6 Dog-Friendly Naples Restaurants + A Reason to Revisit Spanky’s + Poll

Friends and neighbors,

This week, we're bringing the dogs.

I've rounded up six Naples restaurants where bringing your four-legged dinner companion doesn't feel like an afterthought, from breakfast at Skillets to a proper waterfront dinner at M Waterfront Grille.

I’m also revisiting Spanky’s, one of those Naples institutions that has resisted reinvention. Right now, they’re collecting children’s books for Emma’s Literary Legacy ahead of a September 15 delivery to Golisano Children’s Hospital, and each donation gets you into a drawing for a $250 gift card.

Hope you find somewhere new—or remember somewhere old.

Warmly,

There are few things sadder than the face of a dog who has just realized you are leaving the house without them.

Fortunately, Naples makes this particular betrayal fairly easy to avoid. Outdoor dining is practically a civic requirement here, and plenty of restaurants welcome dogs on their patios. These six go beyond merely tolerating the extra member of your dinner party.

If you want to bring the dog without sacrificing a nice dinner, M Waterfront is probably my first choice.

Dogs are welcome on the Veranda overlooking Venetian Bay, where the patio is covered and equipped with fans (an important distinction in August). Water bowls and treats for four-legged diners are regularly part of the equation, and M even hosts Yappy Happy Hours on Saturdays 11:00 AM—3:30 PM, with a chance to win a $50 gift card when you enter your pet’s photo.

You still get the full M Waterfront experience and a marina view. Your dog gets to develop an immediate and intense interest in every server who walks past.

 4300 Gulf Shore Blvd. N., Naples • (239) 263-4421 • mwaterfrontgrille.co

Bone Hook is considerably easier if your companion takes up substantial square footage.

The brewery has a shaded outdoor area where dogs are welcome, and water bowls are readily available. Bone Hook also hosts pet-related events, including Pints for Paws, so a Labrador beneath the table isn't exactly an unusual occurrence here.

Order one of the house beers and find a shaded table. No one needs to be particularly well dressed.

1514 Immokalee Rd., Unit 106, Naples • (239) 631-8522 • bonehookbrewing.com

The Boathouse has been sitting directly on Naples Bay since long before waterfront dining became quite so polished.

Dogs are welcome outside, where the attraction is obvious: you're right on the water watching boats come and go. Staff are also frequently noted for bringing water bowls without much ceremony.

I'd choose a weekday lunch when the patio is less frenetic. Seafood makes sense here, although your dog will agree rather too enthusiastically.

 990 Broad Ave. S., Naples • (239) 643-2235 • boathouseonnaplesbay.com

I've already written at length about Island Gypsy, so I'll spare you another dissertation on the onion rings.

What matters here is that the restaurant is entirely outdoors on the Isle of Capri marina and dogs are welcome. The restaurant does have sensible rules (no barking, no dogs on the furniture, and no feeding from the table) so perhaps don't bring the family member currently failing obedience school.

For you: onion rings, grouper sandwich or lobster Reuben, and carrot cake to go.

For the dog: water and an extraordinary number of pelicans to contemplate.

One warning: August. There are fans, but there are limits to what a fan can accomplish against South Florida. Go later in the day.

292 Capri Blvd., Naples • (239) 394-1111 • theislandgypsy.com

Lake Park Diner is one of the easiest places on this list to add a dog to your lunch plans without turning the entire outing into an operation.

Much of the seating is outdoors and shaded, dogs are welcome, and water—and sometimes a biscuit—usually appears quickly. You've also got an actual menu to choose from rather than the burger-or-chicken-fingers predicament that sometimes accompanies dog-friendly patios.

I've written about their happy hour before, so I'll refrain from selling it to you again. Suffice it to say, this is particularly useful in the late afternoon.

944 Seventh Ave. N., Naples • (239) 228-6351 • thelakeparkdiner.com

Most dog-friendly lists become suspiciously cocktail-oriented.

Skillets solves the breakfast problem. Several Naples locations have dog-friendly outdoor seating, making it an easy choice for an early breakfast before the pavement becomes approximately the temperature of the sun.

Go for the skillets, pancakes or a Benedict, find a covered table and prepare to spend breakfast explaining that your dog has already eaten.

He will dispute this.

Multiple Naples locations • Breakfast & lunch • skilletsrestaurants.com

There’s a reason Spanky’s has survived nearly four decades of Naples restaurant churn. This is a restaurant where the salad bar lives in the bed of an antique truck, popovers still arrive with the prime rib and nobody has suggested replacing the stained-glass lamps with something beige.

Husband-and-wife team Tim and Emily Monty took over Spanky’s from the original owners in 2015. Emily came from food-and-beverage management and Tim is a classically trained chef. According to a Florida Weekly profile, the two bought the restaurant instead of going on their honeymoon. I suppose there are worse ways to begin a marriage.

The “speakeasy” part is applied rather liberally. There’s no secret password or unmarked door. Spanky’s sits right on the water off Airport-Pulling Road, with a dim dining room packed with bicycles, model airplanes, stained-glass lamps and decades of accumulated miscellany. It feels wonderfully untouched by the prevailing desire to make every restaurant look like a hotel lobby.

Then there’s the soup and salad bar, inexplicably housed in the flatbed of a 1924 Ford pickup truck. It sounds like something added for novelty until you realize it's been there for years and is still one of the things people specifically come back for.

Prime rib is the order to know. Thursday is prime rib night, complete with one of Spanky’s enormous freshly baked popovers, and the restaurant continues to come up whenever locals debate where to find good prime rib in Naples. The ribs have plenty of devotees of their own, and if the prime rib cheesesteak appears among the lunch specials, that's an easy decision.

Spanky’s also has early dining from 4–5:30 p.m., an hour that perhaps only Naples could turn into a competitive dining category. I'd go late afternoon, when sitting outside doesn't constitute an endurance sport. Have a drink by the water, stay for the prime rib and take a lap past the truck-bed salad bar.

There’s also a good reason to stop by Spanky’s right now. The restaurant is collecting new-condition children’s books for Emma’s Literary Legacy, the nonprofit founded by Ed and April after losing their daughter Emma to cancer. Emma loved reading throughout her treatment, and the organization now delivers books directly to children admitted at Golisano Children’s Hospital. This year’s delivery is set for September 15, Emma’s birthday. Bring a book to Spanky’s, enter the raffle, and you’ll have a chance to win a $250 gift card. Stay for a cold one while you’re there. 

Spanky’s Speakeasy
1550 Airport-Pulling Rd. N., Naples • Mon.–Sat. 11 a.m.–9 p.m. • (239) 643-1559 • spankysspeakeasy.com

Last week we asked: If you leave Naples, where are you more likely to go for dinner?

Here’s where you landed: 

Our readership slightly favors heading south to Marco Island, with 54.77% of the vote. It was a close call, but apparently a few extra miles down Collier Boulevard aren't enough to deter you when there's something good waiting at the other end. I’ll keep that in mind when looking for reasons to venture outside Naples.

Naples is at its best when the places we already know give us another reason to come back.

Sometimes that means finding a patio where the dog is welcome. Sometimes it is returning to an old favorite like Spanky’s and realizing the prime rib, truck-bed salad bar, and waterfront view are still exactly where you left them.

And sometimes the best reason to stop in has nothing to do with dinner at all. If a children’s book can help make a hospital stay a little easier, that feels worth adding to the errand list.

Enjoy the week!

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

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