Sizzle Dining 2026: What to Know About SWFL’s Biggest Foodie Event

You’ve probably seen it all over social media, on Gulf Coast News, or read an article about it, but we are in the midst of Sizzle Dining! Normally, we wouldn’t write an article about something that is already getting so much coverage. However, because of the cause and because it’s the biggest foodie event in all of SWFL, we feel that it’s our duty to share as well!

I had the privilege of speaking with the Executive Director of Sizzle Dining, Guy Clarke. He provided me with some insight into what makes this year of Sizzle Dining different from previous years, their goals, and some inside and exclusive scoop on all of the work that goes into making Sizzle Dining happen.

Sizzle Dining is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, so it is bigger and better than ever. The event includes 140 restaurants all over SWFL. For those of you who haven’t heard of Sizzle Dining, it’s kind of like a restaurant week for SWFL. However, it lasts an entire month and takes place every September! It is also tied to a wonderful organization, Blessings in a Backpack, which we will dive into a little later.

From September 1st-30th this year, you can enjoy multi-course menus for a fixed price at participating Sizzle Dining restaurants. Want to plan out your whole month of Sizzle Dining? Go to https://sizzledining.org/ to view all of the menus.

The menus are broken up by location, with restaurants in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Naples, Estero, Marco Island, Babcock Ranch, and more participating this year. This gives locals plenty of opportunities to explore Cape Coral restaurants and other SWFL dining options.

Sizzle Dining is a great way to support local restaurants during their slower season. It is also a great opportunity to try out a restaurant that you’ve been eyeing for a while.

Whether you are looking for a high-end date night meal or a casual, family-friendly dining experience, Sizzle Dining includes an array of restaurants bound to cover any occasion.

How Does Sizzle Dining Pricing Work?

Guy Clarke explained that, in the past, Sizzle Dining provided restaurants with structured pricing. Restaurants could choose from $19, $29, $39, $49, and $59 meals.

This year, for the first time in Sizzle Dining history, pricing was left to the discretion of the restaurants. This is because the cost of goods has gone up so significantly. Sizzle Dining also received feedback from participating restaurants in previous years that they wanted more freedom with pricing.

However, the Sizzle Dining team did impose one major rule when it came to pricing. The Sizzle menu must save customers 25%-30% off the normal menu pricing.

With their very small team, they checked every single Sizzle Dining menu. They also did the calculations to ensure every Sizzle meal was a good value before the menus were released to the public.

What is the Impact of Sizzle Dining?

Sizzle Dining takes place in September because it is the month that SWFL restaurants struggle the most. It is the slowest month of the year, but Sizzle Dining gets people coming through the doors.

Guy always checks in with the restaurants after the first few days of Sizzle to see how it’s going. He shared some messages from local restaurant owners, who mentioned they got “slammed,” “all of this business came out of nowhere,” “it’s been super busy,” and “traffic has picked up.”

One owner even mentioned that they had 14 first-time diners in one night!

New customers coming in is very beneficial for the business. They could become regulars or tell others about the restaurant. Ultimately, this can create more business for them.

Sizzle Dining also creates an opportunity for people to explore Florida restaurants and local dining options they may not have tried before.

It is obvious that Sizzle Dining is having a major impact on the local economy, but not just when you look at the restaurants.

Sizzle Dining’s Impact on Local Businesses

Guy mentioned that it’s not just the restaurants that get this extra boost. Microgreens farmers, local farmers and produce companies, meat farmers, linen companies, uniform companies, and florists get this boost too.

When the restaurants do well, they do too. It has this massive snowball effect!

Servers get better tips, and dishwashers get more hours. Some customers also shop at local boutiques to get that perfect dress or visit a local salon to get their hair done for their special Sizzle date night.

Many people drive all over SWFL to try the Sizzle menus on their lists, so gas stations are busier. People are also coming from out of state or other parts of Florida and staying in local hotel rooms to participate in Sizzle Dining.

