Naked Dog was opened in 2015 as the fruition of a dream by owner, Cecilia Di Paola, to create a restaurant where people could come together and enjoy authentic cuisine from her home country in a cozy atmosphere. She grew up in a region called Puglia, which is famous even amongst other areas of Italy, for its outstanding cuisine and fresh ingredients.

The restaurant is named after Cecilia’s dog, Luigi. But she feared if she gave her restaurant that name it would just come off as a generic sounding Italian restaurant. So she came up with the next best thing-- Luigi’s nickname, the naked dog. Like most beagles, he has a stubborn streak, but particularly around is refusal to wear any clothes, even in the winter. Even a collar. But especially as Luigi is now in the later years of his life, it was important that she have something important to remember him by.

After three years, Naked Dog, has steadily grown into one of the most popular Italian restaurants in Brooklyn with top ratings from Yelp, OpenTable, TripAdvisor and Zagat's. The real challenge for Cecilia was figuring out how to recreate the memories and flavors of her childhood without having ready access to the same ingredients. Through relationships with boutique purveyors and the daily creation of homemade pasta, we think we've figured out the right recipe for bringing these flavors to Greenpoint. Now you don't have to travel around the world to have a taste, it's right around the corner.

Luigi passed away in May 2019.