Some people have style wherever they go. Dressed down or gussied up — on a ball field or in a ballroom — they simply ooze confidence, as if everything comes easily to them. Some restaurateurs are like that, too. Chef Margot McCormack and business partner Jay Frein, for example, exude stylish culinary versatility in the romantically rustic chambers at Margot Café just as they do in the sunny lunchroom-market of Marché. Similarly, the team at Strategic Hospitality appears equally at home in the tony Patterson House, with their waistcoats and artisanal cocktails, as they are in Paradise Park Trailer Resort, with its Spam-and-Bud homage to all things down-and-out.
The latest crew to demonstrate such dining dexterity is the team at Bella Napoli, the low-key little sister of Valentino's Ristorante. If you've ever donned your good suit and checked the balance in your banking account before dining in the stately West End Avenue rooms of Valentino's, erase that memory from your mind. Bella Napoli is a casual, family-friendly affair, where prices top out at $15.
Located inside Edgehill Village — a.k.a. the former White Way laundry plant — Bella Napoli makes perfect use of the quaint courtyard between the once-industrial buildings. Swags of white lights festoon the secluded patio, which is lined with Cinzano umbrellas. The feeling is distinctly that of European alfresco dining.
Inside the long, low-lit restaurant, a traditional wood-burning oven from Italy flicks warm light across the space, which recedes into a main dining room and back bar. Behind tall walls of glass, pizza-makers flick flour and toss dough balls at passersby, delighting children and whetting the appetites of adults.
To be sure, this pizza-making stage is the focus of Bella Napoli, figuratively and literally, as the majority of menu items — pizzas, calzones and panini — start here, with a handmade dough that rises for 15 hours. Inside the dome-shaped oven, temperatures approach 900 degrees, and in such extreme heat it doesn't take but a minute for a thin disk of dough to cook. Add thirty seconds if the pie is adorned with meats and vegetables.
Each 12-inch round emerges from the furnace like a soft warm cloth, with a chewy, fluffy circumference and a thin bottom that's ever so slightly pocked and charred. This is not the kind of pizza crust that you cast aside like a meatless barbecued rib. This is the kind of crust that you savor, even when the cheese, sausage, tomatoes and other toppings are long gone.
The terse menu of about a dozen pizzas includes both rosse (named for red hue of the tomato sauce) and bianche (named for white cheese covering a sauceless crust). In our experience, the lines were blurred between the two, and our seafood pizza arrived without the promised red sauce. Toppings range from mozzarella, hot dogs and French fries (Americana) to mozzarella, eggplant, prosciutto, arugula and parmesan (Sofia Loren). We particularly enjoyed the Carrettiera (smoked mozzarella, Italian sausage, broccolini and garlic). Our table was split over the Boscaiola, which included green peas with mozzarella, prosciutto and mushrooms. Meanwhile, we unanimously rejected the ungainly medley of bland shrimp, squid and mussels in shells that topped the Pescatora, which, at $15, was the most expensive item on the menu.
On our next trip, we will stick with the $7 marinara pizza, laced with garlic, oregano, anchovies and black olives. Or we will revisit the Mezza Luna Al Forno Fritta. This standout among the red pizzas was actually a calzone, a pizza crust folded into a sealed pocket bursting with curds of fluffy ricotta, molten mozzarella, salami and prosciutto.
Another highlight was the unexpected execution of the panini, which employed the excellent crust as top and bottom to sandwiches stuffed with combinations including prosciutto, mozzarella and eggplant; prosciutto, fontina and roasted red peppers; and Italian sausage, smoked mozzarella and broccolini. The last of these panini was generously loaded with cool chopped florets, which balanced the creamy warmth of the cheese, though the sandwich could have benefited from additional salt or seasoning on the crisp green vegetable.
In general, Bella Napoli's simpler items were the most successful, from the straightforward pizza Margherita to the Michaelangelo pasta (spaghetti tossed with roasted garlic, cherry tomato, olive oil and basil). While the latter dish actually prompted us to add salt — something we seldom do — the restrained seasoning was a welcome change from the heavy-handed red sauce ladled in so many other establishments.
Come to think of it, the same light touch shapes the best parts of the menu and the ambiance of Bella Napoli. With a palette of straightforward ingredients delivered in an industrial landmark, this casual establishment carries itself with quiet confidence, like a fine-dining restaurant on its day off — taking it easy, but always in style.
Bella Napoli opens daily at 11 a.m.
Email arts@nashvillescene.com.
