How Andy Rosse Lane became a dining destination on Captiva.

Captiva Island’s restaurants share many similarities: Gulf seafood, cocktails, breezy patios. Five of them share an entrepreneurial owner, as well.

Gina Birch | Special to The News-Press
Published 11:02 a.m. ET Aug. 18,2020

This has been the summer of canceled vacations.

With many staying closer to home, destination dining is seeing a boom in popularity. Venturing outside of the circle of convenience that surrounds your home or business, while still remaining in your backyard, opens up options that are often overlooked under normal circumstances.

And there is little normal about the current world.

Southwest Florida is known for its barrier islands, which are ripe and ready for culinary exploration, including captivating Captiva. An island that is mostly residential and resort, if there was a downtown Captiva, it would be along Andy Rosse Lane, a shady, shell-lined street that dead ends at the Gulf of Mexico.

Home to a small grocer, galleries and vacation rentals, the majority of restaurants on this lazy strip, as well as Captiva in general, are owned by hospitality guru Sandy Stilwell Youngquist. She’s the woman behind Latte Da, RC Otter’s Island Eats, Cantina Captiva and Sunshine Seafood Café & Wine Bar.

The 18-year-old Keylime Bistro, though, is her anchor.

Having owned Keylime since 2002, Youngquist has weathered quite a few storms (hurricanes, oil spills, red tide) but none have hit quite like COVID-19.

“One day you’re ordering food, stocking for full service and then boom, no notice, we are shut down, takeout only,” Youngquist says.

At the same time, vacation rentals were suspended on the island, further strangling the restaurant’s already modest takeout operations.

No guests, no business.

“At one point we were the only place open on the island,” Youngquist recalls, calling Keylime Bistro, “a mainstay; people can always count on us being open.”

Like many in her position, Youngquist took advantage of the forced shut down to spruce up her properties. It’s a rare opportunity for a seven-day-a-week business to tackle projects that would normally affect daily operations. And those projects kept employees on the payroll.

The chefs remained at work, but instead of wielding knives, they manned jack hammers to uproot old tiles.

“We have new floors in the kitchen, we’ve cleaned and painted; the restaurant looks better than ever,” Keylime’s general manager Andy Biddle says.

Now up and running with social distancing and masking up the orders of the day, the tropical bistro is back to serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

The crab cake Benedict tops breakfast and brunch orders at Keylime Bistro; an English muffin is stacked with a freshly prepared crab cake, a slice of tomato and poached egg, then drizzled with Keylime’s twist on Hollandaise.

“It is richer than a traditional Hollandaise and it’s a little more orange in color,” Biddle says.

The “Shrimp to Shore Bloody Mary” is a classic Keylime cocktail for breakfast and brunch, but can be had anytime of day. A meal unto itself, the spicy tomato juice and vodka cocktail is loaded with jumbo shrimp, asparagus and hearts of palm.

Sandwiches and salads highlight Keylime’s lunch menu. And grouper is a mainstay; order it fried, grilled or blackened with a side of Key lime aioli. Favorite salads include grilled portobello mushrooms with goat cheese over a bed of spinach in a balsamic vinaigrette. For a twist on a Caesar salad, Keylime tops it with fried seafood: calamari and baby shrimp.

Grouper also plays a starring role on the dinner menu.

“We stuff it with big chunks of lobster meat and crab then roll it up and bake it,” Biddle says. Finished with Key lime Hollandaise, he adds, “It’s number one, hands down.”

The bistro’s namesake Key limes are used in sauces, cocktails and most notably in an award-winning pie; a dessert many say makes the drive out here worth it.

“It’s the best in the world,” Youngquist says, gushing.

On a trip to Paris, she struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler who bragged about having the most incredible Key lime pie he had ever tasted — on Captiva Island. He had no idea he was talking to the pie’s creator.

Many guests who drive for a meal at Keylime Bistro combine the outing with beach time, sunset being the most popular: dine early then walk to the beach for sunset; sunset then dinner; drinks-sunset-dinner, dinner-sunset-dessert — any combination works.

Youngquist’s many mix-and-match dining options on Andy Rosse Lane make the combinations all the more plentiful.

Sunshine Seafood Café is the most upscale of Youngquist’s restaurants. Boasting a cozy indoor space, outdoor cabana dining has been added for social distancing. The tents even have elegant chandeliers. With limited seating, reservations are requested.

RC Otter’s, with its blue picket fence, is universal, appealing to the entire family with items ranging from fried seafood baskets and oysters on the half shell, to baby back ribs and cheeseburgers. Similar to Keylime, RC Otter’s also serves breakfast and features live entertainment daily.

