On New Year's Day our friends Phyllis and Michael joined us and Samuel as we ventured to downtown Naples where SEA SALT (www.SeaSaltNaples.com) opened only a month ago. This beautiful setting is chic and classy yet casual with a large bar area at the front and many outside places as well as a huge dining room which actually has tables in the large open kitchen area at the rear. It is one of the nicest restaurant settings we have seen in Florida. Sea Salt is the creation of our friends Ingrid and Fabrizio Aielli who left Washington just over a year ago after selling their landmark Italian restaurant Teatro Goldoni.
Sam was pretty hungry so we asked for a plate of pasta for him prontissimo and within minutes, Fabrizio had whipped up a superb PENNE with KOBE BEEF RAGU which Sam devoured, although he did not seem to care for the spectacular meat sauce, so we all scooped it up in our spoons!
We munched on crispy FRITTO MISTO of shrimp, scallops, zucchini, calamari and more with a simple tartar sauce. I marveled at how greaseless each piece was. We started with a bottle of intensely mineral DOMAINE BELLE CROZES-HERMITAGES Blanc 2006 which was great with almost everything. It was quite wonderful to find such an eclectic wine list in Florida as well, since so many places have the same standards. Our second wine was an equally rewarding POLIZIANO 2005 VINO NOBILE de MONTEPULCIANO which was a well rounded and medium bodied red that again just goes with everything. Our final wine was an intense full-bodied yet oh so smooth DARIOUSH 2005 MERLOT from Napa.
Our servers Zach & Matt were brilliant, we could not have asked for better attention and indeed we noticed that while the place was filling up tp the brim (we arrived at 6pm) as we enjoyed ourselves, service never seemed to slack off anywhere in the large room.
SEA SALT leans toward seafood, but is not exclusive by far. The signature here is the small plate of three salts that come with the superb bread along with olive oil to mix the salt with for the bread. Our three salts were RED HAWAIIAN, BLACK LAVA also from HAWAII and INDIAN BLACK LAVA which is actually pinkish and has the most bizarre sulphuric taste reminiscent of roasted egg yolk. It was fun to taste these and use them on the food as well....as we were reminded there are over 70 varieties of sea salt in the world used for seasoning!
TUNA CARPACCIO came with QUAIL EGGS, BOTTARGA, CUCUMBER, CILANTRO, LEMON Vinaigrette and Smoked Salt ad was topped with an herb like green called WAKAMEE (sp?). It was a divine creation as were all the dishes all evening. SQUID INK RICOTTA GNOCCHI with Ragu of ARTICHOKES & Skinned TOMATO topped with BOTTARGA and ROASTED RED & GOLD BEETS with Warm Pecan Crusted GOAT CHEESE, Mache and POMEGRANATE Vinaigrette were alos big hits. We shared a divine BURRATA with HEIRLOOM TOMATOES which I am confident has never before made its way to Naples or perhaps even the entire Southwest of Florida. Innovation of ingredients are another prime key treat at SEA SALT. KUMAMOTO OYSTERS came with the standard cocktail sauce, but also a terrifice OLIVE TAPENADE SAUCE which was light enough not to overpower the delicate bivalves.
A palate cleanser of RASPBERRY & Candied ORANGE SORBET with LAVA BLACK SALT was a novelty and a treat.
Entrees were also top notch from the SWORDFISH Crusted with CRAB MEAT, Tomato & Thyme Sauce with Baby Artichokes which Will declared as the best swordfish he had ever had! The BROILED BLACK GROUPER with GRAPE TOMATO POPS & CHIVES, SHITAKE MUSHROOMS and TRUFFLE SOFT POLENTA was another divine fish. When Phyllis mentioned that part of her fish was a bit tough, they offered to replace it immediately; since she was already quite full the charge was quickly removed from the bill. At this point we were all in heaven save Samuel who declared he was very tired and had a mini melt-down (he had been swimming almost all day at two pools and the beach and really was exhausted), so we packed up the remains of the wine...took home some yummy chocolates and quickly got Sam to bed and enjoyed the rest.
I know that Naples is on our return list again just to visit our dear friends there, but also to revisit SEA SALT, perhaps several times!
