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Local restaurateur to bring Baton-Rouge based restaurant group concept to Cape Coral

A new sports bar is set to open Monday in Cape Coral, bringing Louisiana flavors and hundreds of jobs to the city.

Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux will welcome customers to its location along Southwest Pine Island Road starting Monday. The family-friendly establishment is known for its scratch-made menu and creating memorable experiences for guests.

“We’re looking forward to bringing the Game Day energy found at Walk-On’s to the Cape Coral community,” said Walk-On’s Cape Coral General Manager Steven Hall in a prepared statement. “We intend to brand Walk-On’s as the go-to place for families, game days, graduations, birthdays, and all things alike. Knowing the Walk-On’s brand stands for community involvement and owning sports, we are dedicated to bringing this same culture to the Cape Coral community.”

The 8,900-square-foot restaurant features indoor and outdoor seating for 200-plus guests, a state-of-the-art sports bar, more than 50 big-screen TVs, a large outdoor patio area, and a welcoming atmosphere that caters to both sports fans and families.

The new establishment will host its first patrons starting at 11 a.m., with the first 100 customers entered to win free Walk-On’s for one year.

Walk-On’s was celebrated as the No. 1 sports bar in the country by ESPN that brings together the love of food, sports, and community. Concepted on the back of a napkin by LSU walk-on basketball players Brandon Landry and Jack Warner, Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux opened its doors in 2003 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The menu boasts scratch-made dishes paired with a wide selection of unique cocktails and beers, a release announcing the opening states.

Walk-On’s Southwest Florida Franchisee Len Lemmer is looking forward to bringing the new restaurant concept to Cape Coral and expanding his expertise and outreach.

“We’re confident it will become a lead dining spot for residents and area visitors alike, with more locations on the horizon,” Lemmer said.

A veteran restaurateur, Lemmer also owns Nervous Nellies and Cantina Laredo locally.

Walk-On’s Cape Coral will be a family-run business with son Tyler Lemmer as director of operations, son-in-law Steven Hall as general manager, daughter Erin Lemmer as administrative manager and daughter Kiera Lemmer as front-of-house manager.

Walk-On’s Cape Coral was built by Curran Young Construction.

“We love to build restaurants because they are places our team, friends and family can enjoy long after it’s been built,” said CEO of Curran Young Construction, Chris Curran, in a prepared statement. “With the menu and family atmosphere of Walk-On’s, we are confident this is going to be wildly successful, and we are thrilled to be part of it.”

For more information about Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux and the new Cape Coral location, visit Walk-On’s.com or contact the Cape Coral location at [email protected].

Walk-On’s Cape Coral is at 1127 SW Pine Island Road.

Zoe Green wasn’t having much luck finding love in Southwest Florida. So she thought: Why not? Let’s give reality TV a try.

The Cape Coral native and Sarasota ICU nurse is one of 32 women competing to win the hearts of four farmers on the TV show “Farmer Wants A Wife.” The new season of the hit dating competition premieres March 20 on FOX.

Green, 22, says she saw an ad for the show on TikTok and applied to be one of the show’s “daters.”

“Honestly, it was a good fit,” she says, “because I was just kind of struggling at the time, trying to find somebody that was working as hard as I was and had a good work ethic. …

“So I was like, you know what, might as well try this experience and see how it goes (laughs).”

‘Rural romantics’ looking for love on ‘Farmer Wants A Wife’

Actor and author Kimberly Williams-Paisley hosts the show with its four “rural romantics” and the 32 women competing to win those farmers' hearts.

The long-running show — revived by FOX in 2023 — has aired in 34 countries and resulted in 226 marriages and 565 children (with four more on the way), according to a FOX news release. Two farmers from last season, Mitchell Kolinsky and Nathan Smothers, “remain happily in love” with the women they found on the show, Sydney Errera and Taylor BeDell, the release says.

That’s the kind of love connection Green hopes for, too.

She’d never watched “Farmer Wants A Wife” before applying to compete on the show through a TikTok ad, she says. But she looked it up and found it encouraging that some of the couples are still together.

“Some of these girls are still with the men they met on this show, to this day,” she says. “So I was like, ‘OK, this could really be something. Something could actually come from this. So I was very intrigued.”

