The fifth restaurant in the local Sushi-Thai family is set to launch within weeks in the former space of Cirella’s Neighborhood Bistro & Bar in a Vanderbilt Commons endcap near the northwestern corner of Vanderbilt Beach Road and Collier Boulevard in the Naples area.
Chef Sathit “Todd” Boonyavairoj and his wife, Torong, purchased kitchen and dining room equipment from the Cirellas and are preparing to open their easternmost Sushi-Thai restaurant. “Tentatively, we plan to open in early April. We will serve lunch and dinner, and we will offer all the sushi roll specials from each restaurant location. We also plan to add a variety of international noodle dishes to our menu,” Boonyavairoj said.
The Boonyavairojs own and operate the original Sushi-Thai of Naples, which they opened in late 2003 on U.S. 41 in Naples Park, as well as Sushi-Thai Too locations on Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples, in Fountain Park off Airport-Pulling Road in North Naples, and on U.S. 41 in Prado at Spring Creek in Bonita Springs.
“We really didn’t plan to open a new restaurant, but the landlord and also Mike (Cirella), who owns Cirella’s, offered us this opportunity,” Boonyavairoj said. “This location gives us the chance to make life easier for our wonderful customers in this area who for years have been asking us to open closer to their home.” Cirella’s owners, Mike and Lisa Cirella, permanently closed its Naples location March 9, but their original Bonita Springs restaurant will continue to operate.
“Due to a number of things, COVID, lack of workforce, also not getting any younger and it was starting to be a lot for us to handle,” Mrs. Cirella said. “Mike’s staff in Bonita has been running by itself and they’re very good at what they do so he did not have to be there all the time but it was becoming increasingly difficult to run Naples. It’s all good! No regrets! We made a lot of friends in this neck of the woods.”
Opened as Cirella’s Italian Bistro & Sushi Bar in fall 2018, the Cirellas changed the restaurant’s name in 2020 when they closed the sushi bar at the end of their full bar. So, sushi options are returning to that retail strip fronting Vanderbilt Beach Road.