The economic impact of Sizzle Dining is HUGE. Guy estimates that over the last few years, Sizzle Dining has led to “over $20 million of local economic impact, and that’s being conservative.”

The goal this year is to sell 100,000 Sizzle Dining meals. As of mid-September, they announced that they were a few thousand shy of 50,000. At the halfway mark, they are falling behind a bit on their goal.

Guy urges everyone to please just go out for one extra Sizzle Dining meal than you normally would! Go out for a great girl’s night, a family night, or a date night. Bring your loved ones out to dine with you.

You’re not only supporting the economy, but another mission as well.

The best part of Sizzle Dining is that $1 from every Sizzle meal goes to the charity, Blessings in a Backpack. This organization helps feed food-insecure, elementary-age children in SWFL.

According to sizzledining.org, “Over the last 4 years, Sizzle Dining has helped Lee and Collier’s children have over 25,000 hunger-free weekends.”

This is why one of Sizzle Dining’s main hashtags is #dinewithpurpose. Over the last 4 years, Sizzle Dining participating restaurants have raised over $240,000 for Blessings in a Backpack SWFL.

Cape Coral Reviewed Exclusive: What Goes Into Making Sizzle Dining Happen?

Right now, Guy is working 18-hour days.

Months before Sizzle Dining begins, Guy and the Sizzle team need to research which restaurants might be interested and which ones meet the criteria for Sizzle Dining.

Recruiting and Preparing Participating Restaurants

To meet the criteria, the restaurants must have a sit-down dining room and be able to provide a prix fixe menu that fits the pricing requirements.

During peak season, he leaves the restaurants alone since they are at their busiest. Then, he reappears in March/April to start seeing which restaurants are interested in participating in Sizzle Dining.

In April, the Sizzle Dining team starts building a spreadsheet for the upcoming year. By May, paperwork and sign-up sheets are complete.

That’s when mass emails go to 400-500 restaurants that could potentially meet the criteria.

You can imagine there is a lot of back and forth via email at this time, especially with restaurants that have never participated in Sizzle before. Guy estimates that he exchanges over 3,000 emails per Sizzle.

Every year, about 40 new restaurants join Sizzle. As a result, there is a lot of explaining about how everything works.

And then there’s the Sizzle Squad, of course.

This was my second year as a Sizzle Squad member and Marissa’s first year. The Sizzle Squad is a group of local influencers on social media who have a love for SWFL. They help promote and increase visibility for Sizzle Dining and the participating restaurants.

There are mixers for squad members to get acquainted with each year. Each Squad member also gets a Sizzle Dining restaurant assignment that they must make a reel for.

There is also a huge kickoff party to get everyone excited about Sizzle. At the end, there is a wrap-up that shows how successful that Sizzle year was.

This year’s Sizzle Dining Kickoff Party was held at the Margaritaville Beach Resort in Fort Myers Beach. It had several photo booths, huge balloon and mermaid displays, a charcuterie cart, a body glitter station, Sizzle sticker vending machines, a DJ, a create-your-own-perfume experience, a cocktail-making experience, hair tinsel and glitter lips, masseuses, cannolis, and more.

All of the planning of these elaborate events is the responsibility of the Sizzle Dining team.

There is a July deadline to submit Sizzle Dining menus so they can be posted on the website by August 1. There is a tremendous amount of time and hours of back and forth with restaurants.

Guy joked that, “working with this many restaurants is like wrangling feral cats.”

Banners, menu boards, ads in magazines and newspapers all get designed by the Sizzle team. They were granted 30 days on Gulf Coast News, so there was a ton of preparation for that.

At the end of Sizzle, you finally get the numbers of how many Sizzle meals were sold that year. However, that also requires communicating with each participating restaurant to get their numbers.

The final number is presented, and then the check is made to Blessings in a Backpack.

