Bayside Seafood Grill - Upper Deck Bar

Saturday night should be a great time in Naples to find live music, but on New Year's Day many venues were closed or did not have music scheduled.  Finally we remembered Bayside at Venetian Bay!  Why do we always forget about this great place?  On Wednesdays and Saturdays, Merrill is playing acoustic guitar and singing on the upper deck.  Merrill appears to be an aging hippie only better dressed and groomed, with long white (or blonde) hair.  He is personable and professional, an excellent guitarist, has a very nice voice and sings a lot of songs from our era (60's, 70's).  We were happy to see that people clapped at the end of each song, indicating they were actually listening!

We had a spinach salad that they split in the kitchen for us along with a basket of dense, chewy rolls.  Then I had a small bowl of the tasty Southwestern Black Bean Soup and Bill had the Crunchy Fried Grouper.  It was a big piece of fish, tasted very fresh and was crunchy!

We like to sit at the bar when possible as we did last night.  The view from the bar is spectacular, overlooking Venetian Bay.  You can see some beautiful sunsets here but the sun sets too early this time of year. The plastic windows were down on the south side of the bar obstructing the view somewhat, but with several heaters around, it was nice and toasty.  As is true almost every time we are there, we were wondering "why aren't more people here?" 

Link: Bayside Seafood Grill and Bar