Napoli Group’s gelato and Italian pastry shop, Dolce Napoli, now open in Chesterfield’s The District

With six restaurants across the St. Louis metro area, the Napoli Group is becoming even more of a powerhouse name in Italian dining. The restaurant group recently added a new concept to its portfolio: Dolce Napoli.

Located a stone’s throw from Napoli Bros. Pizza and Pasta, at 17089 N. Outer 40 Road in The District, the shop offers gelato, Italian pastries, and sandwiches on house-made bread and will serve as a commissary space for the six Napoli restaurants across the St. Louis metro area, including in Kirkwood, St. Charles, and Town & Country.

The Background

To oversee the new gelato and sweets shop, the Pietoso family—including brothers Kye and Ande, their father, Tony, and their mother, Kathy—have brought on pastry chef Meaghan Coltrain, who joined the Napoli Group in early December. Coltrain has a long, impressive pastry career in St. Louis, having previously worked as executive pastry chef at Gerard Craft’s Niche Food Group, as well as executive pastry chef at the Missouri Athletic Club and Bellerive Country Club.

Kye stresses that Coltrain has full creative license at the new shop, and she’s excited to bring her experience gained working with Italian flavors at restaurants such as Pastaria to the new concept and the wider restaurant group. “The flavors are all very rich and very good, pure ingredients,” she says. “It’s been a labor of love for sure, so seeing it all come to fruition is amazing. Most importantly, my team has been a huge part of that so we’re showcasing all of their hard work to the public.”

With that said, in addition to launching a new menu at the shop, Coltrain plans to reinvent the dessert program at the various Napoli restaurants. The large commissary kitchen at the new location will allow Coltrain to make desserts, as well as a new signature Napoli Group bread for each of the group’s restaurants.

The Menu

The new shop will serve approximately 13 flavors of gelato, including classics such as pistachio and cherry, as well as kid-friendly options with sprinkles. In addition to gelato, expect classic Italian pastries and cookies, as well as fresh bread and a few sandwiches and paninis. In a nod to the family’s heritage, Italian classics will be the main focus—think weekend pastry specials such as sfogliatella, a traditional laminated pastry that originated in Napoli, Italy, and features a flaky layered shell filled with ricotta.

The shop offers Coltrain’s takes on Italian dessert classics. Her tiramisu, for instance, gets served in an edible chocolate tea cup for a unique presentation. The cannoli made in house feature shells fried fresh daily and a classic filling brightened with the addition of orange zest. The savory menu currently features more than a dozen different offerings, including a spectacular Pomodoro pie and a bolognese arancini inspired by a research trip to Chicago, where Coltrain was surprised to see it being served for breakfast. She recreated the risotto croquettes with the Napoli Group’s signature bolognese and mozzarella.

An Italian Beef stromboli comes from a childhood favorite. “I’m a huge fan of Italian beef. My mom made that for Sunday supper all the time when I was a kid so it was kind of fun to turn that into a stromboli,” she says. The Calabrian Catch is another highlight featuring Calabrian chili tuna salad topped with mixed greens and pickled onions, served on housemade ciabatta. Eight other sandwiches are included in Coltrain’s inaugural menu.

As colder weather approaches, the menu will offer soups with “truly Italian flavors warm and hearty for wintertime,” Coltrain says. Options will include Italian wedding soup, lemon chicken orzo, and minestrone.

To drink, choose from canned and bottled beverages as well as coffee with Dolce signature flavor options including date sauce, brown butter, and lavender. Add-on options include salted caramel drizzle, chocolate shavings, and gold sprinkles.

Coltrain will also take advantage of the expansive commissary kitchen to create new desserts tailored to each of the Napoli restaurants. Beyond the restaurants’ tiramisu and crème brûlée, desserts have previously been outsourced, but Coltrain will add new house-made desserts to each menu. She’s recently been running specials to experiment with different flavor profiles, such as a play on Italian sipping chocolate featuring pistachio semifreddo with pour-over hot chocolate served with an Italian wedding cookie on the side, as well as a gianduia torte with morello cherry sauce and gelato.

“With the desserts, we wanted to focus on bringing in the family history and focusing on each restaurant’s different clientele,” Coltrain says. “We’re really honing in on those classic Italian flavors. I think it boils down to wanting to bring dessert in-house for the purpose of uniting the restaurant group and creating a sense of cohesiveness from the beginning of the meal to the very end.”

The Space

The shop’s footprint is relatively small—about 600 square feet in front—but it boasts 2,100 square feet of space in back that will be used as a commissary kitchen to produce bread and desserts for the group’s other concepts. The interior of the carryout-centric cafe features black-and-white checkerboard tile, embossed ceiling tiles, and a gold and emerald green color scheme.

Guests can grab a seat at one of a few tables in the space or on the patio, but the shop is primarily designed for grab-and-go service, particularly since it’s located near The Hub, an expansive central outdoor area with a pavilion, LED screen, stage, and turf. To take advantage of the family-friendly outdoor space, Dolce Napoli offers such as offering picnic baskets for 2, 4, or 6 including sandwiches, pastries, snacks, and beverages.

“We’re using the storefront to service The District, and we’re going to utilize as much space as we can in the green area to make sure that we have good volume in the summertime,” Kye says. “It’s definitely kid-friendly, and it’s missing ice cream, for sure. We think gelato is a good fit for this specific area because of the foot traffic and the green area, which is really fun in the summertime, with a lot of kids running around.”

Dolce Napoli 📍17089 N Outer 40, Chesterfield 📞 636-324-2725 ⏰Wed-Sun 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.