If you’re a patriot with a federal cash rebate in hand, why not spend some of it at your favorite restaurants? You would be helping the dining industry through a rough patch.

I’m joking, but restaurants here in Naples, Marco and nationwide are in challenging times.

The latest example is Vergina on Marco Island. Faced with lease renewal and lackluster business, owners pulled the plug. The place has struggled for a long time, in spite of its spectacular location on Smokehouse Bay.

Also at the Esplanade, Bayview restaurant and the outdoor bar remain open under new ownership.

Vergina’s owners note that Vergina on Fifth Avenue South is alive and well. Other area restaurateurs are quick to deny rumors swirling of this or that place closing. As one put it, “talk of gloom and doom breeds gloom and doom.”

Some of their observations, not for attribution:

• Our restaurant scene is in a modest recession, but not all are hurting and some are doing very well.

• The season has been spotty, not as good as 2005 or 2006. A few owners see more diners foregoing appetizers or desserts and sharing entrees.

One example is a tony place with a five-course, prix fixe menu. “Women sometimes ask for the appetizer and dessert to go and often take part of the entrée home too,” says the owner.

• Chain restaurants --- the ones with all the national TV commercials---- began pouring into Collier County after a couple of the best known ones did well here two to three years ago.

“As they sprouted here, diners swarmed for a while, but after several visits, tired of the ambience and the menu and moved on,” says one perceptive restaurateur.

• Some customers are going to less expensive places or going to their favorite places less often. Some high-end places have more business so far this year than last.

• For restaurants in financial distress, dwindling diner turnout is a rock and the rising cost of doing business is the hard place. We all know about price increases for corn, wheat, dairy products and meats.

Add to that the increasing cost of delivering the commodities, the wine, beer, butter and eggs and everything else, to the restaurants. With gasoline prices going nuts, the nuts cost more.

“Even our linens laundry bills are going up,” notes a local restaurateur. “The cost of cleaning the white napkins is up 58 percent. It’s mostly energy and fuel costs going sky high.”

• Because purveyors are paying more to deliver the goods, they need to raise prices, but restaurants are resisting, knowing that higher menu prices may hurt business.

Some restaurants are aggressively making plans to entice diners.

“We’re doing VIP cards for our regulars to make sure they keep coming,” says one Marco restaurant owner. “That means special menu items, two-for-one drinks several nights a week, things like that.

“And we’re meeting with our distributors, telling them, ‘We’ve been loyal customers for many years, so work with us now and we’ll both get through the current slump.”

The owner of a Fifth Avenue South restaurant is philosophical about the situation.

“In this business,” he says, “If you’re just standing still you’re falling behind.”

Another restaurateur is more direct. “We just have too many restaurants here.”

Contact Don Farmer at Don@donfarmer.com

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