Big Nick’s BBQ cooks its meat low and slow — at 200 degrees for 16 hours — and that approach is now being served at a second Southwest Florida location.
The barbecue restaurant opened Jan. 26 at 4720 SE Ninth Place, Suite 100, in Cape Coral, joining the city’s newest restaurant corridor between Cape Coral Parkway and SE 47th Terrace at the base of The Cove at 47th, a new apartment complex with an adjacent parking garage for diners.
Big Nick’s joins Seed & Bean Market and Oak & Stone, with a fourth restaurant, Aqua, planned for the site. With three stories of apartments above the restaurant, the kitchen was built with a large chimney system that carries smoke up and over the building.
Big Nick’s Barbecue opened Jan. 26 at 4720 SE Ninth Place, Suite 100, in Cape Coral, marking the restaurant’s second Southwest Florida location in a new mixed-use development south of Cape Coral Parkway.
David Dorsey
“When you smoke everything in house, every day, you’ve got to have it,” said Tim Collier, who co-owns Big Nick’s with Erik Flett and Tim Fisk. All three graduated from Fort Myers High School in the early 1990s.
Flett, who also works as a property specialist with Whitetail Properties, oversees kitchen operations. Collier, who has operated Tim Collier State Farm Insurance nearby for 19 years, manages the business side. Fisk oversees the restaurant’s North Carolina locations, which were named for his father.
The ventilation system at the Cape Coral location cost $70,000, part of an overall $275,000 investment in kitchen equipment alone. Collier said the expense was worthwhile to establish a presence in south Cape Coral.
“We had our best year in 2025,” Collier said of the company’s first Southwest Florida location, which opened in 2022 at 9211 Cypress Lake Drive in south Fort Myers. “Most revenue. Most sales. A lot of it is the support of the community. There’s 70,000 people in a 5-mile radius, and we probably serve only a fraction of them. There’s still room for growth.”
Big Nick’s Barbecue co-owners Erik Flett, left, and Tim Collier stand outside the restaurant’s new Cape Coral location, which expands the company’s Southwest Florida footprint after strong sales in south Fort Myers.
David Dorsey
The Cape Coral site also benefits from built-in demand, with 327 apartment units located directly above the restaurant. With Bimini Square, another nearby apartment complex, celebrating its grand opening this week and Cape Coral’s dining scene drawing customers from across the river, the owners said the timing made sense.
Unlike the south Fort Myers location, the Cape Coral restaurant offers beer and wine, indoor seating and a backyard patio for dining and private events.
“Cape Coral was missing what we do,” Fisk said.
The Cape Coral menu also is expanded, adding tacos, smoked sausages, collard greens and desserts. Big Nick’s is testing a new meat supplier, Ben E. Keith of Fort Worth, Texas, which delivers daily.
“They compete with the big boys on price while offering a very unique product,” Fisk said.
A barbecue platter featuring smoked brisket, green beans and potato salad reflects Big Nick’s low-and-slow cooking approach, with meats smoked in-house for up to 16 hours at 200 degrees.
David Dorsey
Sandwiches start at $11.49 and include one side, while smash burgers also start at $11.49. A pair of tacos costs $12.49 for pork or $15.49 for beef brisket. Other items include brisket eggrolls ($4.50), smoked wings ($16.99 for five wings with two sides) and barbecue platters ranging from $16.49 for pork or sausage to $23.49 for brisket burnt ends.
“We take the time to trim them with care,” Flett said. “We have a special rub with peppers and grains we use to it. The time that it takes to brine and open up the muscles and the grains of the meat, all of that is what makes it so good. Low and slow, and then how you handle it after.
“Holding meat is what a lot of people don’t do. Holding it for a period of time allows the magic to happen.”