The family behind St. Louis's Café Napoli is taking its hospitality brand well past pasta and red sauce, with plans for a sushi restaurant in Chesterfield and the company's first venue outside the St. Louis region: a pizza-focused restaurant at the Lake of the Ozarks. The moves mark the latest expansion for a company that started as a single basement Italian eatery in Clayton nearly four decades ago and has since grown into a regional restaurant group, with the founder's sons helping grow its businesses.
Napoli's next chapter includes planned openings in Chesterfield and at the Lake of the Ozarks.
From a Clayton Basement to a Regional Group
The company's roots trace back to 1989, when Tony and Kathy Pietoso opened Café Napoli. The restaurant is now at its familiar corner at Forsyth Boulevard and Bemiston Avenue, according to Town & Style. Tony Pietoso was raised in an orphanage in Florence, Italy, and came to the United States on July 1, 1970, after a director invited him to visit America, the outlet reported. His soccer opportunities developed after his arrival, including recruitment by Florissant Valley Community College in 1973. His knees ended his hopes of playing professionally, and he became a hairstylist. Town & Style also describes him returning to the United States and becoming a waiter. Bar Napoli, a cocktail lounge next door to Café Napoli, opened in March 2003. According to Sauce Magazine, the lounge featured an inverted question-mark bar counter, and a valet opened the door on the reviewer's visits. Ande Pietoso went on to run Napoli 2 in Town and Country.
A Bakery and a Sushi Bar Signal a Shift Beyond Italian
The family's newest ventures show the brand stretching well past its Italian core. Dolce Napoli, a gelateria and bakery at The District in Chesterfield, opened at the end of August, producing bread and desserts for all of the company's locations while also serving sandwiches, coffee, and espresso to walk-in customers, per the reporting from St. Louis Magazine. The shop is run by pastry chef Meaghan Coltrain, who the magazine reports is developing picnic baskets and lunch sandwiches for the space.
Next up for The District is a sushi restaurant, which the company plans to open at the end of November, according to St. Louis Magazine's reporting. The venue will sit inside the same entertainment and dining hub that already includes Napoli Bros., a coal-fired pizza concept the family opened in June 2024 under executive chef Anthony Gitto baking New Haven-style pies at 600 degrees, according to Sauce Magazine's coverage. The District itself was developed by The Staenberg Group and is anchored by live music venue The Factory, Topgolf, and Main Event, per a release from Shore Fire Media.
The Company's First Stop Outside St. Louis
The biggest leap, geographically, is at the Lake of the Ozarks, where Napoli plans to open a pizza-focused restaurant inside the Oasis at Lakeport development in Osage Beach, marking the company's first venture outside the St. Louis region, per St. Louis Magazine. The restaurant is set to be the only sit-down eatery at Oasis at Lakeport, and while pizza will be the focus, the menu will also include fresh pasta, prime steaks, and seafood, according to the same reporting.
The Oasis at Lakeport is a $450 million resort and amusement park project spanning more than 20 acres near the Grand Glaize Bridge at mile marker 19, according to Carnival Warehouse. The development is slated to include a theme park, water park, and a Marriott convention hotel, St. Louis Magazine reports, and separate coverage describes the hotel component as a 400-room property. Developers of the site faced extended construction delays while negotiating buyouts and closings with more than 2,400 individual timeshare deed owners at the former Lakewood Resort in order to clear land for parking and water park facilities, according to Carnival Warehouse's reporting.
Expanding Beyond St. Louis
The plans include a pizza restaurant at the Lake of the Ozarks and a sushi restaurant in Chesterfield.
