NEWS

Last call for Transylvanian cuisine: Daniela's Restaurant closing next month

Tim Aten
Naples

 

After a successful eight-year run, Chef Daniela Craciun is closing her Daniela’s Restaurant in North Naples. Patrons have until Nov. 11 to sample her traditional Hungarian, Romanian and northern Italian cuisine.

With the clock ticking for Daniela’s in North Naples, local diners have the opportunity to savor its traditional Romanian, Hungarian and northern Italian dishes before the restaurant closes next month.

After a successful eight-year run, Chef Daniela Craciun is closing her namesake eatery to spend more time with her family. She will remain in the Naples area as a private chef and caterer, but the last day for Daniela’s Restaurant is Nov. 11, she said.

Selling her restaurant was not an easy decision for the chef because she truly enjoys feeding everybody. Craciun personally connects with her patrons.

“They are not just customers. They are friends. They are family,” she said. “A lot of customers love us and I love all of them.”

Chef Daniela Craciun prepares dinner in the kitchen at her Daniela’s Restaurant in North Naples.

So, of course, Craciun is not a chef that always stays in the kitchen. She routinely ventures out to meet dinner guests.

“I like to connect with people. I like to see what they are thinking,” she said.

Craciun clearly cooks from the heart. She loves sharing her passion, especially when it comes to food, which she feels is important and healing.

“I started at a very young age and I love to cook,” she said. “It’s my passion and it’s what I do. When I’m sad or happy or whatever I love to cook.”

Chef Daniela Craciun prepares traditional Hungarian, Romanian and northern Italian cuisine in the kitchen at her Daniela’s Restaurant in North Naples.

Craciun, 44, and her eight siblings grew up in the Transylvania region of Romania known for its medieval castles and the legend of Dracula. At age 26 she moved to Italy, where she began her formal culinary training.

After an older sister, Cori, fell in love with Naples, Florida, while on vacation, she convinced Daniela to relocate to the United States and open a restaurant. They moved to Naples and opened their own restaurant with an outdoor patio in fall 2009 in Wiggins Pass Crossing, a shopping center fronting U.S. 41 North.

The Transylvanian Platter at Daniela's Restaurant, 13500 U.S. 41 N., North Naples, includes old-fashioned cabbage rolls with polenta and sour cream, hand-rolled sausages with ratatouille, and chicken paprikash.

“I’ve learned so much in these eight years. You have no idea,” Daniela Craciun said. “I’ve grown so much. A lot of customers are friends now, and not just friends, like family.”

Although an as-yet-unnamed restaurant will replace Daniela’s, you can bet it probably won’t have house specialties such as cabbage rolls, chicken paprikash, spaetzle, wiener schnitzel and Transylvania sausages. Craciun brought authentic recipes for these eastern European staples to Naples.

Lasagna Bolognese at Daniela’s Restaurant in North Naples.

“I make my own bread,” she said. “I make my own pasta, everything from scratch.”

That includes a hearty lasagna Bolognese and other dishes Craciun perfected during the nine years she spent working with chefs in northern Italy. Paprikash, the popular Hungarian chicken stew, is Craciun’s favorite dish, and her guests gravitate to her old-fashioned cabbage rolls filled with a seasoned mixture of ground beef, pork and rice.

Chicken paprikash (csirke paprikas) with spaetzle and potatoes is a traditional Hungarian dish served at Daniela’s Restaurant in North Naples.

When someone recently just showed up with an interest in the restaurant, the opportunity fit perfectly into Craciun’s desire to slow down her life a bit. As a single mom to daughters now ages 20 and 22, she missed them growing up while working 14-hour days.

Shortly after her marriage three years ago and the birth of another daughter, now 22 months old, Craciun wants to be with her more and a 13-year-old stepson who also needs more of her attention, she said.

Now she’s looking for a kitchen where she can base her catering business and private chef operation. For people wanting something different and more private, the chef will be the center of parties at their homes, where she will she will teach them how to cook.

Chef Daniela’s private menu looks a lot like the one at her longtime restaurant with its popular Italian, Romanian and Hungarian cuisines. She also has many gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian dishes.

“I want to be more organic and natural and it’s what I’m learning to do,” said Craciun, who recently started her own garden at home in Golden Gate Estates.

After a successful eight-year run, Daniela’s Restaurant is closing Nov. 11 at 13500 U.S. 41 N. in North Naples.

Undoubtedly, Daniella’s Restaurant has had a lasting effect on Craciun and taught her some life lessons.

“I grew up,” she said. “When I started cooking I wanted everything to be perfect and I wasn’t very happy. Step by step, I learned to just give my best and just let it go. I realized you don’t need to be perfect. Just put your love into it. It’s enough.”

More local restaurant news

Casamigos Mexican Restaurant opened Oct. 6 in Liberty Plaza, the center across U.S. 41 North from Outback Steakhouse in Naples.

Casamigos Mexican Restaurant opened Oct. 6 in Liberty Plaza, the center across U.S. 41 North from Outback Steakhouse in Naples.

Casamigos took over the Naples space that was briefly occupied by Cafe Luna and previously was the longtime home of Flaco’s Mexican restaurant on U.S. 41 south of Seagate Drive.

The new Mexican restaurant, launched by the same folks who own Mr. Tequila Mexican restaurants in Naples and East Naples, offers a similar array of lunch and dinner combination plates with meat, chicken and seafood dishes. The menu includes burritos, chimichangas, fajitas, tacos, quesadillas, salads, wings, whole-fried fish and an extensive selection of tequilas from its full bar. Casamigos, or "house of friends," also is the name of a tequila company co-founded by actor George Clooney.

Casamigos, 4947 U.S. 41 N., unit 110, is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. For more info call 239-529-6472 or find it on Facebook.

Poached opened another Naples-area location Sept. 1 in Pebblebrooke Center, the shopping center on Collier Boulevard just south of Immokalee Road.

Poached opened another Naples-area location Sept. 1 in Pebblebrooke Center, the shopping center on Collier Boulevard just south of Immokalee Road.

Poached co-owners Kenneth Vandereecken and Brandi Lostracco know the space well since the couple replaced Chrissy’s at Pebblebrooke in early 2010 to operate their first Toast restaurant there before moving on four years later. They handed off the eatery to another couple who had Coffee Cup there for a few years until they closed the breakfast-lunch restaurant in May.

Meanwhile, Toast locations were renamed Poached in the Galleria Shoppes at Vanderbilt in North Naples and the Shoppes at Pelican Landing in Bonita Springs. The recently renovated Poached at Pebblebrooke is the third location.

Poached, 15215 Collier Blvd., is open every day 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for breakfast and lunch. For more information call 239-919-3533 or go to poachedrestaurants.com.

For the latest in local restaurants coming and going, see Tim Aten’s “In the Know” columns archived at naplesnews.com/intheknow, and on Facebook at facebook.com/timaten.intheknow.

               

Daniela’s Restaurant