The building that once housed Bennett’s Fresh Roast, a popular Fort Myers coffee and doughnut shop, will be serving coffee once again.  

Scott and Juliana Zedeker bought the building, 2011 Bayside Parkway near downtown Fort Myers, for $360,000 last month and plan to renovate and transform it into Bare Roots Coffee House. They hope to open it by the end of the year.  

The branding will be identical to the Bare Roots Salon & Apothecary, just down the road at 2150 W. First St., Suite B1, where Juliana Zedeker has been cutting hair since August 2015. She plans on running both businesses with help from her husband.  

“I’m proud of her,” said Scott Zedeker, who spent 17 years as a meteorologist for WINK News. He left the station in 2020 and became a financial advisor with Alliance Financial Group. “Because it was kind of her inspiration to do this. It was her inspiration to do the salon. I kind of nudged her a little bit.  

“And then we both kind of paired up on the coffee shop. We really become passionate about good coffee.”  

The Zedekers are still working on the details of the coffeehouse, such as where they’ll source the coffee from and what kind of food they’ll serve.  

They have hired contractors and just started the building renovations. The building sustained some damage from Hurricane Ian.  

“I wasn’t planning to start a new business now,” Juliana Zedeker said, “but we found the perfect location.”  

The Zedekers considered relocating the salon to the former Bennett’s location, but after thinking it over, starting a second business made more sense.  

“I developed this passion for coffee the past few years,” Juliana Zedeker said. “And just over the years kept looking for coffee shops, you know, local shops.  We love the downtown area. I’ve been here for almost eight years in the salon. Love this area, don’t want to go anywhere else. I’ve been looking for a property in this area for a long time, so we are super happy to finally find one.”