The sidewalks on Third Street South thin out by two in the afternoon. Tables that require a January callback open up to walk-ins. And the operators who spent the last decade planning what to do with this stretch of the neighborhood have chosen this summer to show their work.
If you live in Olde Naples, the story of summer 2026 is not that the restaurants are quieter. It is that the neighborhood is quietly resetting its baseline while everyone north of the Mason-Dixon is still deciding when to fly down. What is opening, reopening, and running specials in July is what winter visitors will pay peak-season prices to try in January.
A New Corner at Broad and Third
The most visible change in the neighborhood is the block your mail carrier already knows. The Olde Naples Hotel sits at 200 Broad Ave. S., on the former site of The Plaza on Third Street, the shopping center that bordered Third Street South, Broad Avenue, and Gordon Drive a couple of blocks from the Gulf. After more than a decade in development, the hotel opened its first phase this spring, blending coastal-inspired design, rooftop amenities, and Annie's Bistro, Bar & Bakery into a boutique property near Third Street South.
The hotel and Annie's opened May 15 with 50 rooms available and the full 109-room launch planned this summer. The June 11 ribbon-cutting on Third Street South drew Naples Mayor Teresa Heitmann, who joined Mrs. Anne Camalier to cut the ribbon, along with Florida state representatives and state senator Kathleen Passidomo. The Camalier family, Naples residents for more than 60 years and owners of the property, partnered with Florida-based Ocean Properties Hotels & Resorts to build and operate the hotel.
For residents, the more useful detail is that Annie's Bistro, Bar & Bakery evolves throughout the day from morning café to full bistro and bar, and it is open to non-hotel guests. The rocking chairs on the Broad Avenue veranda are for anyone who wants to sit in them.
The Prix-Fixe Window
The Third Street and Fifth Avenue kitchens run their most generous menus between May and September, and the pricing gap between summer and season is wider this year than most residents realize. A three-course dinner at a room that requires a two-week wait in February can be had this week for the price of a good bottle of wine.
A partial map of what is on offer through the summer:
| Restaurant | Summer offer | Address |
|---|---|---|
| Campiello | $30 pinot and pizza at the bar, 3 to 6 p.m.; $42 two-course early dining, 5 to 6 p.m. | 1177 Third St. S. |
| Barbatella | $16.95 bar lunch with a glass of house wine, 11:30 to 3; $29 three-course, 4 to 6 p.m. | 1290 Third St. S. |
| D'Amico's The Continental | $55 three-course early dining featuring steak and lobster; Thursday 50% off bottles $100 and under; Friday Champagne & Caviar menu for $60 | 1205 Third St. S. |
| Ridgway Bar & Grill | $42 three-course Summer Evenings menu, 4:30 to 6 p.m. | 1300 Third St. S. |
| Chops City Grill | $49 two-course, Sunday through Thursday; 30% off wine bottles; Sunday 7-oz filet and lobster tail for $75 | 837 Fifth Ave. S. |
| Ocean Prime | $68 three-course early dining daily before 5:30 p.m. | 699 Fifth Ave. S. |
| Bleu Provence | 20% off the check 5 to 5:30 p.m. daily; $52.99 States of Summer three-course with Rosé Lemonade, Thursday through Saturday | 1234 Eighth St. S. |
Prices and hours change without warning, so a call ahead is worth the sixty seconds. The point is not any one deal. It is that the neighborhood's fine-dining stack collectively drops thirty to forty percent below its season pricing for four months a year, and only the people already here take full advantage.
Saturday Morning Behind Tommy Bahama
The Third Street South Farmers Market keeps its Saturday rhythm through the summer, running in the Neapolitan parking lot behind the Tommy Bahama Restaurant. It runs 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. every Saturday morning throughout the year, with fish, meats, pasta, cheese, breads, produce, and fresh ground coffee beans, plus the best people and dog watching in town.
