Something for everyone

JIM MCLAUGHLIN/FLORIDA WEEKLY Ichabod's Wicked Food and Drink in South Fort Myers is one of a dozen new restaurants open or slated to open in Southwest Florida. This is partly how the B & As figure it these days when they lay out a few hundred thousand bucks or more to open a new restaurant: People might curtail their European travel, their island vacation, their Hawaii trip, their new car, or the new addition to the house, but they're still going to eat.

And when they want to have fun by getting away from it all, they're going to eat out, and the recession be damned.

So the B & As — the Bold and Ambitious — open a new restaurant. But to do that in a down economy, in a region where 10 percent of workers are unemployed and the list of recently deceased eateries reads like a bad day in the obituary column, with name after name forming the long train into history, there is one solid requirement.

You have to be a maverick with the work instincts of a dairy farmer (7 days a week, forever).

Fortunately for food lovers, there are still some mavericks running wild in the population. About 15 upscale startups have appeared on the southwest coast between Naples and Fort Myers just in recent months alone, sporting such names as Two Meatballs in the Kitchen, A Table Apart, a resurrection of The Bridge, Olive's Mediterranean or the Riverwood Bistro, to name some.

EVAN WILLIAMS/FLORIDA WEEKLY The Bayfront Bistro at Snook Bight Yacht Club and Marina is the latest beach addition. How do they do it?

Not by the book or cautiously, perhaps, but wisely.

"I run my business on gut feeling," says Rob DeGennaro, who's opened more restaurants than you can count on two hands in the last 20 years, all of which are still operating. His newest, Ichabod's Wicked Food and Drink ("wicked," by the way, is a Northeastern colloquialism, meaning terrific), inhabits the grand castle where Dwyer's once stood, in South Fort Myers.

The biggest of the local bigs, it has 364 seats between various rooms and bars upstairs and down, a staff of more than 60, and something for everyone in the American panorama, it seems.

Joe Yerkes "I try to take all the equations out of it, and the normality out of it, and I look at the situation," explains the maverick Mr. DeGennaro. "And if I have a good gut feeling, I know it's going to work."

The new, more hopeful political climate, the first faint signs of a market recovery in housing, and the booming crowds he's been taking in all confirm that his instincts are not misplaced, he believes.

On the waterfront

Out on Fort Myers Beach, meanwhile, Joe Yerkes has opened the Snook Bight Yacht Club and Marina and the Bayfront Bistro, with 188 seats, a large, veteran staff and some of the same strategic thinking as Mr. DeGennaro.

"I think anybody has to be concerned about the economy," he remarks. "But we started this venture a few years ago, we completed the marina, and we kept going. We completed the job on the belief that the economy would return to normal. It's casual dining on the waterfront. We are concerned about the economy, but this is a long-term venture, not a short-term one."

EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY The Bayfront Bistro at Snook Bight Yacht Club and Marina on Fort Myers Beach. Both Mr. DeGennaro and Mr. Yerkes are career restaurateurs who rely on good location, varied menus, the loyalty of family members and even staff members who follow them from one start-up to another, and customers who take great pleasure in their efforts.

About Snook Bight and the Bayfront Bistro, for example: "The entire atmosphere of the facility is just gorgeous, with the floor-to-ceiling windows and their view — just top notch. I don't see this type of classy atmosphere in all of Southwest Florida," gushes Paula Kiker, the wife of Fort Myers Beach Mayor Larry Kiker.

You could find similar appraisals in an instant at the other new restaurants, too. Teresa Salvatore, who with her husband Peter and son Anthony — both of the men master chefs — owns and operates the new Pete's Steakhouse Italian Grille, on Pine Island Road.

Both Teresa, who was raised mostly in New York City, and Peter, were born in Italy (he grew up and learned to cook there). Anthony grew up here, in his parents restaurants, where he started cooking at 13 — he's now 27.

Mrs. Salvatore explains the success of the new venture this way: "We have a large, loyal clientele. I have people eating here who have been with us almost 20 years (the restaurant is their ninth location). They remember Anthony running around in the restaurant when he was like 8. He'd sit with them.

"But in this economy especially, no way could we open without that following. If you were to go someplace else, anywhere, and open a restaurant where people don't know who you are, you will fail.

"You need to know your customers — who they are, what they want and what they're looking for. Not just in a bad economy, but always. People look to be welcome, to be treated nicely. And your food has to be outstanding." Local fare

At each of these new places, the food is often local, the cooking is done from scratch in the kitchen, and the chefs have been in the business a long time, and successfully.

