Boops reopens more than five months after Hurricane Ian

Boops near the Bubble Room, a popular place known for its homemade sweet treats on Captiva, has opened its doors more than five months after Hurricane Ian.

Fans of Boops will know what’s missing when they walk into the restaurant. But, if you’ve never been, the manager assured WINK News that Boops is back to normal.

The cakes and ice cream are back and ready for Southwest Florida foodies.

“I like the orange cake, and soft serve ice cream. So when I heard it opened up I thought we need to run down here for lunch,” Greg a cake and ice cream lover, said.

Betty Boop is back too, although not in her usual spot.

“The only thing that we changed besides getting old machines as we moved the Betty Boop statue and used to be behind the counter, and we moved it out front,” Stephen Peach, the general manager of Boops said.

The same flavors are available at the same great location, helping people feel a sense of normalcy around them.

“It feels normal today, and that makes me really happy,” Peach said.

“I had lunch at the mucky duck. I’m stopping here and I’m going over to barracudas to buy some t-shirts so I feel like I’m having a normal afternoon so it’s awesome,” Angela, a cake enthusiast, said.

The storm surge brought on by Hurricane Ian forced Boops to shut down.

“The floor was covered in a nice thick layer of muck and some of the machines and floated around a bit,” Peach said.

“The Emporium, which is across the street, our gift shop will get that open. And in the meantime, during doing that, we’ll start to fix up a bubble. But we know that’s going to take us a lot longer with rebuilding,” Peach said.

There’s no timeline yet, but Peach promises nothing will change when it does reopen.

Boops’ hours of operation did get change a little bit. Boops is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.