Napule
For my mom’s 75th birthday she requested we go to Napule https://www.napulesarasota.com/. Can you believe it? Nope, me either. Most times she acts 25. I made a reservation and I’m glad I did as it was packed on a Tuesday night in Sarasota in June. I thought this was the off season? We were seated right away. The tables are extremely close to one another so that was a little off putting for me but it wasn’t a big deal. My mom asked to speak with the owner as a friend of hers said to say hi. He came over and was very friendly. My mom enjoyed speaking to Pepe in Italian. I believe he sent over some focaccia bread unless everyone gets that. As we had a basket of bread in addition to it with some eggplant spread. The focaccia was delicious. It was very light and fluffy. Mom really enjoyed the eggplant. I thought it was okay. For an appetizer we ordered the octopus to share. It came in a red sauce. The sauce was good but we all thought the octopus was very fishy tasting. None of us was a fan. For entrees we got the linguine con vongole, the spaghetti bolognese and a strip steak. The pasta is all made in house and was very good. There were a ton of clams in my mom’s pasta. We both took half of ours home. I enjoyed it for lunch the next day. Dh ate all of his steak and potatoes. He said it was very good. For dessert, Pepe sent over a cannoli for my mom. I thought that was very thoughtful. It was tasty. Between the three of us we had 6 glasses of wine and one beer. Total before tip was around $180. It was a little pricey but hey, my mom is worth it. Would I go back? I’m not sure. There are so many Italian restaurants in Sarasota and this one is probably the furthest possible from our house. It was good, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to return.