Lake Park sits just north of the strip of Fifth Avenue South that most residents already treat as an extension of the front porch. The walk from the neighborhood's southern edge to Cambier Park is roughly a mile, flat, shaded in patches, and manageable in the summer if you time it before noon or after seven. What has changed for that walk in 2026 is the reason to take it more often.
For years, Fifth Avenue South leaned almost entirely toward reservation-required dinners and long, slow lunches. That is still there. What has arrived alongside it is a layer of counter-service and walk-in options that make the avenue viable on a Tuesday, in flip-flops, without a plan. If you live in Lake Park, this is the shift that matters this summer.
The rebalancing you can taste
Two openings in February set the tone for the year. Barrio Taqueria launched Feb. 18 along Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples, and All Too Well Gourmet Sandwiches launched Feb. 12 on the corner of Fifth Avenue South and Eighth Street South in downtown Naples. Neither takes reservations. Both are owned by hospitality veterans running a deliberately smaller format.
They join a short list of walk-in spots that has been building over the last two years:
- Barrio Taqueria for birria tacos, empanadas, and agua fresca
- All Too Well for a rotating set of eleven chef-built sandwiches
- Bontà Bakery at 824 Fifth Avenue South, open since 2024
- Slice Shop at 720 Fifth Avenue South, open since 2025
That is four addresses where a Lake Park resident can eat well for the price of a movie ticket, walk home, and be back on the porch before the afternoon storm rolls in. Two years ago, most of the casual footprint on the avenue was coffee shops or dessert-focused spots such as Gelato & Co., Grace & Shelly's Cupcakes and Kilwins ice cream, chocolate and fudge. Now the mix is closer to what a resident actually uses.
The Fifth Avenue South Business Improvement District has been open about what they are trying to build. Executive director Meg Stepanian framed the strategy plainly, saying "It's not about replacing luxury; it's about complementing it. A balanced mix of experiences ensures that Fifth Avenue remains relevant, dynamic and economically strong for years to come." Translated for people who live nearby: the avenue is being engineered for weekly use, not just anniversary use.
What is under wraps at 472 Fifth
If you have walked past the block between Del Mar and Osteria Tulia recently and wondered about the fenced site, that is Avenue 31. A three-story, mixed-use building with a new restaurant and condominiums received its final approval to redevelop a one-story retail space on Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples. The Naples Design Review Board voted unanimously Oct. 22 to approve Avenue 31 at 472 Fifth Ave. S., planned to be built between the Del Mar and Osteria Tulia restaurants on the south side of the upscale avenue.
The address it replaces was familiar. Naples-based MHK Architecture designed the new building, which will replace the building that has been home to La Pescheria, an Italian seafood restaurant since December 2018, as well as two retail units.
The concept is worth understanding before it opens, because it will change the density of the block. The real estate is owned by Stefano Frittella, a prolific restaurateur who also owns Bice, Caffe Milano, La Trattoria and Vergina restaurants on Fifth Avenue South. Avenue 31, a restaurant that will blend Mediterranean flavors with international flair, is named for the address of Frittella's luxurious Monte Carlo restaurant at 31 Avenue Princess Grace near the Monaco Grand Prix racing circuit. Avenue 31 will be the third restaurant in downtown Naples that has a sister restaurant owned by Frittella in Monaco.
The scale is not modest. The restaurant will include 70 seats in an indoor dining area, 10 seats at a full bar and 66 seats in a more than 1,600-square-foot covered open area. For anyone tracking evening foot traffic on the south side of the avenue, that is roughly 146 seats being added to a block that currently has none from that address.
A companion concept from the same operator is moving into another familiar footprint nearby. La Salière is set to open soon in the former space of The Bevy on 12th Avenue South.
The rooftop layer
The vertical build-out is the other story worth following. Fifth Avenue South was almost entirely a two-story district a decade ago. This year, a rooftop option opened east of the core.
About seven blocks east on the corner of Fifth Avenue South and Goodlette-Frank Road, Limón rooftop restaurant and bar is set to open Dec. 15 atop the new AC Hotel Naples 5th Avenue by Marriott. Another new dining option features Mediterranean traditions with a modern twist on the rooftop of the three-story AC Hotel launching in the Naples Square development at 455 12th St. S. across from Tin City. Inspired by the Amalfi Coast of southern Italy, the elevated dining experience will be open for lunch and dinner daily.
