Aura is staffed with many well-trained Eastern Europeans with astonishing blue eyes. LXR Luxury Resorts recently effected a design coup at the old Registry Resort, transforming it into the sleek Naples Grande Resort & Club. The lobby has been designed to immerse its visitors in Feng Shui. The five elements of fire, water, sky, earth and metal all have representation, with the staff acting as the high priests and priestesses of relaxation.

Past a giant water wheel, we came upon the dramatic lines and angles of a white and black restaurant. Aura’s atmosphere seems very high-end South Beach, except that the techno music pulsing through the bar, dining area and "chill out" lounge played not to supermodels and wealthy Bolivians but young, blonde families on vacation and tanned local boomers in art gallery jewelry.

Everything—chairs, tables, etc.—comes to a point at Aura for balance and harmony. All points seem to line up with chef Stephen Delaney’s angular eyebrows, beneath which dark eyes convey intense focus and determination. In preparation for the 2007 opening of the Golden Door spa, the Naples Grande recruited Delaney to create a menu as stylish, pleasing and light as a spa treatment. Delaney found the blueprint for Aura attractive enough to leave his gig as chef de cuisine at Naples’ Ritz-Carlton Grill Room.

"One year, my UPS bill alone at the Ritz came to $100,000," the Johnson & Wales culinary grad confided, so great was his latitude to order "the best of everything no matter the cost."

"Will you have that sort of budget here at Aura?" I asked.

"Not quite, but I like a challenge. I gotta take my game higher," he said. Several of his sous-chefs decamped with him, so that a brief tour of the kitchen displayed four young, toque-wearing Ritz alumni. I almost lost Tom, who fell into a trance watching someone blowtorch the homemade marshmallow in a dessert cheekily named the Sm’Aura ($8).

After our initiation at the Lighthouse, we felt confident enough to order, but dashing Romanian server Robert Tereoasa smoothly took the matter in hand. "What I bring for you," he said, "you will find very nice, very good."

Our bread basket offered seven varieties of slices and sticks, including a remarkably soft tomato foccacia and a ramekin of dry chili spices with olive oil to mix to our tastes. We nibbled happily and eyed a series of opaque windows backlit with an endlessly shifting array of colors.

"Cool lava-lamp windows," Tom remarked. (After the tape measure debacle, I was privately relieved to see that they were beyond his reach.)

Within moments, we were sampling lightly fried calamari arranged on a bed of cantaloupe and cucumber to draw away residual oil. The effect was miraculous.

Robert told us to expect a shot glass with the next course, so we thought the fun with booze was starting. Aura’s playful wine list has sections for "adventurous" whites and reds, and every dish on the menu has been paired with a libation, so that we knew the praiseworthy "adventurous white" known as the 2004 Huber grüner veltliner "Hugo" from Austria ($10 per glass, $39 per bottle) would bring out the best in our calamari. However, the shot glass to which Robert referred was an exotic, fizzy cucumber juice concoction that rode the same dish as our fabulous Asian-style tuna "crudo," a plate of flash-seared sashimi with an avocado, ginger, tuna and soy tartare ($13). "The shot is like a sorbet. Use it to cleanse the palate and soul," Robert said. Out of 90 dishes, Aura only uses butter and cream in two. Robert and Tom urged me to chug the shot as if it were tequila, but I preferred to sip it.

The crab cake ($14) did not prove to be the holy grail of crab cakes, but our Caesar salad quickly returned us to pleasure, with its whole romaine leaves, white anchovies and top-notch Parmesan shavings ($9). (The Parmesan made a second appearance balanced on truffle oil-infused French fries, another miracle of rich flavors.)

Robert applauded our request for a bowl of the "silky" wild mushroom bisque, topped with whipped cream and truffle oil ($6). "It’s almost as good as my grandmother’s in Romania," he said. Almost?

When we tasted the amazing transformation of a fungus to a divine nectar, Tom said, "Can I have a trough of this?"

We told Robert to send his grandmother flowers.

"I’ll only take two bites of everything else," Tom said. He broke his word 30 seconds later with the arrival of the pear carpaccio, a flower-shaped tower blooming with pear and prosciutto petals ($11). My tongue did a standing ovation. The carpaccio threatened the Pester-Worthy Dish status of the bisque. Tom finished the plate while my eyes were closed in ecstasy, a mistake I won’t make again.

Our entrées—sugarcane-lacquered halibut ($26), seared diver scallops ($25) and the South American mixed grille ($27)—arrived simultaneously. These innovative dishes bore traces of Delaney’s Hawaiian, Asian and Caribbean influences, such as Sriracha hot chili sauce, pineapple-serrano mint relish and coconut jasmine rice.

"I should have worn elastic waistband pants," said Tom. He tasted the halibut and said, "You have to write something really smart about this."

I couldn’t take that kind of pressure, but I could linger over all of the side dishes—the yucca smash, truffled polenta and the aforementioned fries.

Now, in most situations, Tom is exceedingly generous. Yet his relationship with the mixed grille—churrasco steak, pork tenderloin and chorizo—can only be described as territorial.

"That good?" I asked.

"Pips emen."

"Pardon?"

He chewed, swallowed, wiped his lips and said, "It’s heaven."

Delaney personally delivered Aura’s signature dessert shooters, shot glasses containing such whimsical flavors as macadamia and tamarind. I liked them all, especially in their green glass votive holder; Tom favored the classic Coke float.

In one evening at Aura, we ate more food than we normally consume in a weekend. Yet as we left, our steps were light and energetic; I felt centered and calm. When I shared this with Tom, I expected him to launch into a skeptic’s lecture on metabolism and brain chemistry, but instead he said, "I know. I feel kinda, I don’t know … serene? But we are not putting that in the review, OK?"

"OK."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Aura Restaurant & Bar Naples Grande Resort & Club, 475 Seagate Drive, Naples, (239) 594-6000 or www.naplesgrande.com. Open 7–11 a.m. for breakfast, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch, and 5:30–10 p.m. for dinner, seven days a week. Reservations recommended. Free parking in lot. Credit cards accepted. Handicap accessible. Children’s menu available.

Reviewed: November 2006