Fort Myers restaurants: Beacon Social Drinkery stuns, revives — JLB

You can hear Beacon Social Drinkery before you can see it. 

The convivial sounds of laughter and conversation cascade down from the rooftop of the new Luminary Hotel in downtown Fort Myers like raindrops, sprinkling the streets and sidewalks below. After the year we've had, these raindrops feel like manna, like a gentle reminder of how things were and how they hopefully will soon be again. 

And then you get to the Luminary's front door. You don your mask, sanitize your hands, and remember we're still in the throes of a pandemic. If you're me, you wonder how smart it is to be dining out. You reassure yourself you'll be outside. You tell yourself that minimizes the risk. You tell yourself to stop overthinking things, that a restaurant critic isn't meant to survive on takeout alone. You wonder if these are lies you're deluding yourself with. You know they are. Then the elevator doors open to the 12th floor, the host shows you to a table on Beacon's open-air patio, and that racing mind of yours stops. 

Look at this place. 

This rooftop cocktail bar and eatery isn't huge. But its views are. From this cozy pie wedge in the sky, you can take in a vast swath of the Caloosahatchee, from east to west to where it bends south toward the Gulf. At the horizon line, Cape Coral glows beneath the setting sun, while North Fort Myers is draped in tranquil twilight. 

You remove your mask and breathe. And you're reminded, in the most beautiful way, of why you love this city, of why you're here. 

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These might be the most stunning views in all of Fort Myers. They alone are worth a trip to Beacon Social. The rest of this place is the figurative sugared rim on the cocktail, not to be confused with the actual sugared rims on the actual cocktails. 

The drinks are Beacon's second biggest draw. Crafted from fresh juices and house-infused syrups, they're bracing enough and interesting enough to justify their $10-$15 price tags. 

I say, start with the Luminescent, a refreshing blend of gin, layered with nutty orgeat and falernum, then brightened with passion fruit and citrus. It's strong enough to melt any lingering worries, no matter how valid they may be, while delicious enough to leave you craving another. 

The Tootie's Donation blends tequila with the spice of ginger beer and the tart-sweetness of raspberries and hibiscus syrup. The Hendry's Fancy teams bourbon with Champagne, lemon and spiced-pear liqueur, for something delightfully fizzy yet grounded and earthen; a drink that lifts you up and then lets you down easy. 

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Beacon offers food, too. Twelve stories up from Luminary's main kitchens, this concise menu is a mere 10 items long; heavy on sliders and small, shareable plates. It feels pricey for what you get — two three-bite Wagyu burgers for $13; a handful of crab rangoon for $13 more — but to this smaller kitchen's credit, my dishes were nicely executed almost without exception. 

Favorites included potstickers packed with pork, scallions and ginger in a pool of chili-riddled sauce the color of fire. And a Peruvian-style snapper ceviche that put the trimmings from Luminary's signature restaurant, Silver King Ocean Brasserie on the hotel's main floor, to delicious use. No snapper left behind. I appreciate that. 

While a plate of crispy cauliflower lacked the sultana raisins and capers promised on the menu, the cauliflower itself was wonderfully golden. As were a pair of empanadas filled with shreds of chicken in a red-mole sauce fragrant with spice. 

Our server, masked and graciously efficient, tried to sell us on dessert. "The Key lime pie is excellent," she promised. I opted instead for a second cocktail to be leisurely sipped on this wondrous patio as day slipped into night and this city of ours sparkled and twinkled 100-some feet below and for miles beyond. 

A few sips into that in-lieu-of-dessert cocktail, I laughed, wholeheartedly and unabashedly, as the conversation at our table effortlessly flowed. I imagined those sounds cascading down the side of the building, filtering to the streets below. 

This one meal at Beacon Social revived me. It felt like a look back and, fingers crossed, a look forward, to the day normality resumes.  

Jean Le Boeuf is the pseudonym used by a local food lover who dines at restaurants anonymously and without warning, with meals paid for by The News-Press. Email JLB at jleboeuf@news-press.com; follow the critic at facebook.com/jeanleboeufswfl or @JeanLeBoeuf on Twitter and Instagram.

Beacon Social Drinkery

12th floor of the Luminary Hotel, 2200 Edwards Drive, Fort Myers

Price: $$

Web: luminaryhotel.com/taste

Call: 239-314-3800

Hours: 4-11 p.m. Monday to Thursday; noon-midnight Friday and Saturday; noon-11 p.m. Sunday

Etc.: Outdoor seating; bookings available for private events

Sample Menu

Cocktails

The Beacon, $10

Florida Sunshine, $12

Mr. Dean Runs to Japan, $15

Shareable plates

Potstickers, $11

Lemongrass shrimp sliders, $13

Tuna tataki, $16

What the symbols mean

$ - Average entree is under $10

$$ - $10-$15

$$$ - $15-$20

$$$$ - $20-$25

$$$$$ - $25 and up