Creating something unique and constantly updating while continuing strong traditions and service is the secret to success for Paul Peden.
This year Paul celebrates 40 years as owner of the downtown Fort Myers icon The Veranda.
“We’ve done well,” he says. “It has changed. Just like every business has change, we have to continue to evolve.”
Andrew West/The News-Press
Paul Peden has been the owner of the Veranda Restaurant in downtown Fort Myers for 40 years.
Peter balances this evolution with keeping the style and traditions of the restaurant’s iconic atmosphere. The Veranda is housed in two 115-year-old homes that were connected and converted into a fine dining establishment that has become a bastion of sophistication.
“It was much simpler 40 years ago,” he says. “The restaurant business was much simpler. There was much less competition and a simpler menu.”
That menu consisted mostly of steak, fish and chicken. Back then it cost about $20 for a steak dinner.
“It was a pretty basic menu, and the presentation was simpler,” he says. “The restaurant was smaller. We closed in some spaces. We made more private dining rooms on the second floor.”
He also made changes to the menu and continues to keep up with his customers’ palates. Now a complete meal costs about $60.
“You start with the menu,” Paul explains. “That is the guide to your business.”
On The Veranda menu, Paul experiments with the unusual, such as fried green tomato salad or escargot in puff pastry. But he also includes traditional and comfort foods, such as filet mignon, New Zealand lamb, Atlantic salmon or a Southern sampler of fish. To keep up with trends, he offers meals for the more health-conscious diner.
No matter the menu, it’s also important to give people the quality they expect, Paul says.
“They expect to get the kind of service and food that you expect for $50 to $60 dollars a person,” he says. “The expectations you have for $10 is very different from $60.”
That also means making everything from scratch.
“If you are buying it from somebody, then somebody else can buy it, too, so it is hard to be unique,” he explains. “So we make everything from scratch. We still hand cut our steak and make our own bread. We do everything here in the kitchen. We make our own soups. There is nothing we don’t do.”
While Paul stresses that the business is tougher, he says it is easier to know what his clients want and expect.
“I read a lot,” he says. “I have always been curious about what everyone else is doing and saying. Now it is easier with social media.”
Andrew West/The News-Press
Paul Peden has been the owner of the Veranda Restaurant in downtown Fort Myers for 40 years.
While the menu has changed, the upscale atmosphere hasn’t.
“We still have waiters in tuxedos,” Paul says. “We still offer a lot of unique experiences here.”
The big chain restaurants can’t compete with The Veranda’s history. Its clapboard structures were built by Manuel Gonzalez, the founder of Fort Myers. In the 1970s the building was purchased by Herbert “Peter” Pulitzer. It was then given to longtime boat captain Fingers O’Bannon and housed previous dining iterations. Paul became the fourth owner in 1978, and The Veranda was born.
“It is the character that it is,” Paul says. “We’ve stayed in character with what the building is. It is a unique environment. It is warm; it is inviting.”
Black and white photos from the early days of Fort Myers line the walls. It’s like a walk through history — everything from ladies in old fashioned swimsuits to children in front of a school house. Thick, carved, polished wood frames the bar area. A shiny black piano sits prominently in one dining room. Old carved wood creates the railings of a dramatic staircase. Intricate chandeliers hang from the ceiling. A brick fireplace is the focal point of another room. Then there is the outside garden that is refreshed every autumn with new landscaping.
Born in Ohio and raised in Venice, Florida, Paul earned his business degree from the University of South Florida. He got his first taste of the restaurant business by waiting tables at the revered Bern’s Steak House in Tampa. He later moved to Southwest Florida to work at Smitty’s, which he eventually owned. He’s also owned Chateau Robert, The Shallows, Matlacha Oyster Bar, Woody’s Bar-B-Q, Mason’s Bakery, and he still owns Rib City.
Paul says he bought The Veranda because it was like nothing else in town.
“It was in this market where I lived, and it was a different brand, and the price was right,” he says. “This is a unique property.”
Even after 40 years, Paul is still on site several days a week, making notes on things that need to be done and planning menu changes.
A study by Ohio State University shows that 60 percent of restaurants do not make it past the first year, and 80 percent go under in five years, yet the Veranda has lasted 40, making Paul very successful. But he shares his success with others.
“Our waiters at night average more than a decade working here,” he says. “They have a combined time of over 200 years of dining experience. They are very sophisticated men and ladies that choose to be here, and I treat them accordingly. I think they share my passion about the restaurant, too.”
While Paul enjoys helping people on a personal level, he also assists local charities.
For The Veranda’s 40th anniversary, the restaurant is selling special stemless wine glasses and bottles of wine. The proceeds go to the Southwest Florida Community Foundation.
“I respect the work that they do,” Paul says. “They are just a good organization. They are very thoughtful about what they do.”
Paul has also assisted the American Cancer Society, Canterbury School, Junior League, March of Dimes, Community Cooperative, Southwest Florida Symphony and the Harry Chapin Food Bank.
“It changes,” Paul says. “It’s an in-the-moment kind of thing. I don’t have one passion for one particular thing. It is what hits my radar screen.”
Paul continues to look to the future.
With Rib City, he plans to add new locations and take them in a different direction with walk-up ordering and a more limited menu.
“It is more like a Panera,” he says. “It is a smaller footprint. That is where the market is going because of labor costs. We are playing with the model and intend to do that concept within the year.”
At The Veranda, Peter is also updating and renovating.
“This is an expensive property to maintain,” he says. “We continue to maintain it and upgrade it. We continue to change the menu. But if you have the basics, great service and great food, you are going to be OK. We know who we are here, and we are staying true to it.”