June and July mornings mean the market opens before the pavement gets hot, and pastry from a nearby counter is a walk rather than a wait. If you have not been in a while because a January visit felt like standing in line to move through a hallway, this is the version to come back to.
What Baker Theatre Is Doing While the Season Sleeps
Two summers ago, the neighborhood did not have a professional theater. It does now, and it is not going dark for July.
Gulfshore Playhouse produces in the Baker Theatre and Education Center, located at the corner of Goodlette-Frank Road and 1st Avenue South, with a 350-seat mainstage and a 125-seat studio space, plus rehearsal and educational spaces. Gulfshore Playhouse is a member of the League of Resident Theatres, one of four in Florida, which means it contracts professional actors under the same collective agreements as major regional theaters nationally.
Summer at Baker is education-heavy by design. Rehearsals for one Conservatory production run June 1 to 26 with performances June 26 to 28, and a second production rehearses July 13 to 31 with performances July 31 to August 2. Broadway Babies, Story Explorers, Broadway Bootcamp themes covering Zombies, Frozen, and Pixar Mania, and a Youth Conservatory production of Peter Pan round out the youth calendar, alongside adult offerings including Page to Stage acting, a lecture series, yoga, Broadway Zumba, Chair Fitness, and Paint 'n Sip.
The 2026-27 mainstage is already booked. The lineup includes The World Goes 'Round, A Christmas Carol, Heist, Fundraiser: A Play, Guys and Dolls, Job, and Tartuffe, along with the return of the Next Wave Festival and expanded Conservatory programming. Flex Passes went on sale March 23, 2026. Buying in July is the difference between choosing your seats and taking what is left.
Worth the Short Drive
Two additions outside the immediate neighborhood are close enough to count as summer weeknight options.
The first is at the rebuilt Naples Beach Club, now the Four Seasons. The Merchant Room opened December 8, 2025, led by Chef Gavin Kaysen, a two-time James Beard Award winner making his first move outside Minnesota. The room features a hand-painted mural of flamingos in a mangrove landscape by artist Dean Barger, a scalloped oak bar, and French doors opening to a Gulf terrace, with Chef de Cuisine Colin Henderson coming up through Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud. The summer offer is a $68 three-course Sunday Supper menu, 5 to 9 p.m., reservable online.
The second is north of downtown. Kayla Pfeiffer's North Naples restaurant Bicyclette Cookshop debuted in 2023 to enough acclaim that the James Beard Foundation named her a semifinalist for its Emerging Chef award last year. Her second restaurant, Heyday Cookshop, opened April 27, and it introduces Southwest Florida's first chef residency program, hosting visiting chefs for extended collaborations that spotlight the region's farms and fisheries through new lenses. The inaugural residency lineup included Jorge Pabon, former executive chef of Michelin-starred Estela in New York City, followed by chef Isaac Villaverde of La Tapa Del Coco in Panama City.
The pattern that runs through all of it, from the hotel to the theater to the kitchens: the operators who matter most to how Olde Naples feels are choosing to stay, upgrade, and build rather than relocate.
The Fourth, and What Comes After
The neighborhood's most public summer day is already on the calendar. Independence Day begins with a 9 a.m. parade down 5th Avenue South featuring floats, marching bands, and classic cars, and evening fireworks launch at 9 p.m. over the Gulf, visible from Vanderbilt Beach or Naples Pier. The Pier view fills early. Bring chairs.
The larger point of a summer in Olde Naples is not any single ribbon-cutting or three-course menu. It is that a neighborhood accustomed to being described in terms of its winter version is quietly building out a year-round one. A hotel that took a decade to open. A theater company that only recently had a proper stage. A restaurant class that is investing forward instead of holding steady. The residents who are here to see it happen are the ones who will describe it best to a visiting friend in February.
If your summer plans include thinking about what a home here is worth in a neighborhood that keeps raising its own bar, or you want a quiet conversation about the market between now and season, Mark Paige Riley is available for a private consultation. Let's Connect.
