On The Job

»In January of 1972, Dennis Rose came to Naples from his native Pennsylvania to take a temporary job. He intended to return north once the gig was over, but that was not to be. By 1979, he was at Ridgway Bar & Grill in Naples, and has remained there ever since. Rose, 57, started out as a server and switched to management in 2002; he currently manages the Third Street South eatery for owner Tony Ridgway.

Why did you decide to stay in Southwest Florida?
I worked at a hotel in Pennsylvania called the Bedford Springs Hotel and our maître d’ was coming down here to the Naples Beach Hotel to open up a restaurant for the season and asked if I’d like to come down and work for the winter. When I got here and saw green grass and flowers in January, I was hooked.

What’s the most difficult part of the job?
Having to correct someone—say, if someone is smoking a cigar in a non-smoking area. I don’t really like the confrontation. I like everyone to be able to do what they want to do, but there are a few guidelines that we have to enforce.

Have any celebrities patronized the business?
Wynonna Judd was here last year or the year before. Other than that, [Sharon] Gless, who was on Cagney and Lacey, came in many years ago.

What differences do you see throughout the year?
You get to know what to expect after you’ve been here for a few years. You know that it’s going to be slow in September and it starts picking up in October, and you know you can’t go away for Christmas, ever.

Have you noticed any change over the years in people’s manners?
Not really, because we get mostly an older clientele, and if we had the young people, like Fifth Avenue does, that clientele would be mostly just the Port Royal people. We see some young people but they’re eating with their parents. We don’t have many rowdy people.