Video: Canary Club Pizza and Cocktails in Bonita Springs
Owners of The Bohemian and Downtown Coffee and Wine Company bring Middle Eastern inspired pizza, sharables to Old 41 Road
A new restaurant, Canary Club, has opened in Bonita Springs, Florida.The restaurant specializes in wood-fired pizzas and shareable plates with Middle Eastern flavors.It is the third downtown business opened by owners Brandon and Caitlin Schewe.
A new gem of a pizza place, located between Fort Myers and Naples, has been quietly making a name for itself.
Which isn’t surprising at all, considering the couple behind it.
In June, Brandon and Caitlin (Emery) Schewe opened Canary Club in the new Waterline Bonita Springs Street Retail building on Old 41 Road.
It’s their third business in the heart of downtown in the last six years.
“We definitely wanted to do something different,” said Brandon, who also owns The Bohemian and Downtown Coffee and Wine Co. with Caitlin. “With construction prices and rising food costs, I thought what would make sense from a business standpoint. I wanted what I do to last. And do it cost efficiently. To do that, I got a wood-fired pizza oven.”
And that’s how Canary Club pizza, shareables, and cocktails began.
“I didn’t want to do Italian or Mediterranean,” Brandon said. “Nobody focuses on the Middle East region, and those flavors are awesome.”
It all comes together in an eye-catching, canary yellowish-tiled wood-fired oven that, at seven tons, is huge.
“It came from California,” Brandon said. “We got the biggest one they made, and it shipped on an 18-wheeler. It was a three-hour process to get it in from the truck.”
Set in the open kitchen in a modern and Middle Eastern sea of oranges and pinks, it can fit 12 pizzas at once and cook them in five minutes or less at 500 to 550 degrees.
It’s producing a handful of gloriously flavorful specialty pies, including harrisa BBQ chicken, the Shroom ‘Shawarma,’ best-selling lamb and a wonderful pepperoni with za’atar honey that we love, love, love.
“It pushes the boundaries, but we don’t get out of your comfort zone,” Brandon said.
Appetizers take up half the menu and feature Israeli couscous, kale fattoush, kefta, pitas and hummus that “almost every table orders.” “And that makes me so happy,” Brandon said.
Like everything else here, it’s a process to make. Hummus and the pizza dough take three days. The in-house lamb sausage takes days, too.
“All the hard work behind the scenes ends in the results we want,” Brandon said. “I want people to subconsciously know that it tastes so good because of what happens behind the scenes.”
One bite and we knew. You will too.
Canary Club, 10610 Founders Way, Suite 140, Bonita Springs; (239) 776-8065; opens at 11 a.m. every day except Tuesdays; indoor and outdoor seating available; follow on Instagram for deals like BOGO pizza on Mondays and $20 lunch specials during the week; canaryclubbonita.com
Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at rhgeorge@fortmyer.gannett.com
Dining and Cooking