Whataburger opened at 12916 S. Cleveland Ave. in Fort Myers<\/a> in what had been an Aussie Grill and Boston Market. That grand opening had a line of cars down the street.<\/p>\nSince then, the lines have been almost constant.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur fans continue to surprise us,\u201d said Juan Valenzuela, Whataburger\u2019s senior field marketing and events manager. \u201cAs long as we continue to deliver goodness, we\u2019re always going to have fans who continue to support us.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Whataburger](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
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The new Whataburger at 22927 Lyden Drive in Estero opened Oct. 22, becoming the chain’s second Southwest Florida restaurant. The location has a capacity of 158 customers and operates daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
Tim Aten<\/p>\n
Will Mynatt, who owns a construction sales and consulting company and lives near Gulf Coast Town Center, first discovered Whataburger about six months ago in Destin. He wanted to be first in line at the Estero location. He arrived at 11 a.m. Oct. 20 and was asked to return at 2 p.m. that day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried to go to the Fort Myers location when it opened, but it was already packed,\u201d Mynatt said. \u201cI said, \u2018No worries. I\u2019m going to beat the 36 hours by showing up 48 hours early.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Thalita Mynatt, Will\u2019s wife, alternated between camping in their Tesla and sitting in a lawn chair in front of Whataburger\u2019s front door. The first two customers in the drive-thru line and the first two customers outside each received 52 weekly Whataburger vouchers for free food for a year.<\/p>\n
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Will Mynatt, left, and his wife, Thalita, display No. 1 cards outside the new Whataburger in Estero. The couple arrived two days before the Oct. 22 opening to secure the first spots in line and received vouchers for free food for a year.<\/p>\n
David Dorsey<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t the only giveaway. Todd Muse, the operating partner in Estero, presented Harry Chapin Food Bank with a check for $2,500.<\/p>\n
Zack Wallen, Whataburger\u2019s growth market leader for Florida, congratulated the Mynatts on being first in line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re entering our 77th year,\u201d Wallen said. \u201cTo see where we\u2019ve grown today is an honor and a pleasure. We started as a simple burger stand, and now we\u2019re a long and enduring brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Estero location is larger than the one in Fort Myers, with a capacity of 158 customers compared with 86. The workforce will be about 80 employees. Another difference between the two locations is the hours. The Fort Myers location is open 24 hours a day. The Estero location, because of local ordinances, will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
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Customers gather outside the new Whataburger at 22927 Lyden Drive in Estero for its Oct. 22 grand opening. The restaurant is the Texas-based burger chain’s second Southwest Florida location, following its September debut in south Fort Myers.<\/p>\n
David Dorsey<\/p>\n
Whataburger likely will begin the process of opening additional Southwest Florida locations<\/a> in the second half of 2027, Valenzuela said, with specifics to be announced next year.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re excited about this location, being able to help the other location,\u201d Valenzuela said. \u201cNow, our fans will have a second option to go to, and we couldn\u2019t be happier. The reason we opened in a location is this is where our fans told us they wanted us to be. And this is why we are here, in Estero.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whataburger celebrated the grand opening of its second Southwest Florida restaurant Oct. 22 at 22927 Lyden Drive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,10124,2758,7586,1521,22802],"class_list":["post-437855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-estero","tag-fast-food","tag-restaurant-opening","tag-southwest-florida","tag-whataburger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437855","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=437855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}