Four generations of hospitality. Your guide to what’s nearby.

The right meal, something to do, and the help you need when a storm comes. On your phone, with nothing made up.

Who we are

CHEWZI comes from a family that has spent four generations in hospitality.

It began with Tom, a longtime upscale hotel General Manager who went on to become an executive with Holiday Inn. His son spent the first thirty-five years of his career in hotel operations and Food & Beverage, including corporate F&B with Sheraton Hotels. The next generation brought the kitchen — fifteen years as an executive chef. The fourth brought the technology.

Chuck Squires, our founder, leads CHEWZI from North Port.

What we’re working on now

The guide

• Restaurants with their own menus, prices and posted hours, and one tap to call. If a restaurant doesn’t publish something, we say so.
• Search by dish. Type fish tacos and it tells you who has them.
• Closest to me, with the miles.
• Explore: things to do, public beach access and places to stay, with a live map, in the areas where we have it so far.
• A storm page with the official county links in one place.
• Type you can make larger. Nothing here is stuck in small print.
• Free. No account, no sign-up, nothing to download.

Our areas today: The Villages, Sun City Center, Lakewood Ranch, Suncoast South (Osprey to Punta Gorda), Suncoast North (the Clearwater area) and the Emerald Coast.

Next areas we’re working toward: the First Coast (Jacksonville and St. Augustine), the Space Coast (Brevard County) and the Treasure Coast (Vero Beach to Jupiter).

A page for every community

We’re now building CHEWZI pages for the places people live and stay: HOAs and condos, apartment communities, RV parks and resorts, and vacation rental offices.

• The community’s own page, with its name across the top.
• A community board. The office types a notice, presses Post, and residents see it on their phone.
• A storm page when the weather turns, with the official links in one place.
• One link or QR code for the welcome email, the binder or the front desk.

We set it up for the community. It’s free for residents and guests, and they don’t sign up: we don’t collect their names, emails or phone numbers.

CHEWZI for communities →

Our purpose

Make what’s nearby easy to find for everyone, and give every community a simple way to share it with the people who live there.

Good food, good places, good neighbors. Let’s make them easier to find.

Why we do it

Every front desk hears the same questions. “Where should we eat?” “What is there to do around here?” “What do we do when a storm comes?” New residents, seasonal neighbors and visitors ask them every day, and the answers are scattered across a dozen websites, most of them hard to read on a phone.

Four generations of answering those questions in hotels and kitchens taught us that the menu is the heart of a restaurant, and that a good answer is a specific one: what is on the plate, what it costs, when the door is open. A name and a star rating are not enough.

So CHEWZI puts the places’ own menus, prices and hours on your phone, along with things to do and the official storm links. And when a community puts its name on it, the office has one place to post a notice and one link to share.

Why a Red Panda?

We chose the red panda because it’s curious, friendly, a little playful, and definitely not ordinary — much like CHEWZI.

Red pandas are naturally associated with exploring, discovering and enjoying their surroundings. That’s what CHEWZI is all about: helping you discover great food, interesting places and things to do, wherever the day takes you.

And honestly… who doesn’t like a red panda?

How we work

We repeat what a restaurant publishes. We do not invent an hour, a price, a dietary marking or a special. Where a restaurant publishes nothing, we say so instead of guessing. Places in Explore are checked against their official pages. We take no commission from any restaurant, ever, and nobody pays to be listed or to be placed higher.

Found something wrong? Tell us: post@chewzi.net.

How to use it

Looking for a dish, not a restaurant?

Open Find a dish and type a word or two. It searches every menu we hold — the dish name, its description and the menu section — and it knows the words restaurants actually use. Type prawn and it finds shrimp.

Deciding right now?

Today shows what is open. That means their posted hours say open — nobody has rung to check, so if it matters, call. Every card here has a call button.

Too small to read?

The A / A+ / A++ buttons at the top set the type size for the whole guide.

Run a community, or own a restaurant?

Communities: see CHEWZI for communities, or call Chuck Squires, our founder, at (941) 999-1341. Restaurants: your listing is free. See For restaurants.

Open the guide → · Browse the restaurants → · For communities → · Get the app →