Bill Barnett share NAPLES POTPOURRI

By the time you read this article the Naples City Council election will be over and there will be three new City Council Members. I sincerely hope our city voters did their homework and got to know the candidates. Regardless, the forthcoming years are going to be exciting ones in our City, and I will be the first to tell you (well maybe not the first), that there are issues that will be difficult to resolve. For me, watching from the sidelines, I wonder how the city – County relationships are going to be as the County has some monstrous projects at the City’s doorstep that are bound to affect us, and I get asked on a daily basis what is going to happen. We shall wait and see.

This past January brought us some very cold weather which I like because it’s a rarity that I can grab some sweaters and warm clothes that come out of their storage places for a brief debut and then return to them for an unknown amount of time. The shopkeepers and restaurant owners always like this cold weather because all one can do is shop and dine, which is good for our economy. Good thing it doesn’t last for a long time or our visitors will look elsewhere for warmer climates but, no worries, in my 53 years of living here it’s never been a problem!

I love our Naples Restaurants and have never kept it a secret. There is a story I will share with you about long before we had anywhere near the amount of great dining that our restaurants offer today of how we got to where we are today on the dining scene. I have said before in prior articles that when we moved here in 1973 there were only two fine dining restaurants and they were St. George and the Dragon and Picadilly Pub. Both were located on Fifth Avenue South.
As people started discovering Naples not only did new businesses and everything else that goes along with a new discovery happen but restaurateurs from all over the country decided to show their talents by opening a place to dine. It didn’t happen overnight and I can tell you that word spread like wildfire every time a new one opened its doors. I’m not just talking about fancy restaurants, quite the contrary it could be a pizza place where the owners came from Chicago or New York, or perhaps a tiny Italian restaurant where the owners came from somewhere in the Midwest. Most had been successful business folks, and they found Naples a great place to perhaps retire down the road and yet they could still be successful with no 20-degree temperatures and snow. As for the top shelf restaurant owners, they also were smart enough to look at their crystal ball and see the potential of what the future of owning a fine dining restaurant in Naples would bring, and they liked what they saw and invested.

It would be difficult to put an exact timeline on the growth here, but by the early 80’s we had definitely been discovered. Our restaurant businesses were thriving, and we were starting to see a variety of international places opening, and it was exciting to be able to say to my wife let’s try that new French or Chinese restaurant that just opened. The restaurant trend continued on and is still going. I was elected to City Council in 1984 and one night in 1989 my wife Chris and I were eating at a tiny café on Third Street South. Although our restaurant population had grown Naples didn’t have a food critic and I had often remarked to Chris that we needed one. Sitting at the next table was the editor of the Naples Daily News and we struck up a conversation, and I told him that I thought it was time Naples had a food critic and if and when they decided to get one, I would apply for the job. He said they had been talking about it and invited me to stop by his office and discuss it. I did, and after an initial turndown because although I knew what I wanted to say I just couldn’t quite get the hang of it so I reached out to my daughter Lisa who was a Journalism major at Syracuse University and she helped me with a few test reviews and some adjustments and Jacque Gourmand the Naples food critic was created. My deal was easy. 1 review a week, my meal was paid for, and I paid for my guest. I was allowed to say whatever I felt was appropriate about the service and the food, and I always called my reviews the way I saw them. Not everyone was happy, but it was never known who the real Jacque Gourmand was. I loved doing the reviews and managed to stay hidden for about two years until I felt that I was drawing some suspicion and I resigned. It would be a tough job today because one review a week just wouldn’t work. We are fortunate to have the high caliber of awesome restaurants that we
do to dine in today.

Enjoy the amenities we have to offer and if I hear one more candidate for Council say they want to preserve the Sleepy Little Town atmosphere of Naples I think I’ll get sick to my stomach! That went by the wayside at least twenty years ago.

All the Best,
Bill Barnett, Former Mayor
239-777-7952
I do respond to e-mails at: mayornaples@gmail.com