Pricing and variety are also keys.

"What we're trying to do with Ichabod's is create a family-style dining area that's casual, where you can come in and spend $5 on a cup of soup and salad, or $20 on filet mignon and lobster," explains Mr. DeGennaro.

"So we open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and after that it metamorphoses into a vibrant club, with music in the downstairs room for yuppies and older people, and music upstairs for the younger crowd. Our bartenders and wait staff all have at least six or seven years of experience, and some people have worked for me for 15 years or more."

Mr. DeGennaro won't talk his place up in any conversation without insisting the staff be remembered, because they are the place, he says: J.R. Underwood as head chef (he started at the Hungry Heron on Sanibel with Mr. DeGennaro); John Gilley and Joe Brewer in the kitchen; Ann Gutierrez at general manager with Skyy Williams; and bakers Kate Orzel and Marcela Mix.

Mr. DeGennaro's 79-year-old father, Frank, and his children, Britt, a senior at Bishop Verot High School, and Carly, a freshman in the IB program at Fort Myers High, also spend time in the restaurant.

While the new start-ups inevitably cater to those with both money and taste in food and drink, they also offer options for economic minimalists.

Value

At Pete's Italian Steakhouse, for example, "Our prices in Italian food moved down by $2 or $3," says Mrs. Salvatore. "Most of those meals, with as much food and as fine a presentation as ever, including our homemade breads and super salads, start at $9.99."

At Ichabod's, Mr. DeGennaro actually compares what he offers to a McDonald's Happy Meal.

"If somebody wants to have a 10-ounce Angus-cut burger for $5.95 or $6.95 with the home-made troll chips (potatoes), they can," he says.

"And if you went to McDonald's and paid for a Happy Meal, you're paying what — $1.50 less for a quarter-pounder? — and we're giving you the ambience, and the freshest food that we make in the kitchen. Unlike the chains, we're not pouring the soup from a bladder or cooking something from a box that's shipped in."

Mrs. Salvatore, like Joe Yerkes and others, confirm the notion of offering something a little or a lot better and a good price.

"To shine over the franchises, which people know and use sometimes, to beat them, you gotta have the best quality of food. And good prices and good service, and a nice atmosphere," Mrs. Salvatore says.

And a maverick sense that all that will be enough, come what may.

RESTAURANTS

In a year noteworthy for the loss of such restaurants as Johnny Rockets, Smokey Bones, Bennigans, Steak and Ale, and a host of others, both chains and private, a striking number of new restaurants have also appeared on the southwest coast of Florida.

Here, Florida Weekly lists some, with this single editorial note: The level of sophistication and service across the board — from the most sophisticated and expensive to the simplest — has clearly increased in recent years. As much as anything, these vibrant eating houses demonstrate that the American economy remains vital.

. Snook Bight Yacht Club & Marina, and Bayfront Bistro, 4761 Estero Blvd., Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931. Tel: 463-3663. Web site: www. bayfrontbistro.com, or www.snookbightmarina. com.

. Ichabod's Wicked Food & Drink, 13851 S. Tamiami Trail, Fort Myers, FL 33912. Tel: 267-1611. Web site: temporarily down.

. Two Meatballs in the Kitchen, 890 Salrose Lane, Fort Myers, FL 33912. Tel: 489-1111. Web site: www. twomeatballsinthekitchen.com.

. A Table Apart, 4295 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs, FL 34134. Tel: 221-8540. Web site: www. atableapart.com.

. Pete's Steak House Italian Grille, 728 SW Pine Island Road, Cape Coral, FL 33991. Tel: 829-0741. Web site: www.petessteak.com.

. Olive's Mediterranean Grill, 3207 Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers, FL. Tel: 337-5111. Web site: www.olivesgrill. com (temporarily unavailable)

. J Bistro, 15291 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers, FL 33908. Tel: 437-0202. Web site: www.jbistros.com.

. Sea Salt, 1186 Third Street South, Naples, FL 34102, Tel: 434- 7258. Web site: www.seasaltnaples.com

. Miramare Italian, Shore Boulevard N., Naples, FL. Tel: 430-6273. Web site: www.miramarenaples.com.

. McCormick and Schmiks, The Mercato, 9114 Strada Place, Naples, FL 34108. Tel: 591-2299. Web site: www. mccormickandschmicks.com.

. Capitol Grille, 9005 Mercato Drive, Naples, FL 34108. Tel: 254- 0640. Web site: www.thecapitolgrille. com. Auction on Feb. 28, tickets for are $300. The price of vintner dinners vary. Call 432-9722.