Sunday Brunch: This is
the Night When the Pizza's Cooked Right and We
Call it Via Napoli
19 February 2012
Bella Notte, friends! It is a
beautiful night, no? As we close this week's
special Lady and the Tramp Week, we'll take the
road less traveled and head on over to Epcot.
Though Tony's Town Square Restaurant on Main
Street in the Magic Kingdom is the obvious
choice for this special week, we'll take a look
at Walt Disney World's other popular, and also
newest, Italian restaurant, Via Napoli, where
Bella Notte is every night.



Via Napoli is housed inside a
stately manor which stands at the rear of the
Italy pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase.
According to Nick Valenti, the CEO of the Patina
Restaurant Group that runs Via Napoli and also
the neighboring Tutto Italia, the restaurant was
formerly the stables of a wealthy Venetian
Family. The son of the family, expected to take
over the family business, was not interested at
all and left home to travel. On his journey, he
discovered the delicious pizza in Naples and
fell in love with all things Neapolitan. The
father had to close the stables since his son
did not take up the business, but when the son
returned, his father allowed him to start a new
business and open a Pizzeria in the former
stables.

As the story says, Via Napoli's
origins are due to young man's trip to Naples,
Italy. The restaurant is aptly named and in
English loosely translates to Naples Road or
Naples Way. Authenticity plays a huge role at
Via Napoli, as the restaurant does indeed have
the high, cavernous feel with majestic archways
throughout, indicating that it formerly housed
prized stallions. Three gigantic, brick wood
burning ovens are on the far left after entering
the restaurant. Decorated to look like Roman
gods or some sort of legendary being, each oven
is named after a Volcano in Italy: Stromboli,
Vesuvio, and Etna.

In addition to the authentic
atmosphere and culinary tools, the restaurant
boasts use of 'Italian water.' Though the water
is not actually from Italy, the Patina Group is
known for using specially formulated water that
mimics the mineral content found in the water in
Italy. This enables the restaurant to create the
closest thing to authentic Italian pizza dough.
The water is what really gives dough its
specific characteristics and explains why breads
around the world are highly region specific
(that is why Florida bagels are far less quality
to those found in New York and New Jersey).

Great bread made with Italian style water
Though my goal is to eventually
dine at all the fine dining establishments in
Walt Disney World, I still find myself returning
to certain restaurants, with Via Napoli being
one of them. I've had the pleasure of dining
there three times within the past 6 months. It
has easily become a favorite among guests
because not only is the food delicious, the food
quality directly reflects its price. Disney
World is notorious for being the place to spend
a pretty penny, but at Via Napoli, you get what
you expect and even more at those prices.

The first time I ate at Via
Napoli in July of 2011, I was a tad bit
underwhelmed and my constant dining companion
Alex was furious with me because this is
definitely her favorite place to dine. I was
confused that I was not as impressed as I
thought I'd be until I did a little research at
home about Via Napoli. I do not blame her at all
for building up my expectations, but the real
reason is because I've had this pizza before. My
first experience with the closest thing to
authentic Italian pizza was actually 5 years
prior, at a restaurant called Naples in Downtown
Disney Anaheim.


Saturday Matinee Albert G circa 2006, ready to
devour this brick oven pizza...notice the hungry
grandma in the back...
Naples is also run by the Patina
Restaurant Group, featuring most likely a
similar, if not the same menu as Via Napoli. The
two restaurants also essentially have the same
name. Anyhow, I do remember eating here, while
the specifics of the meal are not clear, I do
remember feeling this was the best pizza
I ever ate. I later reassured Alex that
though my first time at Via Napoli was not the
same 'best pizza I ever ate' experience she had
gone through, it was actually my second time! I
did enjoy it enough to return for pizza a third
and then fourth time.
When Alex returned over the
Christmas season, we dined at Via Napoli and I
made sure to take notes as for this meal, we
splurged a little and got more than pizza. I
started with a Blood Orange Aqua Fresca. While
walking through the dining area, you pass the
servers' beverage station where large containers
of the Aqua Fresca tantalize guests with their
color and promise of refreshing respite from the
hot Florida weather. I gave in and ordered the
drink, finding it to be not too sweet,
maintaining a very natural flavor. It was not an
orange juice, but flavored water as the name
suggests, having a very fresh, strong orange
flavor. Juices are sugary, but the Aqua Fresca
managed to capture the natural essence of the
Blood Orange and distribute it through the
beverage.

Blood Orange Aqua Fresca beautifully presented
with a perfectly sliced orange sliver. the
orange slices must go through a vigorous
screening process 'Sorry you don't make the
cut!'
Next, we ordered an antipasti,
which is not an appetizer, but simply the course
served before the pasta dish (even though we
didn't order pasta for our entr'e). The
antipasti is a bit like an appetizer in that
it prepares you for what is coming later, but it
is not an appetizer. We shared a plate of
Arancini, fried risotto balls with mozzarella
and a meat ragu sauce. The arancini was
perfectly crisp on the outside, having no
residual grease you sometimes find with fried
food. The soft grain of the risotto mixed with
the creamy, slightly salty mozzarella was
perfectly accented with the acid of the meat
ragu sauce.

On my most recent trip to Via
Napoli with my family in January, my sister
ordered the Prosciutto e Melone, which was
wedges of cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto di
parma. And interesting concept of fruit and
meat, I was intrigued to try it. It was'odd, but
it worked. The salty prosciutto contrasted
heavily with the sweet, juicy cantaloupe. The
hard part was cutting off pieces to share with
the family, as this was probably a dish best
eaten by one person rather than many.
After the first course, we
reached the main reason we came to Via Napoli:
the brick oven baked pizza made with 'Caputo
flour imported from Naples, San Marzano
tomatoes, handmade fior di latte mozzarella, and
water from'wells identical to the water found in
Naples...' Alex and I ordered a Large build your
own pizza, big enough to serve 2-3 people. We
chose pepperoni for the whole pizza and one half
mushrooms for me and the other half spicy
Italian sausage for Alex.

Who's going to eat all of that?
The pizza was a terrific portion
size, and when the server delivered it, it often
grabbed the attention of neighboring diners. The
pepperoni was drier and smaller than those you
see on typical American pizza. The tiny round
discs of meat crisped very well in the oven and
were not oily like you find on mall and chain
pizza shops. The mushrooms were very fresh, soft
and savory, cooked to perfection. The spicy
Italian sausage was not too spicy and seemed
more herby than spicy, with just enough kick.
My last visit to Via Napoli, I
thought about getting something other than
pizza, but I could not resist, and shared one
with my brother. This meal, we were treating our
parents, so we also got dessert:



The dessert was good, though
nothing too remarkable was worth remembering to
mention other than they were exactly the
desserts you expected them to be at the quality
we've come to expect at Via Napoli. The
presentation though was excellent, except for
the tiramisu, which seemed a bit messy. Still,
one comes to Via Napoli for the pizza, dessert
is just a bonus.
The main thing that Alex and I
felt was important when dining at Via Napoli was
that in order to appreciate the authentic
Neapolitan pizza, one must be open to thinking
differently about pizza compared to the
traditional Americanized pizza pie. I believe
that's what surprises guests when they dine
here; they've had pizza at home either delivery
or frozen, greasy pizza from pizza chains, and
conveyor belt pizza at Pizza Planet. When they
get dinner at Via Napoli, they experience pizza
how it started to be and idealistically should
always be, making it truly a Bella Notte.
