Heroes eat here: Restaurateur thanks patrons

In some 40 years, Skip Quillen has had  a wide variety of experiences in the restaurant business. In addition to studying at the Culinary Institute of America — Anthony Bourdain was a classmate and acquaintance — he trained in Switzerland and worked in Santa Barbara, Calif. and Atlantic City. 

For the last 25 years he’s run Culinary Concepts, a Naples-based restaurant group that started with Pazzo! Cucina Italiana in 1995 and now has three other brands: Chops City Grill, Yabba Island Grill and the Saloon; there are two Chops locations, one in Naples, one in Bonita Springs. That experience drives Quillen’s perspective in leading the company through the pandemic. “We will building this thing back,” he says, “one brick at time.”