Culture & Community | Economic Development | Arts & Culture | Wooster Square | Culinary Arts
Chef and Gioia co-owner Avi Szapiro. Lucy Gellman Photos.
It was just past 6 p.m. on Thursday, and chef Avi Szapiro entered the next stage of an elaborate culinary ballet. In front of him, bowls of cacio e pepe gnocchi and roasted squash agnolotti glistened beneath soft, golden warming lights. Behind him, a wood-fired oven roared to life. Half a dozen rotisserie chickens emerged on a tray, all of them the color of hazelnuts and coffee. The smells of pecorino and sage hung low in the air.
"Gioia salad and a half chicken, please!" he shouted, and the order coasted over green and white tile, butcher block countertops and neat stacks of Orvieto dishware. Around him, a symphony of chopping knives and coordinated footfalls seemed to answer.
Welcome to Gioia, a new 5,000 square foot restaurant, bar, gelateria and market at 150 Wooster St., in the former home of Tony & Lucille's Little Italy. The brainchild of Ordinary and Bar Piña's Tim Cabral and Roìa's Avi Szapiro, the space offers a mix of Italian-inspired dishes and drinks, from fresh pasta to wood-fired meats, fish and vegetables to soups and salads bursting with the flavors of Calabria, Sicily, Tuscany and Veneto.
The restaurant, which has received support from partners Anthony and Gerard Bianco of A&G Contracting, officially opens to the public on Oct. 19. Make a reservation here.
Top: Cabral with diners last Thursday. Bottom: Gnocchi cacio e pepe (potato dumplings with pecorino and black pepper) and ember roasted squash agnolotti (pasta with sweet, smoky squash, sage, brown butter and wisps of cheese), served with a crisp Pinot Grigio.
"We've been talking about doing something together for years," Cabral said as dinner service bustled around him last Thursday. "[Here], we're not coming to Wooster Street to be better than anyone else. Our goal is to respect the neighborhood and to be a part of it."
"We wanted to play on those reminiscences of when you go to Italian American restaurants," Szapiro added as servers left the kitchen with gem-colored cocktails, dainty dishes of olive oil and bite-sized dinner rolls sprinkled with parsley and parmesan cheese.
It is a labor of love over two years in the making. When Covid-19 hit in 2020, the pandemic stopped both Ordinary and Roìa in their tracks, shutting down both establishments as Cabral and Szapiro navigated a new normal. During those first few months of lockdown, both business owners worked to innovate, filing for an alphabet soup of federal relief funding as they churned out meals for frontline workers and hosted virtual cooking and cocktail classes. Ordinary wound up reopening; Roìa ultimately closed its doors for good.
After years of collaboration, Cabral and Szapiro decided that it was finally time to go into business together. Initially, the duo toured smaller spaces in neighborhoods farther afield from downtown, including Westville, Cabral said. But when a realtor showed them 150 Wooster St., Szapiro was enchanted (“Avi had to convince me,” Cabral said with a mischievous smile Thursday). They ultimately reworked their plan for an intimate venue into a space that could seat over 100.
Top: New Haven Independent Editor (and this reporter's hot dinner date) Tom Breen between portraits by Jamie La Jones. Jones also designed a mural outside the building. Bottom: The fennel citrus salad.
Now, Cabral said, they're excited to be just outside of downtown, in the bustling heart of one of the city's historic neighborhoods. The name of the restaurant, Gioia, comes from the Italian word for joy, and is inspired partly by the matriarchs who instilled in the chefs, partners and team members a love for food and cooking.
It's that homage that makes parts of Gioia feel incredibly homey, despite its high ceilings, glittering forest green tile, reclaimed wood tables and sleek, cushioned booths on the sides and center of the space (a nod to Atelier Cho Thompson’s Ming Thompson, Emilia Baker, Keith Appleby and Celia Poirier, who have pulled off a complete renovation). Black-and-white tile peeks out from the market. A cozy window, soon to be joined by outdoor seating, advertises the gelateria on Brown Street.
From the walls, Jamie La Jones' portraits of the owners' mothers, sisters, and mothers-in-law peek out in vibrant color, so full of life that it's worth getting up to explore them between courses. From snacks to wood-fired mains, dishes arrive on bright and folksy Orvieto pottery, painted with bands of red and yellow and roosters in blue and green. This is, in other words, your fancy date night spot—but that doesn't mean anything about it is overly fussy.
Top: The bar in action. Bottom: The Lady Lucille, before rapid consumption. The mocktail is refreshingly cucumber-y, with a zing from fresh lemon that almost makes it taste like a newer-than-new dill pickle.
That's also true of the centerpiece, which is the food. After months of beta testing everywhere from friends' restaurants to Szapiro's home kitchen, Gioia has a menu meant to please every make and manner of diner, from salt cod arancini and wood-fired red snapper to vegetable-heavy dishes that honor the spirit and vivacity of Italian cuisine instead of drowning it in red sauce. Indeed, Cabral and Szapiro have pulled off a difficult thing, which is to let the ingredients speak boldly for themselves.
Those who are creatures of habit can stick with the wood-fired pizza (called, fittingly, “Wooster Squares”), cheese boards, two-meat bolognese, beef meatballs and rotisserie chicken (and yes, there is a Tuesday meatball sub for those who can't live without it)—but it is such a missed opportunity to pass up on crisp broccolini, smoky white bean and kale soup, squash agnolotti bathed in brown butter and toasted sage, and a salad that marries fresh oranges with fennel done two ways.
