A local seafood restaurant launching this week promotes the marina lifestyle of Naples Bay in a waterfront location off the beaten path.
The Syren Oyster & Cocktail Bar, 909 10th St. S., Suite 106, is set to open Jan. 18 in a commercial unit of the Naples Boat Club, a full-service marina at the historic Old Naples waterfront on Naples Bay. The restaurant space most recently was Wharf Tavern Restaurant & Lobster House, which closed in 2021 after a 10-season run, and previously was Cafe La Mer & Bistro and Turner’s Lobster House.
The Syren, more than two years in the making, was ready to open when Hurricane Ian pushed 3 feet of bay water into the new restaurant in 2022.
“It set us back tremendously. This is a long project and we’re happy to have it open,” said Peter Tierney, who co-owns the new business and property with his cousin, Dr. Edward “Bud” Negley. They also own the Bellasera Hotel in Naples with The Claw Bar and The London Club. Tierney also is a partner in The Turtle Club at the Vanderbilt Beach Resort, but that waterfront restaurant is still temporarily closed and being rebuilt after it was devastated by the hurricane. The properties share a common culture based on “gracious hospitality.”
Before opening Jan. 18, the venue’s owners hope to clear a small hurdle that day at City Hall. A resolution to determine The Syren’s petition to establish outdoor dining on its private property is on the City Council agenda.
“After our meeting with the City Council on the 18th—which I’m sure will be a nonevent—we will open quietly and just open our doors for business, so we’re excited about it,” said Tierney, noting that The Syren will have about 50 seats outdoors initially.
The Syren also owns two boat slips in front of the restaurant, although earlier plans to offer dinner cruises on a yacht have been shelved for now.
“We are a stop for the water taxi, which is awesome,” Tierney said. “We were able to free up this dock, which is commercial. So, if you want to come here by water, you can. You can come by the water taxi too, which is great.”
The Syren will celebrate its bayfront location by serving cuisine focusing on seasonal regional and international seafood.
“Well, obviously, we always gear ourselves toward seafood, you know. We’re passionate about it. We wanted to create a place where we want to go eat, which is true,” Tierney said.
“We set out to do something a little bit different. We looked into a lot of different influences from Asian-style, Japanese-style techniques and local fish, local produce. It sounds like the same old story, but there’s a dish on the menu called Triggerfish Schnitzel. Man, it is amazing. It’s pan-fried like schnitzel style, and he makes a fried caper beurre blanc, and we have this beautiful farm arugula from Inyoni Organic Farm here along with a little pickled fennel on it.”
This ultimate deal comes with crispy hot Syren frites, as do a handful of items in the “& Frites” menu section, which also features baked stuffed whole Maine lobster, oak-grilled East Indian-spiced chicken thighs, a double tavern burger and a signature oak-grilled petite bar steak.
The Syren’s Keep, a specialty of the house, provides a nightly market fish selection.
“We’re getting whole fish in the round, so like yellowtail—whatever we can get locally,” Tierney said. “We’re trying to get unappreciated finfish, I say—so, sheepshead, snapper, yellowtail. We filet it, it’s on the grill, la plancha style, blackened, and it comes with pickled vegetables and rock shrimp rice on this platter with three different sauces [chimichurri, Caribbean remoulade and citrus-soy] that we make. It’s really clean, straightforward seafood for the most part.”
The menu also features a sea bar that includes fresh oysters, a spicy-sweet tuna stack, shrimp cocktail, a daily sushi roll and crab varieties; small plates with choices such as oven-roasted oysters, Mediterranean mussels and a cast-iron pimento cheese crab dip; and large plates such as Maine lobster bucatini, miso-roasted butterfish and chili-lime-roasted salmon. The bread service features pretzel rolls served with horseradish and grain mustard butter.
“This is really unique stuff,” Tierney said. “So, this isn’t a menu where you’re going to go, ‘Oh, same old, same old.’ It’s interesting and it should engage a lot of people. There’s something on here for everybody.”
Many of the unique ideas came from Tierney, who cooked professionally as a chef for 20 years before he got into hotel and restaurant management. During that time, he created a manifesto of culinary ideas that served as the basis for Syren’s menu, which he calls a love note to Naples.
“I hear something, I see something, I write it down, then I modify it. It’s probably 15 pages long right now. It’s all future stuff I’d like to do,” he said. “This is a culmination of that. And I didn’t get to do it all because we physically can’t do it all but we’re going to get to it. So, this menu is really me on paper with the help of Chris Metzler—who is awesome, by the way.”
The Syren management team includes managing partner Megan Miller, manager Austin Miller, marketing manager Jeanne Tierney and Chef Metzler, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who was the longtime corporate chef for Culinary Concepts, the Naples restaurant group that previously owned Chops City Grill, Pazzo Cucina Italiana and Yabba Island Grill in Naples. Tierney said he’s blessed to have Metzler as part of the team.
“Our whole company is chef-driven and we love talking about food, innovating, never stopping—we’re going to change this as often as we can,” he said.
By the way, Syren’s name is derived from the name of a ship in “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” one of Tierney and Negley’s favorite films.
The Syren Oyster & Cocktail Bar will be open 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 3 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Happy hour is 3 to 4 p.m. daily.
“We’re not open for lunch yet,” Tierney said. “We’re going to be developing a Saturday-Sunday brunch here, but we’re going to avoid lunch for a little bit while we figure that out.”
