USA, NY: Naples Brewing Company nearly ready to open in Naples

It’s hard enough to start a small business, but even more difficult when you live 3,000 miles apart, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported on March 11.

That was the reality facing longtime buddies, Dan diGiovanna and Trevor Andrews. The pair met more than a decade ago while living in the same dormitory at the Rochester Institute of Technology. They both became engineers.

But diGiovanna found himself living in Portland, Oregon, while Andrews remained local. So when a summer house-sitting gig brought diGiovanna back to the Finger Lakes, talk intensified about opening a brewery.

And now, three years later, Andrews and diGiovanna are nearly ready to open Ontario County's latest brewery: Naples Brewing Company, 104 North Main St. They are aiming for later this spring.

"I've always wanted to live in Naples," said Andrews, a Marcus Whitman High School graduate. "I love the lake. I grew up on it. There's so much hiking and awesome stuff to do around here. We were noticing there seems to be an uptick in tourism in the area. We've definitely seen a lot of growth in Naples. We seem like we're getting in on the ground floor of that and we're pretty excited."

"It seems like a lot of younger people are moving here. It's feeding the town a little bit and it seems like everyone is excited to be here," added diGiovanna, a Cortland native.

Andrews and diGiovanna started having serious conversations about opening a brewery five years ago. When Andrews would visit his friend on the opposite coast they would go on what diGiovanna called “adventure vacations.” Those trips were also built around visiting breweries. That provided a spark.

"We talked about how cool it would be to open a brewery, and out there, the breweries were booming," diGiovanna said.

The original plan was to plant a field of hops somewhere, with the ultimate goal of opening a farm brewery on the property. Plans change.

10 March, 2021