St. Charles’ new seafood restaurant seems to tear a page from The Old Man and the Sea.
In our story, the titular fisherman is St. Charles, a city pining for fish. Its Joe DiMaggio, the iconic figure called upon to land the marlin? Big-leaguers in their own right, the Pietoso Family. At risk of rambling, or rather disappointing English teachers far and wide, the metaphor will stop here. After all, this is a story about a restaurant, not literature.
Napoli Sea(1450 Beale Street, St. Charles/napolistl.com), the fourth chapter in the Napoli franchise, opened last month on the Streets of St. Charles, barely a pondskip away from its older sister, Napoli III, which sits next door and shares the kitchen. And like the fish in Hemingway’s novel, the restaurant was worth landing.
After years of seafood-based dishes dominating tickets at Napoli III, the Pietoso family realized St. Charles was ready for an elevated seafood eatery, one in which the Italian ingredients are accents, not the focus.
Rarely are landlocked states and fresh seafood synonymous, but the Pietosos have seemingly shrunk the distance between Missouri and the Atlantic.
The Pietosos are no strangers to expedition and traveled to glean inspiration from other seafood restaurants. Napoli Sea’s space on Beale Street, next door to Napoli III, was previously occupied by Yoga Six. Once the venue went on the market, the Pietosos quickly saw the advantages of the location and primed the place to open in less than a year.
To transition the space, they added a mezzanine level, creating an additional 34 seats. The kitchen of Napoli III was expanded to conjoin with Napoli Sea’s, allowing for more efficient food handling and ingredient sharing.
Zack Smithey, an artist Pietoso describes as “so freaking talented,” lent his skill to transform the venue into the nautical escape it is today. In his work, larger-than-life sea turtles swim overhead, while orange octopuses interlink their tentacles below the mezzanine as abstract layers of blue and gold paint allude to far-flung paradises.
Napoli Sea is unabashedly otherworldly — in its whimsy, it revives the memory of the Pietoso patriarch “Doc,” a deep sea Navy diver, and the inspiration behind Napoli Sea.
“This is the first non-Italian Napoli,” Pietoso says. “We wanted to make it mean something.”
A bronze diver’s helmet, similar to one Doc wore during his time in the service, is the focal point of the bar. The artifact grounds the restaurant, incorporating a touch of personability diners may recall from the earlier Napoli restaurants.
The menu is opulent, with the familiar Italian divisions (“Appetizers,” “Insalata e Zuppa,” “Pasta,” and “Secondi”) fronting a variety of decadent dishes, from charred octopus to a 12-ounce Australian Wagyu strip. (Add the optional Bearnaise and crab legs, and it sells for $120.) There’s also a market catch, offered with four different sauce options, and a raw bar. There, ceviche sits next to caviar, and neither feel out of place.
Yet the dish most deserving of fanfare is one that truly plays with fire: the risotto di mare. Tableside, hot risotto is flambéed — the process of dousing the dish in alcohol, setting it aflame and burning off the alcohol — then mixed with seafood inside a wheel of Parmesan aged in northern Italy.
To harpoon back to the likes of literature, Napoli Sea is as much a treat for the tastebuds as it is for the imagination. While the byline belongs to the Pietosos, Hemingway’s themes stay afloat: perseverance, skill, memory.
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