A longtime breakfast-lunch restaurant in East Naples has expanded into Golden Gate.
Country House Restaurant launched a new location May 23 at 11985 Collier Blvd. on the eastern edge of Golden Gate. Country House is open 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
Country House renovated the former space where R’s Diner operated a second location for six years. That corner unit previously was home to a string of Asian restaurants—WOW Asian Fusion Kitchen, Pho Dai Loc Vietnamese Cafe and Thai Sushi Asian Grill—at Collier Plaza, which also hosts Marco’s Pizza, Aji Limon Peruvian Kitchen and the new Bravo Supermarket.
A new location for Country House Restaurant represents a major move for the next generation of the Lugo family, which lost its founding patriarch, Jose Lugo, last summer.
“We’ve been working on this project since September of last year. He passed away in July. He knew that this was in the works. It’s a shame that he didn’t get to see it,” said Lugo’s son, Jose Ricardo Lugo Jr., who co-owns Country House with his mother, Sandra, and sister Valeria. “I am carrying his legacy that started about 30 years ago with my mother. Now, it’s my mother, my sister and I who are now taking it forward. This is our first big project alone without him.”
The idea is to bring the local homestyle restaurant to the residents of Golden Gate and Golden Gate Estates. “They’ve been asking for one for the last like 10 to 13 years, and we finally found an opportunity and we pulled the trigger on it,” Lugo said.
Patrons can expect the same scratch favorites and blackboard specials for breakfast and lunch. The menu includes breakfast sandwiches, omelets, skillets, Benedicts, French toast, waffles, pancakes, crepes and many other morning meal items. Lunch selections include salads, burgers, melts, hot and cold sandwiches, wraps and desserts.
“Really what we’re doing is mimicking exactly what we’ve been doing for 30 years now that we’ve got the opportunity to expand again,” Lugo said. “We’re bringing in the same flavors, the same everything that we have at the original location on Davis Boulevard all the way down to Golden Gate City.”
Jose Ricardo “Ricky” Lugo Jr. was a Naples High School student when his family launched the popular Country House location at 2206 Davis Blvd. While still in grade school, he also helped out in an earlier Country House location where Thai Thai Sushi Bowl is today at the Naples Outlet Center on Collier Boulevard.
“I actually grew up in the restaurant industry since I was a kid. I would go to school and help my parents on the weekends,” he said. “The original location was on 41 next to Luigi’s Pizzeria. Obviously, there’s a storage unit there now, but that was the original when we first branched out and did our own thing.”
The new location on Collier Boulevard is not expected to be the last Country House Restaurant.
“We want to do a small private chain and this is the first stepping stone to doing that. We’ve always talked about expanding. We’ve literally maxed out to full capacity at the one on Davis and my father, my mother and I, my sister, have always talked about expanding,” Lugo said. “I have my eye out there right now.”
