Review: Joe Benny’s is Back as Benny’s in Little Italy

In the spring of 2023, Joe Benny’s, a casual Little Italy restaurant beloved for its meatballs, focaccia pizza, and unstuffy attitude, closed after a decade-long run. It was yet another post-pandemic blow for a gastronomically iconic neighborhood where unfortunately more restaurants seemed to be closing than opening.

Today, Little Italy’s outlook looks a little tastier, thanks in large part to Joe Benny Gardella, the man who put his heart, soul (and body) into Joe Benny’s and has opened its bigger and bolder successor, Benny’s.

Gardella shuttered his first restaurant in part because he needed back surgery, a result, he says, of working virtually nonstop for 10 years in the small, cramped space. Now physically and spiritually renewed, he has teamed up with co-owner Benny Sudano to open a restaurant that they hope will help spark a renaissance in the neighborhood.

“We said, ‘Let’s get the guy who was born and raised in Little Italy and the new guy and see if we can get this resurgence going,’” says Gardella, who has lived in Baltimore since 2000 and moved to Little Italy in 2020. “The goal was to have old-school Little Italy meet new Little Italy—and if they had a kid, that’s what I wanted it to be.”

The reproduction metaphor is an apt one considering “Best Balls on the Block” is written on the awning over Benny’s High Street entrance (Meatballs in this case.) Once inside, it’s even more apparent that this is a less stodgy restaurant than its more traditional neighbors.

Classic rock fills the air in the spacious and lively bar, which, on the nights we visited this summer, was crowded with some people who were just drinking, others who were snacking, and couples eating full meals. There’s a small dining room in the back with dark wooden tables, no red-and-white checkered tablecloths in sight.

We started with cocktails curated by Josh Sudano (Benny’s son), another partner in the venture. The Margarita Siciliana adds limoncello to the standard tequila, triple sec, and sour mix to create a version with a sweeter aftertaste. Wednesdays feature half-price bottles of wine, which are grouped into two categories on the menu: Decent (the Ermes Vento pinot noir is described as “light but with attitude, like Sicilians”) and the pricier Reserves. Sangria, bottle and tap beer, and nonalcoholic drinks also are available.

The star of the antipasti is, of course, the Sloppy Balls (Benny’s loves its cheeky puns), the same beef and pork variety slathered in tomato sauce from Gardella’s grandmother’s recipe that he served at his previous establishment. There is a difference: Here they come on a bed of polenta covered with burrata, making for an even more decadent and delicious dish.

The tasty octopus carpaccio features thinly sliced pieces of octopus with a crisp, light dressing that accentuates the natural flavors. An order of focaccia pizza delivers, as the menu warns, the promise of “a big damn slice.” We split about half of the Norma Jean, topped with eggplant, tomatoes, escarole, and burrata, and took the rest home.

We suggest you save your carb intake for one of the excellent pastas. Orecchiette e granchio, small ear-shaped pasta with corn, tomato, and crab in a guanciale cream sauce, was rich but not overpoweringly so. Rigatoni with short rib cooked for four hours was a special on a night we visited; the meat was tender and the sauce exquisite.

But the best pasta dish is undoubtedly the rigatoni al pistacchio, crumbled fennel sausage in a pistachio pesto sauce that’s a milder yet more complex version than we’ve ever had. The origins of the dish can be traced back to Sicily, where Gardella’s parents emigrated from before eventually settling in Prince George’s County, where he grew up.

“On the base of Mount Etna there’s a town called Bronte,” he says. “Their main source of income is the pistachio business. You go to this town, 75 percent of the menus, whether it’s sweets, savory dishes, you name it, use pistachios. I’d go every year and bring back pistachios. I’ve always had a liking for them.”

Vern Smith, Benny’s chef, created the dish. Its presence is another sign that Gardella—who says he and Sudano have more projects in the neighborhood in the works—is infusing a shot of adrenaline into the Little Italy food scene.

“If you don’t put life into these ethnic neighborhoods, they kind of fall by the wayside,” he says. “I want to be part of the resurgence, because I don’t want Little Italy to fade away.”

BENNY’S: 300 S. High St., Little Italy. HOURS: Tue.-Fri. 4-10 p.m., Sat. noon-11 p.m., Sun. noon-9 p.m. PRICES: Antipasti $13-18; pasta $19-29; entrees $24-36; dessert $8. AMBIANCE: Not your father’s Little Italy restaurant.