Old Naples New Restaurants to Know in Late Summer 2026

The summer story about Naples has always been that the good rooms empty out and the ones that stay open coast on chain menus. That story stopped being accurate a few years ago, and this August it is meaningfully wrong. The stretch between Third Street South and Fifth Avenue South has more independent kitchens open right now than at any point in recent memory, and several of them are pricing for the people who stayed through the heat.

There is a reason to work through that list this month rather than in October. Three sizable rooms are aimed at Waterside Shops between summer and year-end, and each one will pull reservation gravity north the moment it opens. What is quiet on Fifth Avenue South and Park Street today will not be quiet in November. The rotation you build now is the one you will still be using when the season crowd arrives.

What Opened Between February and June

The first half of 2026 delivered an unusually specific cluster of small, owner-operated rooms. On the north side of Fifth Avenue South, Barrio Taqueria launched Feb. 18 along Fifth Avenue South, and All Too Well Gourmet Sandwiches launched Feb. 12 on the corner of Fifth Avenue South and Eighth Street South. Barrio is owner Sal Muñoz's take on approachable Mexican with esquites, empanadas and birria tacos. All Too Well sits at 795 Fifth Ave. S., in a retail unit that used to be the Toad Hall extension of the adjacent Wind in the Willows boutique, run by Chef Mitchell Jamra, who hails from a family of butchers, so sandwiches start with curated meats, except for one veggie option. The sandwiches are built on schiacciata, a traditional Tuscan flatbread similar to focaccia but thinner, and the kitchen prefers you order them as written.

A block off the avenue on Park Street, Tiny Kitchen opened in late May or early June at 524 Park St., owned by Alejandro Veiga along with his wife, Samantha Skarl, and his mother, Chef Marta Veiga, serving Argentinian street food from a 680-square-foot space near Fifth Avenue South. The room is small enough that ordering at the counter and walking two minutes to a bench on Fifth is the intended experience. Around the corner, Annie's Bistro sits inside the new Olde Naples Hotel on the block where Naples was founded in 1889, evolving through the day from morning café to full bistro and bar, open to non-hotel guests, steps from Third Street South.

The through line across all four rooms is scale. These are not concepts engineered for a February seating chart. They are owner-in-the-kitchen operations, and the service right now is calibrating to the residents in the room.

Where They Sit Against the Established Blocks

Read on a map, the openings form a tight walkable loop rather than a scattered list. All Too Well anchors the northwest corner of Fifth and Eighth. A short walk east and one block south, Tiny Kitchen tucks onto Park Street. Barrio Taqueria lands on the avenue itself. Annie's puts you inside the Olde Naples Hotel and within two blocks of Third Street South's Saturday market.

The context around them matters. Bontà Bakery launched two years ago at 824 Fifth Ave. S., and Slice Shop pizzeria opened last year at 720 Fifth Ave. S., meaning the entire south side of that block now reads as counter-service by design. The reference point most residents use for higher-end dining on this stretch, Del Mar Naples on Fifth Avenue South in the former Café Lurcat location, a new concept from Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, is diagonally across the street. And rising above 837 Fifth Ave. S., Prime Social Reserve is a 7,300-square-foot indoor/outdoor concept with a dedicated elevator to the rooftop, positioned as a members-forward room.

One more piece is worth putting on the mental map because it changes the block. The Naples Design Review Board voted unanimously Oct. 22 to approve Avenue 31 at 472 Fifth Ave. S., planned to be built between the Del Mar and Osteria Tulia restaurants on the south side of the upscale avenue. The real estate is owned by Stefano Frittella, a prolific restaurateur who also owns Bice, Caffe Milano, La Trattoria and Vergina restaurants on Fifth Avenue South. Avenue 31 will blend Mediterranean flavors with international flair and is named for the address of Frittella's luxurious Monte Carlo restaurant at 31 Avenue Princess Grace near the Monaco Grand Prix racing circuit. The construction fencing that will eventually go up on that lot is the first physical signal that Fifth Avenue South is moving up a tier while adding counter-service at the same time.

