Casa Neri: The Cozy Italian Restaurant Beside Molto
It’s easy to assume Casa Neri is simply an overflow room for Molto Trattoria. After all, they are run by the same family, spend a few minutes there and you’ll realize it isn’t.
The intimate dining room, tucked beside its much larger sister restaurant on Fifth Avenue South, has built its own following by doing something surprisingly uncommon in Naples: serving regional Italian cooking that doesn’t feel designed for tourists.
Owners Francesca and Andrea Neri are also behind Molto and co-own La Pescheria, but Casa Neri follows a different path. They originally planned to open an Italian deli in the space before changing course after meeting chef Marco Nitride in Naples, Italy. They were so taken with his cooking that they convinced him to come to Naples, Florida and build the menu around his vision. The menu draws heavily from recipes and ingredients you’d expect to encounter while traveling through Naples, Italy itself.
That starts with the appetizers. The Wagyu Beef Carpaccio arrives sliced nearly translucent beneath peppery extra-virgin olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano and arugula. The Salmon Tartare layers diced salmon with creamy avocado, Calabrian chile and citrus for something simultaneously rich and bright.
Then come the pastas.
Everything is made in-house, and that’s immediately apparent in dishes like the Tagliatella Genovese, where ribbons of fresh pasta disappear beneath an onion-and-beef ragù that simmers for hours before being finished with buffalo mozzarella cream. The Lasagna Napoletana follows the Neapolitan tradition with meatballs, ricotta and slow-cooked tomato sauce rather than the heavier Italian-American version many of us grew up with.
Save room for dessert. The tiramisù comes in a Moka pot and is one of the best in Naples and the Torta Caprese (a flourless chocolate and almond cake from Capri) is exactly the sort of classic you’d hope to find in a restaurant like this.
The attentive service is almost as beloved as the food, and that’s fitting. With only a handful of tables, dinner feels less like eating on Fifth Avenue and more like stumbling into a neighborhood restaurant somewhere in Italy.
Casa Neri
382 5th Ave S, Naples
M-F 5–10 p.m.
Sat-Sun 11:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.
casanerinaples.com
Originally published in
The Naples Florida Review.
Read the full edition here.