Gulf seafood, stone crab and sunset tables: the Naples table, the back story

About Gulf seafood, stone crab and sunset tables: the Naples table, the back story

By the ULTIMATE Naples Editorial Team

Naples eats from the Gulf of Mexico. Its restaurants range from open-air fish shacks on the bay to polished dining rooms on Fifth Avenue South, and the city’s winter season sets the rhythm of the year.

Gulf seafood

Grouper, snapper, Gulf shrimp and oysters are the backbone of Naples menus. A grouper sandwich at a waterfront table is the city’s classic lunch, and fish markets and raw bars sit beside the white-tablecloth restaurants.

Stone crab season

Florida stone crab is a winter treat: the season runs from 15 October to 1 May, and the claws are served chilled with a mustard sauce. Only the claws are taken and the crabs are returned to the water, where the claws regrow. Look for them on menus from late October.

In Naples, the most important reservation detail is not the time of dinner but the time of sunset.

Fifth Avenue and Third Street

Downtown’s two main streets hold most of the city’s best-known restaurants. Fifth Avenue South is livelier, with terraces, steakhouses and Italian and Mediterranean kitchens side by side; Third Street South, in Old Naples, is quieter, with courtyards and long lunches.

Sunset tables

Because Naples faces west across the Gulf, the sunset is part of dinner. Beachfront restaurants at Vanderbilt Beach and waterfront tables on Naples Bay fill up about an hour before the sun goes down, and many people walk to the pier or the beach between courses to watch it.

The season

From roughly November to April, when winter visitors arrive, restaurants are at their busiest and the best tables are booked days ahead. In summer, many places shorten their hours, and some close for a few weeks in late summer and early autumn, so check before you go.

Our advice: book your sunset table a week ahead in winter, ask for an outdoor seat facing west, and try stone crab at least once between late October and May.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Gulf seafood, stone crab and sunset tables: the Naples table, the back story before you go.