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BILL BARNETT

y the time you read this article the Naples City Council It would be difficult to put an exact timeline on the growth here, but
election will be over and there will be three new City Council by the early 80’s we had definitely been discovered. Our restaurant
BMembers. I sincerely hope our city voters did their homework businesses were thriving, and we were starting to see a variety of
and got to know the candidates. Regardless, the forthcoming years international places opening, and it was exciting to be able to say
are going to be exciting ones in our City, and I will be the first to to my wife let’s try that new French or Chinese restaurant that just
tell you (well maybe not the first), that there are issues that will be opened. The restaurant trend continued on and is still going. I was
difficult to resolve. For me, watching from the sidelines, I wonder elected to City Council in 1984 and one night in 1989 my wife Chris
how the city – County relationships are going to be as the County and I were eating at a tiny café on Third Street South. Although our
has some monstrous projects at the City’s doorstep that are bound to restaurant population had grown Naples didn’t have a food critic and
affect us and I get asked on a daily basis what is going to happen. We I had often remarked to Chris that we needed one. Sitting at the next
shall wait and see. table was the editor of the Naples Daily News and we struck up a
This past January brought us some very cold weather which I like conversation, and I told him that I thought it was time Naples had
because it’s a rarity that I can grab some sweaters and warm clothes a food critic and if and when they decided to get one, I would apply
that come out of their storage places for a brief debut and then for the job. He said they had been talking about it and invited me to
return to them for an unknown amount of time. The shopkeepers stop by his office and discuss it. I did, and after an initial turndown
and restaurant owners always like this cold weather because all one because although I knew what I wanted to say I just couldn’t quite
can do is shop and dine, which is good for our economy. Good thing get the hang of it so I reached out to my daughter Lisa who was a
it doesn’t last for a long time or our visitors will look elsewhere for Journalism major at Syracuse University and she helped me with a few
warmer climates but, no worries, in my 53 years of living here it’s test reviews and some adjustments and Jacque Gourmand the Naples
never been a problem! food critic was created. My deal was easy. 1 review a week, my meal
I love our Naples Restaurants and have never kept it a secret. There was paid for, and I paid for my guest. I was allowed to say whatever
is a story I will share with you about long before we had anywhere I felt was appropriate about the service and the food, and I always
near the amount of great dining that our restaurants offer today of called my reviews the way I saw them. Not everyone was happy, but it
how we got to where we are today on the dining scene. I have said was never known who the real Jacque Gourmand was. I loved doing
before in prior articles that when we moved here in 1973 there were the reviews and managed to stay hidden for about two years until I
only two fine dining restaurants and they were St. George and the felt that I was drawing some suspicion and I resigned. It would be a
Dragon and Picadilly Pub. Both were located on Fifth Avenue South. tough job today because one review a week just wouldn’t work. We
As people started discovering Naples not only did new businesses are fortunate to have the high caliber of awesome restaurants that we
and everything else that goes along with a new discovery happen but do to dine in today.
restaurateurs from all over the country decided to show their talents Enjoy the amenities we have to offer and if I hear one more
by opening a place to dine. It didn’t happen overnight and I can tell candidate for Council say they want to preserve the Sleepy Little
you that word spread like wildfire every time a new one opened its Town atmosphere of Naples I think I’ll get sick to my stomach!
doors. I’m not just talking about fancy restaurants, quite the contrary That went by the wayside at least twenty years ago.
it could be a pizza place where the owners came from Chicago or All the Best,
New York, or perhaps a tiny Italian restaurant where the owners came Bill Barnett, Former Mayor
from somewhere in the Midwest. Most had been successful business 239-777-7952
folks, and they found Naples a great place to perhaps retire down I do respond to e-mails at: mayornaples@gmail.com
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.

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