Cafe Troia has always been something of an anomaly in Towson, a white-tablecloth restaurant that has managed to survive, even flourish, for 23 years.
These are scary times to deviate from the "if it ain't broke" dictum, but when their landlord decided to raise the rent, Carol Troia and her daughter Lisa Troia Martin, who own the restaurant, solved the problem by moving across the street to larger quarters.
I happened to love the old space, which some thought cramped; but I was happy to have an excuse to eat at Cafe Troia again. The new digs weren't the only change; the menu was expanded to include more Italian dishes and more steaks and chops. This was made possible by the new, larger kitchen.
There are many more tables and an ample bar, and a second dining room downstairs, where we were seated. When the weather gets better, there will be tables outdoors on a deck in back.
The colors of the new Cafe Troia are Mediterranean, like the warm terra cotta walls, but nothing screams "I'm an Italian restaurant." The lighting is soft, and the chairs and booths are comfortable. But the new space can get noisy, as we found out. (We were seated next to a large group of guys who were partying hard.)
I wondered if the place was understaffed when co-owner Lisa Troia Martin not only seated us but took our orders and served us our meal. She's a charming woman, but compared to the usual polished service I've gotten at Troia in the past, this was a disappointment. She had trouble opening the first bottle of wine, for instance, and had to get another one. She couldn't tell us which wines were available by the glass. (They aren't on the wine list, perhaps to encourage you to get a bottle. It's heavy on Italian and California bottles and contains no bargains.)
She was also unsure about the specials, didn't know what was on a mixed appetizer plate, and had to go back to the kitchen to ask about both. On the other hand, when one of the owners is your server, the food comes out in a timely fashion and the meal is well-paced.
Cafe Troia's food is classic Italian, with a few bells and whistles. The worst I can say about our meal is that the bread was stale. OK, that's pretty bad, but everything else went smoothly. I do have one "buyer beware": Ask the price of the specials before you order. One of our shared appetizers was the ravioli of the day, gorgeous al dente pasta filled with beet puree, arranged with spinach and a puff of goat cheese. Good as the dish was, the $24 price tag took me by surprise. That was "beet," not "beef."
