Caffé Gio

Very nice place but horrible service! They have over 20 different flavored. I have never been so I wanted samples of different flavor a to taste. I even offered to pay for the ice cream first. They said no samples. That is horrible business considering I have never been there nor have I ever tasted any favors they offer. Def won’t be going back. I asked the owner he said No he stopped doing samples when they stop doing it in Italy. This is America. If you don’t know what flavor you want don’t even waste your time going.

At first, I was elated. I wanted to experience every one of Giovanni’s wonderful establishments. I started with a very good pizza at Antico, made excellent by the incredibly fresh & authentic toppings at the kitchen bar.
I proceeded to Bar Amalfi for juice-​fresh cocktails, and then confidently on to Caffe Gio, expecting a similarly hospitable and delightful experience.
Instead, I was greeted with a stingy sign that reads «No Samples!» In all my years and domestic travels, I have never seen so inhospitable a sign in a gelateria. It really spoiled the rush of good feelings I had been experiencing. We almost left as a protest, but the employees were very sweet, so we got just one mezze (2-​scoop medium), rather than two. The salted caramel was excellent, but the pistachio was mediocre; disproving an earlier claim by one reviewer stating that one should simply «trust that it’s all good». Batches differ and personal tastes differ. Herein lies the need to offer samples. If only tiny ones!
What I HAVE seen, in very popular establishments, is a sign limiting samples to 3, or perhaps 2. One could even impose further restrictions on sampling during very busy times.
It is my strong suggestion to you, Giovanni, that you adopt a similar policy.

Love this little gelato and coffee spot. I must say I’m very impressed with all of Gio’s restaurants. I went to three today and they all were A+. The gelato was a good consistency and very flavorful. I tried the cappuccino and strawberry gelato. Price point was affordable and a nice spot to visit with family and friends. I feel satisfied rather than stuffed and miserable. I really enjoyed my day out here. Nice friendly staff and clean restaurants at all three. Fast service and no samples but when it’s good who needs samples. Trust you will like it.

It’s right next to Antico Pizza… worth a stop in for a gelato.
It was good, nothing earth shaking.
They had limited options and each gelato has a pirouline in it… nice touch.
No samples… not cool!
Decent prices. Staff was eh.
A nice little after pizza treat…

Rude staff. No samples? I wasn’t expecting more than one… you can’t let us try one sample? RUDE. Won’t go back.

It breaks my heart to give a mediocre review and especially to a business that I support BUT I have to say my experience here left more to be desired.
I came in for a sure needed gelato fix. I support the other «little Italy» restaurants so I was expecting to get my Italian gelato, see familiar smiling faces, and be gleefully on my way. Instead I left feeling like I inconvenienced the gentleman working the counter and that left a bad taste in my mouth.
When I came in, the gentleman was on his phone, in plain sight. It’s a tiny hallway in front of the display so it’s not like he didn’t see me there waiting to place an order. I got his attention, he still never smiled or greeted me and asked me what I wanted. I don’t need to complain about no samples because if you’d read the reviews, you know they don’t do that. Non the less, I committed to the mint chocolate chip. He scooped it, put it on the counter (too out of the way to give it to me I guess) then went right back on his phone.
I had to uncomfortably interrupt him again to ask if I pay there or else where. He pointed at the other counter where a different employee was working the coffee area. When I payed with her I mentioned «I apologize to interrupt his phone time, I won’t bother to do that again» we kind of giggled and she assured me the owner should address it. My feeling is that the behavior is clearly allowed if he is that bold in his actions and from what I read,
there seems to be a consistent rude gentleman that works here.
The gelato was ok, more icy than creamy like I was hoping for. Oh well, I guess I’ll support their other businesses instead.

The ice cream at this place is really good, but it’s ridiculously pricey ESPECIALLY considering they do not let you sample.

I must be a gelato noob because I loved this place! I went with three friends and I liked all of the flavors we got. I don’t understand the bad reviews based on taste. THE PRICE, ON THE OTHER HAND… I completely agree with everyone. The cost is outrageous for the amount that you get, but if you’re already there and committed, you might as well get two scoops. The ambiance is whatever. The inside is really small with only like two tables, maybe three. If anyone is wondering, those giant tubs of Nutella do, indeed, contain Nutella in them and are not just for decoration (which might be kind of gross?). But anyway, as much as I liked it, I could never become a regular because of the price.

Overpriced average «gelato» and you cannot taste it first– No Samples!!– which the dudes are happy to enforce even on a crickets empty afternoon Tuesday 5 pm when we were the only car in the parking lot. You buy it on the basis of the insanely high quality pizza and get… strawberry ice cream. Meh. Strawberry ice cream is still good but let’s just not bother dusting off our Italian to order it.

