Tim Aten Knows: The Rooster plans second restaurant

Q: I saw that Thee City’s Grill in the Naples Towne Centre is closed for remodeling. I remember a couple of years ago that the Mel’s on Collier closed for remodeling and never reopened. Just wondering if this is a real remodel or a permanent closure. – Howard Ripps, East Naples

A: Thee City’s Diner Bar & Grill permanently closed June 1 in Naples Towne Centre South, where Chef Bryan Sutton plans to launch a second location of The Rooster Food + Drink this fall.

Thee City’s Diner owner Ilias Tsangouris, a longtime local restaurateur who also owns Blueberry’s and a few other restaurants in the Naples area, decided to sell his lease for the East Naples eatery to Sutton.

“He approached me,” Sutton said. “He eats here [at The Rooster] a lot. He’s been coming here for a long time. One day, we were talking and he’s like, ‘You really need a bigger place.’ I’ve been looking for a year or so probably, but everybody wants to sell what they’re doing, their concept. They want to sell it as a business, and I don’t really need a business. I just need a restaurant because I can move my recipes and my concept in there. It’s just very hard to find a business going out of business.”

After operating a restaurant in that East Naples space for 10 years, Tsangouris was ready to discuss letting it go.

“He took me over there and I was like, ‘Wow, this is great. This is room to grow, room to do whatever it is that we want,’” Sutton said. “There’s no issue with parking. So, it all just kind of worked out.”

The 4,760-square-foot restaurant space at 3883 U.S. 41 E. will be a second location for The Rooster, targeted to open in September with breakfast, lunch, dinner and a full bar.

“I’m just excited to have a big place, actually; it’s got walk-ins,” Sutton said. “Inside of it is completely different from where I’m at now. It’s like a real restaurant, we tell everybody — bathrooms, a full bar, I’m excited about the whole thing.”

Back story

The Rooster will continue a string of restaurants at that East Trail location stretching back about 40 years. Folks still remember that space as B.T. Boomers Sports Bar & Grille, which closed there 20 years ago this month after operating for many years.

Boomers was followed by an eight-year-run of a Beef O’Brady’s franchise, which was replaced by The Coupe, a local breakfast-lunch restaurant that coincidentally had a rooster as its symbol. Then, Jeri Lu’s Kitchen, co-owned by Tsangouris, moved in for a few years before he morphed the restaurant into Thee City’s Diner in October 2020.

Specializing in breakfast and lunch with a Southern twist, the original location of The Rooster launched in December 2017 in Empire Plaza at 600 Goodlette-Frank Road N. in Naples. Its northern endcap previously was home to Oneyda’s Bakery & Deli and Simply Southern BBQ.

While The Rooster has always been something to crow about, the small local restaurant has been packed since Food Network celebrity chef Guy Fieri stopped in for an episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” that first aired early last year. The Rooster’s success has made the parking situation difficult at the small retail strip.

“We still get a lot of people [say,] ‘We saw you on the show,’” Sutton said. “Since the show happened, it’s just been crazy.”

Diners especially want a taste of Sutton’s signature Hot and Crunchy Grouper and Texas Reuben brisket sandwiches that he featured on the national TV show.

The Reuben sells the most, Sutton said, but his grouper has been his signature item for decades at numerous restaurants. “That’s been my dish that I’m known for,” he said.

The Rooster’s top-selling items for breakfast include shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles, biscuits and gravy, omelets, pancakes and French toast. The smoked barbecue pulled pork also is a favorite.

Bigger plans

Sutton anticipates the challenge of operating a much larger restaurant, which has 176 seats inside and another 40 outside.

“The kitchen is huge,” Sutton said, noting that the extra space will enable him to do more bakery items, as he did about 20 years ago when he owned and operated Naples Cheesecake Co., Tasting Spoon Catering Co. and The Tropical Reef Restaurant on Trail Boulevard in North Naples.

“So, we’re going to bring back some of the cheesecakes and do a lot more pies and more bakery kind of stuff for breakfast and lunch,” he said. “Then, full dinners, full bar — there’s going to be a lot going on over there.”

The original smaller location of The Rooster also will remain open and operated by Sutton. “The big one will be The Rooster, and then the little one we’ll probably change the name to The Rooster Cafe,” he said.

The new restaurant opportunity is basically turnkey, so Sutton doesn’t expect major physical changes to the space.

“There’s not a lot that has to be done. We’re doing cosmetic stuff in the front,” he said. “There used to be a game room in the back, and I’m turning that into prep for a bakery area because we’re going to have to make a lot of biscuits.”

The game room for the former sports bars there recently have been used as a venue for private parties.

“It’s like a 20-by-20 room that basically didn’t have anything in it,” Sutton said. “They were doing private events in there. It’s attached to the kitchen, so it’s perfect for storage and my bakery.”

Sutton thinks a large bakery space will help him serve an expanded menu.

“Everybody’s kind of joking with us that I’ve been talking to about it,” he said. “They’re like, ‘You’re going to do like 800 to 1,000 people on Sundays.’ That number just blows my mind. My second thought is, that’s a ton of biscuits.”

The Rooster already bakes its share of biscuits, but Sutton is preparing to make many more.

“On a good Sunday in season, we’ll do 22, 24 dozen biscuits on a normal Sunday here, which is 350 to 400 people. If you’re doing double that, you’re looking at 40, 50, 60 dozen biscuits. That’s a lot of biscuits,” he said. “Then, for dinner, instead of bread, we’re going to do little baby biscuits and cornbread and little cornbread muffins and things like that, so that’s even more biscuits.”

Sutton plans a soft opening this fall at the second location of The Rooster.

“My plan is to do breakfast for a week and then open for dinner the next week, just so we can work some kinks out,” he said.

Sutton wants to open by September so that he can participate in the Sizzle Dining local restaurant week promotion that month, but his knee replacement operation may delay the opening a bit.

“We were trying to be open by Sept. 1, but we may have to push that back a week or so because of my knee,” he said. “But we’re definitely trying to get open by September.”

Sutton also hopes to eventually get another visit from Fieri and his TV crew.

“Between three and five years after he does his show, they go back around to some of the places and see how they’re doing,” he said. “We’ve got to get that Camaro back down here.”

The Tim Aten Knows weekly column answers local questions from readers. Email Tim at Tim.Aten@NaplesPress.com.