Hidden Pleasure

Just as one must dig deep within the shell to find the tasty little snail, so must lovers of fine French fare forage in a sprawling shopping center to ferret out the little gem that is Escargot 41.

This cozy yet classy establishment is tucked into an inconspicuous corner of the Park Shore Shopping Center. It is brought to you by Jacqueline and Patrick Fevrier, who previously served Gulfshore residents at Les Marais in Bonita Springs.

A word of caution: Call and make a reservation well in advance. The dining room seats about 50, and no one hurries through a meal here. The first time I called, Jackie apologetically told me she was booked for the next three weeks. When I tried again a few weeks later, I was lucky enough to snare the last table available for an evening 10 days hence.

This storefront was previously a bagel joint, but there's no trace of it left. Instead, the dining room is decidedly French, with a peach and burgundy color scheme, sheer, lacy curtains flowing over the front windows and an expansive wine rack along the back wall (as well as another less obvious one near the kitchen). In all, the restaurant stocks about 500 varieties, resulting in a wine list that's about three times the length of its menu.

The plenty-is-better philosophy extends to the ingredients the Fevriers use in preparing the food. The top-drawer ingredients they use include some 100-plus pesticide-free herbs and an assortment of heirloom tomatoes they grow themselves.

From the voluminous list of worthy contenders on the wine list, we were well satisfied with a 2001 Vosne-Romanée Les Malconsorts premier cru by Dominique Laurent, a big French Burgundy brimming with the essences of cherries and berries.

There's nothing trendy or trite on the menu. Classics such as bouillabaisse, roasted duck and foie gras are menu fixtures. Specialties such as lobster thermidor and cassoulet Toulousain are available with 24 hours notice. And for truffle devotees, there's a spectacular appetizer of whole winter black truffle, foie gras, prosciutto and spinach in phyllo served on a morel sauce, with an equally spectacular price of $79.

Those who shy away from classic French food featuring heavy sauces will discover here that a cream sauce need be neither thick nor cloying. Patrick is a masterful saucier, with a nice light touch to his creations.

The salmon fumé was a splendid rendition of smoked salmon. First the fish is cured in rock salt, then it's coated with coffee and hickory smoked. This imparts a woodsy essence to the tender slices of salmon. The fish blended harmoniously with the capers, red onions and sour cream with which it was served. Crisp toast points finished the dish off nicely.

No less noteworthy was an escargot special. While a classic preparation, Escargots Desire (served with parsley-garlic butter), is regularly available, on this night, the chef also offered eight tender snails in a light cream sauce, subtlely laced with Armagnac and served with oyster mushrooms in a Royal Albert bowl.

A mesclun salad contained fresh spring greens, delicious grape tomatoes and goat cheese, finished with a simple but well-flavored sun-dried tomato dressing.

Our youthful French server, as charming as she was efficient, paced our courses perfectly, allowing for short interludes that enabled us to savor the lingering flavors of the last dish before the next arrived.

The culinary excellence continued with entrées from both land and sea. The fruits de mer aux morilles proved a showy dish with plump shrimp and meaty scallops expertly sautéed with mushrooms, morels and just a whisper of thyme, all finished in a champagne cream sauce.

The tournedo Bacchus consisted of beef tenderloin cooked to a perfect medium rare, then dressed with wild escargots, portobellos and green peppercorns in a shallot-merlot sauce. Here again, the sauce was somewhat creamy but not excessively rich.

Sides of buttery mashed sweet potatoes and tender-crisp green and wax beans bundled together in a strip of squash finished off the plate.

From the menu of desserts, which are also made on the premises, I can attest to the excellence of the moelleux au chocolate, a bittersweet chocolate cake with a chocolate truffle inside. It's baked just long enough to make the truffle soft. It was a small confection with a vibrant chocolate flavor and was a fine finish to a memorable meal, especially when paired with Penfolds Grandfather port or the darker, weightier Smith Woodhouse '85 vintage port.

