“SHOP TALK: New Tex-Mex restaurant, life planning and grocery shopping with Rudy”

SHOP TALK: New Tex-Mex restaurant, life planning and grocery shopping with Rudy

Posted: 11 Nov 2010 02:08 PM PST

Chris Curle special to the Eagle Rudy Balocki has become a familiar face to many Marco Islanders during his 17 years as a loyal and popular employee at the Publix store at the Shops of Old Marco.

The people who created the hugely successful Arturo's Ristorante Italiano on Marco Island almost 15 years ago, Judy Barney and Arturo Perez, are about to bring a beautiful new restaurant to the East Trail, about halfway between Marco and downtown Naples.

It's the Blue Agave Tequila Bar and Grill, which will resemble Arturo's on Marco in some ways — quality food in generous portions at affordable prices. Their restaurant know-how will be there as well. But the menu will be very different, serving quality Mexican and Tex-Mex food, including traditional dishes. But wait. There's more.

"We'll have a full bar, including some of the best tequilas in the world," Judy says. "We plan to have tequila tastings with a variety of brands, probably unmatched in this area."

Add to that live music on weekends and the Blue Agave would seem a recipe for success.

The restaurant is located in a stand-alone building at 3785 Tamiami Trail East. Judy is working to make the decor conducive to having a hot time in a very cool atmosphere.

"We hope to open in early December, even earlier if possible," Judy says.

The heart of the blue agave plant, by the way is the key ingredient in tequila, the only ingredient in the very best tequila.

Of course Arturo's restaurant on Marco is doing well, looking forward to another successful season. As soon as Judy and Arturo get a firm opening date for the Blue Agave Tequila Bar and Grill, we'll let you know right here in our Shop Talk column.

A note for your social calendar: Arturo's will have the official lighting of the big Christmas tree at the entrance to the restaurant next Wednesday, Nov. 17. It preludes the Chamber of Commerce After Five gathering there that evening.

Marco's "Mr. Publix" — Rudy Balocki

We used to think that Mary Zachrich, Keith and Barb Dameron and Dick Shanahan know more people on Marco than the rest of us put together. That's wrong, of course.

Rudy Balocki probably knows more people here than anybody, hands down — Islanders, full-timers, snowbirds, tourists, conventioneers and even a few people who got lost on the East Trail, got to Marco by mistake and ended up at the Publix on South Barfield Drive.

Rudy denies our theory that he conjured up a scheme when he moved here full time in 1993 to meet and greet every living soul who ever shopped at the "big Publix." And it seems to have worked. Not only does Rudy know everybody, but everybody knows him.

His love affair with Marco began during his first visit in 1987, while living in Connecticut and working in public relations.

When he and his wife moved here, she got a job with the Naples Daily News and Rudy took a job with Publix.

"It was just something to do," he says with a smile that lights up the town from his Publix to the other one. "Here I still am, 17 years later. I love people and this is the place to meet people."

He continued working after his wife died 11 years ago.

"Publix and its people are very nice to me and I have no complaints. I have a few health problems now and they're treating me 100 percent terrific," Rudy says of his employer.

Five days a week, Rudy is there, and out there, corralling carts in the parking lot and rolling them back into the store. And if you're female, you must have experienced Rudy's grin and his greeting, "Hiya Honey!"

"I always call everyone 'honey' so I stay out of trouble," Rudy explains.

"The people on Marco and I have a great rapport. Many of the elderly folks like to chat and I try to help them out. Some have no one else to talk to. I just try to listen. And sometimes they ask my advice on different things."

Rudy enjoys that interaction, including showing them photos of his recent trip to Italy.

"It was the six of us, my daughter and her husband, three children and grandpa. It was three weeks, one of the greatest vacations I've had in a long time. We were in Tuscany, Florence, Rome, Pompeii, Vatican, Coliseum and Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast."

Now he's back at work, in the heat — in the chill, whatever. "Give me the heat," he says.

"During the service I was in the Pacific and I got accustomed to the heat, in the Philippines and Okinawa."

Rudy is looking forward to the season.

"We were slow this summer; it's been a bad year. But now it's starting to pick up and they're trickling back to town."

So when you hit the big Publix, say hi to Rudy. If you're a kid or a lady, you're likely to get back a smiling, "Hiya honey!"

How and where will you spend your next decade or two?

Those of a certain age spend more time pondering our future than we may admit. And some of us may get a good idea of some practical possibilities next Thursday at Iberia Bank.

It's the next in the bank's In The Round series, a non-sales-pitch look at three retirement communities in our area. Representatives from Bentley Village, Aston Gardens and the Arlington will be at the bank to explain life and living in those facilities. And they'll take your questions.

The evening may open your eyes and clarify your thinking as you consider your future. That's next Thursday, Nov. 18, at 6:30 p.m. at Iberia Bank, on Elkcam Circle. For reservations, phone (239) 393-2400.

Chris Curle is a former news anchor for CNN and for ABC-TV stations in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Houston. E-mail chris@chriscurle.com.

Don is a former ABC News correspondent and bureau chief and a former news anchor for CNN and ABC-TV in Atlanta. His Farmer File column appears Wednesdays in the Naples Daily News. E-mail: don@donfarmer.com.

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