Twist and shout

The drive past Everglades Wonder Gardens in Bonita Springs on Old 41 Road, for area resident Alisha Rhodes, had become tortuous in 2015.

Not for the alligators, peacocks and turtles inside the 80-year-old Old Florida roadside attraction. Rhodes, instead, pined for a chance to get into the snug, shuttered 3,000-square-foot shop next door. A longtime hospitality employee, who worked her way up from hostess and waitress roles at Outback Steakhouse to the financial and management side, Rhodes thought the empty space would make a great barbecue joint.

“I would pass by and pass by and just look at it sitting empty,” says Rhodes, an Apopka native with a large extended family in fast-growing Bonita Springs. “It had really gone by the wayside.”