Lead Photo: The Club Room, comprising 1,900 square feet, receives more than half-million-dollar renovation. Courtesy of Campiello’s Club Room.
Richard D’Amico
When asked what inspired him to open The Club Room, a new dining space adjacent to Campiello at 1177 Third Street South in Naples, Richard D’Amico, co-owner and founding partner of D’Amico & Partners, had a simple answer: the space became available.
“So many of the seats at Campiello are outside, and during the rainy season we lose over half of our seating,” D’Amico explains. “We knew from that perspective that it would work for us. We get a lot of requests for private events and weddings, so there’s that element to it, too.
“Aside from that, we wanted to do something that was super different in the market,” he adds.
The space D’Amico is referring to was previously occupied for nearly 35 years by Pratt’s Shoe Salon; before that, its history goes back to the early 1960s when it was Dick Ward’s Shoe Salon.
The Club Room project began in February 2019, and by the middle of August construction began to transform what had most likely been back-of-the-house storage into a space that D’Amico describes as part club, part cucina. The first phase included tearing out the storage area and building a firewall between The Club Room and the rest of the space not yet in use. Because the usage of the space changed from retail to restaurant, the team also had to address requirements for fire safety (e.g., sprinklers), ADA compliance and ventilation. Additionally, the kitchen in Campiello was renovated, and there is now a dedicated sous chef and line to serve The Club Room; there is not a kitchen in the new space.
“There were a lot of things you can’t see or wouldn’t know that we had to invest in,” says D’Amico.
Asked about the cost of the renovations, D’Amico answers, “Let me just say it was in excess of half a million dollars, for 1,900 square feet. Part of the reason it was so expensive was because of the finishes we chose and the furniture.”
When it came time to design the space, D’Amico, who is a long-time American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) member and designs all of the company’s properties, had a vision.
“I was going for, ‘Am I in New York, Paris or Milan? I can’t tell,’” he says. “It can take them (guests) away to wherever they want to go.”
The Club Room’s decor is what D’Amico describes as lush, sensorial and lavish: A checkerboard-patterned floor tile in foam green and black adorns the dining room, with pink and black in the bar; the walls are finished with Venetian plaster, accented by gold leaf trim and light green chalk; the ceilings feature reclaimed barn siding, with silk pendants and comfortable leather furnishing rounding out the setting.
One of the design highlights within The Club Room is “Bernardino Il Zebra,” a commissioned sculpture by artist Amy Brazil D’Amico.
The sculpture, comprising wire, plaster, tissue, epoxy and acrylic, is pavéed in 28,000 emerald, amethyst, jet and hematite Swarovski crystals. Brazil D’Amico spent five months creating the work of art that hangs over the fireplace on a moss-covered wall in the middle of the room. Just beyond, a stage lit by hanging lights showcases musician Benny Weinbeck, and the bar sits off to the side with a handful of stools to sit and enjoy a hand-crafted cocktail or glass of wine.
The Club Room opened in January.
