Bayview Restaurant

Tom and I found Marco Island’s Bayview Restaurant at the "coastal Italian-style village" of the Esplanade Shoppes, Residences and Marina on picturesque Smokehouse Bay. The formula for Southwest Floridian hospitality appears to have been sealed in stucco. We quickly took in the colorful waterfront piazza, walked past the usual suspects—Starbucks and Cold Stone Creamery—toward the festive outdoor bar and marina, and through the doors of the nautically decorated upscale, casual Bayview. All the while, we were humming Sammy Cahn’s masterpiece of 1942, I’ve Heard That Song Before. Developers must know "how a theme recalls a favorite dream" because there were hundreds of happy, tanned, be-sandaled people of all ages holding ice cream cones and martinis on the Esplanade, waiting to witness yet another glorious sunset over the water. Favorite dreams are worth having over and over again.

"The Esplanade is the Fifth Avenue of Marco Island," explained Gligor Tuparov, the Macedonian general manager of Bayview, as our Serbian server and assistant manager Dragomir Sundic hovered close by. "Bayview is connected by Rimaco Corp. to Vergina on Fifth Avenue, Vergina at the Esplanade, Bayview and our magnificent StarBar."

Several millennia of stress and strife in the Balkans might come to an abrupt and permanent halt if the Macedonians, Serbians, Albanians, and every other ethnic group could all spend an evening at the Esplanade on Marco Island. We would recommend that the Balkan nations and all others prepare for a bit of a wait on a weekend evening, because the joint is jumping. Dragomir brought us three wines to whet our appetites: a Mark West pinot noir ($9.50 glass/ $36 bottle), a Blackstone merlot ($6.50/$26), and the Crane Lakes chardonnay ($6.50/$26). It worked, to the point that we wolfed down our New England clam chowder ($4.95 cup/$6.95 bowl) and an assortment of crispy coconut shrimp ($11.95), crispy calamari ($9.95), and Bayview scallops in vanilla champagne sauce with fried plantains ($13.95), when at last they arrived.

Tom ordered the ahi tuna, blackened and finished with a port wine sauce and served with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables ($23.95). While he enjoyed the tuna, he was especially fond of the mashed potatoes. We found the seafood linguini ($19.95) good but a bit bland. The big winner of the evening was a savory dish Dragomir insisted that we order: the veal osso bucco, a generous portion of tender veal served with crisp vegetables in a nice stew-like broth ($23.95).

We topped the meal off with two very good desserts, a slice of caramel apple pie ($6.95) because I am going through a caramel revival, and the sweet fantasy truffle cake ($7.50). Then we strolled the Esplanade, taking in the pretty boats and the last few pink-orange streaks of the night sky. We know it well, that melody.

Bayview Restaurant The Esplanade, 740 N. Collier Blvd., Suite 105, Marco Island; (239) 389-4511 or www.bayview marco.com. Lunch and dinner daily,
11 a.m. to closing. Reservations recommended. Free parking in lot. Credit cards accepted. Handicapped accessible.

Reviewed: May 2007