At Third Street South and Broad Avenue, the Olde Naples Hotel's Annie's Espresso Bar sells pastries and specialty coffees, and the hotel says Annie's is open to locals as well as guests. On the corner the hotel wraps around, the Olde Naples Building is still closed. Its cupola has been restored and its siding is exposed. Fantozzi's, the gourmet deli, cheese and wine shop, closed there in August 2006, and no business has served the public from the building since.
That is about to change, and what makes the change possible is a patio permit, not a renovation.
Seventy-Six Chairs on Broad Avenue
The approval that matters is small on paper. The City of Naples application for the corner asks for 15 tables, a tree bar and 76 chairs outside the building at 284 Broad Avenue South and 1148 Third Street South. It describes the restaurant inside as under construction, run as a conventional restaurant with a liquor license. The operator named in that application is ONB LLC, managed by restaurateur Stefano Frittella.
Those 76 chairs carry a lot of weight. Rick Doody had been working on a restaurant in the building since signing a lease in February 2022. He told Naples Press that his lease was always contingent on getting patio seating, because he did not think a restaurant could compete in Naples without it.
The interior can be restored, wired and cooled, and in this building it already has been. The tables on the sidewalk depend on a public vote, and that vote has decided the timeline on this corner.
How a Patio Kept a Corner Dark
Taken in order, the building's recent history is mostly a story about permits.
| When | What happened at the corner |
|---|---|
| August 2006 | Fantozzi's of Olde Naples closes after about 20 years in the building |
| 2012 | Restoration reopens the original high-ceiling interior and adds fire alarm, sprinkler and air-conditioning systems |
| 2017 | The building is designated a contributing property on the Naples Historic Register |
| February 2022 | Rick Doody signs a lease to open JoJo's Bar, a high-end Italian-American steakhouse |
| Dec. 10, 2025 | City Council approves outdoor dining for the corner, 5-2, along with a separate off-site parking approval |
| May 15 | The Olde Naples Hotel opens its first building next door |
| May 19 | Doody receives a letter from the landlord ending his lease |
| Aug. 19, 2026 | Council unanimously approves the outdoor dining permit for the new operator |
The gap between 2022 and late 2025 is the patio. During those years the project dealt with storm surge from Hurricane Ian and setbacks from the city over outdoor dining and parking. At one point, Naples Press reported, City Council turned down a special magistrate's compromise on outdoor dining at the building. That proceeding was brought by Olde Naples Building LLC, the owner's entity. When approval finally came in December 2025, the vote was split.
In May, Naples Press reported Doody's account that the Camalier family, who own both the building and the hotel, were thinking about taking the restaurant in a different direction. A letter ending his lease followed on May 19.
Why the Vote Had to Happen Twice
The Naples Daily News reported that the December 2025 approval was not transferable, so the new operator had to go back before council. The second vote, on Aug. 19, was unanimous.
The application behind that vote asked council to change one thing. It replaced the operator's name and made no other changes to the outdoor dining approval granted in December. The table count, the chair count and the tree bar stayed as they were. The arguments over this patio took most of four years, and the second approval took one meeting.
For the first time in this building's recent history, the patio layout was already approved when the tenant arrived, and only the operator's name needed a new vote.
The Hotel That Changed the Corner Around It
The building is no longer a lone historic structure next to a shopping center. The Olde Naples Hotel at 200 Broad Avenue South sits on the former site of The Plaza on Third Street, a two-acre parcel bordered by Third Street South, Broad Avenue and Gordon Drive. The Camalier family built it with Ocean Properties Hotels & Resorts, and it is part of the Opal Collection. According to Naples Press, the design by Hart Howerton takes its cue from the original 1889 Naples Hotel that once stood nearby, and the plan calls for 109 rooms.
The hotel's public spaces open to residents include:
- Annie's Bistro, serving refined American food based on regional dishes from around the country
- Annie's Bar, a marble bar off the lobby with geometric flooring and a cocktail program
- Annie's Espresso Bar, with pastries, coffee and lunch items like salads and handhelds
- Tammy Fender Holistic Spa, which welcomes both hotel guests and the public
The hotel says Annie's is "open to locals and guests alike," and its Thanksgiving 2026 menus are already posted. At the May opening, general manager Laura Radler told Naples Press that the lobby, the courtyard "living room" area and the retail shops were "already resonating with both locals and visitors."
So the corner patio will sit beside a hotel courtyard and a lobby bar, on a block that already has more foot traffic than it had when the Plaza stood there.
A Building That Has Been Almost Everything
Almost no other building in town has served as many purposes. In 2012 the Naples Daily News described it as Naples' first town hall and council chambers, the county's first courthouse, and at various points a playhouse, movie theater, pharmacy, library, doctor's office and church. A Naples Historical Society historian, writing in Life in Naples, calls it The Naples Company Building and adds a soda fountain, a cigar stand and a reading room to the original program. The accounts give different construction dates. The city and the Daily News say 1921, and the historian says the building was completed in January 1925.
The movie theater years left marks on the building. The 2012 restoration uncovered the projection room and silver screen, reopened the one-story, high-ceiling interior, repaired walls and columns that had been altered, restored the trim and cupola, and removed exterior stucco to reveal the original siding. A metal roof went on as part of the same work.
All that work happened six years after Fantozzi's closed, and the building stayed empty for 14 more years. The restoration did not bring a tenant, and the patio approval has now done what it could not.
What Frittella Brings to Third Street
Frittella's restaurants are already spread across downtown. Naples Press identifies him as a partner in BiCE Ristorante, Caffe Milano, La Trattoria and Vergina on Fifth Avenue South. His closest restaurant to Third Street is La Salière at 360 12th Avenue South, where The Bevy used to be. It is a Naples version of the restaurant he opened in Monte Carlo in 1982, and its menu comes from executive chef Sabato Toscano.
"We really value the family, interpersonal relationship with the client," Andrea Frittella, Stefano's daughter, told Naples Press when La Salière opened.
The Daily News has called the Olde Naples Building project an Italian restaurant. No name, chef or opening date has been announced. The family's next Monaco concept planned for downtown, Casa Avenue 41, is tied to a separate redevelopment on Fifth Avenue South, not to this corner.
The milestones to watch are a name, a chef, and the first tables going out under the tree bar on Broad Avenue. Until then, the closest meal to the corner is at Annie's, a few steps away.
If you'd like to talk about how projects like this one are changing the area around Third Street South and Broad Avenue, Eileen Komanecky is glad to walk through it with you. Let's Connect.
