An evening at Ce Soir begins with a shift in temperature and light. The door closes on the Naples heat. To the left, the bar glows like a stage set for the evening. Across the room, the raw bar gleams cool and silver, all ice, shell and theater. Between them, tables sit far enough apart to feel private, each held in its own pool of light.
To settle into a velvet-backed banquette at dusk, knowing you will not rise until the world outside has changed color, is one of the truer forms of surrender. Too many restaurants treat the evening as a finite commodity, a tidy series of tables marching toward the check. But once in a rare while, a room is built around the understanding that “tonight,” the English translation of the French term, ce soir, is a landscape to be traveled slowly, from the sharp clarity of twilight into the softer, warmer mysteries of the dark.
Aidan Hospitality, the Canadian group behind the original Ce Soir in Ontario, opened the Bayfront Naples location in May, limiting the 7,000-square-foot interior to 165 seats, with another 48 planned for the patio this fall. “Naples already knows how to dine well,” hospitality partner George Gill says. “What we felt was missing was the next part of the night—a place where dinner could naturally become another drink, another conversation, another hour.” Bayfront—a waterfront destination amid a revival driven by the upcoming arrival of Barneys New York—provided the perfect canvas.
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Photography by Carlos Gonzalez
ce soir naples late new bayfront curved bar place setting
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Photography by Carlos Gonzalez
ce soir naples late new bayfront pouring glass of wine
Behind the Cristallo quartzite bar, a roughly 118-label back bar reflects head sommelier Eugenia Suriani’s penchant for organic and biodynamic wines. Cocktails often follow dinner, with drinks like the elderflower Negroni sour (below). Top photo featured the Snapper ceviche.
When the group began looking toward its first United States expansion, Naples felt like a natural turn. The original Ce Soir is a French brasserie in spirit, shaped by an older building and colder climate. On the Gulf Coast, the restaurant follows France south, then looks outward to the wider Mediterranean. The result is more global, more porous and less easily contained by any American comparison. “We came from Canada with a concept, but Naples changed it,” George says. “The light is different here. The pace is different. The relationship to water and seafood is different. We had to let the restaurant become part of this place.”
After stripping the space to studs and concrete, the owners spent weeks running their fingers over tile glazes, rejecting the uniform and the mass-produced until they found pieces with a tactile, human variation. It is a detail most guests will never consciously name, yet the eye registers it as a lack of pretense. It feels authored, not styled. They tested their decisions exclusively at night, choosing materials that only reveal their true character once the sun has dropped below the Gulf: heavy timbers that soften under candlelight, unlacquered metals that lose their hard edge and deep jewel-toned upholstered chairs that absorb the shadows rather than fight them.
At the U-shaped bar, underlit Cristallo quartzite meets raw lava stone, its icy white threaded with gold, amber and gray, taking on a lantern-like glow. Gold trim by Naples’ Charro Custom Welding ties into honey-toned booths from Bonita Springs’ Black Mangrove Woodworks, while green mosaic tile and smoked-gold glass warm the brass frame.
Photography by Carlos Gonzalez
ce soir naples late new bayfront negroni sour
George and Aidan Hospitality’s founder John Pirathap put fire at the center of the Naples kitchen, installing a Josper, the Spanish charcoal-fired grill and oven. Manual, elemental and stubborn, the grill reaches just under 700 degrees, with no window or buttons to steady the heat.
Executive chef Alex Malinowski meters the oven’s force. The first course, bone marrow nestled with duck-fat-confit escargot, begins to take shape a day before it meets the fire. The bones are brined for 24 hours with rosemary, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and other aromatics, then air-dried. During service, they go into the Josper, where the marrow blisters and chars as the fat softens. A veal demi-glace deepens the dish; crisp bread and citrus-bright sauce vierge answer with crunch and acidity.
None of the kitchen team had worked on a Josper before. They learned side by side, reading the fire by the intake, the embers, the sound of searing fat and the scent of shifting woodsmoke. “Every night is a little different. The embers move differently, the heat changes, the timing changes. You have to pay attention, and I like that. That’s where the love is,” Alex says.
Alex came to Ce Soir with a background in French cooking and hospitality, including Daniel Boulud’s Café Boulud Palm Beach and The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Singer Island, Palm Beach. For the lobster spaghetti, his team gives the cracked tail briefly to the fierce heat, long enough for smoke to catch without overtaking its sweetness. They lay the meat over strands of house-made spaghetti coated in a velvety emulsion built from reserved shells, aromatics and brandy. Burst tomatoes bring sweetness; Calabrian chile gives the sauce a low, bright heat. At the table, a server lifts the lid to release a fragrant cloud before spooning a final lacquer of brandy-laced reduction over the dish.
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Photography by Carlos Gonzalez
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Photography by Carlos Gonzalez
ce soir naples late new bayfront Alex Malinowski chef
In the kitchen, executive chef Alex Malinowski labors over a Spanish charcoal-fired grill and oven known as a Josper, which adds a smoky finish to dishes such as the lobster spaghetti (pictured below).
With the main course comes wine. Born to a winemaking family in Sicily and trained across the globe, head sommelier Eugenia Suriani curated the 118-label back bar for the various turns an evening might take. Coastal whites sharpen seafood and richer sauces; robust Bordeaux-style reds like Lynch-Bages or Continuum meet the Josper’s smoke; bubbles carry celebratory toasts. French wines ground the list, while organic and biodynamic Mediterranean labels widen the field. More than 30 wines by the glass let her begin with what a guest knows, then open the door to Lambrusco, Slovenian orange wine or another less familiar pour.
Dinner often leads to a seat at the bar, where award-winning mixologist Jacob Martin picks up the kitchen’s affinity for Florida ingredients and fire. The Grapefruit Brûlée folds charred grapefruit into tequila and mezcal, while a savory garden martini prizes fire-roasted heirloom tomatoes and smoked sea salt.
Ce Soir opened after the seasonal crowds had thinned, yet its dining room remained busy through the summer. Nights already run until 2 a.m. on weekends, but October’s grand opening will reveal the restaurant’s full late-night register, with DJs and live entertainment. “We don’t want dinner to end and nightlife to begin. All of it should move together seamlessly, giving an evening out a longer tail,” George says.
At midnight, the check has yet to arrive. Instead, a server leans over the linen and suggests a final glass of amaro, guiding the evening away from cleared dinner plates and into the velvet edge of the lounge. Near the bar, the DJ adjusts a dial, and the bass drops into a low pulse. Two hours later, the doors are open, and nobody has reached for a coat. The room holds you there, shifting from the crisp chill of the raw bar to the amber warmth of the late-night lounge, letting the hours widen until morning finally catches up to tonight.
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Photography by Carlos Gonzalez
ce soir naples late new bayfront lobster spaghetti
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Photography by Carlos Gonzalez
ce soir naples late new bayfront seating dining room
Jewel-toned booths and tables with plush seating are intentionally spaced across the 7,000-square-foot layout. Guest move easily between the raw bar, dining room and nightcaps at the bar.