Readers select Best of North Fort Myers honorees
As North Fort Myers grows, more businesses are coming to the area, which means more competition, which means better businesses.
Every year, the North Fort Myers Neighbor Living magazine invites readers to honor businesses that are the best at what they do — everything from dentists to restaurants to bingo parlors and even who makes the best Margarita.
On Tuesday, at Three Fishermen’s Restaurant, the Neighbor invited the best of the best for food and fun and to hand out the “Best of” awards for 2026.
Laurie Ragle, advertising director for the Breeze Newspapers, said the event is a celebration of the businesses that got the more votes via print and on-line balloting open to the community.
“Being named the best in the newspaper contest carries a lot of water as far as people trusting those businesses and some do multiple things really well,” Ragle said. “The community recognizes those and vote them as the best.”
This year, the Nauti Parrot Waterfront Bar & Grill was among the winners, winning a record 12 awards.
Its sister eatery, Aunt Nancy’s, won two awards for its sweets.
Another big winner was Trifecta Home Solutions, which took home six plaques. It’s their sixth straight year of winning a Best of North Fort Myers honor.
Catina Sheets said the company is excited the community holds them in high regard.
“We’ve been in the area since 2015 and are excited to be showcased and be winners,” said Sheets, whose husband is a fifth-generation Floridian. “We rebranded in 2022 and merged companies.”
“It shows that there’s a little payoff. You work hard all year and the people vote for you as the best,” Rick Sheets said. “It’s a morale booster.”
Stacy and Rodney Poole, of Blossom & Brie, also took home six plaques, including for best overall restaurant, and were proud of all of them.
“It’s a 100-acre working farm. We happen to have a restaurant and event center there. It’ awesome to have people recognize the hard work we do,” Rodney Poole said. “It’s been a lot of work over the last three years. I’m happy with the staff we have and they’re the reason we win these awards.”
Jordan Harrison, of Primerica Financial Services, was a first-time winner for financial planning and mortgage services.
“It’s an honor to represent this community and be able to serve it,” Harrison said. “I’m part of a networking group and the camaraderie we build and the clientele base we’ve built the past several years did it.”
Some were lucky to win twice in two entirely different categories.
The North Fort Myers Civic Association was named best organization. Christy-Lee Iwanow, the group’s vice president, also won three awards with her and her husband’s company, All-Superior Auto.
“We’re grateful to the community for continuing to vote for our mom-and pop shop every year and we continue to grow every year,” Iwanow said about the business that started in 2009. “We focus on giving back and we love doing the touch-a-truck events and seeing the kids jump in our big trucks.”
The Best Dental practice went to Rasmussen Dental. Andrea Parsons said her practice won the award for the second straight year.
“We work so hard to be able to serve the community the way we do. We like to receive the recognition,” said Parsons, whose practice started in 2016. “We ‘re proud to be a part of North Fort Myers.”