East Naples breakfast places wait for permits to be served

East Naples is suffering from temporary breakfast deficit.

The much-loved Country House restaurant moved out of its strip shopping center four months ago and hasn’t yet opened at its new Prime Outlets location.

The restaurant was on U.S. 41 just east of Commercial Street.

At the same time, IHOP on Davis Boulevard keeps moving back its opening.

Adjacent to Olive Garden and E&B’s, IHOP hopes the new location will be open next month, said Janet Alexander, IHOP’s regional marketing manager.

“We’re very excited about that location,” Alexander said. “That whole (East Naples) area has grown so tremendously.”

The delay of the opening is partly because of the Collier County permitting process, Alexander said.

That also appears to be the problem for Country House at Prime Outlets, which is along Collier Boulevard just south of U.S. 41 East.

While the shopping center’s Web site lists the restaurant as already open, the storefront — where the Naples Bread Co. used to be — is lined with brown paper.

Owner Jose Lugo couldn’t be reached to comment, but Prime Outlets general manager Mark Gianquitti said Country House is just waiting for the county to permit a hood for the restaurant’s grill. Prime Outlets customers — and employees — are eagerly awaiting Country House’s opening, he said.

Kelly Iantosca, owner of Luigi’s, said the East Naples building where Country House was located had some damage. Several other businesses moved, but not Luigi’s, which is in an adjacent building.

Iantosca said numerous longtime customers — Luigi’s celebrated its 22nd anniversary June 1 — expressed concern that the popular pizzeria was also going to move.

Not so, Iantosca said.

“We’re not going anywhere,” she said.