| Restaurants, shops praised at Cape Harbour By Pete Skiba |
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| Neighborhood happy to have amenities People moving into Cape Coral’s Cape Harbour won’t have far to go to find a new restaurant or a boutique. Shops and restaurants planned as social amenities to the first of the two 15-story condominium buildings at the southern end of Chiquita Boulevard opened Dec. 3 to little fanfare. Despite the soft opening meant to ease new clerks, cooks and servers into their new workplace, people found their way to the stores, which are open from Thursday to Sunday. “I can’t believe how many people have come in the store,” said Toni Halvatzis, owner of Carried Away, a handmade handbag and jewelry boutique. “This isn’t just for the condo residents; anyone can come in here. The prices go from $20 to $250.” Word of mouth has gotten out and people have turned out to sample the food at The Joint and Longboards Cabana Bar, said Jeff Gately, a managing partner in the restaurants. The Joint opens at 11:30 a.m. and serves a full menu until 10 p.m. From 10 p.m. to midnight it has eight styles of pizza with the option to add toppings to create one’s own. “This is a big part of why we bought here,” said Sue Winrich, who with her husband closed on a condominium Wednesday. “Everything is all in one place. We can just walk out the door to a restaurant and shopping.” The Joint has the look of a hip South Beach bistro with hot pastel colors and an aluminum room divider. The outdoor Cabana Bar sits facing the marina, but has large televisions for sports viewing.
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The menu entices with offerings such as wood-oven roasted chicken wings, baked with caramelized onion and house-made sausage. Talking energetically about the food he obviously loves to prepare, Frank Caputo, executive chef, said the sausage recipe has been in his family for 100 years. The Joint, shortened from pizza joint, also serves up fresh ingredients on a thin pizza crust baked in the wood oven. A third restaurant, Run Agrounds, a place for coffee and ice cream among other treats, opens from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, Gately said. Plans called for all the restaurants to be places to meet old friends and make new ones, while enjoying the food, beverages and ambience. Gately has been part of the restaurant management team at the popular Rum Runners restaurant in the Cape Harbour neighborhood for three years. He planned for the restaurants to have different looks and tastes. “Rum Runners is about the fresh Florida fish and a touch of Caribbean flair,” Gately said. “My old friend Frank (Caputo) has a fresh take on classic Italian and French (cuisine).” The Cape Harbour development features outdoor parking at the entrance to Rum Runners and indoor public parking in its completed high-rise. When Marina South II is finished at the 150-acre complex it will have more stores and probably another restaurant along its end of the walkway. Residents and visitors can visit the neighborhood’s newest retail additions while strolling a city-block-long promenade. |