New restaurants coming to East Naples, Marco Island

East Naples and Marco Island will have 15 new restaurants in 2023. The table is set for many to launch in February, according to a recent article by Tim Atkin from Gulf Shore Business.

Launched Jan. 9, The Mother Trucker Cafe was one of the first regional restaurants to debut in a new year that guarantees many gastronomic diversions. The modest cafe at 4811 Tamiami Trail E. offers counter service with a menu of comfort food promising a taste of Chicago from all-beef Vienna hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches to deep-dish and thin-crust pizzas.

Continuing to lead the way in East Naples are the eagerly anticipated latest offerings from local entrepreneur Rebecca Maddox. Rebecca’s and The Maddox, two new Bayshore Drive wine establishments, are nearly finished. They are being developed on the east side of Bayshore across from Maddox’s Celebration Park and Three60 Market.

Rebecca’s, the public area out front, will contain a 40-foot bar, a charcuterie room and a Three60 Wine shop. The Maddox, a members-only social club, will surround it on an open-air campus they share.

“I think the buzz is really just the sheer scale and size of what I term a campus,” Maddox said. “I hear regularly, ‘Gee, I didn’t anticipate it to be so large.’ You know, it’s a pretty significant project for Bayshore, even though Bayshore is becoming more and more the place to be. So, there’s a lot of buzz about that.”

Rebecca’s is slated to launch in February slightly ahead of The Maddox, an inventive concept that has gone beyond its original objectives.
“I genuinely am attempting to cultivate a club. It started out as kind of a wine club and it very much turned into a social club,” Maddox added. “It’s about tastings, not just wine tastings but whiskey tastings and sake and oysters and cheese. Tastings are nothing more than the conveyance of knowledge. As I saw the building again, we realized we could taste and learn about many things there.”

Also on the horizon, two unrelated dinner clubs are scheduled to start four miles apart on Davis Boulevard in February. They are moving into spaces abandoned last fall by restaurants in East Naples.

Amber Phillips, a longstanding local chef who has owned and maintained the award-winning Sage Events & Catering gluten-free kitchen for many years, is building upon her culinary reach with Sage Supper Club. Last November, Phillips acquired a deal to take over the old site of 485 Degrees eatery in the Pelican Larry’s Plaza at 7785 Davis Blvd.

“When I witnessed good friends closing their restaurant, I realized it was time to get back where I belong, in the kitchen,” Phillips stated on her Sage Events’ social media profiles.

In addition to being a full catering kitchen, Phillips hopes to establish Sage Supper Club in February with roughly 30 seats in a setting that won’t be a regular restaurant, she said. She suggested chef collaborations, cameo chef nights, themed events, farm-to-table events, test kitchens, ghost kitchens, commissary kitchens, pop-up restaurants, cooking classes, coursed dinners with wine and beer pairings, mocktails, and shrub drinks. “Basically, I am attempting to build a culinary heartbeat in my little space.”
Meanwhile, in Davis Plaza at 2795 Davis Blvd., Old Vines Supper Club is expanding out the small unit that earlier was home to Olympia Pizza & Gyros, Twisted Cheesery and Red’s Pizzeria. Old Vines is characterized as a local place for informal, intimate prix-fixe dining and wine pairings, according to its website, which states that the supper club is planned to debut on Valentine’s Day. Naples chef Brooke Kravetz, who co-owns the firm, said the new eating venue will be ready for that day, pending final inspections.

The 30-seat venue will offer multi-course tasting menus and wine pairings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday each week, said Kravetz, who previously was the general manager and executive chef of The Cave Bistro & Wine Bar, chef de cuisine of Baleen at LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort and sous chef at Sea Salt in the Naples area. “Generally, on Wednesday we are going to organize a wine dinner,” she remarked. “On Tuesdays, we’re calling it Supper Club Tuesday with a four-course, family-style meal.”

Miller’s Ale House will launch its second Collier County location in February. The sports bar is being built in Restaurant Row on Collier Boulevard near U.S. 41 East. The 7,382-square-foot freestanding casual restaurant will have a full bar and a huge outdoor eating space at 6827 Collier Blvd.
At least two more eateries will open this year in Restaurant Row’s expansion across from Freedom Square’s Collier entrance. Two restaurant tenants are moving across the street. “Both of them are incredibly fantastic, but I can’t reveal them yet,” said Charlie Ladd, president of Barron Commercial Development, which built Restaurant Row with Amera Corp.