During a seated press dinner last Thursday, Szapiro and chef de cuisine Mark Bestmann delighted and surprised diners at each turn, often drawing squeals of "oh!" and "ah!" and "yum!" from booths and tables across the restaurant. Beneath influencers' ring lights and menu-sized cell phones, no detail went unnoticed, from charred toast atop a bowl of white bean soup to the slick, sun-colored rivulets of olive oil that seemed to find their way into almost every dish. 
Top: Kayley Billings at work. Bottom: Smoked carrots with whipped ricotta, chili oil and fennel seed.
Diners inspected the cheesy, pepper-graced tops of their cacio e pepe gnocchi, the browned sides of roast chickens, the crisped potatoes, still soft and hot inside, that came with them. At one table, a smoked old fashioned (Four Roses Bourbon, sugar, Liberation Mandarin and Angostura Bitters) made a dramatic appearance, sending hazy wisps up toward the ceiling as it arrived on a domed platter.
That sense of whimsy and experiment never goes away. The smoked carrots arrive dusted with chili, fennel seed and fresh mint, somehow still crisp and not too sweet, and layered on a pillow of ricotta whipped so gently it has the consistency of crème fraîche. The mushrooms shine in their smokiness, but never overpower a generous, perfectly salted portion of lentils that challenge anyone who has ever thought of them as bland or boring.
The fennel citrus salad, which features both charred fennel and toasted fennel seed, tastes like an episode of White Lotus where everyone is happy at the end. Even a salted chocolate wafer atop the restaurant's homemade tiramisu delights, with flavors that fall somewhere between a salted chocolate budino (but make it a cookie) and an old-school Nabisco wafer.
Top: The smoked old fashioned makes an appearance. Bottom: Beverage Director Michela Zurstadt.
And no wonder: for Cabral and Szapiro, as well as beverage director Michela Zurstadt, it's meant to be a culinary tour through both Connecticut and Italy, delivered in hearty portions that balance flavor and feel. Across both the food and cocktail menus, the team has also made a point to work closely with local farmers, with seasonal produce that includes Seacoast Mushrooms (wood fired and served with French lentils and wilted radicchio) and pears from Bishop's Orchards (used in a sweet, spiced pear reduction and mixed into pear gelato).
To Zurstadt's great credit, no stone has been left unturned (or rather, cocktail unshaken) in the beverage department, either. With flavors meant to conjure classic Italian spirits and cordials, there are takes on the quintessential aperol spritz, amaretto sour and vermouth-kissed negroni, as well as celebrations of ginger and grapefruit with a Cynar-infused kick, gin and lemon done at least three ways, and an espresso martini that can compliment or stand in for any dessert.
She has been just as diligent in building options for those who are sober, from a springy iced jasmine tea to the candy-esque "Almond Gioia" (spiced cherry cordial, almond orgeat, mint and club soda, served over crushed ice) to a spicy-sweet pineapple-habanero-ginger tango of a mocktail. Thursday, it was the gem-colored Lady Lucille (lemongrass shrub, cucumber, lemon, and tonic), with a whisper-thin slice of cucumber and lemony zing that stopped just short of a pickle, that stole this reporter's heart.
Maybe it's no wonder that parts of Gioia feel predestined, as if this team has always been meant to work together. Szapiro's vision for French and Italian cooking transformed New Haven's palate when Roìa opened 10 years ago. Cabral, who grew up in the area and has made Ordinary into a beloved downtown institution, still has his favorite hometown spots for chicken parm and pizza, and neither are his own restaurant. Together, the two have assembled a team that fills in whatever culinary blind spots may be left.
Top: Market Manager Meredith Magenheim. Bottom: A caffé martini (Nue vodka, Mr. Black Cofee Liqueur, Averna Amaro, La Colombe Cold Brew and coffee whip) with house-made tiramisu. Hand modeling by Thomas Breen.
Part of that is the attached market, which can double as a private event space for up to 34 people. Buzzing between shelves of farro, tomato sauce and pasta making kits Thursday night, manager Meredith Magenheim said she is excited for the spot to open to the public, who don't yet have an equivalent in the neighborhood. Years ago, she spent a semester studying abroad in Bologna and Udine, impressed by the number of little markets and stops for fresh produce in both cities.
Now, she’s working to bring that same spirit to New Haven. Years ago, Magenheim moved to New Haven after college, where she met Cabral during her work for Caseus. When he told her about the latest project, she had just graduated from library school, and put finding a job on hold to help build the restaurant. The work with Gioia excites her because "it's everything I love," she said.
She added that a corner market may fill a need for people who live in the neighborhood, and realize they need a last-minute dinner item or have run short on toilet paper or soap at the 11th hour. In addition to dry goods, it has a cool case where people can find fresh pasta and gelato from the restaurant.
Back in the kitchen, the night showed no sign of stopping. Plates of fish and dainty cups of tiramisu and blood orange sorbet continued their orderly procession out of the space, conversation rising and falling as they landed on tables, and diners forgot their sentences after a bite or two. Cabral buzzed from table to table, rarely still for more than a moment. Szapiro checked orders, studying each dish meticulously. It seemed that he hadn't even broken a sweat.
Gioia’s hours are as follows: Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday from 4 to 10 p.m. with “late night bites” until 11 a.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 to 10 p.m. with “late night bites” until 11 a.m., Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 to 8.p.m. Happy Hour is Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. The market is open Tuesday – through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.