Why would an Italian food importer with five steady years of business near the airport give up a working formula to move onto a stretch of Vanderbilt Beach Road anchored by a CVS? Why would a 30-seat supper club on Davis Boulevard, the kind of place that filled its dining room on word of mouth alone, trade that intimacy for a room more than seventy seats larger, several miles from where it started?
Neither business needed to prove itself. Both had customers already. What changed is that both decided Vanderbilt Beach Road was worth betting bigger on, and they weren't the only ones. Over the past year, the road residents already drive to reach the sand has quietly become the address several established Naples restaurateurs chose when they were ready to expand, not experiment.
Two Ends of the Same Road
The activity isn't spread evenly along Vanderbilt Beach Road. It's concentrated at two points, and they read almost like opposite bets.
Near the coast, inside the low-key Pavilion Shopping Center at 885 Vanderbilt Beach Road, sits Amber Cove, a fine-dining room that opened quietly in May 2025 in the space that used to be KC American Bistro. A few miles inland, at the intersection of Vanderbilt Beach Road and Airport-Pulling Road, the Galleria Shoppes at Vanderbilt has spent the past year rebuilding its entire hospitality lineup around a CVS outparcel that most residents only ever visited for the pharmacy.
Neither location is new construction. Both are recognizable strip centers that have quietly become something else.
The Ones That Already Had a Following
Two of the highest-profile arrivals at the Galleria Shoppes weren't startups testing an idea. They were established local concepts that had already built a customer base elsewhere and ran out of room to serve it.
Rudy Ambrosi had operated his Italian gourmet food market for five years out of an industrial building near Naples Airport, the kind of address most people find because someone already loves the place and tells them where to go. This spring, Ambrosi and his sons Michael and Alex relocated the business to 2343 Vanderbilt Beach Road, taking over the adjoining spaces once occupied by The Cave Bistro & Wine Bar and Naples Wine Collection. The new location functions as both a market stocked with imported olive oils, pastas and cured meats, and a wine bar pouring close to twenty Italian selections by the glass.
The Supper Club made a similar move. It spent close to three years building a following in a 30-seat dining room on Davis Boulevard, as a sister concept to Old Vines at Mercato, before relocating into a 2,225-square-foot space at 2355 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Suite 158. The suite itself has some history: it was Bajio Mexican Grill before a decade-plus run as Alpine Restaurant, then briefly Tableside. The Supper Club's new build, led by Chef-Partner Brooke Kravetz and Chef de Cuisine Sophia Kiasi, kept the crushed velvet and chandelier aesthetic the original room was known for, added a full liquor license, and opened November 25, 2025.
Concept | Where It Started | Time There | New Address on Vanderbilt Beach Road |
|---|---|---|---|
Ambrosi & Sons | Industrial building near Naples Airport | 5 years | 2343 Vanderbilt Beach Rd, Units 602 & 604 |
The Supper Club | 30-seat room on Davis Boulevard | Close to 3 years | 2355 Vanderbilt Beach Rd, Suite 158 |
Both moves say the same thing in different accents: the operators weren't guessing. They were scaling a concept that had already worked.
The One That Didn't Have to Move
Amber Cove is a different kind of bet, because it wasn't a relocation at all. Owner Tim Herman spent more than fifteen years in hospitality at the Inn on Fifth and LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort before opening his own restaurant, and he chose to do it inside an unassuming shopping center rather than downtown. Executive Chef Jehad Alsharabini, previously of Baleen, runs the kitchen. The restaurant earned a spot on Gulfshore Life's Best New Restaurants of 2026 list, and even with that recognition, tables have still been easy to find on a Friday night in season.
That combination, a chef-driven menu with real press behind it and a dining room that isn't yet hard to get into, is the kind of detail a resident notices before the rest of the city does. It won't stay that way indefinitely.
The Suite With a History
Not every new name on Vanderbilt Beach Road arrived with a built-in following. Aufieri & Martinez Argentinian Steakhouse, the first local restaurant venture for Walter Rolando Aufieri and Daniel Martínez, opened December 3, 2025 at 2355 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Suite 200, specializing in wood-fired grilled meats and traditional asado.
The space they took over has a longer résumé than the restaurant does. That same suite has been home to Havana Blue Cuban Cuisine & Lounge, Salsa Cuban Restaurant & Lounge, French Folies, Absinthe, The Basin and, briefly, Paradise Golf. Six concepts in under a decade is a lot of turnover for one address, and it makes Aufieri & Martinez the genuine debut in this wave, the one entrant without an existing following to fall back on.
What's Actually Open Right Now
For anyone keeping track of what's ready to visit this fall, the practical picture on the ground looks like this:
- Open: Amber Cove (885 Vanderbilt Beach Rd), Ambrosi & Sons (2343 Vanderbilt Beach Rd), The Supper Club (2355 Vanderbilt Beach Rd, Ste 158), Aufieri & Martinez (2355 Vanderbilt Beach Rd, Ste 200), and Crazy King Burrito, a counter-service spot serving specialty burritos and shareable starters like elotes and queso in Suite 100 at the Galleria Shoppes.
- Still finishing build-out: The Good Pour, a Florida wine and spirits retailer that leased the entirety of the newly built 1000 Building behind the CVS outparcel. As of the most recent reporting, the buildout was still underway, with no confirmed opening date announced.
That distinction matters if you're planning an evening around any one of these. The steakhouse, the market, the supper club and the burrito counter are all reservable or walk-in ready tonight. The wine shop is not yet.
What This Actually Changes
None of this turns Vanderbilt Beach Road into a single walkable food street. The beach-end cluster and the Airport-Pulling cluster are still separate stops, not one continuous strip you'd wander on foot. What's changed is the kind of confidence showing up at both ends of it. A five-year-old market didn't need to leave its warehouse. A supper club with a loyal following didn't need to leave Davis Boulevard. A veteran hospitality operator with fifteen years at two of Naples's best-known addresses didn't need to open his own restaurant in a strip mall to succeed at it. They all did it anyway, on this specific road, within the same twelve months.
That's a different signal than a wave of new restaurants trying their luck in a hot location. It's proven operators voting with their leases that this stretch of Vanderbilt Beach Road can support what they already built somewhere else, at a larger scale. The one true startup in the group, Aufieri & Martinez, is also the one sitting in the suite with the most turnover behind it. Worth knowing before you decide which reservation to make first.
The Beachfront Team spends as much time on Vanderbilt Beach Road as anyone who lives along it, and we're always glad to compare notes on where to eat next.
