5 Naples Takeout Spots for a No-Oven Week + Charcuterie To-Go

Friends and neighbors,

I recently spent the weekend boating and enjoying the simple pleasures of wine and charcuterie on a quiet cove in good company. Few foods are better suited to languishing on a boat, which reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write about The Boardroom for a while. It's a small North Naples wine bar devoted almost entirely to cheese, cured meat and all their requisite accoutrements, and, more usefully, they'll pack the whole production to go.

We’re also looking at healthy takeout this week. By August, I have very little interest in turning on an oven, but there are only so many nights of pizza and pasta one can endure. These are the places where I actually get excited about ordering a salad, bowl or something green for dinner.

Consider this a guide to a no-oven week! Hope you find some inspiration for the dog days ahead.

Warmly,

There is something deceptively laborious about making a good charcuterie board yourself. By the time you've bought six cheeses, three meats, olives, fruit, nuts, jam and a baguette, you've spent a small fortune and somehow still have to make it look pretty.

The Boardroom will do the hard part for you.

The little wine bar on Wiggins Pass Road is owned by Nick and Nila, who built the business around a fairly narrow proposition: wine, cheese and cured meat, either eaten there or packed up to take elsewhere. They also make larger grazing tables and catered spreads for parties. 

The Couples Board combines soppressata, Bianco d'Oro salami and prosciutto with Parmigiano-Reggiano, Wisconsin cheddar and brie, then fills the remaining real estate with grapes, berries, olives, sweet pickles and walnuts. It's also the board that seems to be the most popular order. 

For a crowd, things become more interesting. The Grazing Board for 3–4 adds chorizo and beef pastrami alongside five cheeses, artichokes, sweet pickles, almonds, walnuts, pepper jelly and fig jam. The Carnivore Board is the maximalist option: nine meats, including mortadella with pistachio, capocollo and sun-dried rosemary ham, followed by another seven cheeses. 

Before committing to a board, I'd stop in for grazing. The Boardroom is only publicly open three nights a week, from 4–9 p.m. which makes it slightly elusive, but the hours are exactly when you want wine and cheese anyway. Weekday happy hour runs 4–6 p.m. with $8 glasses of wine. The list travels from Italian Pinot Grigio to New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, German Riesling and beyond; this isn't the place for an exhaustive education, but there is plenty to accompany a piece of brie. 

And if your weekend plans involve a boat, beach or a house full of people you'd rather not cook for, remember the boards to-go. Charcuterie tastes considerably better when somebody else has already sliced everything.

The Boardroom
808 Wiggins Pass Rd., Unit 104, Naples • Thur..–Sat. 4–9 p.m. • (239) 308-7180 • theboardroomnaples.com

Healthy takeout is a somewhat fraught category. A salad can easily become an $18 container of wet lettuce that leaves you prowling through the pantry an hour later. These are five Naples options that manage to avoid both problems.

Organically Twisted is possibly the most interesting spot on this list.

The little Livingston Road restaurant specializes in food that can generally be ordered "rolled or bowled," with a particularly loyal following among vegetarians, vegans and the gluten-averse. Portions are generous which is important when salad is supposed to constitute dinner.

The Mung Bean Taco Salad piles greens with mung beans, tortilla chips, tomato, sweet potato, black bean salsa and cilantro sauce. The Avo-Loco follows a similar sweet potato-black bean equation but adds a prodigious amount of avocado. Curry in a Hurry is the omnivore's answer, combining curried chicken salad with mixed greens, carrots, tomato, cucumber and cabbage. The menu also wanders into vegan mac, walnut tacos and some surprisingly beloved avocado chocolate mousse. 

Organically Twisted • 13040 Livingston Rd., Unit 10, Naples • (239) 302-8669 • organicallytwisted.com

Pura Vida earns its place partly because of hours. A surprising number of Naples' healthier options have packed up by the time dinner enters the conversation; the Mercato location stays open until 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 p.m. Sunday. 

Salads are the obvious move. The Thai Almond starts with mixed greens and Napa cabbage, then adds basil, edamame, red pepper, shredded carrot, scallions and sesame seeds with a creamy almond dressing. For August, though, the Watermelon Mint has particular appeal: mixed greens and frisée with watermelon, feta, watermelon radish, cucumber, mint and pistachio crumbles under honey-yuzu dressing.

Then there's Jen's Herb, which takes the green mandate rather seriously: cilantro, Italian parsley, mint, kale and arugula with quinoa, scallions, jalapeño, pumpkin seeds and feta. It packs 22 grams of protein before you've added anything else.

Pura Vida is unapologetically Miami in both aesthetics and pricing, but it fills an important niche. You can order ahead at 7:45 p.m. and still procure something containing vegetables.

