Two major sit-down restaurants are coming within the next year along the exterior of Coastland Center mall in Naples.
The Rodizio Grill Brazilian steakhouse and Oar & Iron Raw Bar & Grill will join the other highly visible restaurant chains on the northern and western edges of the mall, which includes Bahama Breeze Island Grille, The Cheesecake Factory, CMX CinéBistro, Twin Peaks and Uncle Julio’s Mexican restaurant.
Rodizio Grill will build out the former space of Aurelio’s Pizza, which closed last fall on the northwestern edge of the mall. Oar & Iron will be built in a new outparcel lot in Macy’s parking lot on the southwest corner of mall.
Rodizio Grill
Known for its rotisserie grilled meats carved tableside by gauchos, Rodizio Grill plans a Naples location significantly larger than the location it has operated since April 2016 at Coconut Point mall in Estero. Rodizio Grill’s “churrascaria” features all-you-can-eat meats and a salad bar with hot and cold sides, as well as a full bar.
The 9,160 square feet of indoor dining at 2048 Ninth St. N. will combine Aurelio’s former space with that of another vacant retail space between the pizzeria’s spot and CMX CinéBistro.
“For a Rodizio Grill footprint, we need the space from both of those spaces. So, we’re combining those spaces into one large restaurant space and then trying on this facade to try to tie those spaces together and improve the look and feel of it,” Jeff Knighton of Utah-based Knighton Architecture + Planning told Naples Design Review Board members March 26 before the project was unanimously approved by the city board with a couple of conditions regarding the exterior facade.
The proposed plans to clean up that corner and tie it into the neighboring cinema, DRB Chair Stephen Hruby said, noting that this exterior part of the mall has been a hodgepodge of elements. The proposal modifies the facade to include stucco finish and masonry elements, such as cut stone block veneer and faux wood metal screening and trellises that comply with the Coastland Center planned development.
DRB members pushed back on Knighton’s plan to retain a fenced-in area in front of the restaurant that had been used as an outdoor dining space by the previous pizzeria and its predecessors, Pate’s House of Prime Rib and Ted’s Montana Grill. The new steakhouse will not have outdoor dining.
“There’s currently this railing out there for a patio space. We do not intend to use that for any dining,” Knighton said. “There are some of these grill locations that do have outdoor dining. It’s pretty tricky to navigate the serving of the meats. For a Brazilian steakhouse concept, it’s where the gauchos carry meat on the skewers, they would bring them out. So going in and out of the front door in this case would be tricky from an operations standpoint.”
The DRB agreed that the new restaurant should add furniture or plants if it intends to keep the black metal fence.
“Regarding that fence, I would take it out,” said DRB member Doug Haughey. “If for some reason you can’t, I would definitely like to see some benches and maybe some potted plants or something in there to kind of define that space, because just having the fence there doesn’t make any sense. So, just one or the other. Obviously, you choose, but I think either way it has to change from what’s currently there.”
Hruby thinks the restaurant can use the DRB’s condition to eliminate the fence, which he said detracts from the entrance.
DRB member Chae duPont also would like to see the long wall on the restaurant’s northern side softened with some natural elements rather than a series of large unspecified photographic murals that the architect proposed.
“I’m not happy with the idea that it’s left to the owner there to decide what is going to be displayed on that wall and how that’s going to fade, how that’s going to be adhered,” duPont said. “I didn’t understand from the presentation how that was going to work. I’d rather see it be maybe a vine or something green.”
If photographic mural images are going to be used, the board will sign off on the artwork selected.
“Let’s make this condition that you’re going to come back to us with the resolution of that wall, whether it’s artwork or landscaping to soften that wall,” Hruby said.
Oar & Iron
The DRB unanimously granted final design review with conditions in October for the ground-up construction of Oar & Iron at the Naples mall. The surf-and-turf dining concept is planned at 2094 Ninth St. S. on slightly less than 2 acres on a new outparcel in front of Macy’s department store on the northeast corner of U.S. 41 and Fleischmann Boulevard.
The Naples restaurant will be the fourth location for Oar & Iron, which has a restaurant that launched in late 2023 in Founders Square at Collier Boulevard and Immokalee Road in Collier County, this January near Topgolf in Lee County and coming this summer to Parrish, near Bradenton. The Naples restaurant is still under review by city staff, but it is expected to open within the next year.
“At this point, the latest time frame I was given was late 2025 or early 2026,” said Rob Luzzi, senior director of marketing for RAVentures Hospitality Group, which owns and operates the Florida franchises for Oar & Iron and Boston-based Kelly’s Roast Beef.
The new Oar & Iron will have an interior space of 5,899 square feet with 1,833 square feet of outdoor patio with a firepit covered by a louvered pergola structure. The mostly white building will have gray and muted blue accents.
Oak & Iron is a modified version of the Northeast’s 110 Grill, named after Route 110 where it first opened in Massachusetts. Oar & Iron features lighter, nautical colors to better reflect Florida than 110 Grill, which has darker colors and millwork. Large outdoor dining spaces also set it apart.
Oar & Iron’s enhanced menu features a raw bar, more seafood and steaks, and an upscale presentation. The entire menu also is available gluten-free.
