Page 4. Florida Issue - Home Florida's West Coast - NAPLES, FLORIDA For a romantic stay at Christmastime or anytime... THE INN ON FIFTH The Inn on Fifth is right in the midst of things, on a block filled with restaurants, ice cream parlors, outdoor cafes, and all kinds of shops. Once checked in, there is no need to take your car out until going home. Fifth Avenue is the main street of Naples, Florida, and it is hopping! We arrived shortly after New Year's and the elaborate Christmas displays were still up, with dramatic and beautiful effect. The Inn on Fifth is known for their extraordinary holiday decorations around the property. The main courtyard in the hotel was decorated with a silver tree bedecked with lights, ribbons, and elegant ornaments and lined with hundreds of bright red poinsettias. Figurines of Santa, his Christmas elves, and happy carolers complete the festive lobby. This is the main photo op for visitors during the season. Checking in, we were delighted to find a staff that was extremely attentive and eager to please. Questions were answered and assistance given like it was their pleasure to do it, a service we greatly appreciated in these nonchalant days. Another feature we found even more valuable was the hotel's complimentary valet parking. Most hotels these days consider parking a significant profit center with daily fees up to $36, so this hotel immediately felt especially warm and welcoming. The Inn on Fifth is exceptional in other ways, too. Basically a charming boutique hotel with 87 rooms and suites, it offers features of larger hotels, including state-of-the-art fitness center, full-service spa, roof-top pool and hot tub, golf privileges at local courses, and two restaurants, both of which are among the most popular in town.
Ensuring guests the utmost comfort, each accommodation is feature-rich with pillow-top mattresses, oh-so-soft high-thread-count bedding, plush robes, movies, 25" TVs complimentary newspapers, safes, 3 telephones, and wi-fi. Our room was a great high-ceiling space with sitting room, desk area, and adjoining bedroom with outside balcony. The balcony had comfortable lounge chairs, which we enjoyed while viewing holiday strollers along Fifth Avenue. The bathroom was very large with a huge whirlpool bath and a separate double shower. The whirlpool, with scented candles and a chilled bottle of champagne, hit an 11 on the 1 to 10 romance scale with Marilyn.
THE INN ON FIFTH * * * A Special Favorite for Wining & Dining in Naples: NAPLES TOMATO Naples, Florida, was named for its sister city in Italy at a time when early developers of southern Florida were fascinated with the notion it could become the Italy of America. Consequently, there is no shortage of Italian-style restaurants, both traditional and hip. But none truly capture the essence of the Italian love for food and wine as does Naples Tomato. Leaving downtown, we were directed 10 miles north to an unassuming strip-mall. From the outside, we would never have guessed the treasures awaiting us inside. Even after entering, we weren't sure if this was the place for our anticipated "romantic dining experience." Walking in, we noticed a food preparation area to our left, fully stocked grocery-style refrigerators directly in front and huge cans of imported Italian tomato sauce stacked waist high on the floor. Upon turning to our right, everything changed. There was a bustle of activity with clusters of well-dressed people chatting and holding wine glasses, while the soft notes of a pianist singing romantic songs filled the air. Suddenly we knew we were in for a special occasion, one which included an innovative, high-tech wine pouring concept, called Enomatic, imported from Italy. IN VINO VERITAS The Naples Tomato "wine lounge" is arranged living-room style with comfy couches and ottomans, art on the walls, and subdued lighting. Along the walls were six self-serve wine dispensers, each containing eight bottles of wine. Above each bottle was a description of the wine, including winery, origin, varietals, and year. Also shown was a price list for the 1, 3 or 6 ounce portions of your choice. Guests buy a "debit" card to slide in each wine bank. Besides being fun, the high-tech wine system gives you the opportunity to sample a variety of different wines, including many that would not be readily available by the glass. It's pay-as-you-sip, with wines ranging from $1.20 to over $25.00 per ounce. You can choose wines that would bust your budget and bless your taste buds, without having to buy more than you want. Like kids in a candy store, we sampled wine after wine, imported and domestic, red and white. But with almost fifty wines automatically available, it's not possible to try them all at one time. We spent a leisurely forty-five minutes sipping cozily on the couches, but it's easy to imagine couples spending hours here, tasting the fine wines and enjoying the delightfully relaxed ambience. To accompany your wine tasting, Naples Tomato offers a separate menu of assorted cheeses and appetizers. Our plate came with smoked Gouda, French Brie, and Italian truffle cheeses, and sun dried tomatoes, dried figs, currants, and pistachios. It was the perfect accompaniment to our wine tasting.
