After an aborted attempt to eat at Han 202 last night, and discovering it was closed on Mondays ( I edited Yelp business info page), my friend and I ventured into Gio’s Cafe. She’s eaten here before and liked it so I was happy to go as we have similar taste in food and restaurants. Gio’s is one part deli, one part grocery store, and one part sit-down restaurant. Cans of San Marzano tomatoes and jars of giardinera line the shelves. The menu is huge for being a relatively small place. You half expect a little Italian grandma to come out of the kitchen. It just feels like someone’s house. I love little places like this as you just know the food will be good. We were both going to start with a house salad but the waitress talked us instead into splitting the Italian salad. She was spot-on in her recommendation. It was a great salad, chock full of crispy iceberg lettuce ( I like iceberg; don’t judge me), cucumbers, tomatoes, garbanzo beans and shredded fresh mozzarella, and topped with the just the right amount of vinaigrette dressing. It was the perfect start to the meal. I ordered the chicken vesuvio for my entree and my friend ordered the tortiglioni carbonara. The chicken vesuvio was really good; it had a light white wine sauce that was not overly garlicky and came with vesuvio potatoes and peas as any chicken vesuvio worth its salt should. I was really jealous of my friend’s pasta dish. It was what looked like fusili in a light cream sauce with mushrooms, proscuitto and peas. I was hoping she would offer me a taste, and bless her heart, she did. It was delicious and I actually liked her entree better than mine. I am definitely going back and getting that. We sat there sipping our red wine and I just absorbed all the activity in this little gem. Orders were flying out the door; the waitress was chatting with everyone, and all were enjoying their food. You won’t find this kind of camaraderie at Olive Garden, folks. I don’t venture into Bridgeport all that often, but I’d definitely make a special trip to come to Gio’s.