Cantina Captiva has brightly painted picnic tables outside, in addition to indoor seating. Mexican and Southwestern-inspired cuisine makes up this menu. Snack on nachos and guacamole or dig into tamales and chile rellenos with pitchers of sangria, margaritas or beer to wash it all down.

Then there’s Latte Da, a small shop selling coffee drinks, ice cream and various gift items.

While Youngquist says she will never recover the financial losses from COVID-19, she has gained a wealth of gratitude.

“There are so many things I’ll not take for granted anymore, like a hug,” she says. “Being able to embrace and be close to one another, I’ll never take that for granted again.”

Owner marks 20th year at historical inn

April 30, 2019
By TIFFANY REPECKI, Island Reporter, Captiva Current, Sanibel-Captiva Islander

Twenty years ago, Sandy Stilwell Youngquist was in the market to purchase another inn and was considering a place in Great Guana Cay in the Bahamas when chance led her in a different direction.

“I always knew I wanted to own something on the islands,” she said of Captiva and Sanibel.

“I kind of kept my eyes peeled for the right opportunity,” Stilwell Youngquist added.

Raised in Lee County since the age of 2, she had owned two inns on Fort Myers Beach, which she later sold. Yet Stilwell Youngquist had always been attracted to the island lifestyle, particularly on Captiva.

“We were boaters and I always came into South Seas,” she said, citing ‘Tween Waters as well.

In 1999, as Stilwell Youngquist was working through the details of possibly buying the Bahamas inn, the opportunity she had been waiting for presented itself. The Captiva Island Inn went up for sale.

“I just fell in love with Captiva and I bought it,” she said, noting that it was a historic property.

“I’m so glad I didn’t buy the place down in the Bahamas,” Stilwell Youngquist added.

She purchased the inn, which only had six rooms at the time, from Rob and Cathy Degennero.

“It was just a cute little bed and breakfast,” Stilwell Youngquist said. “It was so small.”

Initially, she wondered how she was going to stay booked, but soon found that she was full most of the time. On the county’s tax roll for the first time in 1950, the original site dates back at least 69 years.

“Some of the units, they’ve been around for a long time,” Stilwell Youngquist said.

The land purchase came with an attached restaurant, which was being leased at the time and was known as the Paris Tropical Grill. In 2001, Stilwell Youngquist bought out the lease when the eatery’s operators put it up for sale. She turned it into today’s well-known award-winning Keylime Bistro.

“The Keylime Bisto became so popular, I was running out of parking,” Stilwell Youngquist said.

In the last 20 years, she has remodeled and upgraded the Captiva Island Inn.

“When I bought it, it was in very good shape,” she said. “It is a matter of keeping up the old buildings. We’re constantly doing that – but part of owning a property is keeping it up to the local standards.”

Stilwell Youngquist has expanded on the rental company itself by acquiring adjacent properties and adding units, though she noted that a big push for doing so was the need for additional parking spaces.

Her acquisitions included the Paradise Shopping Center on the opposite side of Andy Rosse Lane in 2002, which underwent a remodel and increased the inn’s available units. She purchased two lots next to the inn and built the five-bedroom Celebration House and the Celebration Center business plaza.

Stilwell Youngquist bought a former hot dog shop and created Latte Da, and purchased RC Otter’s Island Eats – also from the Degenneros – the same year that Hurricane Charley came through.

“I was glad I did it, but it was an awful lot to get hit with at one time with all the property,” she said.

The Captiva Island Inn was impacted by the storm.

“We lost all of our trees, we had roofs off,” Stilwell Youngquist said. “Everything was broken.”

“We’ve been through a couple of hurricanes now,” she added.

Stilwell Youngquist reported that the most recent – Hurricane Irma, which rolled across Florida in 2017 – also caused some roof damage, as well knocked down fences and uprooted landscaping.

“We’ve gone through the BP oil spill. We’ve gone through the red ride,” she said.

“Like’s not always perfect,” Stilwell Youngquist added, expressing that the obstacles have not diminished her love for the island. “You just go from one hurdle, to the next, to the next.”

Asked what the draw is to Captiva for her, she cited the island way.

“I think it’s just that sense of community,” Stilwell Youngquist, noting that she has had the inn’s cottages and Paradise Shopping Center historically preserved like the inn in an effort to protect it. “I didn’t want to lose our little village. We have this little mecca, this little grouping of businesses.”

She explained that there is a synergy among all of the businesses on Captiva.

“We truly work together,” Stilwell Youngquist said.

“Buying the inn was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life,” she added. “I saw the potential for what could happen, and it came and is now a reality.”

Chief executive officer and owner of the Stilwell Enterprises and Restaurant Group, Stilwell Youngquist also owns the Sunshine Seafood Cafe and Wine Bar and Cantina Captiva on the island.

The Captiva Island Inn is at 11508 Andy Rosse Lane.

Source: CaptivaSanibel.com