21-05-2025
CasaDami Brings European Leisure And Terrific Tapas To Newport Beach
One thing about la dolce vita is that the sweet life is often about the moments when you're lingering, when you're not doing much of anything, when all that matters is the food and drink and people around you.
Southern California has been getting a nice dose of European leisure this year. At the new Alba in West Hollywood, Cobi Levy is celebrating il dolce far niente, which is the sweetness of doing nothing. At Jeremy Adler's new Beethoven Market in L.A.'s Mar Vista neighborhood, happy hour is called ora del dolce far niente. (Having outdoor seating is vital at both Alba and Beethoven Market.) The idea, of course, is that doing nothing can often make you feel everything.
Newport Beach also has a new beautiful new ode to la dolce vita. Going to CasaDami, with a floral-draped 40-seat patio near the water in Peninsula Village, might make you think you're in the Italian Riviera. There are charcuterie boards, caviar service (with both bread and blinis at a restaurant that carefully calibrates every menu item) and chicken Milanese to fill out the postcard-worthy picture.
Chef Rodney Gutierrez (who previously cooked at New York restaurants including Rosemary's) hones in on difference-making little details as he creates tapas at CasaDami. After extensive R&D, Gutierrez uses a housemade focaccia/ciabatta hybrid and heirloom tomatoes from the Santa Monica farmers market for exemplary pan con tomate. He amps up croquetas (with Serrano ham and manchego) by adding in jamón Ibérico de bellota trimmings. This is confident cooking that's nuanced and purposefully understated. The ingredients shine.
CasaDami has luxury and big flavors to spare. Crudo is made with three cuts of tuna, including chutoro and otoro, that are complemented with leche de tigre as well as squid ink tapioca chips.
Partners Camilla Caremoli and Dave Shah debuted CasaDami at the beginning of March to bring both of their dreams to life. Caremoli, who was born and raised in Milan and comes from three generations of a food-industry family, wanted Newport Beach to have a proper European-style all-day café. Shah, an avid wine collector, wanted to open his own wine bar.
CasaDami was born because Caremoli, who's also lived in Miami and Boston, felt that Newport Beach deserved the kind of transporting destination that she's found in other cities.
'Her family still lives in Italy, so we would travel to Italy,' Shah says of the inspiration behind CasaDami. 'And when we were there, we'd go to France and to Spain. And when we came back home, we missed those experiences. We wanted something that's going to really take us back to our happy place, which for both of us is Portofino, Italy.'
Shah has a CasaDami wine list with selections including Château Margaux and super Tuscans. (He says that drinking his first glass of Sassicaia in Italy was what started his 'true love for wine.") Adept CasaDami beverage director/sommelier Allan Camarena, who was previously beverage director at Wolfgang Puck's Merois at the Pendry in West Hollywood, might pour you bangers like Comte Lafond sancerre grande cuvée and Giovanni Manzone barolo Bricat.
Olive oil cake is a standout dessert at CasaDami.
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Both those wines are part of CasaDami's new spring beverage menu and available by the glass. Camarena says he also encourages half glasses and is, of course, happy to personally pair wines with your meal. There are all sorts of great reasons to linger when you have dinner here.
'It's that concept of la dolce vita, where you're more present,' Shah says. 'You're in the moment and you let the experience take over. You let your mind drift away. It's that concept of being transported. That's what we wanted.'
Like many European destinations, CasaDami is set up to be an all-day affair, whether you're looking for an early-morning espresso, a prosciutto sandwich for lunch, truffle eggs Benedict for weekend brunch or a wagyu flat iron steak (a dish that nods to Gutierrez's Filipino heritage, with chile onion jam alongside parsley veloute and charred lime) for dinner. Olive oil cake is a fantastic sweet but not too sweet finish after lunch, brunch or dinner.
Dom Pérignon by the glass is available all day ('from 7 a.m. to close,' Camarena stresses). Mid-afternoon golden hour means you can pair Dom with charcuterie and caviar before the sun starts setting.
Whether you're on the patio, in the dining room or at the 15-seat Italian marble bar, CasaDami feels like vacation even if you live nearby. In-the-know locals, in fact, are raving about how this restaurant is unlike anything else in Newport Beach. Expect to see a lot of blissful guests partaking in the sweet life here this summer, doing nothing and enjoying everything.
