Spending time at Gia's

Last night two friends and I went to Cafe Gia's, a place in Little Italy that we'd been reading good things about. Joe was stuck in a pancreas operation (shocker), so the three of us went ahead hoping he'd be able to join us later. Twas not the case, but anyway...

While he was going on his 15th hour at work, we were loving life. You can read the Baltimore Sun's review to get a feel for the place. We found it to be super cheerful, and we got so excited to see that they had kept a couple sets of French doors open to the street. We got a table in front of those doors,  and literally, we could have stopped there. Dining al fresco is perfection. I got the Misto salad (lettuce, grilled mushrooms, kalabata olives, tomatoes, balsamic vinaigrette) and homemade bruschetta for dinner. We shared a cannoli for dessert. Best cannoli I've ever had. They used lemon rind to sweeten it. Delish.

After reading a description of Gia's "chic, petite mom" in the Baltimore Sun review, I asked the lady who'd seated us if she was, in fact, the Gia's mom I'd read about. Bingo! She was charming, to say the least. She had very dry humor and was extremely self-deprecating, but in an endearing way. She joined us at our table towards the end of the meal and entertained us for a bit. 

At one point, she learned that my two friends are getting married in 3 weeks. She jumped out of her chair, clapped her hands together and exclaimed, "I have something for you! They just came in. I'll be right back!" And off she ran to the kitchen.

Uh, ok... She returns and hands my friends two rubber duckies, one dressed as a bride and one as a groom. Too precious. She went on to tell us that someone put two rubber duckies on the back of her toilet one day, and they just kept spinning around the top of the tank lid with every flush, and she thought, what the heck are these ducks doing here??? For some reason she felt compelled to buy more rubber duckies, and she began using them as bargaining chips for kids who came to eat with their parents. If you behaved, she'd give you a duckie. 

So yesterday she'd received her latest shipment of hundreds of duckies. Sports duckies, Hollywood duckies, bath duckies, you name it. And she said, "I got 5 or 6 pairs of these wedding duckies, and I thought, what I am I ever going to do with these. But then here you are today!" 

She was so thrilled to give them to my engaged friends. I, being the tasteful, chic girl that I am, suggested the couple use the duckies as their cake topper. Ha! You should have seen the look the bride gave me. I think they're going to pass on the rubber duckie cake topper :)