They don’t «do» free samples of their gelato, so you don’t find out it actually sucks until after you’ve paid for it. Never going back. In fact, I’m going to avoid all three of his restaurants from now on. The chicken place was decent, but I don’t feel like giving that cheapskate any more of my hard-​earned money.

This place is meh. A single scoop of gelato is $ 5 which is pretty ridiculous. Also NO SAMPLES?!? How will I know what I like? I guess I am supposed to blindly decide which one I want.

I don’t know too much about gelato, but I think the quality is fine? Nothing spectacular. HOWEVER, for the price of FIVE DOLLAR$$$$ you can get one tiny little scoop with a waffle cone cookie thing. For $ 5, I expected a larger scoop or something out of this world crazy good, but it was just very overpriced.
I got the mint chocolate chip and it was fine.
Also, this place doesn’t allow you to sample the flavors first… not a fan of that.
You can park in any of the surrounding lots for Gio’s, Antico’s, the corporate office for Antico’s, etc.

Very cute atmosphere to enjoy an espresso and some gelato, but the quality of the gelato is three stars at the most. They have a pretty nice selection of flavors with a little sign with a frown that says no samples. Which to me is kind of outrageous considering how over priced the gelato is for a small scoop of mediocre quality stuff. When asked why no samples they said because people would come and try each flavor and then leave. That seems like a pretty silly reasoning for making the paying customer not test out a flavor. The espresso is illy which is my personal favorite and what pushed it to a third star. I personally have a love for their coffee and while the Coke brand has purchased the license in the u.s. I think it still remains one of my favorite smooth European roasts.

I miss Italy and I miss the gelato on every corner. However, my friend was telling me about how her sister is now working at Café Antico (once Caffe Gio), owned by the same owner of the renowned Antico’s Pizza and Gio’s Chicken Amalfitano.
The parking lot is tiny but we were sooooo lucky to find a spot at Gio’s Chicken Amalfitano and walk around the building to the café. This plaza has changed so much the past few years. I felt like I was in some Little Italy part of town within these few shops.
There is a gelato display near the front and a coffee/​espresso bar in the back. We lingered near my friend’s sister who was manning the espresso maker. We ended up ordering a latte (made with whole milk, sometimes 2% milk is available, but was not). We also got a small gelato, the Salted Caramel. The salted caramel was creamy and subtly salted caramel. Note that samples are NOT available.
As we were sitting in the tiny seating area near closing time, the owner came over to adjust the seats and tables, as well as dim the lights for «romantic effect.» He made small talk before heading to another of his establishments. It’s always nice to see the owner out and about.
A great little gelato spot to stop by on a Friday night, not that I’ve had other gelato in Atlanta to compare it to.

Love their Tiramisu and gelato’s. Its heaven for sweet lovers. Lots of varieties.
I don’t even remember how many I tried here. All of them were yummy and awesome.

This is antico’s little sister with a sweet tooth. Unfortunately, gio was a little too pricey for my taste. 4 dollar cannolis although good are a little too steep. There are about 12 different varieties to choose from. My friends had their coffee and the consensus was it was good but not mindblowing. They also had good gelato with decent variety. They do have an incredible selection of Italian desserts. Like antico, there is plenty of parking and the ambience is great. I’ll probably go back again.

After we fought our way into/​out of Antico, I was excited to get a little gelato at a new place. Unfortunately it was quite a LITTLE gelato. one scoop is $ 5, which is thievery for the size of scoop they give you. Two scoops is $ 6 so it’s hard to not do that if you’ve already committed to getting gelato but jeez. I thought at least they’d give you some ridiculous Bruster’s Ice cream portion for that much but no such luck. I can’t see myself going back for gelato there when there’s gelato anywhere else that is less expensive.
Even my favorite place when I lived in Philly (Capogiro), which is a more expensive city would only put you back $ 3.50 for one scoop. And it was much larger, there were more flavors, and the gelato was tastier.
On a different note, the cannolis that use to be at Antico are now here. Those are bomb (especially the hazelnut and white chocolate ones). Not sure on the price of those, but if they didn’t get more expensive since leaving Antico I’d go back for them.
Oh also the guy scooping was kind of rude. Told my mom and sister he couldn’t scoop theirs until they had paid for them but then gave my friend hers before she had paid for it. They don’t let you have samples, which I have never encountered at any ice cream/​gelato place. Especially since there were only like 10 flavors so it’s not like anyone could wild out with samples.

After grabbing dinner next door at Antico, my family and I stopped by Caffe Gio for some gelato. Being that it is an Italian establishment, of course they had one of my all time favorite desserts, affogato (espresso and gelato). It was fantastic! They let you choose your own flavor of gelato, but I highly recommend the sea salt and caramel.
Compared to Antico, this place was very quiet and relaxing. I’d like to go back and check out the food.

