After closing Chef Brooke's Natural Cafe in Fort Myers, chef sets out on 'freedom trip'
Chef Brooke Wagenheim has been in Naples and North Carolina. She's stopped in Orlando and Savannah. She has plans to go to New Hampshire and Maine, and then clear across the country to Portland, Oregon.
Where she hasn't been, where she may never again be: Fort Myers.
"The restaurant industry is grueling," said Wagenheim, who opened Chef Brooke's Natural Cafe on Boy Scout Drive in 2009, and who quietly closed it in October 2021.
"Anyone who hasn't worked in it doesn't comprehend that fact."
But Wagenheim does. She's been in the business most of her life, from cooking for Jesuit priests in Minneapolis, to helping open her sister's restaurant in Tokyo, to rolling and delivering sushi on a bicycle in Colorado.
In the mid-2000s, she took a job at a health food store in Fort Myers, the original Ada's Natural Market.
"The chef there was very passionate and took me under his wing," Wagenheim said.
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She honed her gluten-free baking skills and learned innovative recipes that focused on vegetables and plant-based proteins. She wrote a column, "Natural Chef," for The News-Press, teaching readers how to grill tofu and embrace cold soups in summertime. And then, in 2009, she opened her own restaurant, Chef Brooke's.
The cafe was an almost instant success, filling a plethora of vegan, organic, plant-based, gluten-free and dairy-free niches with Wagenheim's careful touch and knack for flavors. Prior to Fort Myers, Wagenheim had been a nomad, wondering across the country and around the world. But with Chef Brooke's, she found herself anchored.
Over time, that anchor felt more like a burden.
As fast-casual chains such as Panera and Chipotle entered the market, Wagenheim noticed a shift in her customers. They started valuing speed over quality, convenience and low prices over healthfulness and care.
"Everything just started to get a little bit harder, a little less joyful, less fun" she said.
When the pandemic hit, Wagenheim saw it as an opportunity to step away and slow down. She realized she'd lived in Fort Myers longer than she'd lived anywhere else. She knew she needed a change of pace.
In October, she closed the cafe's doors and took stock of her life. A few decades in the same city had added up. She cleared some 1,500 books from her shelves and donated them to local charities along with 35 bags of clothes and three truckloads of "just stuff," as Wagenheim put it.
She packed what was left into a 100-square-foot storage unit, hopped into her Volvo and hit the road to Georgia, the Carolinas and, soon, more points north and west. She plans to start a blog and eventually open a new restaurant. Something smaller and more focused. A coffee house, perhaps, or a cafe filled with serve-yourself Crock Pots of soups and curries with custom baked goods for dessert. "My lemon love bars, my chubby bubbas, my incredible pies," she said, gushing.
As for where this future restaurant will be, Wagenheim coudn't say. "When I get there, I'll know," she said.
Will she miss Fort Myers?
"Of course," Wagenheim said.
Will she come back?
Wagenheim paused. She took a breath. "My mom is in Naples, so I'd always visit."
"I feel like it’s my time," she said, "to do something where I can focus on the joyful aspects of food again.
"After so many years with so much responsibility, having to manage everything and take care of everything, this is my freedom trip."
Follow Chef Brooke's progress on Facebook and Instagram.
Annabelle Tometich writes about food and restaurants for The News-Press and Naples Daily News. Connect with this reporter: atometich@news-press.com; @atometich (Twitter); @abellewrites (Instagram)
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Why did Chef Brooke's Natural Cafe close in Fort Myers?
