Le Gallo Rosso IS NOT CLOSED

Went by last night and there is a For Sale sign on the front and "cafe space" is one of the items listed. The sign is still up on the door to the back, but it all looks closed. Although there is a sign on the front door promoting a BB&T Italian fest of some sort.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks to Kurt for getting the rest of the story (see below). I have edited this subject line to avoid making the rumors worse. No harm meant by the original poster, who did report just what she saw ... but I'm glad this rumor did not prove out. RG.)

[Robin Garr]

Went by last night and there is a For Sale sign on the front and "cafe space" is one of the items listed. The sign is still up on the door to the back, but it all looks closed. Although there is a sign on the front door promoting a BB&T Italian fest of some sort.

That's very sad ... and I expect it can be traced to the reptile who snitched on them for letting people <gasp!> bring in their own wine. I still wish I knew for sure who did that ...

Annette is a vendor at the Italian Fest. Annette has been actively looking for a new spot but has yest to find a new home. I believe she is still open until building sells. I do not work for Annette, she is a friend...!

I called and Annette answered the phone, they are not closed.
I think there may be some confusion as to the sale. The Bed and Breakfast along with a caretakers apartment are for sale. The Retail Space/cafe is the former shoppes off the alley retail space (Inn off the Alley and Shoppes off the Alley). Le Gallo Rosso's space is part of the sale but there is a valid lease on the space by Le Gallo Rosso.
Don't let this post deter anyone from going. Le Gallo Rosso is a fine little place with very good, reasonably priced Italian food. The owners of the bed an breakfast are retired and want to sell the property. They would love to sell it to Annette to take over the whole thing, but then comes the problem of money.

[Robin Garr]

I called and Annette answered the phone, they are not closed.
I think there may be some confusion as to the sale. The Bed and Breakfast along with a caretakers apartment are for sale. The Retail Space/cafe is the former shoppes off the alley retail space (Inn off the Alley and Shoppes off the Alley). Le Gallo Rosso's space is part of the sale but there is a valid lease on the space by Le Gallo Rosso.
Don't let this post deter anyone from going. Le Gallo Rosso is a fine little place with very good, reasonably priced Italian food. The owners of the bed an breakfast are retired and want to sell the property. They would love to sell it to Annette to take over the whole thing, but then comes the problem of money.

Excellent! The original sounded like more than a rumor, so I didn't questin it, but thanks for checking, Kurt. This is GOOD NEWS!!

I'll edit the original header so it won't be misleading.

I called and Annette answered the phone, they are not closed.
I think there may be some confusion as to the sale. The Bed and Breakfast along with a caretakers apartment are for sale. The Retail Space/cafe is the former shoppes off the alley retail space (Inn off the Alley and Shoppes off the Alley). Le Gallo Rosso's space is part of the sale but there is a valid lease on the space by Le Gallo Rosso.
Don't let this post deter anyone from going. Le Gallo Rosso is a fine little place with very good, reasonably priced Italian food. The owners of the bed an breakfast are retired and want to sell the property. They would love to sell it to Annette to take over the whole thing, but then comes the problem of money.

Thanks! I am glad to hear that it is not closed!!! And I do apologize for not calling the number to see if they were closed. I should have tread more slowly and instead ASKED if it was closed. Do not want to spread restaurant rumors!

They often have ravioli as a special (with different fillings and sauces).
They use pasta that is thin but still a little chewy and a good filling/pasta ratio. Ravioli is often a risky order, buy at Gallo Rosso, it's always good.

Well, we ate out a LOT during the power outage. Wednesday night we decided to try LGR. We didn't make a reservation but there was plenty of room when we got there between 7:30 and 8:00. The dining room looked really cramped even with only a couple tables filled (the space is very chopped up with what must be load-bearing "columns", so we asked to sit outside under the charming little grape arbor. It was getting dark as we sat down, and pretty soon it was too dark to see a hand in front of your face. We thought maybe the Japanese lanterns would get turned on at some point, but we eventually figured out they were ornamental only. There were a couple of bulbs lit, enough to see the menu well enough to order, but the light had faded so by the time the food came we literally could not see what was on the plates. The server brought a votive candle about halfway through the meal. Warning: Mosquitos had almost as much to eat as we did. Also, there was a spider incident (not really LGR's fault - we were the ones that decided to sit underneath a grape arbor!).

The food: The food was great! Bread came to the table first and it was just okay, a loaf of soft white bread that I'm betting they don't make there, but the olive oil they served on the side was pretty good-tasting, high quality oil with (I think) roasted red peppers mixed in. We got the antipasta appetizer and it was a GIANT portion of salumi, prosciutto, mortadella, fresh mozz and several different kind of olives - kalamatas, piccolines, etc. And even though I told John the portions would be huge he wanted his own portion of linguine and stuffed meatballs, so boy did he get it. I've never seen meatballs that big in my life! Easily the size of baseballs! The "stuffing" seemed to be a tiny cube of mozzarella at the center of each ball, but we weren't complaining - it was very filling. I got a chicken-and-mushroom dish, I'm blanking on the exact name of the dish, but it was beautifully plated with a little tower of cheesy rice pilaf on the side - delicious. Each entree also came with a salad (we did not realize this when we ordered), and the salads were also beautifully presented, greens wrapped in a long, thin slice of cucumber, with what was obviously house-made dressing. We were so stuffed we did not order dessert.

Now, the bad news. The service was abysmal. But not in that "our server's in a bad mood or unhappy in his job" way. This terrible service was at least cheerful and enthusiastic. It was just horribly incompetent. We had to ask for everything two or three times. I'm not sure how many tables the guy had - we were one of two on the patio he was taking care of, and the other one was a boisterous 6-or-8-top of Ryder Cup Attendees, but it took FOREVER between courses and frankly, it was if it was the guy's (Tom, if I overheard correctly) first night serving EVER ANYWHERE. I found myself wondering if the power outage had caused them some staffing problems and they'd drafted a green friend or relative to serve. He didn't seem to know anything about the menu or how to wait tables. He never offered us any beer or wine (are they without a license again, or was that just an omission, I wonder?). After giving him a debit card to settle up we waited about another 20 minutes before he stopped by and said "anything else?" and we had to explain to him that we'd never gotten our card back yet. He seemed to be having the same sorts of issues with the other table (but they were making an evening of it and didn't seem too disturbed).

I'd love to recommend this place. It's so cute and the food was actually pretty impressive for straight up Italian. Unfortunately, I can't imagine spending over $50 there again and chancing such polite but atrocious service, such an awful bug problem, and such darkness that we could barely see what we were eating. Not when there's Melillo's to go to.

After the first time I eat somewhere, I always ask myself if I would return there with guests for a business dinner or recommend the place to out-of-town guests. In this case, I have to say sorry, no way, no how.