Beach Bar Breaks Ground
When Hurricane Ian swept away The Beach Bar and everything in the iconic Fort Myers Beach business, owner Greg Boyd didn’t abandon the property.
That’s not what you do when you are a Marine Corporal, who helped get soldiers out of harm’s way while traveling in a helicopter reconnaissance unit in the Vietnam War.
Despite having nothing left on his Estero Boulevard lot, Boyd reopened the beachfront bar just a few months after Hurricane Ian with not much more than a trailer to sell alcoholic refreshments from and some sun shades on the pilings that remained. The music followed as it always has at The Beach Bar – the kind of place many tourists have just happened to stumble into over the years.
Boyd and his sister Madeline Boyd celebrated at a groundbreaking ceremony this past week as the first shovels went into the ground for a new Beach Bar just a week after Hurricane Milton deluged the island with more flooding.
The new Beach Bar will be a larger, two-story building with a living residence above. The new Beach Bar structure will be built to newer hurricane standards with a metal roof to withstand the threats posed by hurricanes like the ones the beach has experienced in recent years. It may not have the same physical look of the wood-frame, shack-like bar that dated back to the 1960’s, but it will have a couple of spirited owners dedicated to its revival.
“I want something that’s going to be here forever,” Mr. Boyd said. “The beach vibe is really going to come from us.”
Boyd said the Beach Bar atmosphere is partly a product of musicians who bring their bluesy brand of rock and roll to the place and a dedicated following. “We do what we want to do,” he said. “We are the only ones who play this kind of music.” Boyd refers to his regular customers as “our best friends.”
He and his sister stuck it out on Fort Myers Beach at their homes on the bay despite losing a lot in Hurricane Ian. “We were almost done cleaning up from Helene,” he said. Now they are busy cleaning up from Milton. “Every surface has to be washed,” he said. Mr. Boyd has no illusions about the state of the island right now after taking on three serious hurricanes in two years but is ever the optimist. “I knew it would take time,” he said. He hopes to be open the new Beach Bar by this time next year.
“You got to pick up and move on and keep swinging.” Boyd said.
While from New Jersey originally, the Boyds were directors on the New York Mercantile Exchange and have owned more than a dozen businesses over the years. “This one really touched our hearts,” Ms. Boyd said.
They bought The Beach Bar in 2009 and leased the property initially before eventually taking over management of the business.
The Beach Bar has been considered a “hidden gem” by locals like Allyson Cartwright, who still visits despite having lost her home on the island during Hurricane Ian. The bar’s almost-secret location down the block from the Lani Kai Island Resort and tucked in behind what was the Sea Gypsy Inn and the former Hooters helps add to its flair.
“You have to know about it to be here,” Cartwright said. “It’s a chill bar. Nothing too fancy. It’s blue collar.” Cartwright said its been a “long couple of years” since Ian. “Some days it’s good, some days it’s bad. I get sad sometimes looking at all of the buildings. It’s a resilient community.”,
Fort Myers Beach Councilmember Scott Safford, co-owner of the Sea Gypsy Inn, has been renting out his property to the hardware store Goodz next door since Ian. “These guys were our neighbors before the storm,
“It’s going to give people hope,” Safford said. “The more small businesses that open it gives hope to everybody. I am really happy for them.”
Mr. Boyd appreciates his fellow local veterans who support the establishment. “We have a wonderful veterans’ community here,” he said.
After the ceremony, as some Beach Bar enthusiasts lingered around, Mr. Boyd announced that a round of drinks would be on him.
The Beach Bar vibe was back in full swing.