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Sep 5, 2024 | 
gulfshorelife.com | Andrew Atkins
We want our children to be ‘good eaters’—adventurous diners who eagerly accept all forms of fruits and veggies and never protest at a host’s table. But, forcing new foods on picky diners is never the answer. You want to entice them. The first step to cultivating a love of varied foods is exposure. Fortunately, some of the best restaurants in town offer ideal conditions to introduce young ones to global cuisines and fine-dining-lite settings.
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Aug 22, 2024 | 
naplespress.com | Andrew Atkins
We want our children to be “good eaters”—adventurous diners who eagerly accept all forms of fruits and veggies and never protest at a host’s table. But forcing new foods on picky diners is never the answer; you want to entice them. The first step to cultivating a love of varied foods is exposure. Fortunately, some of the best restaurants in town offer ideal conditions for introducing young ones to global cuisines and fine-dining-lite settings.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
gulfshorelife.com | Andrew Atkins
It’s peak romance season in Southwest Florida, and dining institutions from Naples to Fort Myers are turning out for the perfect date night on Valentine’s Day. Read on for specials, below. COLLIER COUNTYBaleen prepares a three-course meal for $145. Make ReservationBicyclette Cookshop plans a Valentine’s Day menu, including roasted octopus and beef Wellington. Make reservationEdgewater Beach Hotel offers a four-course menu for $120.
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Jan 29, 2024 | 
gulfshorelife.com | Andrew Atkins
The 2024 Naples Winter Wine Festival enjoyed yet another glittering success, drawing an international roster of chefs, vintners and attendees that cement the festival among the world’s most recognizable. In the span of about five hours, the festival’s expansive auction lots—including an electric Rolls-Royce and a star-worthy tour of Music City—shattered records on an unprecedented scale. Here’s what to know. The 2024 Naples Winter Wine Festival’s live auction raised over $33 million.
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Jan 25, 2024 | 
gulfshorelife.com | Andrew Atkins
The SWFL Wine & Food Fest has raised more than $27 million in support of pediatric care in the region, and the Jan. 20 live auction in Fort Myers added another $2 million to that total. The SWFL Wine & Food Fest is the fundraising arm of SWFL Children’s Charities, Inc., which relies on a cache of sought-after pours, plates and prizes to drum up our region’s signature generosity for kids.
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Jan 1, 2024 | 
gulfshorelife.com | Andrew Atkins
It’s a steamy July afternoon. The sun is blistering, and early evening storm clouds are bubbling on the horizon. Lupita Vazquez is on a ladder, plucking young shoots and tender leaves of chayawhile inspecting for quality—is it yellow and chewed up? Or is it lush and verdant? She’s perched at the rear of a lush oasis behind the long, squat building of pastor Miguel Estrada’s Misión Peniel, an offshoot of Peace River Presbytery on Boston Avenue in Immokalee.
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Jan 1, 2024 | 
gulfshorelife.com | Andrew Atkins
I spend most of the year nose down, researching, writing and editing stories about the restaurants defining our region and the food enriching our lives. Every so often, I stumble across a place that sends me into a sort of stupor: a restaurant prompting me to rethink my preconceived notions of what food could and should be. This year, I can count on one hand—four fingers, to be exact—the places that prompted such a paradigm shift. This is the metric by which we’ve chosen our best new restaurants.
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Jan 1, 2024 | 
gulfshorelife.com | Andrew Atkins
As we prepared our list of Best New Restaurants for 2024, one thing was clear—there’s an elevated focus on gathering in Southwest Florida. After all, food is a primary vehicle for understanding and connecting to our communities. What and how we eat transcends cultural boundaries and languages and builds bridges. In a single recipe, you connect to a people, a history, a culture—or all three—via decades of fine-tuning and generations of guidance.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
gulfshorelife.com | Southwest Floridians |Andrew Atkins
The Ritz-Carlton, Naples, returned to majestic form in July with its long-awaited reopening after being shuttered since May 2021. The renovation and expansion are fitting for the location, which is considered the national crown jewel for The Ritz-Carlton, opening as the second resort for the brand in 1983. Architect Cooper Carry and Parker-Torres Design worked to honor the property’s history while keeping the future in mind.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
gulfshorelife.com | Southwest Floridians |Andrew Atkins
Bonita Springs continues to grow into a veritable culinary and arts destination, and the latest brainchild from the minds of the well-loved Sugarshack Music Channel and Maine-based Brickyard Hollow Brewing Co.—a hybrid music venue and gastropub between the groups—marks the next great chapter in Bonita’s storied history. For Sugarshack founder Eddie Kopp, the space is a place for the community to rally around local talent. “It’s tough to find a good gig around here,” he says.