Knowledgeable, efficient, and gracious, Angela will help you select a wine and answer any wine question with confidence. When serving in the dining room, she carefully decants your wine and serves each guest personally. Naples Tomato has a private wine cellar and tasting room in the center of the restaurant. With a list of over 500 wines, it's easy to find one you like. Their prices are lower than standard restaurant mark-up. A notation on the menu indicates that if you like a particular wine that they serve you, they will be happy to get you a case for a 15% discount. Special clients may store their wines here, also. Their wine club is another facet of Naples Tomato that shines with over 1,200 members. It's apparent that wine is a very important element in the operation of Naples Tomato. With as much space devoted to wine service as food service, it is clearly an equal partner in the owners' highly successful business plan. MANGIA Deciding it was finally time to stop drinking and start eating, we moved into the dining room. Dennis started with "Our Famous Floridian Salad," a zesty combo of greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, apricot stilton cheese, dried cherries, basil, bacon, pistachios, and homemade citrus dressing. Marilyn had the escarole and white bean casserole with toasted parmesan crumb topping. Very unusual and tasty! The Naples Tomato salad and antipasto bar is a special treat. You can go all vegetarian, or for $5 extra, add an assortment of "Arthur Avenue" meats. Dennis asked, "Is that Arthur Avenue in the Bronx?" The owners had been to the Arthur Avenue Market and loved it. They don't ship to out-of-town restaurants, but after a year-long pursuit, they finally got Arthur Avenue to supply them. Now, Neapolitans (from Florida) can enjoy the same delicacies New Yorkers have extolled for about 50 years. Their most popular seafood dish is the "Capri," homemade pasta with two colossal shrimp, porcini mushroom, sun-dried tomato, and brandy flambé in a pink sauce. They also serve the "Plate Licker," homemade fettuccini with Raffaello's vodka sauce. So many dishes...so many decisions! We decided to go with our waiter's recommendations, and were glad we did. Dennis chose the Tilapia on a cedar plank, with potatoes and broccoli rabe. Their perfect preparation brought out its best characteristics, arriving at our table with the unique and tasty essence of cedar and cooked perfectly moist and flaky. Marilyn went with the "Black Tie," a truffle mélange raviolinni with Bolognese sauce and Urbani white truffle oil. She doesn't usually go for meat sauces, but she savored this Bolognese. It was light and delicious, with the truffle combination providing the perfect blend of flavors. After dinner, our waiter suggested we "take our dessert" back in the wine area. We settled into the deep couches and shared the specialty of the night, a light filo stuffed with a berry combination in crème fraise , topped with a dollop of whipped cream. Then we sat back with a final glass of dessert wine, reveling in what a true "find" Naples Tomato is. While enjoying the "afterglow" of an exotic wine and food experience, we took note of the other features of Naples Tomato that make it a rare and special venue. ENOTECA, TRATTORIA, GROCERY, AND COOKING SCHOOL, TOO! Remember when we arrived, we were confused about this fabulous place. Well, those supermarket style refrigerators are chock full of specialty foods made fresh on the premises and imported from around the globe, available for take-out. And the food prep area? This is the pasta-making room, complete with high stools used for classes, where the pasta chef instructs customers in the art of making spaghetti. Later, the students share a tasting. On Fridays, visitors can make their own pasta and then come back later to have it at dinner with their special guests. ONCE UPON A TIME... before NAPLES TOMATO Naples Tomato is an enterprise that seems genuinely pleased to be serving you and to be sharing their experiences with you. We noticed that some of the dishes on the menu were marked "Nadine's favorite." So of course, Marilyn had to ask, "Who is Nadine?" Nadine and Jack Serfass are the wife-husband team that created and owns Naples Tomato. We love to learn how couples meet-and their story is a wonderful tale of wine, food and determination. Jack Serfass was a single guy living in Connecticut. He went on a wine-tasting getaway in Napa Valley with his girlfriend. At one of the group wine-tastings, they chatted with another couple, who lived in New York. Yes, it was Nadine with her boyfriend. A year later, Jack was sorting through the old receipts from his Napa trip. Suddenly stopping, he found a woman's business card from the wine-tasting group. No, it wasn't Nadine, but a friend of hers. He called the friend, and shyly asked about Nadine. Even more awkwardly, he asked for Nadine's phone number. Reluctantly, the woman gave it to him. Jack called Nadine...and, happily, Cupid was on his side. She had broken up with her beau from that trip. Jack and Nadine started dating. The two always had a special love of food and wine, but it would take years before they could make their dream of a restaurant and wine bar come true. Jack had been an executive chef in other restaurants but left the food business to go into the hi-tech arena. It was there that he made enough money to go back to his true calling, becoming