The Fall Pipeline That Changes the Math

The reason to be deliberate about the walking loop now is what is arriving north of Old Naples between summer and December. Three sizable openings are targeting Waterside Shops:

• Eddie V's Prime Seafood is targeting a summer 2026 opening on a redeveloped outparcel at the southwest corner of Waterside Shops, known for seafood flown in from pristine waters around the world, as well as premium hand-carved steaks.
• Buck & Rider, targeted for late 2026, marking the brand's first location outside Arizona. The Naples location will feature Buck & Rider's hallmark design elements, including an open kitchen, expansive raw bar, and breezy indoor-outdoor seating that reflects the coastal lifestyle. CEO Adam Strecker has personal ties to Southwest Florida and described Naples as a natural first choice for the brand's first expansion outside Arizona.
• RH Restaurant, a fine-dining room at the center of Restoration Hardware's new glass-atrium gallery on the former Nordstrom site, targeting late 2026, expected to be one of the most anticipated openings of the year when it arrives.

For context on why that outparcel opened up at all, Brio Italian Grille permanently closed in April at Waterside Shops, and the redevelopment cleared the site for larger, more destination-oriented tenants. Waterside is being repositioned, not merely re-tenanted, and the summer months are the last stretch before that shows up on Friday-night wait times.

The practical read for an Old Naples resident is straightforward. The reservation attention that has been concentrated on Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South for the last five years is about to have three new anchors pulling it north. Rooms that are calm walk-ins in August will be six-week-out reservations in January. The independents are the ones that shift first.

An August Weekend, Ordered by Hunger

There is a version of this weekend that uses every one of these rooms without a single car trip. Start Saturday morning at the Naples' original Farmer's Market, which takes place behind Tommy Bahamas from 7:30am to 11:30am every Saturday morning throughout the year, then walk two blocks to Annie's for coffee and a proper sit-down before the heat sets in. Lunch is Tiny Kitchen on Park Street, eaten on a bench near the Naples Art Institute at 585 Park St. Late afternoon, pick between an early Del Mar table and a rooftop drink at Prime Social Reserve at 837 Fifth Ave. S.

Sunday can be smaller. A late breakfast pastry from Bontà, a walk down the avenue, and a schiacciata sandwich from All Too Well eaten outside. Dinner belongs to Barrio if the mood is casual or one of Frittella's rooms if it is not. The Great Dock Canoe Race exhibit runs at the Naples Depot Museum at 1051 5th Ave. S., the kind of small, local-history exhibit that pairs well with a Fifth Avenue dinner without competing for the evening. It closes at the end of August.

The Rebrands Worth a Second Visit

One more piece of the summer picture is easy to miss. These are not new-menu-same-place changes. Different kitchens, different sourcing, different service styles at the same doors. If a rebrand happens to be a room you already had in rotation, it is worth a second visit before assuming it is the same restaurant. Even inside Old Naples, the operators know that residents form opinions in the first two weeks and rarely revisit them. August is the window when that assumption is cheapest to test.

Also worth putting on the calendar: La Salière is set to open soon in the former space of The Bevy on 12th Avenue South. It will be the third of Frittella's Naples rooms with a sibling in Monaco, which is the sort of detail that only reads as coincidence until you notice the pattern.

The pattern is the point. Old Naples is quietly being rebuilt as a two-speed dining district, with counter-service rooms filling in the gaps between the tablecloth restaurants that have defined Fifth Avenue South for a generation. That is a specific, walkable version of the neighborhood that exists for a few more weeks before the Waterside openings and the season begin absorbing attention. If you live here, this is the month to use it.

For residents thinking about how their block, their walking radius, and their address in Old Naples fit into the larger picture of the market, Krapf Group is available for a quiet, unhurried conversation. Contact Us.