Drive the corner of Airport-Pulling and Vanderbilt Beach roads today and the CVS still anchors it the way it has for years. What used to sit around that CVS, though, was built for speed: a wine bar you popped into on your way somewhere else, a bistro you booked for a fixed hour, a strip of retail you passed through. What's replaced those spaces over the past year was not built for speed at all. Ambrosi & Sons, the Italian market and wine bar that took over the old Cave Bistro & Wine Bar and Naples Wine Collection units at the Galleria Shoppes at Vanderbilt, pours nearly 20 Italian wines by the glass through a tasting system designed so you sample, linger, and come back for the full pour. Owner Rudy Ambrosi has said the point is conversation, not checkout speed: "there's a story behind all the products that you don't usually get in a regular store." That's not an isolated design choice. It's the same wager three separate shopping centers in North Naples placed on themselves in roughly the same twelve months, and once you see it in one place, you start noticing it everywhere you already drive.
The Corner Behind the CVS Isn't a Quick Stop Anymore
Ambrosi & Sons is just the headline tenant in a wave of turnover at the Galleria Shoppes at Vanderbilt. The Supper Club, an Old Vines concept previously tucked away on Davis Boulevard, relocated into a larger 2,200-square-foot space in the former Tableside restaurant unit, with crushed red velvet walls and a 1930s dinner-lounge feel built for a full evening rather than a quick plate. Aufieri & Martinez Argentinian Steakhouse has been working toward an opening in a longtime restaurant space at the center, and The Good Pour, a Florida-based wine and spirits retailer, leased the entirety of the new four-unit Building 1000 behind the CVS outparcel for a shop running more than 7,000 square feet.
The smaller additions tell the same story from a different angle. SweatHouz brought private infrared saunas and cold plunges to a wellness lineup that already leans toward slowing down rather than speeding through. Crazy King Burrito opened as a counter-service option, and Mojo Thai & E-San reopened after an October 2025 renovation with a new focus on northeastern Thai cuisine. Playa Bowls is moving into the old Nautical Bowls space for açaí and smoothie bowls. None of these are destination restaurants on their own. Together, they turn one shopping center into a place where you can spend an entire evening without getting back in the car.
Mercato and Waterside Made the Same Bet
If the Galleria Shoppes were the only center doing this, it would be a single landlord's strategy. It isn't. Mercato broke ground in July on an expansion tripled the size of its central Piazza along Strada Place, adding turf, seat walls, benches, custom-made lanterns and color-changing LED lighting to the giant banyan tree on the corner. A permanent covered performance stage is going in near Narrative Coffee Roasters and Waxin's, and Strada Place itself will be closed to vehicle traffic during events so people can walk across a flattened curb instead of driving through.
The tenant list around that Piazza has already shifted to match. Beeline, an upscale cocktail bar from Cincinnati-based 4EG, held its grand opening running from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. on May 2, its first Florida location and, notably, a drinks-only concept with no food menu at all. Taberna Burntwood replaced Burntwood Tavern next door, Waxin's brought in a Swedish-American menu, and Chicago's DineAmic Hospitality has announced a Greek restaurant, Violi, for the former Bravo Italian Kitchen space this fall.
Waterside Shops, the third anchor in this same stretch of North Naples, rebuilt its Bank of America corner into Eddie V's, replaced a restaurant that had held the same footprint for two decades with Buck & Rider, and installed a glass-atrium RH gallery where Nordstrom used to be.
Center | What Just Landed | What It Replaced |
|---|---|---|
Galleria Shoppes at Vanderbilt | Ambrosi & Sons, The Supper Club, Aufieri & Martinez, The Good Pour | The Cave Bistro & Wine Bar, Naples Wine Collection, Tableside |
Mercato | Beeline, Taberna Burntwood, Waxin's, a tripled Piazza | Burntwood Tavern, prior Piazza footprint |
Waterside Shops | Eddie V's, Buck & Rider, RH gallery | A Bank of America branch, a 20-year Italian restaurant, Nordstrom |
Why Three Landlords Made the Same Call in the Same Year
A cocktail bar with no food is the clearest signal in this whole stretch. Beeline isn't trying to feed you before you move on to the next stop. It exists so you'll stay at Mercato for a drink and treat the visit itself as the destination. Ambrosi & Sons runs the same logic through wine tastings instead of cocktails. The Supper Club runs it through a prix-fixe evening rather than a quick dinner. Mercato's tripled Piazza runs it through square footage and lighting, giving people somewhere to sit that isn't a table inside a restaurant.
None of these three centers coordinated with each other. They're owned and leased separately, by different management groups, with different tenant mixes and different histories. What they arrived at independently is the same read on how people want to spend an evening in North Naples right now: not efficiently moving between a parking spot and a dinner reservation, but treating the shopping center itself as a few hours' worth of plans. A wine bar, a steakhouse, a sauna, a cocktail lounge and a burrito counter in the same lot isn't a tenant mix built for one errand. It's built for an entire Tuesday night.
What Changes for the Way You Already Get Through a Week
If you've had a rotation of two or three go-to spots around North Naples, this is the year that rotation got wider without you necessarily choosing it. The old habit of picking one restaurant and going home now competes with an evening that starts at Ambrosi & Sons for a glass of something Italian, moves to The Supper Club for dinner, and could just as easily end at Beeline if you're closer to Mercato that night. None of this requires driving further than you already do. It just means the same three or four parking lots you've been passing through now hold more reasons to stay.
That shift matters more this year because one of North Naples' usual evening options is still limited. The Naples Pier remains closed for reconstruction, and while Naples Beach itself stays open, the pier's benches and its concession stand aren't part of the current routine. Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park is still a short drive north for a quiet morning, but it doesn't fill the same role a pier sunset does. The timing lines up: as one traditional evening anchor sits under construction, three shopping centers spent the same window building out places designed to hold an evening on their own.
The corner behind the CVS was never going to stay a quick stop forever. What's notable is how many other corners in North Naples decided the same thing, at the same time, without asking each other first.
If you're weighing what this kind of investment across North Naples' retail corridors means for the blocks and communities nearby, that's exactly the sort of local read Alfred Robbins Realty Group likes to talk through. Reach out to request a private consultation.
