The Oasis Restaurant, a Fort Myers breakfast and lunch staple for 37 years, changed hands and will be rebranded by the fall as Fort Myers Brunch. 

Mark Vushaj, 25, began operating the restaurant at 2260 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. on June 1, the day of the $1.48 million sale. 

Tiffany Luongo of SVN Commercial Partners represented the sellers, and Marjan Rumija of Krise Commercial Group represented the buyers. 

The Oasis remains open and will stay open during the branding transition, with about a dozen employees retained. 

Vushaj said he intends to refresh the interior, add Fort Myers Brunch signage and tweak the menu by the fall. A number of Fort Myers patrons have made one thing clear to Vushaj: Don’t change the pancake recipe. He said he would keep it. But the menu will be tweaked and will resemble that of Bonita Brunch, owned and operated by Vushaj’s parents, Joe and Lula Vushaj, at 26381 S. Tamiami Trail in Bonita Springs. 

Prior to 2003, Oasis operated for 14 years at a former strip shopping center that was demolished on a Fort Myers site that now has City Walk at West End apartments. 

Previous Oasis owners and founders Bonnie Grunberg and Tammie Shockey were ready to retire. They sold their Fort Myers home in March and moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 

“Honestly, at the end of the day, we are just so grateful to have been able to do this for 37 years,” said Grunberg, 71. “To last that long, it’s been amazing. You know what, we had just the most amazing clientele. That’s what makes the difference. When people walked through the door of the restaurant, they became a part of our lives. We never felt like a typical restaurant. It was always so much more than a restaurant to us. It was just an amazing run.” 

Two things stood out to Grunberg looking back: the loyalty of those customers after the pandemic began in 2020 and the loyalty of those customers after the restaurant moved one week after Easter Sunday in 2003. 

“When we opened that new location, so many people would have gone home (for the winter),” Grunberg said. “I can’t tell you how many people stayed and didn’t go back up north until we opened our doors.

“It was pouring rain outside. We thought nobody was going to be there. And by the time we opened, people were lined up out the door. We were so scared. Did we make the right decision? When we saw those people lined up, we never looked back.” 

Vushaj said he’s excited about the opportunity to continue that run. He wants to thread the needle of making improvements while keeping the same small-town feel. 

“A year from now, hopefully we will have updated the front of the house and back of the house,” Vushaj said. “Freshen everything up and bring more light in here. 

“There’s a lot of staples that have been here a long time. I still want to keep a touch of that.” 

Vushaj grew up in suburban Detroit, graduated from Western Michigan University and joined his parents in the Bonita Springs area to help them with their restaurant. Now he has one of his own. 

“I was always keeping my eye out for a good opportunity,” Vushaj said, “and I think I found one here.” 

To read the full story and additional details about this transition, visit: Gulfshore Business

For more insight into this transaction or to connect with the SVN advisor involved in the sale, please contact:

Donna Marrero Zaldivar
donnazaldivar@svn.com | 239.314.8527