Guy Gets By With a Little Help From His Friends

None of this would be possible without the incredible Sizzle Dining team:

• Guy Clarke – Executive Director
• Erin Clarke – Director of Operations
• Victoria Sherman – Director of Community (and in charge of the Sizzle Squad!)
• Stephanie Scholes – Director of Client Operations
• Christine Marie Ierardi – Director of Brand Partnerships
• Carlos L. Moreno – Official Photographer
• Hannah Rinaldi – Newsletter Manager
• Breanna Flom – Social Media Manager
• Krista Fogelsong – Media Liaison
• Rebecca Boucher – Owner, Opus Studio, Graphic Design
• Katelyn Cassio – Owner, Cassio Marketing, Website Specialist

Though Sizzle Dining seems to run seamlessly to the public, there are a lot of struggles the team faces but successfully makes it through.

Guy says that the most pressure is getting restaurants to sign up and say yes. Another difficulty is that restaurants try to change their Sizzle menu and don’t communicate that with the Sizzle team.

Guy has also received some help and advice from several mentors, including Steven Haas, founder of Miami Spice.

He is the one who advised Guy not to allow blackout dates during Sizzle Dining. Another mentor of his is Paul B.

Paul was one of the founders of Orlando’s Magical Dining and also worked for Disney. He gave Guy a lot of advice on how to grow and expand the event.

Paul is the one who encouraged Guy to check the menu prices to ensure that customers are receiving a good deal.

Sizzle Dining Throughout the Years

Prior to 2020, they ran Sizzle Dining twice a year. It was much smaller, and there was no Sizzle Squad.

When they first started Sizzle Dining, it was only 11 days and then went to 14 days. It took place in the spring after Mother’s Day and fall right after Thanksgiving.

But it wasn’t long enough!

Guy always wanted to make it longer and once a year. In 2020, Guy asked restaurants when they wanted to do it, and they all unanimously said September.

So, in 2021, they finally made it three weeks long in September. However, because of COVID, only about 20 restaurants signed up that year.

That’s when Blessings in a Backpack was brought onboard.

Blessings in a Backpack was the organization of Guy’s choice because growing up, his mother had 3 jobs to provide for his family. He was also on the free lunch program at school, so he felt a personal connection to the mission of this organization.

Sizzle Dining is not just about indulging, but you are helping too.

Guy’s Favorite Parts of Sizzle

When I asked Guy about his favorite Sizzle memory, he said it was in 2024 when Business Observer put him on the front cover of their newspaper.

“That was a proud moment for me… Sizzle is getting recognized… After all of these years, it’s really saturating.”

Another favorite part is finding out how many Sizzle meals were sold that year, which is calculated in October.

The goal is to always beat last year’s numbers.

“When we announce the final number (of Sizzle meals sold), all of my worries go away.”

In October, Guy jokes that he hibernates for a few weeks when it’s all over. All the worrying and hard work finally ends, temporarily, of course.

Another huge accomplishment is that Lee and Collier counties officially proclaimed September as Sizzle Dining Month.

On a Closing Note From Guy Clarke

As a reminder, the goal is to reach 100,000 Sizzle meals sold this year.

Please go out one extra time and encourage your friends and loved ones as well. You are enjoying incredible meals, supporting the local economy, and supporting a great cause.

That is how you #dinewithpurpose.

On another note, this is the first time Guy is sharing this with the public: next year, they are capping the number of participating Sizzle restaurants at 150.

It was a pleasure to speak with Guy Clarke and learn more about the tremendous amount of work that goes into Sizzle Dining. You have until September 30th to get in all of the Sizzle meals you can!

Want to Stay Updated on Sizzle Dining?

Want to stay updated on the Sizzle Dining event or share your own Sizzle Dining experience? Join the Cape Coral Reviewed Facebook Group to keep up with local dining conversations, share your experience, ask questions, and connect with other locals.

Come share where you’ve dined, which Sizzle menus you’ve tried, or what you’re looking forward to checking out next!