A new gourmet store offers a taste of specialty food products in Southwest Florida.
The Farm Stand launched this spring and hosts its grand opening from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday at 11308 Bonita Beach Road SE, Suite 105, in Bonita Springs. The grand opening this weekend will feature tastings of wines and craft beer, as well as the sampling of products owner David McCone makes himself — such as pimento cheese, jams, mustards and pickles — “really unique stuff you can’t find anywhere else,” he said.
McCone’s new self-funded store was born out of The Naples Canning Co., a business the Naples resident started in 2019. Originally from Michigan, he had worked for about 15 years as a chef at Naples restaurants, including Café Lurcat, The Continental and Bay House. McCone, 34, left the restaurant business to become a full-time food sales representative for a specialty food company. He also registered with the FDA as a canning facility and started a commercial kitchen in North Naples to create jars of food items made with all local organic produce. “For me, it’s very important to know where my food comes from,” said McCone, who also sells his products Saturdays at Third Street South Farmers Market in downtown Naples.
McCone started his canning business to create some additional income to help pay for his wedding. Initiated just before the pandemic hit, the business actually flourished during the health crisis because McCone home-delivered his products or shipped them all over the nation. “I quickly converted to online,” he said. “I sold two and half years’ worth of inventory within 24 hours in April 2020.
“That really slingshotted my business to really get going. It quickly turned into something. I started this as a little side job. It really blossomed.”
Just when he was wondering what the next step for his business would be, he found a nearly 700-square-foot retail space in the end unit of a retail building on Bonita Beach Road just west of Old 41 Road. “It has amazing light with 12-foot ceilings,” he said. “I said, ‘This is it.’”
At The Farm Stand, McCone strives for uniqueness, something different. In addition to food items such as local honey and hot sauces, he sells American artisan products for home kitchens. “If I can find it local, that’s kind of a big push for me,” he said.
Products at the all-in-one store include cast-iron skillets, farmhouse pottery and utensils from a local culinary woodworker. “Everything is culinary related. It’s a store I would personally want to shop at,” he said. “I have home goods in here but all the home goods have to deal with the kitchen.”
That includes picnic baskets, wine baskets and everything that goes inside of them for trips to the beach, the park or just home. “It’s kind of based on this idea of a picnic culture,” he said.
Those baskets could be filled with some of McCone’s most popular from-scratch items: pimento cheese made with peppadew peppers and cheddar aged for two years; and strawberry and rose jam made with dehydrated rose petals and rose water. “I’m trying to be very differentiated from what others are doing,” he said.
