Join me at Gigi’s, our own ‘Cheers’

Anna Bonavita is a former physicist with a passion for culture, cuisine and environment. Born in a small village in Bulgaria but swept up in the waves of globalization, she claims several countries as the source of her cultural identity. Her travel nonprofit, Esperienza, provides small-scale, immersive experiences. She is also the founder of the Italian Cultural Center of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the Italian Film Festival, and The Communal Table.

Lisa Venticinque

Recently I spent two nights at Gigi’s, the café at the corner of 36th street and Bryant. In a way, nothing much happened. Yet these were some of the best moments I have had in Minneapolis in a long time...
Let me tell you why.
First evening was on Friday and the surprisingly perfect duo of singers/songwriters David Dvorak and Vittorio Raimondi was offering a free concert to everyone who managed to leave their comfortable couch and addictive Netflix serial at home. The room was full of people… eating, drinking and talking even before the show started. It was a pleasant scene of neighbors (and not) gathering together to have good time immersed in an ambiance of thoughtful, colorful, intriguing paintings. And then the music began and added so many more layers to the experience. David’s songs with cerebral and witty lyrics easily brought an unexpected tear or a smile while describing our everyday struggles and challenges. Bob Dylan could have been proud and perhaps even challenged. Later the handsome, charming Vittorio offered a lyrical take on our emotional lives and sang in both Italian, Napolitan and English making us feel somewhere on the way to Italy but somehow without the need of translation. I found his rendition of the classic Pino Daniele’s song Napule very moving. And I was not alone, a group of young Italians sitting in the back, joined the singer in his soulful longing for a place and time… both impossible to reach yet fascinating.
The concert continued, people kept coming and before too long there were no more seats and some were sitting on the floor next to the musicians. Soon – to my amazement – the guest singer Philippo got everyone to join him in singing Bella Ciao – the Italian antifascist song from the WWII.
From my little corner table I looked at the audience in astonishment. Former Mayor RT Rybak was there with a group of friends. Not far from them was an African American legend, Mary Moore Easter, a poet, dancer and choreographer so full of life and beauty to admire. At the same table were other extraordinary people of all ages from various walks of life: nonprofits, health care, politics, florists, social work, landscaping, and journalism. Plus a group of 20 somethings who did not mind being next to young senior citizen.
We were all there together in spite of and because of heartbreaking wars, shocking climate disasters, continuing violence, poverty and hopelessness in this world. David’s last song was about a road trip and got everyone dancing. I briefly remembered how afraid we were of each other just couple of years ago and the joy of the dance tripled. Among the dancers I saw a woman, no more depressed as she just turned 80; another one in the middle of a nasty divorce was dancing, using percussions and forgetting about all of this; a man, who saw his career go away in a blink of an eye, was there taking it all in; a woman, who had recently lost her dad and son in a matter of a month joined as well; somewhere there was also someone going through a series of medical tests and thinking about mortality but wanting to celebrate every moment. They were all dancing… together at Gigi’s.
I thought this was an evening to remember and then just five days later at the same place, at the same tables, another miracle happened.
The Communal Table, a weekly gathering of friends and strangers seeking social connection in a quiet, inspiring environment, had a special event. Instead of the regular appearance of local talents (musicians, dancers, writers, photographers) that time, everyone was invited to bring a poem and share it. It was a totally spontaneous evening and left me in awe. There is so much talent and desire to share and be seen. AI-written poems were mixed with Rumi’s shorts and Robert Frost’s “The Road Less travelled” – but also the poem an eight-year-old wrote together with her father. The melody of poems in many languages were heard – Russian, Bulgarian, Italian, Hebrew, English. Someone wrote and then sang her poem in the style of Spiritual gospel, others joined a singer in an poetic song about Jerusalem. Haiku, exchanged over the first year of a relationship of a real couple present right there, reminded us of the abundance of beauty in every single moment if we just stay still and listen.
As we were leaving and hugging each other since we knew much more about each of us thanks to poetry, I could not believe my luck.
So it is possible to feel you belong after all even if you are an introvert, single, foreigner… It is possible to happily call Minneapolis home in spite of the profound alienation we all felt due to COVID, George Floyd, and the now ubiquitous loneliness… all because I found my tribe right here at Gigi’s.
P.S. Gigi’s phenomenon did not happened by chance. A young, passionate, empathic woman, Laura Stigen had a dream and another woman, Kim Bartmann, believed in her. This is how Gigi’s came to represent “everything the heart of community should be.” Not only the food is made from scratch on site using the best local ingredients one can find, the prices are contained. The ambiance is welcoming, unpretentious, but intensely inspiring thanks to the many, many paintings of local artists and children, too, covering all walls.
Tuesday is a game night to invite younger generations to connect, Wednesday welcomes The Communal Table social experiment, and Fridays are reserved for musicians.
Everyone is welcome, everyday from early morning to early evening and the kind, friendly staff (my favorite is Laura originally from Honduras, now a proud local) often knows your name.
I think Minneapolis’ Gigi’s is better than Boston’s Cheers, try it. I will be there next Wednesday.