The Rolls stays in the garage. The Boston Whaler is under cover. Somewhere off Gordon Pass a tarpon is doing what tarpon do in July, and the beach path at the end of Galleon Drive is quiet enough to hear the crushed shell under your sandals. This is the season Port Royal keeps to itself, and this year it comes with a wrinkle worth planning around.
The new Port Royal Club is tracking toward a fall 2026 opening rather than the earlier summer target, with expanded dining, elevated hospitality, and wellness amenities on one of Naples' most prestigious stretches of coastline. For members accustomed to a standing Friday seafood buffet, that gap has been filled by a downtown dining map that quietly reshuffled itself between March and now. Three rooms that weren't here last summer are open. The staples are running their sharpest discounts of the year. And a Tuesday walk-in has never been easier.
The Club Gap, in Plain Terms
The rebuild is not modest. After Hurricane Ian left the original clubhouse irreparably damaged, the community voted to pursue a full-scale reconstruction backed by a $100 million budget, and the new facility will span roughly 62,000 square feet with private dining venues, a wine cellar, banquet spaces, poolside amenities, and a beachfront lawn. The West Indies detailing, the poolside terraces, the covered outdoor dining a member asked for in a survey two years ago, all of it is arriving, just later than the calendar first suggested.
Which means five more months of dining out. Here is where residents have been going.
Three Rooms That Weren't Here Last Summer
Annie's Bistro at the Olde Naples Hotel
The block where Naples was effectively founded now has a hotel again, and with it a dining room open to anyone. Annie's Bistro, Bar & Bakery sits at 200 Broad Street S. inside the Olde Naples Hotel, evolves throughout the day from morning café to full bistro and bar, and is open to non-hotel guests, steps from Third Street South. For a Port Royal household, that means a bakery walk in the morning and a bar seat by evening without moving the car twice.
La Salière, in the Bevy's Former Space
The former Bevy corner on 12th Avenue South has been reborn as something the Frittella family has been wanting to bring across the Atlantic for years. La Salière launched Nov. 7 in The Bevy's former space at 360 12th Ave. S. in Old Naples, an intimate 2,600-square-foot room on the south side of 12th Avenue South just east of Third Street South. Both La Salière and Casa Avenue 31 were born in Monaco, and La Salière was the first restaurant Stefano Frittella opened, in 1982.
The kitchen leans on a signature that reads better as theater than as menu copy.
Branzino al Sale, prepared tableside and baked in sea salt.
Dinner runs daily from 5:30 p.m. to midnight, with brunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and a daily happy hour from 3 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. That happy-hour window is the tell. It is set for people who eat dinner at seven and want a glass of something Ligurian at five, which is precisely the rhythm of a Port Royal summer evening.
BiCE's Twentieth-Year Refresh
The southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Third Street South has been dark since spring. It is coming back. BiCE Ristorante on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South is targeted to reopen soon after a temporary closure post-season for a physical transformation ahead of its 20th anniversary in 2026. Twenty years is a long run in a market where restaurant leases turn over faster than a sailboat's mainsheet, and a refresh rather than a rebrand is the right instinct for a room this many regulars know by heart.
Where the Summer Math Actually Works
The interesting thing about Naples in July is not the openings. It is the pricing at rooms that have been here for years. In-season, these prices do not exist. Off-season, they are the reason locals stay put.
| Room | Summer 2026 Value |
|---|---|
| Chops City Grill | 25% off entrées and steaks through summer, its sharpest discount of the year |
| Bistro 821 | Summer prix fixe with multi-course options at reduced price points |
| Ocean Prime | Recurring happy hour in the lounge with reduced prices on cocktails and small plates |
| Third Street South, broadly | Foot traffic drops from peak season, and walk-in availability opens |
Every figure above comes from the same off-season roundup. Chops City Grill is running 25% off entrees and steaks through summer, one of the best steakhouses on Fifth Avenue South offering its sharpest discount of the year; Bistro 821 is running summer prix fixe menus with multi-course options at reduced price points; and Ocean Prime has recurring happy hour specials in the lounge area with reduced prices on cocktails and small plates. On Third Street South, as foot traffic drops from peak season, walk-in availability opens up in a way it simply does not from January through March.
For context, a member's Friday night on Fifth Avenue in February requires a reservation held for weeks. The same table, on the same night in July, is a phone call at four in the afternoon. That is the summer trade a Port Royal resident is uniquely positioned to make.
After Dinner
A club summer is not only about the meal. It is what happens between eight and eleven, which is a slot the Port Royal Club typically fills with a member mixer and which this year is being filled elsewhere.
Two options worth putting on a calendar:
- The Club Room at Campiello. The Club Room showcases a reclaimed barn wood ceiling, commissioned art, and a performance stage, and on Jan. 1, 2026 Campiello launched a new music program featuring local and national talent, with walk-ins always welcome. The room is on Third Street South, which puts it fifteen minutes on foot from most of the Port Royal peninsula.
- Artis–Naples Summer Programming. July through August 2026 features a variety of live music events at Artis–Naples, including chamber music, jazz concerts, and the Festival of Great Organ Music. A short drive north, and the sort of programming that a member will not find at the temporary member events during construction.
For a change of neighborhood, Rock the Block at Mercato on August 20, 2026 is a block party in the heart of Mercato with live music, drinks, and family programming. Casual, loud, and a useful contrast to a quiet Port Royal cul-de-sac.
What Is Coming Next
Watch the southwest corner of Waterside Shops. Eddie V's Prime Seafood is targeting a summer 2026 opening on a redeveloped outparcel at the southwest corner of Waterside Shops, the first Darden concept at this tier to open in Naples. The wine list is expected to run more than 300 selections, and the V Lounge will feature classic and creative cocktails with signature appetizers and live music trios nightly.
Whether it opens in August or November, the arrival matters for a specific reason. The lounge-plus-dining format on an outparcel gives a member a proper seafood dinner within a ten-minute drive without the Fifth Avenue parade. That is a slot Naples does not currently have, and it will absorb some of the Friday night traffic that used to end at the club.
A Note on Rhythm
Port Royal's calendar has always been shaped less by the neighborhood than by the water and the weather. What is different this summer is that the social gravity has temporarily shifted inland, toward Broad Street, 12th Avenue, and the two blocks of Third Street South where the sidewalks empty out by mid-afternoon. It is a rare window for a resident to reset a habit or two, revisit a room they had written off in high season, and find a table without asking.
By the time the club opens in the fall, the map will have quietly rearranged itself. Residents who paid attention this summer will already know it.
If you are weighing a Port Royal purchase, considering a discreet sale ahead of the club's reopening, or simply want a longer conversation about how this stretch of Naples lives when the season is off, Karen Van Arsdale invites you to schedule a private consultation.
