After a surprising change of plans, Yabba Island Grill permanently closed Sunday on Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples.
“It’s with a heavy heart we announce we are permanently closed as of Sunday, July 2nd, 2023. Thank you for an incredible 23 years of loyal business and support. Look for an exciting new Phelan Family Brands’ concept coming soon in the fall of 2023,” the popular local restaurant’s social media post notified followers on Independence Day.
Yabba was one of four restaurants Phelan Family Brands acquired last month from Naples-based Culinary Concepts. After the sale, Phelan Family Brands CEO Grant Phelan shared his plans to completely transform Yabba into a new concept eventually. But instead of continuing to operate the restaurant as Yabba for at least another year – Phelan’s intention two weeks ago – plans abruptly changed.
“We closed it on Sunday. We were able to get an architect to draw it pretty quick,” Phelan said. “We have some great ideas and an interior designer that we’re working with. And, you know, Yabba’s has such great bones for a restaurant already, so there isn’t a major renovation that we need to do to it. We’re hoping to open a new concept coming late fall, so end of October, beginning of November this year.”
The new dining concept for that address at 711 Fifth Ave. S., next to Sugden Community Theatre, won’t be Phelan’s Fifth Ave, as announced last month. The new restaurant will be named after a popular barrier island off the coast of Naples.
“The name is going to be Keewaydin’s,” Phelan said. “So, we went away from Phelan’s Fifth Ave. We’re going to call it Keewaydin’s and pay homage to everything that has Keewaydin and Naples.”
While patrons won’t need a boat to get to Keewaydin’s restaurant, the idea is to create an island atmosphere. Phelan will keep the indoor-outdoor bar, one of his favorite components of what he has said is the best restaurant space in town.
“Love the bar. Love the outside area. We’re not going to change any of that. We’re just going to update everything,” he said. “Looking forward to just launching the new concept. It will be open for lunch and dinner, and we’ll probably do a brunch as well. Just looking to try and catch the fall of this year.”
Rather than create a luxury flagship location, the Naples-based restaurant company decided to create something more approachable and affordable than what Phelan’s on Fifth would have been.
“We decided we didn’t want to go super high-end,” Phelan said. “We wanted to be in the more upscale casual market. It’s going to be more Tommy Bahama-esque – a lot of seafood, steaks and great cocktails and happy hour.”
Phelan plans to continue operating the Pazzo and Chops City Grill restaurants also recently purchased from Skip Quillen and Culinary Concepts. Yabba gift cards will be honored at Pazzo and Chops. Yabba employees were given the opportunity to work at Chops, Pazzo or another restaurant in Phelan’s growing portfolio, Phelan said.
Phelan owns two dozen restaurants, including 11 locations of Pinchers, four Deep Lagoon Seafood locations, two restaurants for Texas Tony’s, as well as The Bay House, Two Fillets, CJ’s on the Bay and Phuzzy’s Boat Shack.
