Three cheers for Napoli III, the new fine dining restaurant in St. Charles
The most recent iteration of Café Napoli shines at the Streets of St. Charles.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Napoli’s famous Stack salad, with fried eggplant and heirloom tomatoes.
You would be satisfied, even delighted, if you came simply for the salads. They’re that good.
The Napoli salad is a summery tangle of artichokes, palm hearts, and fine-sliced onions, all flurried with Parmesan and shuffled into a creamy, garlicky house dressing. Italian dressing flavors a heap of artichokes, slices of marinated red pepper, pepperoni nibbles, and Provel. A Caesar salad is gloriously concocted exactly as it should be, with a heavy hand on the Parmigiano-Reggiano. The Stack Salad is an architectural marvel, a pagoda of fresh tomato slices, fried eggplant, roasted peppers, a blob of mozzarella, basil clippings, and a black spattering of balsamic vinegar. Pair any of them with a chunk of the restaurant’s rustic bread. It’s clear that this is an Italian eatery far above the ordinary.
But let’s back up. Napoli III is the latest offering of the Pietoso family, who captain the other two Napoli locations, in Clayton and Town & Country. This one, situated in Streets of St. Charles, is thoroughly polished, a place where T-shirts are definitely not appropriate. Lots of glass, hangar-high ceilings, and formal tables are matched with a long, sleek bar.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Arancini del giorno
Service is as flawless as the food. Our appetizers arrived so swiftly, we suspected that they were premade—but we were wrong. The golden breading on a platter of calamari was still crackling. Try both the tangy marinara and the aioli, but you’ll find the crunchy squid marvelous on its own. The crust on a cue ball of arancini, impossibly delicate, breaks to reveal perfectly creamy risotto. Other starters are seen in a window display near the entrance: an icy slope covered with shrimp curls, crabmeat lumps, cubes of raw tuna, fanned half-shells shimmering with oysters.
Some of the pastas are freshly made in house, and it shows. (Interesting side note: The Clayton location uses only dry pasta, while the Town & Country location uses only fresh pasta. The St. Charles location uses both.) The angel hair is a bit finer than normal, with more spring. Broad lasagna shingles have that firmness that supports layers of meat and sauce, adding the texture that brings the whole dish together. A trawler’s catch of seafood is caught in strands of linguine. Tagliatelle, among pasta’s most versatile utility players, does the job for a meaty Bolognese gravy.
At The Italian Embassy, in London, acclaimed chef Danilo Cortellini hatched the idea of matching cacio e pepe with meat. Napoli III pays homage to the idea of two regions’ culinary influences coming together—the Piedmont meets Roma—with tiny agnolotti holding ground beef cheek, lavished with a slurry of Parmesan and black pepper. The sauce is a bit too watery for a classic cacio e pepe, but it’s a lovely delectable presentation.
What’s an Italian eatery without veal? Pounded thin enough to cover a giant plate, Napoli III’s is breaded, fried to exquisite tenderness, and blanketed in a ladle of tomato sauce and a pizza’s worth of mozzarella. Said sauce, which graces several dishes, is first-rate: more tangy than sweet, reminiscent of a July garden.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Shrimp and lobster scampi with capellini
Lobster and breadcrumb-coated shrimp visit a hot pan long enough to brown beautifully; they’re tossed into a tangle of cappellini along with capers and a splash of lemon juice. Once again, the quality makes the pasta a fundamental element, far more than merely a platform for the featured ingredients. When was the last time you focused on the contributions of those varied shapes of carbohydrates on your plate? At Napoli III, whether it’s the rigatoni pipes in a carbonara of olives and pancetta or wings of farfalle fluttering in a spicy cream sauce with scallops and shrimp, the pastas have personalities. Pay attention, and you’ll see how rewarding the good stuff can be. And though Napoli III does offer excellent steak options—a filet mignon, a strip, and a ribeye—the pasta is practically mandatory.
California and Italy dominate a long wine list. Most of the selections, including wines by the glass, lean toward the expensive. It’s understandable, though; the food prices are comparable but—in light of the quality of the ingredients and the portions, both of which are way above average—reasonable.
Is a Napoli IV on the way? Who knows? But the third, in St. Charles, has added to the region’s already impressive Italian food game.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
