New spot Gjoni’s a good place to eat

(This story has been updated. A previous version incorrectly credited the author. Lizy Ferguson is the correct author of this story.)

I don’t think I ever visited Spagnuolo’s, the restaurant that formerly occupied the space that Gjoni’s (pronounced the same as Johnny’s) now calls home, but I get the impression there are similarities. Both places can brag of their Italian-American food and a family-oriented, nostalgic atmosphere, which my dining companion put this way: “It feels like the year Home Alone came out in here.” I assure you that she meant this in the best possible way.

Between the Christmas lights, the cozy booths, the friendly young wait staff and the charmingly un-modern decor, you definitely get the feeling you’ve stepped back to a simpler time. The menu offers similarly classic, comforting, Italian-influenced favorites like spaghetti and meatballs, chicken picata and cacio e pepe, as well as pizza made with “homemade New York-style dough.” If I hadn’t just had pizza the night before, I would have gone with that, but I ended up splitting the chicken parmesan with my friend.

We’ve been best friends for 20 years and it’s hard not to share everything, so we also split the Greek salad, which came with all the standard accoutrements, including plenty of beets (our favorite topping) and big chunks of tangy feta, as well as the atypical but totally welcome addition of chickpeas. The dressing was on the bland side, but it did its job well enough.

We definitely made the right choice splitting our entree, as the chicken cutlets on our chicken parmesan were huge and sat atop a similarly generous portion of red sauce-slathered buccatini pasta. Buccatini is like a thick spaghetti with a hole down the center, making each strand into a sauce-absorbing tube. I never see it at restaurants, so this was a nice surprise! The chicken was well seasoned and crispy on the outside, well-cooked on the inside, and covered in heaps of melty mozzarella with a standard but tasty sauce. It made me think, for the thousandth time, about how there needs to be a chicken parmesan pizza.

If you have any family gatherings coming up but no one feels like cooking, I’d recommend Gjoni’s for their classic and Christmas-y atmosphere and the kind and welcoming service. I imagine their pizza is a perfect crowd pleaser, and they also have a large selection of gelato, a fun cocktail and mocktail menu and a full bar.