I’ve been enjoying some lovely spring dinners at Gabbiano’s. This is a relatively new entry on the Portnad restaurant scene, a neighborhood Italian-American red sauce restaurant where old school with an east coast viewpoint meets Pacific Northwest local sourcing and housemade ingredients sensibilities. Go early because they will run out of the fried mozzarella, get the pastas and chicken parm to share, and all the cocktails are tasty. My favorites are the Espresso Martini and the Young Rebel Genius so far, though I so plan to keep eating and drinking my way through the menu. Here are all the highlights I’ve enjoyed so far.

I’ve been a fan of David Sigal and Blake Foster from attending many of their pop-ups in Portland during the years, from my first introduction with Mian to Zoobar to Sunshine Noodles and even an incredible baller Gulp Fiction/Pulp Fiction inspired Halloween party, everything has always exceeded my expectations. Now they are emerging with true adulting, moving from being part of the crew at established restaurants to being owners at a brick and mortar restaurant that opened recently in mid-January 2022. Even though it’s taken over a space where to its left and right you can also find some pretty incredible pastas on the same block, Gabbiano’s has it’s own strong perspective with its menu of food and drink that set it apart in its own unique way. The PDX Eater article on it covers some of the details on more of the names and inspirations and this Willamette Week article the vibes if you’d like to know, I just want to get to my food and drink.

Cocktails

You will find a good wine menu of Italian wines made by Italians, but given their start of bold fun cocktails at Zoobar, I have intentions of drinking through the entire cocktail menu. I’m already behind because they’ve already updated some of the drinks from winter to spring, but I recommend you start light and citrusy with their dangerously easy to drink libations. For instance the Neat-o-Venito! starring aperol, grapefruit liqueur & juice, cherry, white wine, and sparkles, a recent addition for spring. Meanwhile, the throwback Lemon Drop and traditional limoncello combine powers here thanks to Gabbiano’s Limoncello-Drop crafted with roasted lemon vodka, Gabi’s saffron limoncello, lemon, and a generous lemon-salt rim. You might even want to kindly request the saffron limoncello to try on its own and the story of how it’s created.