Italian wine bar and gourmet market open in historic Naples – & More News Here

Italian-born Maria Vilella feels proper at dwelling in her new La Bella Apulia Gourmet Market & Apericena in historic Naples. La Bella is so homey and comfy that individuals could really feel as if they need to be bringing host Vilella a bottle of wine or a bouquet of flowers once they dine there as her visitor. 

“Everybody says it feels like being home, so they like that,” Vilella mentioned. “It’s cozy.” 

La Bella Apulia opened Tuesday in the country Shoppes at Dockside, previously Dockside Boardwalk, at 1100 Sixth Ave. S., in Old Naples. “I changed everything. I built the kitchen. I did everything,” Vilella mentioned. 

Just contained in the entrance of the cafe and wine bar is a tiny market with gourmet merchandise imported from Italy. The cabinets show packages and jars of dried pasta, sauces, olive oil and marmalades and different meals objects straight from Puglia, or Apulia because it’s additionally identified, the area of Italy the place Vilella is from. Everything she serves in the cafe, apart from the deli meat, is also imported from that area of southern Italy that types the “heel” of the nation’s “boot.” So, the cafe offers a style of Italy. “They have authentic Italian because I’m the one cooking and preparing everything,” she mentioned. “And they can enjoy a very good wine.”

The apericena concept of eating could also be overseas to many Americans. “Apericena is from an Italian word, aperitivo, which means aperitif,” mentioned Vilella. “It’s the tradition of enjoying a cocktail or a glass of wine and a bite to eat (before a meal). You order your drink; it comes with food.” So, when friends order a glass of wine or a mimosa, bellini or spritz cocktail, it comes with mini Italian bites served much like a charcuterie board.  

“I have cheese and cold cuts and artichokes, mushrooms, peppers, olives, everything,” mentioned Vilella, who serves alternatives designed to greatest accompany the alcoholic beverage ordered. “I will have little bites of pasta dishes sometimes. Just a little thing.” 

Apericena objects could also be bruschetta, kinds of cheeses or olives, mini meatballs or small items of cooked pizza dough topped with prosciutto, salami, capicola or mortadella. “Everything comes from Italy,” she mentioned. 

La Bella’s small menu additionally contains soups, salads, cheese plates with contemporary grapes and marmalade, antipasto, flatbread pizza and meatball, mortadella or Italian sausage sandwiches. 

Previously a supervisor of eating places in Italy for 15 years, Vilella relocated to the United States to be a basic supervisor of an Italian-American restaurant in Naples earlier than she opened her personal restaurant, La Casa dell’Anima, final yr in East Naples. She closed it, although, after discovering a greater location for her new La Bella Apulia in a former retail retailer in Naples. The cafe has small tables inside in addition to exterior on the boardwalk alongside a small marina.   

The new enterprise is open 3 to eight p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, midday to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 to eight p.m. Sunday. It’s closed Mondays and Wednesdays for now.