Best of July: Top 4 tastes at Naples, Bonita, Cape Coral restaurants

July brought Independence Day celebrations, a tropical storm and plenty of good eats. 

This is our staff's opportunity to share a little more about our favorite dishes from the month. Sometimes it's a riff on something we enjoyed on a review, and other times it's something we might have eaten in our day-to-day lives. 

Whatever it is, you're about to find out.

Let's dig in.

Arancini from Gusto Cucina Italiana in Cape Coral

Gusto’s menu simply calls them “rice ball.”

I heard the table next to ours ponder the appetizer: “Rice ball? What is this, a Chinese place?!” Those two singular words are, perhaps, the greatest understatement of all time. They’re not entirely inaccurate. These are indeed ball-shaped spheres that are, in fact, filled with rice.

But midway through the first bite, you realize this dish is so much more.

You feel it in your mouth as the crisp breadcrumb shell crackles and collapses with a sigh of steam. You feel it in your heart as velvety risotto comes spilling out tangled in wisps of mozzarella. You sense it in your soul as your body goes numb, tuning out the dining room and the world at large as it hin on the happy warmth filling your belly.

A more fanciful Italian restaurant would call them arancini. Maybe Gusto chose “rice ball” to keep it simple, a mere statement of facts.

Or maybe it doesn’t want the world at large to know the stupefying wonders these “rice balls” encompass.

JLB review:Count yourself lucky to be at Gusto Cucina

Find it:  229 Del Prado Blvd. N., Cape Coral

Price: $12 for four

More: 239-458-5900; gustocucinaitaliana.com

— Annabelle Tometich

Cowboy nachos from Ben Allen's Backyard Grill & Pub

A small sheet tray skated onto our table, heaped high with a mass of meat, cheese, and tortilla chips. 

At Ben Allen’s Backyard Grill, that’s how they do it. The venture is a partnership between the Estero musician of NBC’s “The Voice” fame and opened in June with Todd Brooks of the Naples-based Brooks Burgers chain. 

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There is something intrinsically entertaining about untangling a nacho from its fellow chips. It’s the luck, I think: The luck of whether the chip will shatter into a million pieces of disappointment,  or if the queso will dribble from the chip across your shirt, or the possibility that maybe — just maybe — this is the ideal bite with every last topping heaped neatly upon this one fantastic, perfect little chip. 

This is a legitimately tall order. There are so many toppings. 

On the tray of nachos, alone, I fumbled my way through disastrously stubborn chunks of barbecued beef that insisted on falling into my lap. I tussled with black beans that skated to the edge of and then off my chip. I cursed at corn. Cursed. Imagine that state of affairs, will you? 

This says nothing of the boat of queso served alongside the nachos that I immediately dumped onto the pile. The more the merrier. 

The nachos have a lot of flavors, and are a lot of fun to eat. The mess is part of the experience. 

When you get the perfect bite — the one where all those bits and pieces come together for a beautiful, harmonious chip — you appreciate the fleeting nature of a really good nacho.

JLB review:Ben Allen can cook, y'all

Find it: 12655 Tamiami Trail E., Naples; 

Price: $13.99

More: 239-304-9552; benallensbackyard.com

— Andrew Atkins

Yucatán Shrimp at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille

Go full Sanibel and try the Yucatán Shrimp at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille. Sit on the outside deck and feel the breeze after a couple hours at the nearby beach.

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The meaty shrimp arrives beneath two generous slices of easy-to-tear bread. The shrimp dazzles in glorious sun-kissed colors, vivid red and orange. Dig deeper into how they make this Gulf gift and find it’s made with garlic, fresh cilantro, mild Colombian chilies, key lime juice and real butter.

Peel back the shrimp to find the orange-and-white striped sea creature. Eat it and then lick your drenched fingers. 

“People love the sauce and just could eat that and the bread,” our server said.

He was right. We asked for more bread and did just that.

Find it: 2500 Island Inn Road, Sanibel

Price: $15.95 half pound, $28.95 full pound

More: docfords.com/sanibel-island/

— Dave Osborn

Skillet cookie at Island House Restaurant & Bar

I saw it. I smelled it. Then I heard it. 

I swung by Island House and caught it on a quiet lunch hour, with a few patrons streaming in and out for a draft or a snack. The place was built in 1954 and housed a beauty salon, hot dogs and eventually a full menu. 

It’s co-owned by Chris Lytle (who also co-owns the North Naples Country Club) and his wife Rhonda on Bonita Beach Road, next to Golf Safari and not far from the Gulf.  

After a gluten-free pizza Margherita, I asked our server about dessert options. I heard the beginning of the phrase “skillet cookie” and interrupted her (sorry about that, actually): I’d take one of those. 

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It kind of defeated the point of my early choice, but I was going to dig into this sucker come gastrointestinal distress or high water. 

I saw it from my spot at the end of the bar, this delicious, steaming pile of chocolate chips and decadence. I saw the ice cream scooped upon it, and then I watched, hawk-eyed, as it approached my table. I could smell the warm, comforting aroma wafting through the dining room, this delicious cookie approaching me, and then I heard it, this ecstatic sizzling and slight caramelization of the two royal-sized scoops of Royal Scoop ice cream skating around the blistering edge of the cast-iron pan. 

I stopped noticing so much, then. I dug right in.

Find it: 3801 Bonita Beach Road SW, Bonita Springs

Price: $5.99

More: 239-498-6900; islandhousebonita.com

— Andrew Atkins