In the Know: More fit, more fuel for North Naples cafe

Fit & Fuel Café will soon provide more fuel options in a venue too big to fit in its initial space and hours.

The newly expanded café is targeted to reopen as early as this week and add dinner to its breakfast-lunch lineup in a space abutting Naples Cyclery in North Naples. The bicycle shop has been peddling fresh food, coffee and beer at its companion eatery for seven years in The Pavilion shopping center, anchored by LA Fitness and Paragon Theaters on the northwest corner of U.S. 41 and Vanderbilt Beach Road.

Since the cafe opened in 2011, a Subway sandwich shop stood between the 20-year-old bicycle business and Fit & Fuel. The closing of the sandwich chain’s franchise last summer presented the opportunity for the separate units to be combined, a move that will more than double the number of seats at the cafe.

“The big thing is (we’ve) expanded not only in square footage and overall space but the menu and hours as well, so we are going to have options into the afternoon and evening that are going to be new,” said Peter Marsh, general manager of Naples Cyclery.

“It’s everything you know and love about Fit & Fuel but a very, very cool space. I think people are going to be real excited. It’s kind of different for Naples, in general, and definitely up in North Naples.”

Fit & Fuel Café has been offering a fairly extensive menu of healthier fare for breakfast and lunch every day. The options, many of which have been given fun cycling-related names, include salads, wraps, sandwiches, smoothies and baked goods freshly made in-house.

While the café had been closing at 4 p.m., it tentatively will stay open until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays once it relaunches, Marsh said. The café still will close earlier on Sundays.

“I think you’ll find it’s going to be a pretty hot spot, especially pre-movie. We’ve got a great big bar and all the beer on tap and kind of some easier, lighter menu options for a pre-dinner snack or even a meal frankly.”

In the meantime, while the café has been closed for renovations, Fit & Fuel has been serving its food, coffee and smoothies out of a big red food truck for the last few months parked at the western end of the shopping center.

“We were operating out of an abbreviated space then we were able to get the food truck to continue,” Marsh said.

Beer and wine are not available from the truck, but the beer count will nearly double with the café’s relaunch and take-home beer from craft breweries will be available, he said.

Once the café is back in action, patrons are going to be pleasantly shocked by the new space, Marsh said. Only some of the former décor such as old bikes and artwork will remain.

“But other than that, it totally got turned on its head. So, it’s going to be super exciting. It’s totally different. It essentially turned into a vanilla shell,” he said. “We had a really great designer work with us. A guy who’s done a lot of really, really cool stuff in other parts of the state, not only the state but the country. It was a very special opportunity.”

The businesses together now occupy about 7,000 square feet total on the western leg of the shopping center. One new feature that can’t be missed from either business is the huge opening that will connect the abutting cycle shop and café.

“The big thing is that 8-by-8-foot opening,” Marsh said. “Now, because we’re butted up against it, there’s going to be free-flow between the bike shop as well as the café. The hope is that it’s really going to create more of a fun, cultural kind of experience.”

While specific dinner details have yet to be revealed, anticipate expanded options.

“We didn’t want to deviate too far from what people have fallen in love with and come to us every day for, so we’re still going to be offering that,” Marsh said. “It’s just going to be that plus some more.”

For more information about Fit & Fuel Café, 819 Vanderbilt Beach Road, call 239-514-3333 or go to fitnfuelcafe.com.

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For the latest in local restaurants coming and going, see Tim Aten’s “In the Know” columns archived at naplesnews.com/intheknow, and on Facebook at facebook.com/timaten.intheknow.