Nappi
“Joe and Anna Oh my god- they’re the best.”
“I love him!”
“It's friendly and they take care of their customers and they get to know your name. What’s better than that?”
Nappi in Medford is one of those little restaurants maybe you never heard of, but you definitely need to try.
Joe and Anna Nappi started this as a butcher shop 35 years ago and it just kind of snowballed or in this case, meatballs into a restaurant.
“I love everybody.”
“We love you too Joe.”
Joe and Anna are my parents. They run the show here.
“We worked together as a team.”
“I love my wife.”
They're like the best people in the world that came over from Italy had a vision and it just kind of transformed into cooking meals for people who came in.
Nappi is a BYOB restaurant with no menu. When I go to a BYOB place I come with both guns blazing. I mean a bottle of white and a bottle of red because I don't know if I'm gonna want meat or seafood.
It is byo and cash only. So if you are going to come enjoy a meal here. Be prepared to bring some money with you and whatever you prefer to drink. Anybody that's working here, it's typically a friends or family. Crystal, my sister in law. My brothers, cousins work here and if you aren't technically blood related, you become family.
There is no menu here. So I recommend making a lap…taking a look at what's good.
“We can do all kind of veal you want. Touch of white wine. We got the parma prosciutto, fresh bocchoncini.”
Our waitresses are the menu actually. If we have the ingredients and you have a specific dish in mind, they'll definitely make it for you. They'll cook whatever you want.
“We’re gonna prepare the dish. Let me think of what I wanna cook for you.”
It's just a unique experience. You get to use your own imagination for the dish, but have someone who kind of knows how to make that imagination come to reality. When you don't know what you want, you're always want a home cooked meal so why not come to a place that'll give you that.
“Joe acts as my personal chef. Bobby doesn't even order because Joe will just make whatever he feels like he wants to make. And I've never seen anything left on his plate.”
When you sit down here with a group of friends, I think you want to get the arancini at the start. They make theirs with some ground beef and some cheese served over a light marinara sauce.
I like it because all the ingredients in it are mixed in with the rice. So you get a little bit of the flavor in every bite.
Here's an unusual, really tasty appetizer. It's their artichoke hearts. These are egg battered, lightly fried, served with some balsamic. This a great shareable appetizer nice and light to whet your appetite.
This appetizer is kind of different and very flavorful. They take mozzarella cheese, wrap it in prosciutto, lightly fry it, add some basil and put it over these beautiful tomato slices.
The cheese has a little bit of sweetness and creaminess. And then you get the saltiness from the proscuitto When you cook it in the pan for a few seconds. My God the flavors come out of it is just amazing.
For a meatless appetizer, you may want to try the stuffed mushroom. The mushroom is actually stuffed with the minced button of the mushroom. Then it's got some brandy, some onion all served over a buttery sauce, just a lot of flavors going on in this one.
These are pretty simple. You're not going to get overwhelmed with a whole bunch of different flavors. It's just mushroom and the flavors of the mushroom that come out in the breadcrumbs. Whatever you're cooking, you want to taste the flavors of what that is right? It's just simple, you know.
If you're intimidated because there's no menu you may want to get the Bolognese. It's made with a combination of beef and pork served over super fresh Fettuccine, and it's always available.
So the bolognese is a simple dish. It's just something that we would definitely have to have on the menu. Granted, there is no menu. It’s just a staple.
I always recommend ordering into the strength of the menu and because this started as a butcher shop normally I would say get the steak or the chicken but they make great seafood dishes here including this salmon alla vodka. This is served over a wide mouth pop that really soaks up that delicious vodka sauce.
So the salmon alla vodka sauce. It's not a typical Italian dish, but it's something that my dad created. He’ll always be in the kitchen just putting some different flavors and ingredients together and he comes up with these unique dishes.
Joe goes back to his butcher shop roots with this one a bone in veal chop stuffed with cheese and prosciutto served with some big meaty mushrooms and a white wine sauce. Another dish where Joe does the butchering himself is the stuffed pork chop it's got broccoli rabe, cheese and garlic.
So the broccoli rabe is..a little bit more bitter than your typical broccoli. You get the earthiness of that broccoli, and you combine it with the protein and the meat it just comes out ideal.
The portions here are huge. So you may want to skip dessert but if you have the guts, they have great cannoli with fresh cream or a limoncello cake with mascarpone cheese.
The limoncello cake is delicious. It's a marscarpone base limoncello cake. The creaminess of the lemon mascarpone just combined with the fluffiness of the cake portion, delicious. It is definitely a great way to end your meal.
This is definitely an unusual restaurant. There's no menu, there's no bar, there's no liquor license, but the food and the service and the camaraderie is almost impossible to beat. I think you have to check it out. Nappi in Medford.
