:37

Exactly.

Jason Jakaitis 4:38

It's table number one for a reason. It's the number one table here. You get to see awesome sunsets, uh, great service, uh, great friends, you know, servers that become friends, you know, people that come down year after year, you know, we're blessed to be part of a uh a great, great Fort Myers Beach family. So yeah, great times.

"Cabo" Jim 4:58

Pirate ships, the boats going by in the dolphin once in a while.

Jason Jakaitis 5:00

Absolutely, yeah, definitely, definitely. We've got that. You know, we've got plenty of dock space uh for people to come up and bring their boats. That's one of the great things that we have here as well, is you know, plenty of dock space. So come up, bring your boat, uh, enjoy your great lunch and and hang out with us.

"Cabo" Jim 5:16

And you support the live music in Bayside?

Jason Jakaitis 5:19

Absolutely, yeah. Bayside Park. We've got the awesome uh uh weekly uh series going on down there. So that's a great time on Sundays from four to seven. We've got a bar set up out there. Uh, you can go and have some food out there under the tiki, listen to the music, have a great time, bring your friends, bring your family. It's uh it's a great time for all. Very good, very good.

"Cabo" Jim 5:41

So getting back to your story a little bit. I know this job can be very demanding. I spent a little time in the industry myself, and it's uh you know, not a lot of free time, but when you do get a moment, what do you enjoy doing outside of work? Um, what do I enjoy?

Jason Jakaitis 5:55

But just you know, spending time with the family, right? You know, we're just very family oriented, so just hanging out with my daughter. I love to cook, you know, so we cook together. Um yeah, just spending time together, you know. A lot of the time, believe it or not, comes back down to hanging out on the beach with family and stuff.

"Cabo" Jim 6:12

So I won't I won't ask you your favorite spots because we we don't want to tell everybody.

Jason Jakaitis 6:17

Yeah, yeah. No, you know, I mean, to be honest with you, working at Krabbas for so long, I really never got to go out that much. Right. So, you know, her working on the beach, you know, people for a while didn't even believe that she had a husband for a while because they just heard about me and never saw me, right? Didn't know I existed. I came down on maybe, you know, Shrimp Festival Day, um, maybe a 4th of July weekend for a special occasion or something like that. But you know, I never got to come out a lot. I missed, you know, Charlie's, yeah, was probably my favorite place to eat out there. You know, I love love Charlie's, I love their prime rib, which you can still get the same exact prime rib if you want to. I know it might not be here, but I'm gonna put in a plug for Wahoo Willy's. They have an awesome prime rib over there. So um, but yeah, Charlie's was probably uh probably my and that's the cool thing about the beach is a lot of these people that you're you're hanging out with and supporting, they've worked at many of these restaurants. You know, we've got a couple great cooks here, you know, Chapo who uh who worked at the cottage uh for 25 years, who's known my wife forever, Ophelia, you know, people like this, they become your family. You know, you hang out with them more than you do your real family sometimes. So a lot of these people work at multiple restaurants and you get to see them through the last 25, 30 years, and it's it's what I love about the business. You know what I mean?

"Cabo" Jim 7:41

In the community in general, like we all kind of stick together, support each other, right?

Must Try Dishes And Fresh Specials

Jason Jakaitis 7:46

And food is the the the great equalizer that kind of brings everybody to the table. Oh, yeah, food and drink, absolutely you gotta have that, but it just kind of brings everybody to the table and gives everybody something to to have like a common ground with, you know what I mean?

"Cabo" Jim 8:00

Yeah, so so those people other than locals, first-time visitors, people coming here on vacation. What's the one thing they need to try in your menu?

Jason Jakaitis 8:09

Uh I I would say grouper, it's gotta be grouper, probably between grouper gourmet or the regular grouper blackened, the grouper dinner. Um we we sell so many of those a night, you know, between a grouper dinner, grouper sandwich, and a grouper uh uh gourmet, you know, we're selling almost a hundred of those a night. So grouper gourmet is is really good. It's got the uh filet uh grouper with the crab meat mix that we then take into the oven, bake that in the oven, and then put a lemon butter sauce over the top of that, and then that goes over some garlic, mashed potatoes, and green beans, super yummy. Uh making me hungry now. Come on. It's probably the the best uh most popular thing on the menu for sure. And fresh fish, always always, and definitely whenever you come in and you see that menu and you look at that special menu, you can guarantee that the fridge that was on that was probably cut in the morning, you know, because there's certain things we do here that you just don't get anywhere. Our grouper wings, yeah. You know, we do those, nobody else does those. It's uh grouper collars that he usually marinates in Moho and then flash fries them, put some Texas peat on them, and then you just get in a couple little uh forks, just dig into that thing, and you just dive in and you eat some really good stuff that you're not normally gonna get in any other place. So perfect, good stuff.

"Cabo" Jim 9:29

Love it, love it. So for those that haven't tried Sugarbor, those who've been here before, come on down.

How To Visit And Catering

Jason Jakaitis 9:35

Yeah, come on, hang out with us.

"Cabo" Jim 9:36

How do they find you?

Jason Jakaitis 9:37

Um, you can find us on Facebook, you know, definitely come out, check out our Facebook page, check out our Instagram. Um you can go to our website, snugharbor.restaurant, uh, check us out there. We've got uh, you know, the header up at the top. We've got catering. We do some awesome catering out there. We're getting ready for graduation season. So if anybody's got anything for graduation, you want to throw a nice party for your son and daughter, um, we can do that for you. We've got awesome customizable menus that you can uh have as well. So love it.

"Cabo" Jim 10:09

Love it. Come down, check it out, say hi to Jason. Yeah, to Sham Brizzo and everybody else here. But uh Jason, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor, literally. I mean, yeah, you grew up here.

Closing Message And How To Share

Jason Jakaitis 10:21

Um it's great. Thank you so much. All right, thanks, buddy. Have a good one. Thanks. Yeah, thanks for coming.

Intro/Close 10:25

Thanks for tuning in to The Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbor Podcast — No Shade, Just Sunshine, Drama Free, Positive Vibes Only!!! If you loved what you heard, share it with a friend, and keep the good vibes going. Until next time, Support Local, Be a Good Neighbor and We’ll See You at the Beach Also, To Nominate Your Favorite neighbors, local legends, hero’s or local businesses to be on The Show Go To F-M-B Good Neighbor dot com That’s F-M-B Good Neighbor dot com Or Call 239-427-41- zero zero We want to send out some Island Love to State Insurance U S A, Snug Harbor, Nervous Nellies..and The Alex King Group. They are the Good Neighbors and Businesses that allow us to share the soul of our community with every listener, Here’s to celebrating all that makes Fort Myers Beach The Slice of Paradise...We All Love. Until next time remember to Cah-bo until ya Wah-bo and keep being a good neighbor