Some good news is coming for fans of the recently shuttered Italian café.
Gaia Italian Café was a popular Italian restaurant and café that operated for nearly a decade at 251 E. Houston Street. Founded by chef Gaia Bagnasacco, the restaurant was known for serving fresh, homemade pasta and other Milanese dishes in a warm and inviting atmosphere. Gaia’s leadership of the café cultivated a loyal and dedicated following thanks to her friendly personality, mastery of Italian cuisine, and regular interactions with the community.
Gaia Italian Café was a community staple in the East Village for years, and when the restaurant was forced to close down in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, longtime fans of the café poured out into the streets to show their respect and appreciation, eagerly awaiting news of the café’s inevitable revival. To meet the needs of her customers during this time, Gaia began selling her popular sauces and homemade pasta kits online, shipping them directly to fans through her website.
Now though, fans will soon be able to meet Gaia face-to-face again, as the team is currently in the process of developing a brand new retail concept to sell the cafe’s goods to customers in person. Moving into a small space at 226 East Third Street, Gaia and her team will be establishing a brick-and-mortar retail space through which customers can browse and purchase items that have previously only been available on her website, as well as some new delights planned exclusively for the store. In addition to her popular sauces and meal kits, Gaia is hoping to serve additional items like fresh mozzarella, roasted vegetables, and homemade ice cream.
Most importantly, the new space will allow Gaia to reconnect with the community that is so important to her. While the space is not large enough to accommodate an entire restaurant, Gaia posited the idea of potentially serving guests freshly cooked food through an additional ghost kitchen. She also hopes to one day bring back the community parties that the café was known for hosting, though those plans are still a little further down the line. As Gaia phrases it, the most important part of her café will always be “to reconnect with the community, to love people, and take care of each other.”
In the meantime, you can follow Gaia’s Instagram page for further updates about the new store’s development, and you can order some of the pasta directly through their website if you’d like to get a taste of what to expect in the future.
