New modern American restaurant debuts at Mercato. Should you go? What to know - JLB review
The formidable Brooke Kravetz is a busy gal.
In 2023, as managing director and partner alongside Jon Ellms and Rick Taranto, she opened two restaurants: Old Vines Supper Club in March, and Old Vines Naples at Mercato Shops on Nov. 11, taking over a long-closed TooJay’s Deli.
How do her two spots compare?
The Mercato locale offers an a la carte menu format; in East Naples, a rotating tasting menu is a prix-fixe concept frequently built around vintner dinners.
Mercato is also decidedly more high-end than the dowdy strip mall housing her Supper Club.
Also different? The new digs seat five times as many as the intimate 30-seater in East Naples and the fully-stocked bar with fun cocktails is a stunner.
While both imbue darkcore décor that doesn’t feel heavy, there is more space to fill here. Lovely accents include velvet curtains and wine lockers. One dining room’s chandelier takes inspiration from a sculpture at La Cite du Vin, the wine museum in Bordeaux. A fun and ginormous wine-crate wall mural crafted by the gents boasts many premium producers. Tables and the bar are hand-carved and polished from reclaimed barn wood.
The loo is a must-visit for Astek Home’s hilarious Scalamandre-inspired wallpaper.
Circles collide ‒ or is it tangled vines?
Kravetz cooked at the original Old Vines in Kennebunkport, Maine, which happened to be Ellms' and Taranto’s favorite restaurant, though she was leaving for culinary school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
When Ellms and Taranto heard Old Vines was closing, they didn’t want to lose their favorite haunt, so they bought it.
By then, Kravetz had already arrived in Naples, with stints cheffing at Baleen, Sea Salt and The Cave Bistro & Wine Bar.
A few years later when visiting Naples, Ellms and Taranto wanted to open a second Old Vines location and reconnected with Kravetz.
For the Mercato location, Kravetz hired Daniel Swofford, her replacement at The Cave, as executive chef. He previously worked in New York City at The Modern, Eleven Madison Park and Dovetail before heading west for a co-executive chef position (a title shared with the owner) at Willamette Valley’s The Painted Lady, Forbes magazine’s only four-star restaurant in Oregon.
The food
An open kitchen, seemingly 20 times the size of Swofford’s most recent digs, allows him the freedom to do things differently.
His expansive a la carte menu is classified into eight sections with suggested wine pairings for each dish, though several offerings overlap categories.
Case in point: Chestnut gnocchi is listed as a small plate but it’s also pasta. I loved the ingenuity, but a good friend who visited another night thinks it could be more chestnutty.
Duck a l’orange here is Algerian-influenced quail accompanied by almond-saffron couscous and coriander-mint yogurt.
While anchovy butter is trending elsewhere, Swofford’s parsley linguini gets the luxe touch tossed with uni butter and topped with a dollop of trout roe, a home run. So too the cleverly conceived balsamic-drizzled ricotta ravioli with glossy cantaloupe and bits of prosciutto.
Our party of five ate our way through the menu and its various groupings.
Highlights include a fantastic seared foie gras with strawberry and rhubarb. Coq au vin-inspired crispy chicken leg with delectable roasted mushrooms and potato puree is rockstar good. Those locally harvested funghi in the dish from Stropharia can also be ordered alone. You’d be wise to do so.
We did because we couldn’t get enough of the earthy goodness.
Grouper might as well be Southwest Florida's official fish, and Swofford’s gluten-free peanut-crusted presentation gets the Thai treatment with green curry coconut broth and hints of papaya and mango. It’s equally beautiful and delish.
It would be foolish to skip dessert when dedicated (and featured in The New York Times) pastry chef Corie Greenberg’s exquisite work is on par with Swofford’s savory fare.
What I would give to have her wrapped mango-tajin caramels and jalapeno-imbued blood orange cookies handy every night? There’s more blood orange to taste in her spongey tres leches cake topped with fruit in a burnt honey mousse. “Emilio’s Cheesecake” is literally peachy; goat cheese adds a tad of tang and the graham-cracker tuile is gluten-free.
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As Vanderbilt Beach Road evolves into one of the hottest restaurant destinations in town, add this one to your list for delicious modern American fare.
Old Vines Naples
9105 Strada Place at Mercato Shops, North Naples
Call: 239-591-5351
Web: oldvines.net
Prices: Bites range $14 to $22; raw offerings from $22 to $25; shareables $4 to $36; soup, salads, sides $14 to $17; small plates $22 to $27; pasta, $29 and $34; entrees $30 to $51; desserts $7 to $14. Craft cocktails hover at $17.
Also: No official dress code but guests looked good; late-night menu 10 p.m. to midnight; solid wine list by the glass or bottle; not loud, but hummy buzzy. Gluten-free and vegan options.
Hours: Open daily at 5 p.m.; lunch is in the works.
Full disclosure: While most JLB restaurant reviews are anonymous, that is not the case here because I’ve interviewed both Kravetz and Swofford for several stories during the past 18 months and previously reviewed Old Vines Supper Club. JLB encourages digital subscribers to check out the gallery.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Review: A modern American restaurant opens at Mercato. Should you go?
