Local chefs go the extra mile, wrestling with ambiguities, to lighten their footprint and impact on Mother Earth.

Consider this: Buying food from local sources keeps the carbon footprint shallow. On the other hand, it sometimes makes sense for a restaurant to branch out geographically for products that are raised on regenerative farms and in intelligent fisheries.

More inconsistencies in the world of sustainable food exist. Plant-based diets, for instance, are good for the body and the planet. This often involves working with protein alternatives. Yet, you have to consider how the ingredients for plant-based proteins are produced, and sometimes manipulating vegetables to taste and feel like meat requires additives that can mess with how you feel.

Another example: Carefully sourced, farm-raised fish are healthier and can save depleting wild populations. The catch here? Locally, environmental organizations protest the increase in nutrients the farms can bring, potentially causing more red tide outbreaks.

So, what makes the best sustainable restaurants? The answer is not always clear-cut, but today’s conscientious chefs agree the effort is essential for the future of their business and our world. Some local chefs leap quantumly beyond the bounds of early definitions of sustainability and battle with the double-edged sword of inconsistencies.

First responders received a little pick-me-up from an anonymous donor thanking them for their vaccination efforts.

A meal donation to City of Naples Fire Department was a small act of kindness that meant a lot to the firefighters on the receiving end.

“We got a call around 1 o’clock from a customer we don’t know,” said Danny Penzo, the general manager of Grappino. “He loves our pizza and he just received a COVID-19 vaccine from the fire department, and he would love to bring 10 of our pizzas and thank them for what they do.”

The generosity of the community member hit Penzo close to home.

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Fabrizio Aielli and his wife Ingrid have raised the standard of wining and dining in Naples since their culinary debut during the Naples Winter Wine Festival.

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“Wine is a very, very important part of food culture,” Fabrizio Aielli, chef-owner of five Florida restaurants, says. “Being from Italy, wine is the way we grew up. I cannot imagine having dinner without wine. A glass of wine emphasizes your palate and just makes you happy.”

As important as wine itself is to Fabrizio’s life and restaurant empire, the Naples Winter Wine Festival (NWWF) played a crucial role in the trajectory of his career. He was running an A-list Washington, D.C., restaurant when he was invited in 2005 as a celebrity chef for the fifth annual festival.

He and his wife Ingrid, who is also his business partner, had been vacationing in Naples since 2001. “That time, with the wine festival, we were down here not for vacation but for work, and that’s when the idea came to my mind to open a restaurant,” he says with his infectious, trademark smile.

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Naples Illustrated listed Grappino as their Best New Restaurant in their January 2021 Issue. Read the full article below:

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The Culinary & Hospitality Education Foundation of Southwest Florida will distribute $42,000 in scholarships to Collier and Lee county students who intend to pursue careers and education in hospitality or culinary arts. What a great accomplishment by the Culinary & Hospitaility Education Foundation of Southwest Florida! The money has been raised at the last CHEF charity showdown between our corporate Chef Jason Goddard, and Chef Asif Syed (21 Spices by Chef Asif.)

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With the opening of Grappino, a grappa-themed restaurant and bar (stocking more than 80 kinds of the Italian spirit), Fabrizio Aielli has officially created a formidable dining empire. For his fourth restaurant in Naples, he took over the lofty, light-filled former home of Timeless on U.S. 41, and added whimsy to the contemporary setting, with details like the Murano glass balloons strung on transparent fishing wire from the ceiling. The menu is built around two pillars: a top-of-the-line brick pizza oven that affords a thicker, pillowy dough (it almost has the consistency and presentation of focaccia) and an algebraic equation of possible pasta combinations. There are 13 types of noodles (nine of which are made in-house) and 13 sauce and topping permutations to choose from—you do the math.

Grappino is the fourth local restaurant for the Aielli Group, following the success of Sea Salt, Barbatella and Dorona.

Grappino carves its own niche in the Aielli’s Italian offerings with its Roman-style pizza, salt-roasted chicken and its impressive selection of grappa, the popular grape-based pomace brandy that inspired the restaurant’s name. But, the “Il Grano” section of the menu, which allows guests to create their own entrée combinations from separately priced lists of pastas and sauces, stands out here. “There are 13 different sauces and 13 different pastas. There are 169 possible combinations you can do. You can switch and mix and match,” said Jason Goddard, Aielli’s corporate chef. Selections of cavatelli, linguine, pappardelle, pennette and spaghettini join veal-stuffed ravioli and four-cheese tortellini and other semolina, egg and dry pastas.

Deciding from the variety of sauces is most difficult with choices such as classic marinara, meaty Bolognese, spicy Diavolina, cheesy Quattro Formaggi, veggie Primavera and many other inspired possibilities. The Roman-style pizza from Grappino’s brick oven is different from Barbatella’s Neapolitan-style pizza. “The Roman pizza is nice and crispy yet airy and fluffy,” Mr. Goddard said.

