Tag Archives: restaurant review

Busy chefs cooking at the Seafront Pasta Bar in Naples, Italy.

Naples, Italy Restaurant Review: Seafront Pasta Bar

As a travel writer, I hope my readers trust the destinations, hotels, restaurants, and tours I recommend. I stand by my word, not praising a site when it doesn’t deserve a compliment. Recently, I was headed to Naples and asked a fellow travel writer. Gina Di Meo, for some advice. Gina is a native, a Neapolitan, though she no longer lives there.

Side streets in Naples are narrow and colorful.
A typical side street in historic Naples, narrow and colorful.

Gina recommended the Seafront Pasta Bar for dinner. She even helped me get reservations, which, by the way, are needed. Though the name is nothing special, this is not just any pasta restaurant. It ranks as one of the best meals I have ever had. No wonder the establishment earned a spot on the Michelin Recommended list for the city.

A view of the Seafront Pasta Bar Restaurant.
The Seafront Pasta Bar before dinner time!

FYI: The MICHELIN Guide provides curated selections of the best dining experiences in a given area, covering more restaurants than only the starred establishments. While inclusion alone is a pretty big deal in demonstrating quality cooking, the guides help steer travellers and locals alike to recommended restaurants that suit their personal tastes, budgets and preferences when exploring a city. 

I found the Seafront Pasta Bar located across from Castle Nuovo, near the waterfront harbor, but not exactly overlooking it. Diners mainly sit upstairs, around a sushi-style counter, watching the chefs work directly in front of them. There are also a few tables to the side of the bar without the cooktop view. The eatery uses Di Martino pasta in all forms from appetizers to desserts.

Two happy chefs working at the Seafront Pasta Bar posed for me!


It’s a great place to pick up kitchen techniques. However, the other advantage of sitting by the action is the delicious aromas wafting from their saucepans.

An attentive chef at the Seafront Pasta Bar in Naplea.
A chef watches the pasta while it cooks at the Seafront Pasta Bar in Naples. .

I chose the three-course wine-paired tasting menu, which is really four courses if you count dessert. The price is a reasonable sum of 65 euros. (It’s a bargain for Americans.) Each dish was painstakingly prepared and beautifully plated on carefully chosen dinnerware and a different silver place setting for each course. Of course, each was paired with a wonderful glass of wine.

Artfully arranged breadsticks await diners at the Seafront Pasta Bar.
An arrangement of breadsticks begins the meal at the Seafront Pasta Bar.

The meal began with a display of artfully arranged breadsticks and dipping oil, followed by a seafood amuse-bouche. I’m not positive, but I think it was langoustine in a sauce covered by a thin, flaky crisp. The starter wine was Colle Lepre by Porto de Mola.

The amuse-bouche at the Seafront Pasta Bar.
The amuse-bouche naturally featured seafood.

Linguini with garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and anchovies “colatura” from Cetara arrived next. I later found out that colatura is a sauce made only with anchovies and salt from the nearby town on the Amalfi Coast. While I’m not wild about anchovies, I loved this linguine and ate every bite. Al dente perfection!

The linguini with garlic, olive oil, and anchovies.

The second entrée was hand-broken Ziti Genovese style with ‘ramata’ onion from Montorio (northern Italy) and a prime beef cut. The sauce is prepared by sautéing beef with onions and slowly cooking for two to ten hours. This scrumptious dish definitely had beef flavoring throughout.

Ziti Genovese style, the second course.
Ziti Genovese style at the Seafront Pasta Bar, Naples.

La Devozione is spaghetti with tomato sauce –an iconic Neapolitan recipe that dates back to the early 1800s and has been a symbol of Italian cuisine ever since. The old traditional tomato sauce is made with just three ingredients: tomatoes, olive oil, and garlic.

Spaghetti with tomato sauce, a Neapolitan classic.
Yummy spaghetti with tomato sauce, a Neapolitan classic recipe.

Neopolitan treats were the dessert, but I was so full that I took them home. The famous sfogliatella is beloved as a snack, breakfast, and sometimes even dessert. What is it? In Naples, there are two main variants of sfogliatella: sfogliatella riccia and sfogliatella frolla. Puffy golden pastry shaped like a rounded triangle or clamshell that enfold the custardy cheese filling. It derives its name from una sfogli—a leaf referencing the dozens of tiny pastry leaves (or sheets).
I loved the contrast of crisp pastry and cool, soft filling.

An array of desserts that I ate the next day for breakfast.

If you visit Naples, I highly recommend a meal at the Seafront Pasta Bar.

Cooking pasta at the Seafront Pasta Bar.
Busy chefs cook many forms of pasta each night.

Mysterious Entry into Tallahassee’s Speakeasy Bar: Alchemy

A Bee's Knees: Drink in Alchemy Speakeasy Bar
A Bee’s Knees: Drink in Alchemy Speakeasy Bar

Restaurant/Bar Review

A speakeasy bar in Tallahassee, Florida? You bet, but only if you can find it and know the secret word.

First make an online reservation and receive a special return message. Arrive at the Midtown Filling Station and pass a storefront of blacked out windows. Then, locate the correct doorman and say the code word. Ours was “Fitzgerald.”

You’ll be led down a clandestine alleyway to a gatekeeper. The gatekeeper stands before an unmarked door. He explains that Alchemy follows traditional speakeasy etiquette: proper attire, no men in hats, and gentlemen must go through the bartender to ask for an introduction to a lady.

Following the rules is the only way to be admitted into Midtown Tallahassee’s Alchemy: a revival speakeasy bar paying homage to those who found a way to circumvent outlawed liquor during Prohibition. A speakeasy is actually defined as,”an establishment that was used for selling and drinking alcoholic beverages during Prohibition (1920-1933, longer in some states), when the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol was illegal.” The term comes from a patron’s manner of ordering alcohol without raising suspicion – a bartender would tell a patron to be quiet and “speak easy”.

Continue reading Mysterious Entry into Tallahassee’s Speakeasy Bar: Alchemy