Coastland Center's Restaurant Row Is Turning Toward Steak, Seafood and Fire

The large, colorful mural on the west wall of the old Uncle Julio's building is going away. Plans for the freestanding restaurant at 2096 Ninth St. N. call for repainting that wall white and putting the new name on it in gold letters. That building sits on the northwest corner of Coastland Center, at U.S. 41 North and Golden Gate Parkway. The new name is Atlantic Forge Mediterranean Steakhouse. The agave and umbrella plants out front are being replaced with Italian cypress, bougainvillea and podocarpus shrubs.

That repainted wall gives a fair preview of what's happening along the western edge of the mall. For Estates at Grey Oaks households, this is the closest group of sit-down restaurants, a short drive west on Golden Gate Parkway. The casual chains that filled it for the past few years are being replaced, building by building, with restaurants built around steak, seafood and outdoor fire features. The timing matters this season. None of the three new restaurants is expected to open before the end of 2026, and at least two have already pushed their dates back once.

Who has which building

Coastland's western edge is a row of freestanding restaurant buildings that grew up around the Cheesecake Factory after its long run there. Freestanding buildings followed for CMX CinéBistro, Uncle Julio's, Bahama Breeze Island Grille and Twin Peaks. Uncle Julio's closed in February after about three and a half years, and by May both it and Bahama Breeze had been dark for less than a year. Bahama Breeze closed in May 2025, when Darden Restaurants shut down 15 of the brand's locations. Here is where each address stood at the end of September:

Oar & Iron is the only one going up from scratch. It will be the sixth chain restaurant building on the mall's western end, set in the southwest corner of the Macy's lot. Its patio will face the corner of Fleischmann Boulevard and U.S. 41. The other two are moving into existing space. The Atlantic Forge plans keep the building's size, footprint and site layout the same.

What the three newcomers have in common

Looked at side by side, the three new restaurants are close cousins. Each one centers on beef, seafood or both, and two are building fire into their outdoor seating.

Atlantic Forge's patio plans list "firepit tables, freestanding firepits, some planters and a built-in gas fireplace feature." That's according to Jason B. Taylor of Taylor Studios Inc., the Bradenton design firm that presented the project to the Naples Design Review Board. The board gave its final approval for the facade, landscaping and signage on Aug. 26. Nothing about the menu or the operator had been released as of the Naples Press report on the project.

Oar & Iron is a Florida version of 110 Grill, a Northeast chain named for the Massachusetts highway where it started. RAVentures Hospitality Group owns and operates the brand. For Florida it uses lighter nautical colors, bigger outdoor dining areas, a raw bar, and a menu with more seafood and steak. The Coastland restaurant will have 5,899 square feet inside and an 1,833-square-foot patio with a firepit under a louvered pergola. Some residents may have tried the brand already. The first Oar & Iron opened in late 2023 at Founders Square, at Collier Boulevard and Immokalee Road. Locations near Topgolf in Fort Myers and in Parrish followed last year, and Babcock Ranch opened in early April. Naples will be the fifth.

Rodizio Grill is the one that stays indoors. The Utah-based Brazilian churrascaria has more than 20 locations, six of them in Florida. It's known for rotisserie-grilled meats carved at the table by gauchos, plus a salad bar with hot and cold sides and a full bar. The Naples restaurant will have 9,160 square feet of indoor dining and no outdoor seating. That's considerably larger than the Rodizio Grill that has operated at Coconut Point in Estero since April 2016. The company's own Naples page calls this its third Southwest Florida location. The space has a long restaurant history. It combines the old Aurelio's unit with a vacant neighbor, and before that it housed Pate's House of Prime Rib and Ted's Montana Grill, at the mall entrance near CMX CinéBistro.

Put together, the change is clear. Tex-Mex at Uncle Julio's, Caribbean-themed plates at Bahama Breeze and pizza at Aurelio's are giving way to a Mediterranean steakhouse, a raw bar and grill, and a Brazilian steakhouse.

Why the opening dates keep moving

Every date in the table above has already moved at least once, or comes from a builder who is openly allowing for delay.

The sign that first went up on the Oar & Iron lot said "Coming late 2025." An earlier Gulfshore Business story called late 2025 or early 2026 the safe bet. By mid-May of this year, with construction finally started, the company was more careful:

"[We] would love to be open by the end of 2026, but otherwise early 2027, based on construction."

That was Rob Luzzi, senior director of marketing for RAVentures Hospitality Group.

Rodizio has followed the same pattern. When Aurelio's announced it was closing, reporting pointed to a mid-2025 opening for the Brazilian steakhouse. The company's site now says "opening in 2026," while the most recent local reporting says late 2026 or early 2027. Atlantic Forge received its design approval only in late August and is aiming for early 2027.

For anyone planning dinners with visiting family this winter, the practical takeaway is simple. Expect construction fencing on this stretch through the holidays, and maybe a soft opening or two around the turn of the year. All three restaurants may well be open by the time the season peaks. None of the published targets promises it.

The building with no plan, and the corner across the street

At 2088 Ninth St. N., the former Bahama Breeze is still empty. Darden plans to retire the Bahama Breeze brand next spring and turn its remaining locations into other Darden restaurants. The longtime Bahama Breeze in south Fort Myers, for example, will become a Yard House next summer. Darden has not announced any plan for the Coastland building. For now it's the one building on the row with nothing announced.

On the northeast corner of U.S. 41 and Golden Gate Parkway, the change is going a different direction. Heavy construction at the south end of the Centre Pointe retail center is for Northwestern Concierge Clinic. It's moving into the 7,380-square-foot space at 2110 Tamiami Trail N. where Dorona, a modern Italian steakhouse run by the Aielli Group, operated for more than seven years before closing in May 2025. Before Dorona, the same space was TGI Friday's and then Midtown Kitchen & Bar. The clinic's services haven't been announced. It's tied to Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, which already runs Northwestern Medicine Concierge Medicine Naples on Fourth Avenue North. Christopher N. King, the health system's chief media relations executive, explained the move: "We know many of our patients and their families spend time in the greater Naples area and are seeking NM care closer to where they live, work and visit."

So the intersection is losing a restaurant on one corner while gaining three just across Golden Gate Parkway.

Where to go in the meantime

Several familiar places at Coastland are open while the new restaurants are being built:

• The Cheesecake Factory, CMX CinéBistro and Twin Peaks are still in their freestanding buildings on the western edge.
• Gelateria Made in Italy shows as "Now Open" on the mall's directory.
• Häagen-Dazs at Coastland is staying put. Owner Nabila Zafar closed her Waterside Shops shop at the end of May after its lease wasn't renewed, and she continues to run the Coastland store.

For anyone with a Rodizio habit, the Coconut Point location in Estero is open while the Naples one is built. Oar & Iron fans can go to Founders Square in North Naples.

The Grey Oaks Real Estate Team lives in Naples year-round and drives past this stretch of U.S. 41 like everyone else in the neighborhood. If you'd like an update when Atlantic Forge, Oar & Iron or Rodizio Grill sets a firm opening date, or you just want to talk about how the area around Grey Oaks is changing, Jeanne and Brendan are glad to hear from you. Contact us anytime.