Troia

When John Marzullo came up with the name Ravens Nest for his bar, he didn't realize what a good choice he had made. After all, it was 1965; and he's owned several different restaurants in the area since then. Now that Baltimore has a football team again, Marzullo wants to turn his Bel Air restaurant into a sports bar, and guess what? He owns the name.The Olive Orchard (306 S. Main St.), an Italian eatery, will become the Ravens Nest by the end of the month. The menu will feature bar food, but one thing won't change: the 1-pound T-bone steak for $5.95.

When Gino Troia opened Troia the Bistro at the Walters three years ago, he essentially left the original Cafe Troia (28 W. Allegheny Ave., Towson) in the hands of his family. (The bistro has since closed.) So customers probably won't notice much difference now that he's completely out of the restaurant business and operating Mondo Vino, a Maryland wine wholesaler.His wife, Carol, runs the restaurant with daughter Daniela in the kitchen. Gino's brother, Ernie Troia, is also involved."Gino has gone on to do his own thing," says Carol Troia.

Troia the Bistro at the Walters closed quietly this week, with no new tenant in the wings to take over the handsome space. Why Troia left depends on whom you talk to."Troia's a great restaurant," says Lynn Wolfe, manager of public relations for the Walters Art Gallery. "But it was a hard mix with a museum. People were looking for something more casual."The Walters is moving its gift shop into part of the dining room during the current renovation of its 1974 building. Carol Troia, who with her husband, Gino, opened the original Cafe Troia in Towson, says, "Gino isn't interested in running it anymore.

You can't help but have great expectations for your first visit to Troia the Bistro at the Walters. The dining room of the Walters Art Gallery was taken over a couple of months ago by Gino Troia and Katell Thielemann, owners of one of the most respected Italian restaurants in the area, Towson's Cafe Troia. David Rudie from the Milton Inn has been hired as executive chef, and the new bistro's menu is a collaboration between him and Gino Troia. It's an impressive pedigree.Troia the Bistro isn't a second Cafe Troia; and it certainly doesn't have much in common with the Milton Inn, a big ticket, special-occasion restaurant.

Good restaurants have personalities all their own. If I tell you that Cafe Troia in Towson is an Italian restaurant, don't have any preconceptions. It's not like other Italian restaurants you've been to.Cafe Troia is just that. A cafe. In spite of having three dining rooms and a sophisticated, expensive menu, it seems homey and unprepossessing -- very much the neighborhood place to eat. Customers on both sides of us were regulars; they greeted our waiter by name.So it comes as no surprise that Nonna's chicken soup is the zuppa del giorno.

In my review of Troia the Bistro at the Walters, I described the old decor as "stark and white and architectural." Ted Pearson of Rita St. Clair Associates, which redesigned the dining room, pointed out that the color was actually what he calls a "dull medium grey." My mistake, and my apologies.Pub Date: 2/09/97@

In the nine years that she's been at the Harbor Court Hotel, Holly Forbes - now executive chef - has won national recognition for Hampton's, the upscale restaurant under her direction (although credit has to go to chef of the restaurant Scott Hoyland as well).After March 16, though, Harbor Court will have a new executive chef. Forbes' husband has been transferred to Dallas, and she's going with him. "It's cheaper to relocate than to get a divorce," she says with a laugh.Forbes isn't sure what she'll be doing in Dallas, but she hopes eventually to open what she calls "an adult place."

In the Dining Out guide of Sept. 18, an incorrect phone number was listed for Troia, the Bistro at the Walters. The correct number is 410-752-2887.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 9/25/97

Computers and cappuccinoBy mid- or late June you'll be able to browse the Internet with a cappuccino or a glass of wine and an Italian panini sandwich next to your keyboard. This courtesy of the soon-to-be-opened Cafe Pangea (4007 Falls Road).Buddy Wolfe, co-owner of La Terra, the eco-boutique next door, says his new Internet coffee and wine bar will have sandwiches, 10 to 15 wines by the glass, specialty coffees, desserts from Vaccarro's and five computers artfully worked into the decor.

Americans finally are warming to the idea of bread salad -- once they get past the name.Somehow, the mix sounds so unexciting and mundane. We're just not used to bread in our salad bowls except as boring croutons scattered on top.But this Italian salad -- also more exotically called panzanella -- deserves a try. It's quick and easy to prepare and offers a tantalizing blend of flavors with hearty bread cubes, fresh basil, fruity olive oil and vegetables of...

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.

