Aqua in Naples gets fresh look, signature chandeliers

Fifteen years after Aqua Seafood, Steaks & Raw Bar opened off Fifth Avenue South in Naples, it needed a refresh — and more light. 

Owner Gordon Stojkoski, who for over 36 years has owned more than 50 restaurants, found the perfect fit for lighting at the original Aqua, 862 Fifth Ave. S., in downtown Naples. He already had a similar setup at Aqua Seafood, Steaks & Raw Bar in Greentree Plaza in North Naples. He opened that location in October 2024 at 2348 Immokalee Road, the southwest corner of Airport-Pulling and Immokalee roads. 

“It’s going to be one of our signatures,” Stojkoski said of the chandeliers, which soon will be in all four Aqua locations. 

Another set of chandeliers is on the way from Italy, where they are made, to the Aqua at 27941 Crown Lake Blvd., at the northeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and U.S. 41, which opened in November 2022 in what had been a vacant Perkin’s restaurant. 

A fourth Aqua is finishing construction at The Cove at 47th, a new apartment complex off Cape Coral Parkway. That Aqua should open by the end of this year. 

“We’re going to have four chandeliers there,” Stojkoski said. “Chandeliers are becoming famous. We did this at our North Naples restaurant. And everybody loved them. So, we said we’ve got to duplicate it. And we did. 

“We’re definitely known for the food and for the drinks, happy hour, live entertainment. But the chandeliers make everybody smile for some reason. That aqua, crystal, Mediterranean look.” 

Wayne Kahn of Naples-based Luxury Lighting Consultants LLC designed the fixture after scouring the internet and finding a company called Vakker to make them. 

“The light fixtures are up through the top and shine down through the glass,” said Kahn, who has designed lighting in luxury homes in West Palm Beach, Miami, London, Brazil, Switzerland and Puerto Rico, among other places. He does most of his work in luxury homes, but he also did the lighting at another longtime downtown Naples restaurant, Chops City Grill on Fifth Avenue. 

“They’re heavy,” Kahn said of the Aqua chandeliers. “About 165 pounds. All those little crystals, when you put them all together, it’s a lot of weight. 

“Each one is a little bit different. You can order the stones in different colors. They’re glass, and they’re made by the vendor.” 

Kahn said he searched for what ended up being the perfect choice for Aqua. 

“Honestly, I went online and looked for light fixtures,” Kahn said. “I spent a couple of weeks trying to find a fixture that would make a big statement for Gordon. I could use the colors that would match the restaurant and would follow the theme they wanted. It was so successful and become such a big statement, that when he renovated Naples, we put them there.” 

The downtown Aqua had more than just lighting installed. Stojkoski said he saved about $150,000 in remodeling costs by doing the contract work himself. He gutted and redid the interiors of both bathrooms, and he replaced and moved the HVAC system, which made room for the chandeliers. He also installed new flooring. 

The existing light fixtures remain. They were holdovers from when Aqua was known previously as Berts — and were originally shipped to Naples from Chicago, where they were removed from what had been a 1920s hotel. 

“We shut down for the whole month of September,” Stojkoski said of the remodeling project. “We did a lot of work in here to make everybody happy. All of our regulars and customers will be surprised for season this year.” 

Stojkoski bought his first restaurant at age 19, Ruins Cafe in Lodi, New Jersey, in 1989. He spent his younger years in Ohio and New Jersey, where a cousin of his future wife put him to work as an interpreter in his construction business. He needed someone fluent in both English and Macedonian to work the construction projects, and Stojkoski, the son of Macedonian immigrants, fit the bill. 

“I went from making $3 an hour washing dishes to $40 an hour,” he said. That allowed him to save and buy and later sell his first restaurant. “I realized the money wasn’t in running the restaurants. It was in getting them up and running — and then selling them,” he said. 

But now that he’s settled in Naples, Stojkoski said he has no plans to sell Aqua. 

“It’s a very glorified industry,” Stojkoski said. “A lot of people think they can own a restaurant just because they can eat and drink in one. It’s a very difficult business to be in. 

“This is what brought me down from Ohio. We’ve built a great brand. We’re opening up our fourth restaurant, in Cape Coral, here in a few months. It just seems everybody loves what we have to offer. Between the fresh fish and food, steaks, the happy hour is the best one in town, and then our live entertainment at night. We’re doing the best of both worlds. Fine dining during the day, live entertainment at night. Good concept.”