In the Know: Restaurants coming to Shoppes at Vanderbilt in North Naples

A pizzeria and a Cuban café are two of the restaurants coming soon to the Galleria Shoppes at Vanderbilt at 2355 Vanderbilt Beach Road in North Naples.

Havana Blue

Havana Blue Cuban Cuisine & Lounge is moving into Suite 200, a space that has been home to a few other restaurants over the years. Salsa Cuban Restaurant & Lounge closed there in May after operating less than a year. That large corner space previously was home to Absinthe, The Basin and French Folies restaurants.

The owner of Havana Blue has authenticity and experience on her side to make it work. Yanet Casanova also owns and operates the Floridita restaurants in Golden Gate and East Naples. Both are popular local spots for authentic Cuban cuisine and coffee – the celebrated café con leche.

The original Floridita Cuban Bakery Restaurant in the Sunshine Ace Hardware plaza at Collier Boulevard and Golden Gate Parkway has served loyal customers for almost 15 years, but Casanova has owned the local business for the last six years. Expect lines at breakfast and lunch, especially for house-made pastries, flan, slices of tres leches cake and Cuban bread.

This spring, Casanova launched a second location, Floridita Cuban Café & Restaurant, on Airport-Pulling Road just south of Davis Boulevard in East Naples. While it doesn’t have a bakery, it added more seafood to the menu in the longtime dining spot of Capt. Marcos Seafood & More, Mister Five, the White House and Maide’s Mediterranean restaurants.

Casanova’s third local restaurant is targeted to open Dec. 1 in the Shoppes at Vanderbilt, the lifestyle center on the northwest corner of Vanderbilt Beach Drive and Airport-Pulling Road. The larger Havana Blue represents an evolution from her small Floridita eateries.

“It’s a little bit different too,” she said. “The place is not the same.”

Although she has lived in Naples for 25 years, Casanova was born and raised in Cuba and claims to serve the most authentic Cuban cuisine in the Naples area. She wants Havana Blue to continue that tradition and raise the bar for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“We are working hard this week to finalize the menu,” she said.

While patrons can expect Cuban-style specialties such as Cubano sandwiches, croquetas, palomilla steak and a variety of other beef, chicken, pork and seafood dishes, Havana Blue will also have a full bar with late-night hours on Fridays and Saturdays. Expect live entertainment and even Flamenco dancing and a Cuban cigar roller on duty at times.

“Sunday we will try to do brunch,” Casanova said. “We will have a little bakery too with cakes and pastries.”

Havana Blue inherits a large bar and expansive seating options indoors and outdoors. During renovations, the bar is being relocated from the center of the dining area to the side of the restaurant.

Mister O1

There are pizza lovers, and then there’s Laina Kennedy.

It was love at first taste for the five-year resident of Naples who was wowed by Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza when she visited one of its three trendy locations in the Miami area less than two years ago.

“I stumbled on Mister O1 just being in Miami for the weekend. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it," she said.

Kennedy fell in love with the pizzeria and became a frequent customer, eventually knowing she wanted to bring the concept to Naples so that she wouldn’t have to drive two hours across the state to enjoy it. At first, the company-owned pizzeria wasn’t franchising, but then the timing finally clicked on both ends, Kennedy said.

“I just kind of kept going there and reaching out to them,” she said. “We are going to be their first U.S. franchise.”

Which brings us to the pizzeria’s extraordinary name. It stems from the O-1 (pronounced Oh-won) visa for “individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement.”

“To qualify for an O-1 visa, the beneficiary must demonstrate extraordinary ability by sustained national or international acclaim and must be coming temporarily to the United States to continue work in the area of extraordinary ability,” according to the eligibility criteria by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Mister O1 co-owner Renato Viola was a master pizza chef in Italy who entered the United States with an O-1 visa about five years ago. Viola’s extraordinary ability? Creating extraordinary pizzas, of course.