Expect regional and national restaurants. Ladd, who also wants a pizza for Restaurant Row, said one is a smaller breakfast restaurant sharing a proposed multiunit outparcel with a bank and the other is a larger, standalone restaurant.

Two East Naples pizzerias are growing. Tony’s N.Y. Pizza, which operates a restaurant in the Shops of Marco, is set to launch a new local pizzeria in March at Berkshire Commons on the northwest corner of Santa Barbara Boulevard and Radio Road.

In early February, Naples Towne Centre South’s 3829 Tamiami Trail E. will host Sammy’s Pizza. It’s the couple’s first Florida Sammy’s Pizza.

East Naples will get many chain restaurants this year. On the East Trail, Dairy Queen wants to install a new drive-thru on an empty lot next to Texas Tony’s; and Denny’s is coming to the former Rib City outparcel at Naples Towne Centre South. Nautical Bowls is going into a former dry cleaners in Stock Plaza at Lely Resort off Collier Boulevard, and Jersey Mike’s Sub is launching another shop next month in a former Cricket Wireless store on Business Circle North.
A company representative said La Granja is trying to reactivate its building permit for its first Southwest Florida facility, which expired late last month. Peruvian-themed restaurant franchise will submit new designs for the former Checkers drive-in on Beck and Collier boulevards. The original double drive-thru was dismantled but then work paused on creating the new restaurant next to the Waffle House just south of the Interstate 75 intersection in the Tollgate Commercial Center.

La Granja has over 40 Miami-Orlando locations. It serves rotisserie chicken, steak, pork, seafood, fajitas, sandwiches, sides, and desserts.

Marco Island
Four Marco Island sites expect to launch in 2023 after a year of waiting. Three are coming to the enormous Publix-anchored Marco Town Center, surrounded by Collier Boulevard, Bald Eagle Drive, and Elkcam Circle.

Paddy Murphy’s Irish Pub will reopen this summer in a Marco Town Center end unit that was Vandy’s 5 Brothers Sports Bar & Italian Eatery. “We were hoping for this season but it’s not going to happen,” said Paddy Murphy’s co-owner Mike O’Regan, who encountered a series of difficulties that delayed him from opening last year.

The Irish bar was troubled by a mix of regulatory hurdles, supply chain problems and then the hurricane. O’Regan stated an electrical panel took six months and an air-conditioning unit was stolen after Hurricane Ian.

Paddy’s will miss another St. Patrick’s Day. “We’ll persevere and hope for St. Patrick’s Day next year,” he said.

The new Paddy Murphy’s at 1017 N. Collier Blvd., Unit 38 will include a 50-foot bar and patio like the Fifth Avenue South location. However, Marco will offer an indoor-outdoor bar and Irish classics like corned meat and cabbage.
Thai Thai Sushi Sports Bar will debut in early February at 1035 N. Collier Blvd., Suite 302, the former Breakfast Plus site. The third in a series by Kiwi Sonethavilay and Tanapong Khayankit, it follows Thai Thai Sushi Boat in North Naples and Thai Thai Sushi Bowl off Collier Boulevard between Marco Island and U.S. 41 East. Lunch and dinner will feature more Thai and Japanese dishes.

Mr. Bentley’s Ice Cream also wants a modest Marco Town Center spot near Thai Thai. 1035 N. Collier Blvd., Suite 308 will house the ice cream parlor.

At 844 Bald Eagle Drive, Marco’s 844 Gulf & Prime is opening in Arturo’s previous spot. Tim Kearney, co-owner of the luxury seafood and steak restaurant, declined to give an opening date since the city is still working out some concerns. SpeakEasy of Marco Island and Sand Bar are owned by The 844 project partners.

Jose Louie’s, a Mexican restaurant, will open mid-year at 297 N. Collier Blvd. Joe and Doreen Oliviero, who will co-own the new Mexican restaurant with Anthony and Kim Louis, run Doreen’s Cup of Joe and Joey’s Pizza & Pasta House north of the property.

The seaside icon Snook Inn will also reopen after hurricane damage. The Marco River restaurant and bar, which opened over 40 years ago, began restoration in January, but a relaunch date is unknown.