The third season was filmed last year in Alabama, Texas, Tennessee and elsewhere, according to the news release. During the show's run, the daters will take part in speed dating event, a country ball and an overnight camping mixer, among other activities.

More about SW Florida ICU nurse Zoe Green on ‘Farmer Wants A Wife’

Green was born in Cape Coral and raised there by a single mother, who still lives in the city. She graduated from Fort Myers' Florida SouthWestern State College with an associates degree in 2020.

The former gymnast competed at regional, state and national events with the Cape's Tropical Twisters Gymnastics, but she ended up leaving the sport due to rising costs and other factors. “I decided to retire after a couple of injuries,” she says.

After college, Green spent about a year as an EMT for Lee County EMS, then worked in LeeHealth hospital emergency rooms for about three years. She moved to Sarasota in March 2023 and took a job as an ICU nurse at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

Unlike most of the other women on "Farmer Wants A Wife," Green has actual experience working on a farm. And she says that gave her a slight advantage over her dating competition.

As a kid, she’d visit relatives in Switzerland and help take care of the animals on their farms. She especially loved the cows.

“Cows were my absolute go-to, milking those cows every morning,” she says. “I just loved being out on the farm, growing up as a kid.”

She’s done a lot in her 22 years, she says, but she’d never done anything quite like “Farmer Wants A Wife.”

“Absolutely not!” she says and laughs. “I just feel like I might as well try this experience for fun. And if I don’t find a man, then I get to have 30 other girlfriends out of this process, you know.”

Green says she got close to the show’s production crew during the filming. And she loved making friends with the other daters, too.

“I absolutely loved connecting with the girls,” she says. “You spend more time with them then you do with the farmer. I just loved being able to connect with them, because we’re all going through the same thing.”

Filming the show was like a rollercoaster, she says. So the women often relied on each other for emotional support.

“We don’t know what to expect,” she says. “Just having their support for a lot of it, and being able to confide in them and talk to them, was so important to me. Because that’s all we had.

“They’re the only ones who understand you in that moment — not the producers, not your family back at home. It’s them.”

How to watch ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’ on FOX and Hulu

“Farmer Wants a Wife” airs at 9 p.m. Thursdays on FOX. Then it’s available for streaming the following day on Hulu.

Learn more at fox.com/farmer-wants-a-wife.

Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 or email [email protected]. Follow or message him on social media: Facebook(@charles.runnells.7), Instagram and Threads (@crunnells1) and X (@CharlesRunnells)

Cape Coral City Council will consider on Wednesday a joint measure to impose additional measures to reduce dropping water levels in the Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer.

Resolution 75-25 calls for a multi-jurisdictional action plan among the South Florida Water Management District, the city, and Lee County, for the northeast Cape Coral water shortage area. The aquifer is the source of well water for drinking and all other uses in the area.

If approved, it will implement regulations to require mandatory connection to the city’s irrigation water supply system when it becomes available to a property.

According to the resolution, the plan would remain in effect until the Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer recovers above the minimum developable limit of -83.01 feet, or the South Florida Water Management District determines the aquifer has recovered for a sufficient amount of time.

The action plan also states that if the water levels decline to less than 10 feet above the minimum flows and minimum water levels for two consecutive weeks additional actions will take place.

• The South Florida Water Management District will direct the county to limit new construction of Mid-Hawthorn wells within the water shortage area to just potable use. Users would be required to seek different water sources for irrigation purposes.

• The county will limit new potable water wells and replacement wells within the water shortage area to the Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer lower portion.

• Zero irrigation days for all Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer users in the water shortage area.

In addition, the plan also lays out restrictions if water levels decline to the minimum flows and minimum water levels for two consecutive weeks.

• The South Florida Water Management District will direct the county to cease issuing new permits for any wells in the Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer area

• Zero irrigation days will be maintained for those Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer users.

An emergency order was issued on Nov. 28, 2023, declaring a water shortage. The joint action was issued to protect the Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer, which is in the northeast portion of the city.

In 2020, water levels declined “to the regulatory protection level known as the maximum developable limit.” The district, Lee County and the city have been working together to prevent harm to the domestic drinking water supply of the aquifer, which predominantly has withdrawals from private residential wells in the northeast part of Cape Coral.

The meeting will begin at 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 5, in City Council chambers, 1015 Cultural Park Blvd. The meeting is open to the public.