Big Nick\u2019s BBQ cooks its meat low and slow \u2014 at 200 degrees for 16 hours \u2014 and that approach is now being served at a second Southwest Florida location.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The barbecue restaurant opened Jan. 26 at 4720 SE Ninth Place, Suite 100, in Cape Coral, joining the city\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Big Nick\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Big Nick\u2019s Barbecue opened Jan. 26 at 4720 SE Ninth Place, Suite 100, in Cape Coral, marking the restaurant\u2019s second Southwest Florida location in a new mixed-use development south of Cape Coral Parkway.<\/p>\n
David Dorsey<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you smoke everything in house, every day, you\u2019ve got to have it,\u201d said Tim Collier, who co-owns Big Nick\u2019s with Erik Flett and Tim Fisk. All three graduated from Fort Myers High School in the early 1990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019s North Carolina locations, which were named for his father.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had our best year in 2025,\u201d Collier said of the company\u2019s first Southwest Florida location, which opened in 2022 at 9211 Cypress Lake Drive in south Fort Myers. \u201cMost revenue. Most sales. A lot of it is the support of the community. There\u2019s 70,000 people in a 5-mile radius, and we probably serve only a fraction of them. There\u2019s still room for growth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Big Nick\u2019s Barbecue co-owners Erik Flett, left, and Tim Collier stand outside the restaurant\u2019s new Cape Coral location, which expands the company\u2019s Southwest Florida footprint after strong sales in south Fort Myers.<\/p>\n
David Dorsey<\/p>\n
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\u2019s dining scene drawing customers from across the river, the owners said the timing made sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCape Coral was missing what we do,\u201d Fisk said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Cape Coral menu also is expanded, adding tacos, smoked sausages, collard greens and desserts. Big Nick\u2019s is testing a new meat supplier, Ben E. Keith of Fort Worth, Texas, which delivers daily.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey compete with the big boys on price while offering a very unique product,\u201d Fisk said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A barbecue platter featuring smoked brisket, green beans and potato salad reflects Big Nick\u2019s low-and-slow cooking approach, with meats smoked in-house for up to 16 hours at 200 degrees.<\/p>\n
David Dorsey<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take the time to trim them with care,\u201d Flett said. \u201cWe 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHolding meat is what a lot of people don\u2019t do. Holding it for a period of time allows the magic to happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big Nick\u2019s BBQ cooks its meat low and slow \u2014 at 200 degrees for 16 hours \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[68509,209,211,210],"class_list":["post-141010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-big-nick","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}