Cafe Gia

Cafe Gia Restaurant Review:

Gia Fracassetti is the granddaughter of Sicilian immigrants, and four generations of her family still live in the heart of Baltimore's Little Italy. This explains the warm-hearted traditional menu of Southern Italian classics, each one of which is a favorite of one family member or another. (You’ll probably also find various family members in the kitchen, or working the front of the house.) Nonetheless, Cafe Gia is no predictable Little Italy red-sauce joint. Such dishes as fresh salmon grilled with lemon, rosemary and olive oil and veal Francese add a welcome note of Northern sophistication, if you wish to stray from the fine eggplant Parm and linguine with white clam sauce. And the setting is striking: every available surface, inside and out, glows with sponged-on color and hand-painted frescoes. In warm weather, claim a seat on the romantic second-floor balcony with its elaborate ironwork. Next door is their Pane e Vino, a wine bar with small plates and offering Cafe Gia’s full menu.