Kennedy is launching Mister O1 in half of the former space of The Good Life in Shoppes at Vanderbilt. After the longtime local kitchen store permanently closed this summer, its large space was divided into two units. Mister O1 is in Suite 176, while the other unit is still available.

Still seeking permits for the buildout, Kennedy is targeting to open her first venture in early 2019. The 2,200-square-foot pizzeria will have a large kitchen and about 40 seats in a quaint and cozy dining area.

The new Mister O1 will offer the same menu that has been successful at its other three locations. The pizzas are made with flour and sauce imported from Italy.

“Their ingredients are unique,” Kennedy said. “They just have very unique concepts.”

The top-selling “star pizzas” are a good example. A star-shaped pizza is created by making cuts at the edge of the pizza and folding the flaps over to make a crust with eight points – actually eight pockets filled with ricotta cheese.

The 13-inch or 8-inch pizzas are smaller than average, but the choice of specialty pizzas and toppings is above-average. For instance, the Coffee Paolo pizza features Italian tomato sauce, mozzarella, gorgonzola, natural honey, coffee and spicy Calabrese salami. The Jacqueline pizza includes two eggs and white truffle oil. More than 10 vegetarian pizzas are available.

“Honestly, I just fell in love with the pizza,” Kennedy said. “It’s a very simple concept. They provide extraordinary food at not an extraordinary price.”

Although pizza obviously is the “star,” the menu also has calzone, antipasti and salads – even a create-your-own salad option. The Naples restaurant will have beer and wine, including a more extensive wine menu than the Miami locations.

Excited about introducing Mister O1 to Naples, Kennedy thinks her family-friendly location is the perfect place to do it.

“I just think Vanderbilt Shoppes is the most centrally located shopping plaza,” she said. “They do an amazing job keeping it up and they are so easy to work with.”

More opportunities

Havana Blue and Mister O1, of course, will join about 10 other restaurants already in the center, such as local operators Flaco’s, Poached, Mojo Thai & Sushi Bar, Alpine, Angelic Desserts and The Cave Bistro & Wine Bar. Chain franchises include Pei Wei, Philly Pretzel Factory, PrimoHoagies, SubZero and Starbucks.

Many more spaces exist for future restaurants on that northwest corner of Airport-Pulling and Vanderbilt Beach roads. The center has been marketing restaurant space south of Flaco’s in that same building fronting Airport-Pulling Road.  

“There’s a space on the end that’s going to be quite a bit bigger than all the rest. It’s going to be about 4,200 square feet,” said Clayton Coleman, construction manager at Shoppes at Vanderbilt. “Then the rest of the space is about five units and they are all going to range between 1,200 to 1,500 square feet, but they can be combined if somebody wanted more space.”

Expect those undeveloped spaces to be ready early next year. The hope is to attract a variety of dining options such as a fine-dining restaurant, a seafood restaurant or a brewpub, Coleman said.

The 3,400-square-foot end unit vacated in September by Cafe Alfredo also remains available for lease with a wood-fired pizza oven and an indoor-outdoor bar.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in it. I imagine it will be leased pretty soon. We’re very optimistic,” Coleman said.

The center’s management also is making plans to eventually subdivide the nearly 20,000-square-foot anchor space on its western edge that originally would have been a grocer but has sat vacant for more than a decade. It’s still in the planning phase, but an initial proposal would create six spaces in front and a 9,500-square-foot space in the back, Coleman said.

“We don’t have anything concrete over there yet but we’ve got at least an idea how we can break up the space,” he said. “What works for us is smaller spaces.”

For the latest in local restaurants coming and going, see Tim Aten’s “In the Know” columns archived at naplesnews.com/intheknow, and on Facebook at facebook.com/timaten.intheknow.

To sign up for the weekly newsletter SWFL Eats featuring local dining critic Jean Le Boeuf go to naplesnews.com/featured-newsletter/swfl_eats_nn/