While the new Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in North Naples wasn’t built from scratch, Darden Restaurants completely transformed the interior and exterior of a space that formerly hosted Sweet Tomatoes and Romano’s Macaroni Grill.
Orlando-based Darden, best known for its Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse brands, added an upscale stone-and-brick exterior with copper accents to create its new casual restaurant and bar in the Granada Shoppes’ highly visible, 7,000-square-foot outparcel nearest the southeast corner of U.S. 41 North and Immokalee Road. The interior of 10940 Tamiami Trail N. has been divided into at least two main dining rooms and a full bar area.
Cheddar’s launched its first Collier County location Monday morning where Sweet Tomatoes permanently closed in spring 2020 when the California-based company shuttered all of its nearly 100 locations nationwide. The pandemic’s social distancing habits irreparably damaged the chain’s open salad bar and help-yourself concept.
Cheddar’s turned the front space that formerly featured Sweet Tomatoes’ appreciatively long salad bar into a lounge with an equally long full bar for adult beverages. A large tropical fish tank separates the bar from the reception area at the restaurant’s entrance.
Cheddar’s offers a complimentary first-round basket of its honey-butter croissants for each table. This unique offering is comparable to notable starch starters from other casual chains, such as Red Lobster’s cheddar biscuits, Olive Garden’s breadsticks and Outback’s loaves of brown bread.
The lunch-dinner restaurant chain’s top-rated menu items, the majority of which are scratch-made daily in-house, include American homestyle comfort food, such as chicken fried steak, chicken pot pie and country fried chicken. It’s also known for its grilled salmon, hand-breaded chicken tenders, coconut shrimp, baby back ribs, burgers and New Orleans pasta. Popular sides include broccoli cheese casserole, cheese fries, loaded baked potatoes and buttered off-the-cob corn. The family-friendly restaurant even offers family dinner bundles to go with shareable salads and gallons of lemonade and iced tea.
Cheddar’s signature cocktails, which are available for dining in and to go, include Cheddar’s Painkiller, featuring rum, cream of coconut, pineapple juice and orange juice; and the Texas Margarita, which adds a splash of orange juice to the usual lineup of tequila, lime juice and triple sec.
The new Cheddar’s joins two other locations in Southwest Florida. The Fort Myers location launched in 2012 near Gulf Coast Town Center at Alico Road and Ben Hill Griffin Parkway; and a Port Charlotte location opened last year.
Operating hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Curbside pickup is also available.
