Dan R.
Yelp
"Once I thought I saw you in a crowded hazy bar
Dancing on the light from star to star
(Neil Young)
On Thursday evening, in the one hour between 5:30 and 6:30 pm, the outdoor dining patio at Gregorio's went from a very sparsely populated tranquil space to a jam-packed crowded party atmosphere with plenty of hooting and hollering. After dinner, when we left the patio to exit through the restaurant proper, the inside dining rooms were just as packed.
So, we can deduce that Gregorio's is crazy popular -maybe for their food, pricing, atmosphere, Happy Hour or a combination of things.
Our server Brandee was very pleasant and funny and made us feel welcome. She started us off with a nice hunk of sliced Italian bread and a scoop of whipped butter.
We went into the Happy Hour menu for two things. The first was a Tossed Salad for sharing at $9.00 with "Green leaf lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrots, red onion, bell pepper, and marinated mushrooms. Served with house red wine vinaigrette".
The second was HH Eggplant Parmigiana ($15.00) - "Eggplant fried & layered with cheese & tomato sauce"
I went into their regular menu for Shrimp & Calamari ($19.00) - "Sautéed in our arrabbiata. Not breaded or fried!"
The salad was very good and the HH portion was plenty for us to split.
My wife thoroughly enjoyed her eggplant, but there were some improvement opportunities with the shrimp and calamari.
Don't get me wrong, the dish had a lot of really good things going on. First of all, it was served piping hot! The arrabbiata sauce was excellent, with a deep tomato flavor, and plenty of spicy zing, and there must have been 8 ounces of sauce in that dish. It had 5 or 6 big shrimps there that were excellent.
The problem was the rubbery calamari rings; they were a real disappointment and echoed some of the worst chewy versions I ever had. I mentioned it to our server, and she said "oh, were they over-cooked? I'll let the chef know".
We had a very good time at Gregorio's that sure could have been better....