Sampling Bokamper’s Sports Bar and Grill 2018 Football Season Specials in Naples, FL

Stevan Stanisic
Sep 11, 2018
3 min read

Bokamper’s Sports Bar and Grill, Naples, FL

With Southwest Florida Forks, my food blog, I am largely on my own and at my own expense to document the culinary fruits of Southwest Florida. It is more a labor of love, and reflects my interests in food, photography and writing. Every once in a while, I’m thrown a “culinary bone” or two, and am offered a meal gratis by a restaurateur or marketing firm to review an establishment’s menu offerings. This was the case recently, and a PR firm for the sports bar conglomerate, Bokamper’s, invited a dining companion and I to sample items from their 2018 football season offerings on their menu.

The establishment’s namesake, Kim Bokamper, was a member of the Miami Dolphins for many years, retiring in 1985. Besides being a sports broadcasting personality in the Miami area after his retirement, he is also a partner in Bokamper’s sports bars. At present they have five and soon to be six locations on the Southeast and Southwest coasts of Florida. The Naples location has been host to a number of businesses through the years, from Sanibel Steak House followed by a Canadian interest, The Keg. Bokamper’s opened at this location in 2010, and I am happy to see them doing well.

My dining companion and I were there on a Friday night in early September 2018. Even during the slowest time of the year in Southwest Florida, The Joint was Jumpin’.


Interior, Bokamper’s Sports Bar and Grill, Naples, FL

Online, the football season specials are not clearly marked on their Main Menu, but are highlighted in orange (Miami Dolphin colors) on their in house menu. Although it was not possible for my dining companion and I to sample all of their football specials, here were some of them.

Starting off, we tried an item from their “starting line up” on their main menu. Having lived in Mississippi for many years, the fried green tomatoes were a must try.

Fried green tomatoes with Cajun remoulade

hese were excellent, with a very nice corn meal batter. Remoulade is traditionally a mayonnaise or aioli based sauce. It has many versions, but I think this one has a bit of paprika and or cayenne pepper for a bit of heat, hence the Cajun moniker. The Cajun remoulade just made this starter that much better, and the tomato slices were perfect when cut in half to dip into the remoulade.

We moved on to the the steak house salad.

Steak house salad

For “sports bar fare”, this was exceptional, and I would put this on par with many of the fine dining establishments locally. Marinated, grilled sirloin steak was placed atop greens, and paired with blue cheese, egg, tomato, pickled red onion, croutons and a balsamic vineagrette. The steak house salad is a home run in the sports bar world, highly recommended.

They have also introduced a number of “healthy” items, the skinny blackened Mahi Mahi tacos being one of them.

Skinny Mahi Mahi tacos

Bib lettuce served as the vehicle for these tacos, which had layers of pico de gallo, Greek yogurt sauce and sauteed balsamic vegetables topped with Mahi Mahi. Although a bit difficult to eat due to the lettuce wraps, they were very good. For those looking for a low calorie, low carb option, this is the ticket.

We finished up with one of the most decadent things I have ever eaten, the Southern comfort burger.

Southern comfort burger

This was an excellent, and a very outrageous menu item. A half pound hamburger patty was topped with a fried egg, pimento cheese, applewood-smoked bacon, and a waffle bun drenched with bourbon/maple syrup. “American fries” are served with this which are seasoned (secret recipe) fries cut to a thickness between French fries and steak fries. This was an excellent, and unique to the area menu item that I would order again without hesitation. A very good combination of sweet, cheese and meat; it will satisfy the hungriest of diners. Just remember, what matters is what you do every day, not once in a blue moon.

Southern comfort burger

Traditionally, the fare at many sport bars is at it’s best basic, but the menu items sampled at Bokamper’s are a cut above. That, combined with the great service we received and the festive atmosphere are a very winning combination.