Dining & Social

Southwest Florida eats better every year. Naples' Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South set the fine-dining pace, Fort Myers' River District supplies the breweries and nightlife, and the waterfront delivers the signature genre: dock-and-dine seafood from Tin City to Cape Coral's new Bimini Square, Fishermen's Village in Punta Gorda and the rebuilt icons of Sanibel, Captiva and Fort Myers Beach. Season brings a wave of festivals, pop-ups and hard-to-get reservations from January through April; summer brings locals' specials and easy tables.

Inside communities, dining has become an amenity in its own right — on-site restaurants, member happy hours and clubhouse calendars that function as the neighborhood's social engine. For many buyers, especially seasonal ones, the club bar ends up mattering as much as the kitchen at home.