If you mean something that is easy to get started, deals with the most annoying stuff, and gives you the fundamentals to implement an application, then I think there are some good options.
Of the Java frameworks we've tested [1], if you are ruling out Play-Java (because of a real or imaginary Scala design preference; I'm not judging that), I personally enjoy the coding style of Rest-Express and DropWizard. Check out the Rest-Express [2] and DropWizard [3] multi-query test implementations for a quick insight into their coding style. (Note the Rest-Express test was contributed by that framework's author.)
I'm not sure if this really answers your question, but I think it does speak to my earlier point in this thread that modern frameworks solve the problems I most care about and also (happily) tend to do so more efficiently--with respect to server resources--than the frameworks of a few years ago.
[1] http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=data-r6&hw=i7...
[2] https://github.com/TechEmpower/FrameworkBenchmarks/blob/mast...
[3] https://github.com/TechEmpower/FrameworkBenchmarks/blob/mast...