Lani Kai’s Island View gets new look with sports bar
The Lani Kai Island Resort offers the best dining views on Fort Myers Beach, readers of the Fort Myers Beach Observer said in this year’s Best of the Beach Awards.
Those views just got better with the remodeling of the resort’s celebrated Island View Restaurant, on the sixth floor overlooking the beach. The restaurant has been renamed the Island View Sports Bar, merging a love for grand panoramic vistas of the Gulf with food and sports. Diners can now enjoy a Philly cheesesteak while watching a Phillies baseball game, a corned beef reuben while watching a Yankees game, or a grouper sandwich to enjoy a Bucs or Dolphins game.
With 33 big-screen television sets carrying every major sports package there is, any sports game you want to see is ready while enjoying the precious views with food and a beverage.
The new Island View Sports Bar is family friendly, with a brand new game room in between the restaurant, and the Sunsetdeck Restaurant next door. There are no bad views in the house. The Island View Sports Bar is now the hotel’s go-to sports hangout, while the Sunsetdeck offers a more reserved atmosphere, while also boasting the famed outdoor seating six stories high overlooking the Gulf in some of the most magnificent dining views of the Gulf anywhere. Grace’s Trattoria on the first floor offers authentic Sicilian and Italian fine dining with inside and balcony seating that offer additional great views overlooking the Gulf. There are additional food options on the ground floor.
When it comes to dining and views at the Lani Kai Island Resort, it seems the options are unlimited.
“We have the best views around,” said Kasey Conidaris, marketing director for the Lani Kai Island Resort. The owners have now combined great views, with sports, drinks and good food.
Ms. Conidaris said sports was a favorite pastime for the hotel’s late founder Bob Conidaris. Ms. Conidaris said sports is big for the Conidaris family as well as for many of their guests. “The Conidaris family is a very big sports family,” she said.
That love for sports is evident by the autographed jerseys hanging on the wall in the sports bar. There is the iconic No. 13 of the legendary Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, signed by the Hall of Famer. His AFC rival Jim Kelly, the Hall of Fame quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, is also represented on the wall with a signed jersey. Other players on the wall include a signed Miami Heat jersey of the NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.
There are 32 big screen 65-inch television sets, and one 100-inch big screen television set in the center of the room. Every major sports package is available. “We have every sport, every channel,” Kasey said.
“We put a lot of through into what people would enjoy,” Ms. Conidaris said.
In addition to sports, the late patriarch of the hotel also enjoyed having video arcade games at the hotel. “One thing my grandpa used to love was having games at the breezeway,” Ms. Conidaris said.
The led to the owners setting up a new game room set up right before the entrance to the Island View Sports bar. The game room features one of the great arcade games in Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of Super Heroes, which features Captain America, Spiderman, Wolverine and Street Fighter characters. There is a multicade arcade machine that includes Galaga, Mappy and Ms. Pacman. Other arcade games in the room include Aliens, Guitar Heroes, and a foosball table.
“We want people to enjoy the games,” Ms. Conidaris said.
Over the last three months, the family overhauled its Island View restaurant as part of a renovation overseen by Michael Conidaris, the owner of Conidaris Builders. The renovations include new floorings, booths and an expands bar for the Island View Sports Bar.
Conidaris Builders also led the extensive repairs and remodeling the entire hotel undertook after Hurricane Ian damaged the building in 2022. The structure, built to last by Bob Conidaris in 1978, withstood one of the worst hurricanes in Florida’s history.
Alli Conidaris, another granddaughter of the resort’s founder, worked as the interior designer for the project. She designed the sports bar with the intent of making it a place where families can get together. she said. “Our family is very into sports,” Alli said. “We have every sports package you can think of.” Guests can pick any television set they want to set up at. A large party can also reserve a section for parties and weddings, and set up around certain sports games they want to enjoy.
There is also a live beach cam that play plays on the televisions. This weekend, they will be broadcasting the boat races.
“Not many sports bars can say they have a view like this,” Alli said. “You can’t beat this view.”
The sports bar makeover is just in time for football season, which could make for exciting weekends for families following their favorite college football or NFL team as they enjoy a vacation on the beach. The owners are also looking to attract locals looking to enjoy a game, with some good food, drinks and views.
Another highlight of the makeover is the bar, where Alli said they have introduced a frozen mug system with draft beers for the first time. “All of our draft beers come out at 27 degrees,” she said.
One of the survivors of Hurricane Ian is the wood-fired oven, which the late Conidaris had shipped over from Italy about a decade ago. The oven cooks the popular pizza at the Lani Kai. The pizza options include barbecue chicken pizza, Hawaiian red pizza, meatlovers pizza, white pizza, and the red pizza that is topped with classic homemade red sauce topped with mozzarella.
At the Island View Sports Bar, you also have your choice of a dozen smoked wings, which come in hot, barbecue, teriyaki, garlic parmesan, or jerk, perfect for game day. Other game day favorites include fish and chips, the Lani Kai burger, the firehouse burger, quesadilla, Lani Kai shrimp tacos, birria bowl, short ribs, and Cuban-style pasta salad.
Salad lovers have their choice of Caesar salad, ahi tuna salad, crispy chicken chopped salad, and garden salad.
The “Starting Lineup” appetizers include coconut shrimp, tater barrels, cheese curds., fried pickles, mussels, crispy calamari, and the soup of the day.
For sandwiches, there is the Philly steak sandwich, corned beef reuben, turkey reuben, bratwurst, grouper sandwich, pulled pork sandwich, and Italian sandwich.
The owners plan to have football game night specials as the season gets going. The Island View Sports Bar is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to midnight.
Kasey Conidaris said the remake of the Island View Sports Bar has been a family effort. While the effort to remodel the restaurant and rebuild the hotel after Hurricane Ian was hard work, the hotel’s sell themselves. “We have the best view of Fort Myers Beach,” Ms. Conidaris said. “Every restaurant is a beachfront restaurant.”
Fort Myers Beach Observer Editor Nathan Mayberg can be reached at NMayberg@breezenewspapers.com