A select 300 members and their guests are poised to experience a special sensation on Bayshore Drive in East Naples.
The Maddox members-only social venue launched Oct. 3 by local entrepreneur Rebecca Maddox. Maddox’s stylish new private space completes the entertainment campus where her public wine bar, Rebecca’s, opened in April across the street from her Celebration Park food truck destination and Three60 Market waterfront cafe.
At the center of The Maddox is The Atrium, which features a large bar as its centerpiece and exterior glass walls that all open to the outside to create an open-air space. Comfortable outdoor lounge seating with firepits and fountains line two sides of The Atrium.
“All the doors will be open most nights,” Maddox said. “It’s a very kind of Balinese, indoor-outdoor feel. It truly is indoor-outdoor.”
The ground floor includes an outdoor stage with professional lighting and sound, a private party room and a prep kitchen with outdoor grills and pizza ovens. Second-floor amenities include a champagne bar, a demonstration kitchen, a board room and a cigar lounge with a large, round poker table.
While the front-facing Rebecca’s is open to the public, only club members gain access to The Maddox by showing the MDX app on their digital device at a decorative doorway near Rebecca’s entrance. Reservations do not need to be made by members of The Maddox.
“They don’t have to do anything. They just come,” Maddox said. “It’s until 9 or 10 at night. You can come for a cup of coffee. Pretty much anything they come for is complimentary as a member.”
That includes regular events, such as concerts, shows, wine tastings, game nights and seminars. “We have 284 events planned for the first quarter,” Maddox said.
The exclusive venue already has booked birthday parties, business events, travel talks and health seminars, she said.
The club doesn’t have a dress code or an initiation fee, but it does have an annual fee.
“It’s 18 grand a year, plus tax. You’ve got to tax memberships in Florida,” Maddox said. “But there’s no minimum, there’s no monthly and, you know, some of the benefits are you can go to any of these great events, no cost. Every day I have a benefit. It’s called ‘the first one’s on us.’ So, if you want to go and have a martini at the bar, and then go to Chops for dinner, the first one is on us. There’s no charge. I’m doing that because I want people to use the club. It’s a social club.”
Keeping with her initial idea to create the club, Maddox truly wants members to be active and regularly attend the local venue.
“Too many people in Naples have enough money that they can join and say they’re a member and never show up. That doesn’t make for a great club,” she said. “I want people to be engaged in the club. I want them to do things and meet other interesting people. And, if they never show up, for us that’s not a good thing.”
The Maddox includes a staff of more than 60 that prepares food and beverages, serves guests and manages the operation behind the scenes. The resort-type setting includes valet service near the entrance.
When he first learned about the concept, Chef Darren Veilleux, the culinary director of Rebecca’s and The Maddox, wasn’t sure how the business would work because it’s such a different concept.
“Then, there was one line that Rebecca said: ‘We don’t know what we don’t know, and we get to create our own canvas and you are the artist that gets to paint it.’ So, when I heard that, I said,
‘Wow, this could be a great opportunity and I love it,’” Veilleux said. “It’s something totally different. It still has that restaurant kind of feel. However, it’s not a restaurant at all.”
The Maddox has been in the making for about five years. Following a conceptual phase, Maddox purchased two vacant commercial lots in early 2019 totaling nearly 1.5 acres, and the project broke ground in the summer of 2021 with architectural plans designed by David Corban of Naples. The entrance into the new venue on Bayshore lines up with Becca Avenue, the road at the entrance to Celebration Park and its adjacent parking lot.
The unique concept actually came from Maddox, who really wanted a place to meet different people. The idea arose from her own curiosity.
“I have a junkyard mind. And I am a very curious, interested person,” she said. “I’m just a curious person, and all this stuff goes in and, honest to God, one day it just comes out.”
