Gabriel's - Restaurant Review

Thomas and I met another couple for a late supper on Tuesday night. At their suggestion, we chose Gabriel's Lorenzo Room, an Italian restaurant just a block and a half away from our house. From the outside, it was nothing much to look at. It is just small half a double. There are three lights above the sign, and a neon light for some beer in the tiny front window. The first room has a bar running the full length of the room and had a few small tables for two, and a TV up in the corner. It was clean and neat and mostly empty. All the wood accents were a dark wood, and the lighting was dim, but not unpleasantly so.

The man and the bar told us to go back to the next room, and when we looked confused he pointed to the door and told us to follow the guy who had just come through. The next two rooms had several larger tables with table-clothes and napkins all set up attractively. The waiter was wearing jeans and a nice button-up shirt and was friendly and polite. As my friend pointed out, it was nice not to be called, "Hon" or "Sweety" by the waiter. (This is not uncommon in restaurants around town.) He was the only waiter there, but he was efficient and only made a small mistake in our order.

Since we had to wait a little for our friends, we ordered an appetizer of mozzarella sticks, which were served with cocktail sauce instead of marinara sauce. As we waited, we looked around. There were three large woodcarvings on the walls. One of them was a conquistador, and I don't remember the other two. The conquistador was impressive though. It was a relief carving, but it stuck out from its base by at least six inches. The details were beautiful.

When our friends arrived we ordered our food. All the food was made by the grandma upstairs. I had ravioli and meatballs; Thomas ordered fish parmigiana; and the other couple ordered rigatoni and meatballs and chicken parmigiana. All the meals came with a salad and bread. The salad was normal iceburg lettuce salad with tomatoes and dressing, but the bread was so good! It was crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Everyone enjoyed their meal, and the serving sizes were just perfect. I especially liked the tomato sauce, so much that I broke all kinds of etiquette rules and scooped it all up with the delicious bread, to the amusement of the waiter. We didn't have room for dessert, which was waffles and ice-cream, but I'm sure it would have been delicious too.

It was closing as we left, so we were the last ones there. But even when we arrived, there were only two other groups. It made me sad to think about how many people are missing out on such wonderful food, in such a comfortable setting. I hope to go back again sometime soon, and maybe take some other friends who will share the news of good food to more people.