So I had heard that Antico had cannoli, but it turned out it was this place, which is next door, in the back of their chicken/​pasta restaurant.
We got two cannolis and a tiramisu to go, all of which were delicious. I’d give this place 5 stars EXCEPT the gelato/​cannoli register man wasn’t that helpful, plus they don’t do gelato samples, which is dumb. Their system is also weird, in that you pay at the sandwich counter then bring the receipt to him.
Not sure how their pricing was because my friend paid, but the food tasted great.

Stopped in for gelato after having pizza at Antico. We tried the pistachio and chocolate menthe. They were both delicious!
The staff did not go out of their way to be friendly or helpful. Other than that we enjoyed our visit and will probably stop by again. A nice treat after pizza!

I stopped in for a weekday lunch with some friends. The Caffe is located right behind Gio’s Chicken. It’s kind of hidden.
I have been on a tomato and mozzarella kick lately so I decided to go with the Caprese panini. The sandwiches are a bit pricey for what you want to spend on lunch, but the size of the sandwich is extremely generous and it comes with a side salad. My panini was STUFFED with tons of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. There was a bit of olive oil as well and salty goodness from the bread (dough from Antico??). The side salad was perfect and light. It had a olive oil as a dressing and a lemon wedge on the side to squeeze on your salad.
We stopped by after our meal to grab some gelato. Unfortunately, they only had 3 flavors when we were there. It was a bit sad. I ended up going with the mint chocolate chip. It was good, but not something that I would normally order.

We stopped in to Caffe Gio when I didn’t realize that Gio’s isn’t open for lunch. We parked in the front, and walked through the now very decently sized parking lot in the back. As the first customers of the day, we took our time to peruse the menu and ask the employee at the cash register for her recommendations. It was nice to see the sample plates on the counter to give you an idea of what you’re getting.
The sandwiches are not cheap, but the portions and ingredients are appropriate for the prices. It would have been nice to have a half sandwich and cup of soup option, because the chicken soup looked tasty, but we didn’t want to be spending $ 18pp for lunch.
I opted for the calabrese (sopressata, calabrian chili, shaved padano), while Jimmy got the parmigiano (chicken parmesan). All the paninis are served in the center of pizza bread, with a side of salad (romaine, radicchio, olive oil, salt and pepper, and a lemon to be squeezed on top). You order at the counter, and then they’ll bring your order to you. We ordered and then headed outside, as far away from the speaker as possible.
The panini were quite tasty. I really liked the spiciness of mine, even with the chili oil seeping out through the pizza bread. The salad was crispy, with just enough oil and lemon juice to dress it appropriately. I got a couple of bites of the chicken parm and it was hearty — not very much tomato sauce, more just the thin chicken with cheesy goodness.
I like the European atmosphere — the Italian music playing, the wirey café tables, the large gelato figure, the small water cups, etc. It really is reminiscent of an Italian café. I like that they’ve got Fiats and Vespas, and they’ve covered the chain-​link fence with some painted signs that look like vegetation. They really are turning this into a little European oasis in the city. Next time, I’ll try the gelato.

Caramel Gelato is to die for.
Several gelato flavors to choose from but sadly they don’t give free samples. So either listen to your heart, pick what you always pick, rely on Unilocal reviews, or ask the gelato guy for his recommendation. I came w/​Tulie L and yay, she picked the flavors I would’ve picked — Caramel and Pistachio.
Single scoops are $ 5, and double is $ 6. With double scoops, they’ll let you pick two different flavors. The scoops are very generous so the double was perfect for sharing. The caramel gelato tasted like true caramel but in gelato form … and it was heavenly. The pistachio was not very sweet but still very good, loved the natural color, and loved that it had a dispersal of nice size whole pistachio nuts. Next time I’d try the double again with another flavor … and caramel :)
From the other reviews, looks like they close one hour after Antico closes. The lighting inside is dim but not in a romantic way … more like an industrial basement kind of way. So from the outside, it looks dark and we thought it was closed — so make sure you check the door before thinking it’s closed.
FYI — in addition to gelato, they sell other desserts and paninis. Based on Cherry L’s review, looks like I need to try their Calabese Panini.

like EVERY other Gio/​Antico restaurant, i LOVE this place… SUPER FAN FAN FAN!!!
While a little pricey (like all other restaurants), everything is just so perfectly tasty:
–calabrese: grilled baguette with sopresseta, cheese, and those schpiiiiishy peppers like the ones on the diavola pizza… SO GOOOOOD… def the better sandwich
–genovese: not bad… but a little bland… and not SUPER strong flavors like the calabrese
–sanwiches are served with salad with a vinaigrette – super super super good
and…the star…
CHICKEN SOUP (for the teenage soul. haha…i just wanted to say that): that ZUPPA DI POLLO WITH PASTINA is so super derricious! while a tad salty, there were big hearty pieces of shredded chicken, carrots/​celery/​veggies, and little little pastinas (is that plural?) all in a super rich flavorful broth, topped with cheese shavings, and served with two pieces of taosted baguette. and even better, it reheated super well – just reheat over the stove and cut up the bread into bite sized pieces and toast for some yummy croutons. loveeeee!!! get it!
I’ll definitely be going back soon!

