Sweet Tomatoes' return is luring diehards from across Florida — including us

State of play: All 97 locations closed in 2020, a few months into the pandemic, but the salad, soup and bread buffet has been making a comeback.

• First up was Tucson, Arizona, in 2024. Then, a few weeks ago, Sweet Tomatoes reopened in Fort Myers. A grand opening celebration is scheduled for Monday.

Driving the news: Both locations have welcomed not just locals but scores of diehard fans willing to travel hundreds of miles for a bite (OK, a lot of bites) of nostalgia, corporate affairs director Marlee Lossing told us.

• It's such a trend that the restaurant has started selling stickers for $3.99 per two-pack. "I traveled over 100 miles to visit Sweet Tomatoes," one reads, with additional designs ratcheting up the distance.

Zoom in: Floridians have taken to a 10,000-member fan page on Facebook to ask questions about opening hours and wait estimates to perfectly time their road trips from across the state.

👋 Kathryn and Yacob here. This week, we joined the pilgrimage, setting off Wednesday morning on a 230-mile round-trip journey — because we, too, are diehard fans.

• Yacob worked as a baker at the Carrollwood location until it closed with the rest of 'em (after which he applied for unemployment benefits with his old manager at a booth in the dark).
• Kathryn frequented the Orange Park (south of Jacksonville) spot with her family growing up.

We arrived just before the 10:30am opening to a budding line outside.

• It included folks like Donna Bowden, who had visited the buffet twice already, and Ashley Lyngse, who had worked out twice that morning in anticipation of returning to one of her go-to college haunts.

The vibe: Walking into the building might as well have been a time warp, down to the vegetable wallpaper, red plates, and tables stamped with "Soups made daily from scratch."

• The only thing missing was the carpet, which, let's be honest, is probably for the best.
• The prices felt retro, too — the weekday lunch buffet was just $12.99. The dinner and weekend price was a dollar more.

Dig in: Yacob went straight to the bakery to see if his station still looked the same (and it did). Beneath the brim of his faded Sweet Tomatoes hat, he felt 17 again.

• Kathryn took her salad to a booth to eat it as fast as humanly possible, unable to disregard her parents' insistence that she eat her vegetables first.
• We flipped the table card to "be ripe back" (yes, those are the same, too) and piled our plates high with mac and cheese, marinara and vodka pasta, blueberry muffins, focaccia, and Kathryn's old standby, a warm brownie muffin topped with soft serve.

The verdict: All of it tasted exactly the same. Even our burps felt nostalgic.

• "We didn't want to come in and change Sweet Tomatoes into something it's not," Lossing told us. "It's a place of comfort and familiarity."

What's next: We know what you might be thinking: Is a triumphant return on the horizon for Tampa Bay?

• The most Lossing would say is that the company is "always evaluating all markets for future locations to continue our expansion."
• So for now, Fort Myers is our best hope. Fasten your seatbelts, loosen your waistbands and enjoy the ride.