a restaurateur and starting a wine-tasting bar with Nadine. Jack and Nadine married and have been together for fourteen years. Their love of life, food and wine flourishes now in Naples Tomato, which opened about two years ago. Both Jack and Nadine are there nightly, greeting patrons as friends and imparting their love of a gracious and delightful Neapolitan lifestyle. We wish many more years of success to Jack and Nadine-and think that all lovers of good food and wine should take a sojourn to this very special dining and wining experience. NAPLES TOMATO * * * And for breakfast.... THE COFFEE SHOPPE in the Cove Inn Sunday morning breakfast...okay, so it wasn't morning. It was high noon-but it was breakfast. In fact, when Dennis tried to order from their lunch menu, they said, "No lunch on Sundays!" The place was The Coffee Shoppe, a tiny local spot in the lobby of the Cove Inn. A limited menu didn't seem to bother all the people that were there this Sunday. They were lined up and waiting to be seated in the place that was awarded "Best Breakfast" and "Best Pancakes" and "Best French Toast" in Naples. Dennis and I both ordered pancakes. I got them plain with a side order of ham. Dennis got them with pecans and blueberries. The pecans were inside the pancakes. The blueberries, a humongous portion, came in a side bowl-and he poured them on. They weren't fresh, but fresh frozen, and the pleasant surprise was that they weren't gooshy or sugar-corn starchy-sweet-syrupy, but almost like fresh! The pancakes here are ultra-thin and light, and we could easily understand why they are award-winning. They tasted delicious, and happily, they weren't served with butter on them. The restaurant also had low fat, sugar-free Smuckers syrup. The place is totally unassuming and homey, down to the fact that their placemats have diagrams of fish and the names of everyone who works there, from the owner and chef to the waitresses and busboys. Priscilla waited on us, and we also said hello to the owner, Lori. Priscilla told us that her sister is one of the chefs and Lori's nephew Matt works as a busboy. Other things on the menu included corned beef hash with eggs, a special omelet with Monterey cheese, and their special French toast. Although lunch wasn't available, Dennis had tried to order the tuna salad. We were curious about it since the menu stated "tuna prepared to order." Somehow The Cove Inn didn't "look" like they would have fresh tuna. Priscilla gave us the scoop. Pun intended. The tuna is from a can-but they don't make the salad until you order it-so they can add a little or a lot of mayo; they can include onions; or celery; and make it just the way you like it. Which is how we felt about the great time we had at The Coffee Shoppe-it was just the way we like it! THE COFFEE SHOPPE Cove Inn on Naples Bay * * * Other Naples restaurants to enjoy.... VERGINA First Watch: The Daytime Cafe CASTAWAYS BACKWATER CAFE MR. MOM'S DINER * * * A Sunset Sail for Romance.... THE SCHOONER LADY STIRLING Touring the waterways of Naples, Florida, on The Schooner Lady Stirling at sunset is about as romantic an event you could give your sweetheart. With a slight wind to your back, the huge sails majestically bellowing with warm air and the sun heading into the horizon, the Lady Stirling is an emotional bliss-filled ride. If you love your romance slow and your fresh air filled with gorgeous views, this is for you. The Lady Stirling is an 80-foot gaff-rigged schooner, built in 2004. Intended to be a reminder of the clipper schooners of the past that transported people and cargo to our shores, The Lady Stirling sails along at about 8 knots, as you view the beautiful homes and lush greenery on the shores of Naples Bay. Reaching the Gulf, Captain Bill turns around and heads back to shore. Before hitting land, deckhands bring out boxes of pizzas and cold drinks, beer and wine for a mini-party with your sailing mates. It was a fun-for-all! More serious, but something to think about, are the memorial services and ash scattering ceremonies they offer. Your loved one's ash scattering location is marked by GPS, and a framed memorial certificate marking the exact location is provided. So whether this is your first or last ride on the Lady Stirling, it will be memorable. We won't soon forget it. THE SCHOONER LADY STIRLING Port-O-Call Marina |
McCabe's Irish Pub & Grill is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and we found it always crowded with happy revelers. Trulucks is a seasoned seafood and steak restaurant with an outdoor patio and piano bar that is always cool and crowded, no matter the temperature outside. Hang out here for lots of fun with locals and tourists. We did and loved it. 
With a keen eye on guest comfort, The Inn on Fifth offers the intimacy of a charming boutique inn with the amenities of a much larger hotel. We felt coddled and cared for at the crest of the Christmas season. Ask Santa to send you and your sweetie here for a real holiday treat! Whatever the season, just grab your honey and head on over to make any day a special occasion at this fabulous Naples getaway. 
A professional sommelier, Angela Robertson, oversees the restaurant's five thousand bottle inventory, for which Naples Tomato received the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. Recently, she was chosen to participate in a Wine Spectator symposium on Pinot Noir held in California. 
