Naples Illustrated December 2021

The holidays are here at last! I used to find this time of year very stressful, trying to get everything done and hoping Santa didn’t disappoint with his gift selections. He was, after all, delivering to two young ladies who did not always agree with “his” taste. I’m not sure if it’s the changes in the world over the last year and a half that have transformed my attitude, but I am totally chill now. The reset button gave me the opportunity to remind myself what the holidays represent. Now, with my family scattered all over the nation, I look forward to precious time with loved ones, cherishing every minute I can steal with them. An additional spark has been added to our holidays this year as we are blessed to…

2021 SAND DOLLAR AWARDS GALA Where: The Ritz-Carlton, Naples Theme: The Wind Beneath Our Wings Details: The Collier County Building Industry Association presented awards to member builders, developers, architects, remodelers, interior design firms, landscape architects, and trade, marketing, sales, and advertising professionals. Stacey Deffenbaugh, news anchor for NBC-2, and Krista Fogelsong, main anchor for ABC7, emceed the annual event. JACK WERT’S RETIREMENT CELEBRATION WHAT: Florida’s Paradise Coast-Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB WHERE: Hilton Naples DETAILS: A hundred tourism and hospitality professionals attended the farewell celebration to fete Jack Wert for leading the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB as executive director for almost 20 years. ADORE PHOTOGRAPHY AND NAPLES, MARCO ISLAND, EVERGLADES CVB…

John McDaniel fondly recalls some of his first professional gigs at the Naples Diner Theater in the early 1980s. It no longer exists but the pianist, composer, producer, and conductor went on to lead The Rosie O’Donnell Show band for six years and earn a Grammy and two Emmy Awards, among other impressive achievements. By happenstance, McDaniel, 60, is returning to Naples these days to collaborate with Gulfshore Playhouse Founder/Producing Artistic Director/CEO Kristen Coury. Together, they developed an original Broadway Cabaret Series, special to Naples, which McDaniel returns to emcee. “I’ve always had a soft spot for Naples,” McDaniel says. “Wow, has it changed. It was much more rustic as I recall.” Today, he says, “Naples audiences are smart and savvy. They get all the jokes, which is fabulous.” McDaniel teamed up…

David Webb, Cartier, Bulgari, Breitling: Visitors to La Maison Yamron step back in time and into bespoke beauty at the year-old estate jewelry boutique at Waterside Shops. Yamron opened the 1,100-square-foot La Maison last December to showcase luxurious estate jewelry. The brand is renowned for its ability to preserve and celebrate vintage design, high-value gems, one-of-a-kind pieces, and family heritage, and for creatively repurposing specific items (remember dress clips?) for the modern age. “I’m in the perfect environment because we get to see some world-class pieces here,” says gemologist Melissa Stein, who’s been drawn to estate jewels for more than two decades. One of the most striking, she notes, is long gone: a suite of custom-designed pieces by David Webb (a designer to First Lady Jackie Kennedy in 1962). But there’s always something…

Patti Genko, the force behind Bubbles Mobile Bar, remembers serving at her first event in Naples—a New Year’s Eve party at a local golf club in 2019. “We served Prosecco on tap at that first event and the events manager called us ‘the best prop ever,’” she recalls. Though they do not dispense spirits, she was inspired to add more prop options to her stable: first vintage 1960s Italian Vespa scooters and, most recently, whimsical bicycles. One is a 1970 black-and-silver Western Flyer bicycle built for two. The other two are new beach bikes that Genko wrapped herself; she also added wicker baskets, pink seats, silk flowers, and ribbon streamers. They are called “Pink Roses” and “Garden Party” because “they are inspired by tropical gardens and the Florida lifestyle,” she says. The…

NI: Your love of museums began as a child in Boston, visiting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. How did this parlay into a career? McNeil: My first love, before museums, was books. I was that kid who would be reading under the covers with a flashlight until all hours. I was an English major [at Georgetown University, where she minored in art history]. My first museum position was an internship in the publications department at The National Gallery in London when I was in grad school [earning a master’s degree in art history from The Courtauld Institute of Art]. So that opportunity married my two interests. True. There is an infinite number of stories that can be told through any number of objects, and it is up to a curator to decide…