New Restaurant in EPCOT!

That's an artist's depiction of the new retaurant set to open in the Italy pavilion of EPCOT Center. Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria will open in August 2010. The restaurant will seat 300 and feature a family-friendly menu (details below) based on resturant creator Nick Valenti's travels in Southern Italy and his success with the similalry-named Naples 45 Ristorante e Pizzeria in New York City. The Via Napoli will feature pizzas cooked in one of three wood-burning ovens (ensuring dry baking that makes for the perfect crust). Each oven is named after real, active volcanos in Italy -- Etna (located on the island of Sicily), Vesuvius (8 miles east and Naples and famous for destroying Pompeii in 79 AD), and Stromboli (a small volcanic island off the coast of Sicily).

The menu is mouth-watering. Here it is, courtesy of The official Disney Parks website:

Appetizers: Sicilian eggplant with olives and raisins; salad of lettuce, fagiolini (string beans), fennel and tomatoes; arancini (fried saffron risotto balls) with meat ragù, mozzarella and pomodoro sauce; corn-crusted fried calamari; minestrone with basil pesto; shared antipasti plate (arancini, mozzarella, calamari, portobella mushrooms, asparagus, zucchini and carciofi [artichokes])

Main course salads: Manzo (filet of beef) with greens, red onion, gorgonzola, apple and cucumber with a red wine-mustard vinaigrette; chopped salad with lemon chicken, greens, cantaloupe, cucumber, red pepper, green beans, onions, almonds and pasta crisps with honey-citrus vinaigrette; calamari with arugula, carrots and fennel with orange vinaigrette.

Pastas: candele (long, tube-shaped pasta) with sausage ragù; linguine with seafood; malfadine (ribbon pasta) with guanciale (unsmoked Italian bacon) and pomodoro sauce; lasagna verde.

Piatti alla Parmigiana: (dishes topped with Parmesan and mozzarella gratinée): veal, chicken and eggplant.

Wood-fired pizzas: made with caputo flour imported from Southern Italy, San Marzano tomatoes, handmade mozzarella and water from a local spring just like in Italy’s Campania region – 10-inch, 20-inch or 1/2 meter to share: a dozen choices will be available, from pizza Margherita with tomato, mozzarella and basil to carciofi pizza with artichoke, potato, pecorino cheese, prosciutto and cantaloupe.

Sweets: tiramisù, zeppole di ricotta (ricotta cheese-fried dough, whipped cream and chocolate sauce); apple cake with almond sorbetti; gelatie; and vanilla gelato with almond cookies and amarena cherries.