A beloved buffet restaurant is open again, six years after closing.

Sweet Tomatoes on U.S. 41 in South Fort Myers is having what it calls a soft opening.

At least a dozen people were waiting outside the restaurant Tuesday afternoon to be allowed in to sample the huge salad bar, along with soups, fresh breads, pastas and desserts. When some customers came out of the place, roughly an equal number were let in.

Cora Johnson said she is visiting the Naples area, and she came with her twin sister after learning of the soft opening. "I love the food," she said. "It's nice to see a reminder of pre-Covid life." That's a reference to the closing of all Sweet Tomatoes restaurants a couple of months after the pandemic began in 2020.

New owners bought the rights to the name, and the first restaurant re-opened in Arizona about two years ago. The Fort Myers area location is the second to re-open.

Rick and Lydia Ely waited outside the doors on Tuesday afternoon, anxious to get inside. "The food is just so healthy" Lydia Ely said. "I am so excited to be here and yes, the food is wonderful and healthy," Rick Ely said.

An email from the public relations person for the new owners said the soft opening means anyone can come to the location, but hours are flexible, and workers are not letting every table fill with guests. That's because the crew members still are in training, and the managers don't want to overwhelm the workers.

The restaurant will be open only six days a week for now; it will be closed on Sundays until the grand re-opening. The public relations person emailed that a date for that grand event would be announced soon, perhaps in the next week or so.

The new owners did not make a major announcement of the soft re-opening, as far as WGCU News can tell. But word of mouth spread fast with the help of social media.

Mike Walcher is a reporter with WGCU News. He also teaches Journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University.