Closer to Cambier Park, a members-oriented concept has taken a different swing at the same vertical idea. Prime Social Reserve sits at 837 Fifth Avenue South, featuring 7,300 square feet, the indoor/outdoor concept is located at 837 Fifth Avenue South and includes a dedicated elevator to the rooftop. For neighbors, the practical read is that the sightline from the sidewalk is changing. What used to be an entirely horizontal view is starting to fill in above the parapets.
Summer nights at the Kizzie
The avenue is not only a dining corridor this summer, and this is where Lake Park's proximity pays off in a way that a drive from further out simply does not. Two nights of theater a month feels reasonable when the venue is a fifteen-minute walk.
The Naples Players kick their season off on Fifth. Naples' largest community theatre kicks off its 2026/2027 season with a timeless classic in the Kizzie Theater on Fifth Avenue South. Local actors transport audiences to 19th-century France, where reckonings, both personal and political, take shape through the lens of Jean Valjean, who has only just been released from an unjust 19-year prison sentence.
The summer programming continues with a family-friendly production. Oliver! takes the stage in Naples. Miami actor Carter Sass, who, at 11, has more than 19 acting credits under his belt, steps into the titular role, playing alongside local favorites like The Naples Players music director, Charles Fornara, and Naples-based rising star Landon Libbey.
If theater is not the pull, the summer visual arts calendar has a fresh installation running through fall. Inner Cartographies: Mapping the Self at Norris Community Center, Naples. Following the success of 2025's Latin Surrealism: An ¡ARTE VIVA! Exhibition, United Arts Collier expands on the surrealistic intrigue of local and member artists, such as Juan Diaz, with an exhibit focused on the inner self. Inner Cartographies traces themes of personal and cultural identity, mental landscapes, memories, and self-examination. Norris is on Eighth Street South, which slots easily into a Fifth Avenue evening.
At Artis-Naples, the Baker Museum's long-running showcase is closing out. June marks the final days of this exhibition, featuring paintings, collages and sculptures by four standout Florida artists working today. The 13th edition of Florida Contemporary includes Naples mixed media collagist Mally Khorasantchi, Orlando muralist and illustrator Boy Kong, Miami visual artist Jillian Mayer, and Miami painter Reginald O'Neal.
A walking loop worth trying this week
For readers who want a ready-made evening starting from Lake Park, the sequence below uses only what is open right now:
- Walk south into Old Naples, aiming for All Too Well on the corner of Fifth and Eighth Street South for an early counter-service dinner
- Cut east one block to the Norris Community Center to catch Inner Cartographies before it closes on September 30
- Continue two blocks to the Kizzie Theater for a Naples Players evening performance
- Loop back west along Fifth for a stop at Bontà Bakery at 824 Fifth Avenue South on the walk home
- If it is a Prime Social Reserve or Del Mar kind of night instead, the rooftop option at Limón, once open, adds a fourth altitude to the avenue's usual ground-floor rhythm
The point of the loop is not the loop itself. It is that a resident of Lake Park can now sequence four distinct experiences on foot, at three different price points, without repeating a block. Two years ago that was a stretch. This summer it is a Tuesday.
Why this matters for the north end of Old Naples
The Fifth Avenue South operators are not adjusting the mix for tourists. Tourists come in the winter. Popular streets like 5th Avenue South and Third Street South, typically bustling during winter, adopt a slower pace with empty sidewalks by mid-afternoon, and spontaneous patio seating is available. The casual layer, the members' rooftop, the summer theater slate, the walk-in bakery, the twenty-dollar sandwich shop: all of it is being built to make the avenue usable for the people who are already here in July.
Lake Park is one of the few Old Naples pockets where that math actually works on foot. The neighborhood's position, north of the avenue and west of Goodlette-Frank, puts every one of the addresses named above inside a comfortable walk. As the block between Del Mar and Osteria Tulia becomes Avenue 31, and as the AC Hotel's rooftop opens, that walking radius quietly gains density in a way that a car-first neighborhood cannot replicate.
If you have been thinking about how to use the summer here, or how your relationship to your own neighborhood might change with a move closer in, the team at The Beretta Group knows this stretch of Old Naples block by block. Schedule Your Consultation.