The menu features 10 choices each of Rossa and Bianca — red and white — with or without tomato sauce. The rectangular specialty pies are available in three sizes.

Half or whole chickens lead the seasonal offerings for meat and fish choices. The free-range birds are salt-cured for 48 hours and then roasted whole, seasoned with only salt and olive oil. “It’s very rustic but a nice, simple chicken,” Mr. Goddard said. “You don’t have to do very much to it. It’s one of the best-tasting chickens I’ve had in a long, long time.” Protein choices also include wine-braised Wagyu beef, a slow-roasted Kurobuta pork shoulder, boneless whole branzino and a Tuscan seafood stew.

Appetizers feature many options for bruschetta, risotto, salads and charcuterie and cheese plates.

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Fabrizio Aielli is chef and owner to three of Naples’ most prominent restaurants: Sea Salt, Dorona and Barbatella.

Last week, he welcomed a fourth into the fold, Grappino, with a menu focused on Italian comfort foods.

“It’s a very classic, very homey Italian menu,” Ingrid Aielli said.

Fabrizio’s wife and business partner, Ingrid has helped launch Grappino, train the staff and keep everything running upright.

Grappino occupies the space on U.S. 41 North near NCH Healthcare that formerly housed Timeless that shuttered in late June after less than two years.

This new restaurant is just one of the additions contributing to the progress happening in this part of town, labeled by some as the Design District, from the opening of Baker Park and the Naples Square condominiums, to the eventual ground breaking for Gulfshore Playhouse down the street.

“We are very excited to be part of this district,” Ingrid said.

“And we thought this concept, the homey Italian restaurant, would be a good fit for this neighborhood.”

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Grappino is a restaurant in Naples featuring Italian cuisine.

It is the newest venture of the Aielli Group who have distinguished themselves in both Naples and St. Petersburg with their mastery of Italian fare. Grappino diverges from their other endeavors in that it features more rustic, simply-prepared and softly-priced dishes from Italy.

Grappino in Italian is literally a small portion (shot) of grappa, similar to that wee dram of whiskey associated with Scotland. Grappa is a brandy-like spirit made from pomace. Pomace is a by-product of winemaking, consisting of grape skins, seeds and stems left over after winemaking.

Being in the shadow of the wine trade, grappa has been very much under the radar and a somewhat ridiculed spirit for many years even in its home country Italy. This is changing. Some producers are featuring grappa that is barrel-aged among other refinements, leading to speculation that grappa may eventually follow the way of tequila as its quality improves.

Grappino is almost distinctive in North America as it is one of the few establishments that feature over 100 different grappa varieties. With this armamentarium of grappa choices, one has a unique opportunity to cut their teeth on this perhaps up and coming alcoholic beverage.

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October 17, 2019 Tim ATEN Knows
timatenknows@floridaweekly.com

The owners of Sea Salt, Barbatella and Dorona are launching Grappino, their fourth Naples restaurant.

Naples residents Fabrizio and Ingrid Aielli, owners of the Aielli Group of restaurants, recently took over the former space of Timeless, which operated for two years at 90 Tamiami Trail N., next to La Colmar Bakery & Bistro and across from Wynn’s Market. Grappino is targeted to open there at the end of November.

When Timeless closed in late June after a rough season, local architect Matthew Kragh said the restaurant he co-owned with Chef David Nelson would reopen Oct. 15. The summer hiatus gave Chef Nelson the opportunity to rest after receiving treatment for bone marrow cancer. Mr. Nelson, also previously a longtime local chef at Truluck’s and Avenue5, is doing well now, but time is up for Timeless.

Aielli’s corporate chef Jason Goddard initially will helm the kitchen at Grappino, inspired by the Venetian heritage of Chef Fabrizio Aielli. The new restaurant’s name stems from Grappa, a popular grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin. Grappino will feature one of the largest Grappa bars in the country, with more than 100 varieties of the distilled spirit for craft cocktails and after-dinner drinks.

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The inaugural ideas festival partnered with the James Beard Foundation and a team of national and local chefs to spotlight sustainability—and throw one heck of a party.

As it came to a close, the rest of the night’s chefs were brought onstage—a mix of local talent, including Asif Syed of 21 Spices, Jason Goddard of Sea Salt and Vincenzo Betulia of The French, plus a Miami-based pastry chef Soraya Kilgore of MadLab Creamery. They each announced what dish the audience had to look forward to in a matter of minutes at the party, and how it dovetailed with the sustainable theme.

And then everyone was off to eat, drink and be merry—and think about the big ideas behind them and what was still left in store.

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Jason Goddard was once a farm boy in the rolling hills and limestone bluffs of eastern Iowa.

On a 3½ acre plot of land on the Mississippi River, Goddard helped his family grow sweet corn, okra and five different varieties of beans. It’s there he developed an understanding of food and its growing cycle. How ingredients should be fresh and local and pesticide-free.

And now he’s applying those practices as corporate chef of three Naples restaurants and one in St. Petersburg.

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