Pura Vida Miami – Mercato • 9118 Strada Pl., Naples • Mon.–Sat. 8 a.m.–9 p.m.; Sun. 8 a.m.–8 p.m. • (305) 535-4142 • puravidamiami.com

The Local is useful when not everyone in the house has agreed to your healthy-eating campaign.

For August, the Spicy Watermelon Salad seems particularly well timed: spinach, watermelon, red pepper, tomato, onion and cucumber with feta, sumac and Carolina Reaper honey. It's sweet, salty and just hot enough to prevent the whole affair from becoming fruit salad. 

The Cobb is dinner without further tinkering—blackened chicken, bacon, pickled eggs, blue cheese, tomato, avocado and scallions over mixed greens with avocado ranch. Or start simply with the Tomato or Caesar and add blackened Key West Pink shrimp, local catch, free-range chicken, avocado or even a grass-fed beef patty.

Someone determined to eat a sandwich can get the in-house-smoked turkey with Brie, pesto mayo and tomato jam. Domestic harmony preserved.

One useful takeout note: The Local currently adds a surcharge to pickup orders. 

The Local • 5323 Airport-Pulling Rd., Naples • (239) 596-3276 • thelocalnaples.com

Food & Thought 2 doesn't dabble in organic food. The restaurant describes itself, rather wonderfully, as "militantly organic," meaning everything on the menu is made with organic ingredients. There's also a full organic market attached, so dinner and the neglected grocery run can be dispatched in one stop. 

The salads here are substantial enough to avoid the aforementioned pantry problem. Alfie's Steak House Salad comes with grass-fed steak, avocado, grilled asparagus, roasted corn, tomatoes, fried onions and blue cheese with balsamic vinaigrette.

The Vegan Walnut Taco Salad is considerably more interesting than the standard meatless afterthought: romaine, roasted corn, tomatoes, black beans and red onion with walnut taco meat, tortilla chips and cilantro-lime vinaigrette. There's also a Power Salad with quinoa, cucumber, carrots, peppers and avocado if you're feeling particularly virtuous.

For something simpler, the Mediterranean Quinoa Salad combines arugula and mixed greens with quinoa, olives, cucumber, tomato and feta. Then add chicken, shrimp, steak, Ora King salmon, mahi or grouper according to how far you've strayed from the original salad premise.

Food & Thought 2 also offers delivery and has grab-and-go meals in the adjoining market, a useful contingency when even ordering dinner feels like work. 

Food & Thought 2 • 7941 Airport-Pulling Rd. N., Naples • Sun.–Thu. 7 a.m.–9 p.m.; Fri.–Sat. 7 a.m.–10 p.m. • (239) 791-3663 • foodandthought2.com

Seasons 52 is the least obscure recommendation here, but sometimes obvious is useful.

The concept has always revolved around lighter preparations with oak-fire grilling and brick-oven roasting rather than sending everything through a fryer. More importantly for the person attempting to make a reasonably sensible Tuesday-night decision, nutritional information is readily available.

The Cedar Plank-Roasted Salmon is a reliable place to start. It's served with French green beans, marble potatoes and dill-mustard sauce, and salmon continues to turn up among the dishes Naples diners praise in recent reviews. Fish in general is a strong suit here, as are the seasonal vegetables and salads.

What Seasons 52 offers isn't novelty so much as predictability. The menu is broad, takeout is easy, there are enough lighter options that you don't have to reverse-engineer dinner, and the person in your household who emphatically does not want a salad can order a steak.

Consistency isn't the most thrilling quality in a restaurant until it's Wednesday night and you simply need dinner to appear. 

Seasons 52 • 8930 Tamiami Trl. N., Naples • Lunch & dinner daily • (239) 594-8852 • seasons52.com

Last week we asked: If you’re bringing a dog out in Naples, where are you most likely to go?

Here’s where you landed: 

The dog park won the poll with 27.04% of the vote! A meal by the water came in a far off second with 21%. I think the dogs may agree—the dog park is the best. I personally love seeing all the pups at Tony’s Off Third when I stop and sit for a morning coffee. Thank you for all the responses! We also got a great rec: 

“KC's Parrot 41 is great for dogs on the covered outside patio. Always served a bowl of ice water and treats.” - J. 

August in Naples is a good time to make things easier. Let someone else build the charcuterie board, pick up dinner instead of turning on the oven, and leave a little room for plans to change once the pool starts looking better than going back out.

Sometimes the best local luxury is simply having a few good options that require very little work.

See you next edition!

Elizabeth Bellotti
Editor-In-Chief
Naples, Florida
The Naples Florida Review

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