Naples seems to possess the regional franchise on fine French fare. With the April closing of Chardonnay, le grand-père of the group, it's comforting to see another accomplished French chef settle into the city. Félicitations to him and bon appetit to those who dine there.

Escargot 41 Park Shore Shopping Center, 4339 Tamiami Trail N., Naples; (239) 793-5000 or www.escargot41.com. Open 5:30-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Reservations recommended. Free parking in lot. Credit cards accepted. Handicapped accessible.

Even good restaurants need

a revamp now and again, and that's just what the old, familiar Sunshine Café got when it changed hands. Sandy Stilwell, who owns Keylime Bistro and RC Otter's on Captiva, purchased the Captiva branch of Sunshine Café a couple of years ago, then bought the Fort Myers location late last year.

Since then, the Fort Myers restaurant has doubled in size, having added an adjoining storefront to create a second dining room. Both rooms have a contemporary look fashioned around a neutral palette, cool tile on hardwood floors and rattan-backed chairs. The open kitchen, a feature of the original café, remains intact.

The name has been modified-it's now the Sunshine Seafood Café & Lounge-to reflect the emphasis on fresh fish and the expansion to a full bar from the previous beer and wine selections.

The menu has been refreshed, too, although it remains faithful to its wood-grilled heart. The wine list is relatively modest, but offers at least two or three choices of each wine variety, the majority of which come from California. The Joseph Phelps cabernet sauvignon was a good match for the smoky flavors that dominate the menu.

The fare leans heavily toward seafood, but there were plenty of choices for meat lovers. A wood-grilled duck breast in spicy-sweet chili sauce atop roasted corn and portobello relish offered a montage of bold flavors and textures. The Blind Pass shrimp contained five wood-grilled shrimp with a spicy orange blossom honey barbecue sauce on mixed greens and mandarin orange salad. Grilled scallops with warm goat cheese and hearts of palm were tasty as well.

Cajun-toasted walnuts added a piquant edge to a salad of arugula and heart of cabbage palm dressed in balsamic vinaigrette.

For a departure from grilled fare, I tried the Sunshine paella, a glorious concoction containing scallops, shrimp, chicken, mussels, sausage, artichokes, olives, onions and capers. That might seem like too much of a good thing, but the kitchen balanced the ingredients perfectly.

From the grilled selections, the rack of lamb with a mint demiglace was a standout.

Servers seem well versed on both the menu and the wine list and worked hard to make sure customers were happy.

For hardy souls who find room for dessert, there's Miss M's carrot cake layered with cream-cheese icing and candied pecans. It's dense, as you might expect, but not as sweet as most renditions. The chocolate Fantasia, however, is plenty sweet, starting with the brownie that serves as the foundation, covered in vanilla and chocolate ice cream, then topped with a chocolate butternut sauce and whipped cream.

It had been a while since I'd had a meal there, but this dinner has definitely put Sunshine back on my list of favorites.

The Sunshine Seafood Café & Lounge 8750 Gladiolus Drive, Fort Myers; (239) 489-2233. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Reservations accepted. Free parking in lot. Credit cards accepted. Handicapped accessible.

What We're Drinking

Zivo's Dark and Spicy Pinot Noir

Restaurateur Mitch Schwenke, of Cape Coral, is a red-wine devotee year-round. Right now he's enjoying "one of the best pinot noirs I've ever had," he says. It's Zivo, a 1993 vintage, from Oregon's Willamette Valley. "It's a big pinot, dark in the glass. A lot of people think of pinot noirs as light. This one's spicy like a zinfandel and big like a cab. It's as good a wine as you'll find for the money."

For a change of pace, he likes Hendry Block 8, a 2001 from the Napa Valley. "It isn't necessarily a summer wine," Schwenke says, "but it would be good for a backyard barbecue with meats because it's thick and chewy."

His other current favorite: Beaulieu Vineyards' Georges de Latour cabernet reserve, a 2001 from Napa. "It's not as big as the Hendry, but it's a wonderful cab, especially when you're having a party and need to please a wide range of palates. It's got broad appeal," he says.