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Sweet Melissa’s Cafe Cuisine:American,Local Specialty,Seafood Price Range:$$ 10 BEST SAYS This unique Sanibel restaurant is where foodies go while on the island. Award-winning Chef Melissa Donahue sources local ingredients year-round, for a seasonal menu that leans toward small plates. Her creations are innovative and consistently pleasing. Sweet Melissa’s staffers are consummate professionals, and can easily recommend the best wine pairings for your meal. Many nights a week, you can find a local guitarist playing relaxing Read more…

Melissa Donahue, executive chef WE ALL HAVE CERTAIN GO-TO RESTAURANTS THAT we know will consistently deliver great quality and top-drawer service time after time. My favorites list is dominated by independent spots run by chefs whose passion for what they do is evident whether or not they are in the kitchen or, for that matter, at the restaurant that night (let’s face it, chefs need some down time, too). So where do discerning chefs go Read more…

Our editors’ choices of the greatest people, moments and dining achievements of the year. BY STAFF Food & Dining COLLIER COUNTY Best invention: The perma-food truck rally. The trucks rove around breweries and make stops at farmers markets, but the astounding success of Celebration Park—a plaza with eight kitchens on wheels and a waterfront bar near Naples Botanical Garden—proves the way forward is to just keep trucking. Best not-so-simple salad: The burrata at Jimmy P’s Charred (which now Read more…

BY DOROTHEA HUNTER SONNE Editor’s Note: Every year as part of our Best of the Gulfshore issue, Food and Wine Editor Dorothea Hunter Sönne cultivates an All-Star team, so to say, of the Southwest Florida restaurants that consistently offer the best dining experiences. Here is her list for 2019.  21 Spices by Chef Asif: This isn’t your average curry house (although you can get great chicken tikka masala and garlic naan)—expect soaring ceilings, sleek decor and a full Read more…

Melissa Donahue of Sanibel’s Sweet Melissa’s Cafe became the first Lee County chef to earn a James Beard Awards nomination. It only took 20 years of hard work. Late on a Tuesday morning at the bar of Sweet Melissa’s Cafe, things are quiet. Mostly. There’s the occasional clang of pans from the kitchen. The shuffle of chairs as servers prep the dining room. And, backing it all, the constant endless ringing of the phone. “It Read more…

Sweet Melissa’s Café is proud to announce that our Executive Chef, Melissa Donahue, will be competing LIVE in New Orleans. The 2018 Chefs Taste Challenge: Battle of The Gulf is happening September 7th, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It’s a battle that pits New Orleans chefs against culinary geniuses from all over the Gulf Coast. You can find out more about the event by visiting: http://chefstastechallenge.com/   Video Link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2211513659078653