Caffe Gio is a new gelateria and pasticceria (Italian gelato and pastry shop) located next to Antico Pizza and Gio’s Chicken Amalfitano. As the name implies, Caffe Gio is owned by Giovanni Di Palma, owner of Antico and Gio’s Chicken. Together, these three businesses form a sort of Little Italy in the primarily residential Home Park neighborhood near Atlantic Station, Georgia Tech, and Westside. The area has been dubbed «Piazza San Gennaro.» A fourth business is planned to open later this fall.
It’s pretty awesome what Gio has been able to accomplish in just 4 – 5 short years. What started as a tiny Neapolitan pizza joint (
) has blossomed into a multi-​building, neighborhood mini empire. Over the years, newly acquired land has become new parking spaces and there’s now a parking attendant who helps direct cars to hard-​to-​find spots during peak times.
Caffe Gio officially opened August 16, but had sort of a soft opening two Saturdays ago (August 10) as Gio himself was generously serving up gelato to anyone who walked through his doors. If you’re stopping by Antico or Gio’s Chicken, stroll on by and see if Caffe Gio is open.
The shop is located behind Gio’s Chicken Amalfitano, in the same building. You can enter from either inside the chicken restaurant or outside at a separate, distinct storefront. The storefront has a cute pastel pink, white, and brown design, decorated with potted plants, string lighting, and Vespa scooters, one donning the logo of Caffe Gio and the other the flag of Italy. The trash containers look like chocolate-​crowned waffle cones holding two scoops of gelati (or ice cream) with whipped cream on top.
There’s 3 – 4 umbrella-​covered, wooden tables underneath the awning-​covered patio outside and 3 – 4 small metallic tables with cushioned seats inside.
Gelato is Italian ice cream. It contains less fat and is normally more dense and more flavorful than American ice cream. Like the food items at Antico and Gio’s Chicken, the gelati are labeled by their Italian names. If you don’t know Italian, it’s easy to get befuddled. Therefore, I’ve provided English translations where necessary. The over one dozen gelato flavors include:
Nocciola — hazelnut
Caramello Sale-​Marino — caramel
Chocolate
Limone — lemon
Caffe — coffee
Pistacchio
Stracciatella — chocolate chip
Fragola — strawberry
Pesca — peach
Cappuccino
Frutti Di Bosco — literal translation: «fruits of the forest»
Vaniglia — vanilla
Mint Chocolate Chip
I sampled almost every flavor and each one was delicious. No matter what you choose, you can’t go wrong. If in doubt, ask for a sample. My favorites were the hazelnut, caramel, vanilla, and mint chocolate chip. The cappuccino was expectedly, but tastefully bitter and the lemon makes for an excellent follow-​up to the lemon chicken next door. Generally, I found the gelato to be decadently smooth, creamy, and rich. It’s also surprisingly slightly airy.
The gelato can be served in cups or cones. There are different varieties of cones. If served in a cup, a cookie/​cracker is inserted into the gelato. If served in a cone, a straw biscuit is inserted into the gelato. These are extra treats, mainly for presentation and decoration. I would like to note I love the plastic spoons they use here. Not only are they firm and sturdy, but they have a mild bend to them which make them easy and ideal for eating with gelato.
Gelato was the only treat being served at Caffe Gio on Saturday. However, you can expect coffee, cappuccino, paninis, pastries, and other Italian beverages, snacks, and desserts to be coming soon. I’m happy this shop opened and think it’s going to be a hit just like Gio’s other business ventures. I’ll definitely be coming back again and again.
Free parking is available directly in front of Caffe Gio, which is on the backside of the Gio’s Chicken Amalfitano building. If you can’t find parking there, you can street park for free along either Ethel St. or Hemphill Ave.
Note: The above review for Caffé Gio was originally posted to Unilocal on August 13, 2013. About 2 – 3 days later, the business listing for Caffé Gio was erroneously renamed Gio’s Chicken Amalfitano, creating a duplicate listing for Gio’s Chicken Amalfitano. On or about August 18, the two listings were merged. As has been confirmed by Jenny Turknett of the Atlanta Journal-​Constitution (
), Caffé Gio is a separate business from Gio’s Chicken Amalfitano. As mentioned in the review, the business officially opened its doors on August 16, 2013.