Some like it hot. Not rawists. Raw-diet proponents believe food is best eaten as nature made it. That's not boiled, not sauteed, not baked or broiled or braised or steamed or grilled. Sadly, it's not even fried. Anything that takes the temperature of food beyond 118 degrees, or just a few degrees warmer than the warmth of your tongue, is verboten for the raw, or living, foodist. Though science tends to suppose otherwise, raw-ists, typically more extreme vegetarians, believe fire saps food of its vital nutrients, the vitamins and minerals that make it worth eating in the first place.

Longtime Towson favorite Cafe Troia (31 W. Allegheny Ave., 410-337-0133) has officially moved to better, bigger digs across the street from its old location. The "ribbon cutting" was last Thursday. Carol Troia, who owns the restaurant with her daughter Lisa Troia Martin, said the new place holds 30 percent more diners. There's a larger bar and a "beautiful, new, updated, larger kitchen." The new kitchen has a charbroiler, which means more steaks and chops have been added to the Italian menu.

Grano, the new Hampden pasta joint, is indie-movie cute. You know those movies where some type-A executive loses it all, rediscovers his muse and ends up opening the place of his dreams, a modest bakery or a sweet little cafe, the kind with just a couple of tables and a handful of stools at the counter, where the hero's quirky friends can chat while the emotionally restored hero prepares their meals. Grano is a place like that, and the hero is being played by none other than Gino Troia, known best for the long-running Cafe Troia, the widely admired Towson restaurant open since 1984 with which he is no longer directly involved.

Several of the restaurants in the new Park Place in Annapolis are national chains, but not the recently opened Carpaccio Tuscan Kitchen and Wine Bar (1 Park Place, 410-268-6569), which features northern Italian food and 40 Italian wines by the glass, as well as some 150 bottles. Carpaccio is part of a local restaurant group, which used to include Cafe Mezzenotte in Severna Park and now consists of a number of casual Italian-themed restaurants like Sazzio, Squisito's and Pomo Grille and the Four Seasons Grille in Gambrills.

The temperature was in the teens outside, but everything inside Cafe Troia was warm and cozy. And we're not just talking about the temperature. The place was filled with laughs and smiles on the faces of about 70 folks who mingled about with glasses of wine in hand and nibbled smoked salmon on toast and mini cheese tarts. How could there not be lots of good cheer? First of all, this was the Second Annual Wine Dinner benefiting the YMCA of Central Maryland. Second, this party wasn't costing the YMCA a dime.

Bruschetta -- pronounced BrusKETta, all you non-Italian waiters who have corrected me over the years -- has most of the ingredients for success. It's Canton's new wine bar and deli, owned in part by Gino Troia of Towson's Cafe Troia (which provides many of the Italian delicacies). The food is authentic at a time when Baltimoreans are appreciative of authentic ethnic foods. The place is very casual, the wine flows, and the dishes come as small plates for noshing. So what's not to like? Walk in the small storefront that was formerly Pascale's Italian Deli & Pork Store, and you'll find the shelves of Italian groceries and the deli case filled with good things are decor enough.

Anyone searching for a tasty and inexpensive meal will find lots of choices in Towson, especially along Allegheny Avenue and York Road, where ethnic restaurants and bars beckon for blocks in every direction. One bright recent addition to this casual dining scene is Zia's, a smoothie and sandwich shop that opened in March. The owner is Daniela Troia, of the Troia family that owns the higher-end Cafe Troia, the Italian restaurant across the street. Troia, who knows the restaurant business well, loves smoothies but couldn't find a nearby place for her favorite drink, so she opened a smoothie shop of her own. The smoothies, offered with a staggering choice of ingredients and add-ons, are lighter and less sweet than other smoothies I've had, and therefore more refreshing.

Sometimes when you go out all you want is a quiet place to relax and have good conversation. If the food is fine, so much the better. This is particularly true if you, like me, have been hitting all the high-energy new restaurants that have been opening up downtown. After a while you yearn for a place like the ever-reliable Cafe Troia in Towson. At Cafe Troia there is no music. The white-clothed tables are larger than usual, so you never feel cramped, even when the small dining rooms are filled.

Ernesto Troia, 53, chef and outdoorsman Ernesto Troia, a former chef who had worked at several notable Baltimore restaurants, died Sunday of heart failure at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 53. During his 25-year culinary career, Mr. Troia had been chef at his uncle's restaurant, Cafe Troia in Towson, as well as Mainly Pasta in Hollins Market and the now-closed Velleggia's Restaurant in Towson. He also was chef at the Crow's Nest and La Fuenta, both on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, before he returned to Towson because of failing health in 1999.