Denizens of St. Johns need not venture far to find stellar Italian food, as Gabagool sits in the center of the neighborhood. The menu offers some unique options, like flatbread sandwiches called piadine — one such is the namesake gabagool, basically an Italian sub. There’s also spaghetti offered a variety of different ways, other pasta dishes, and a number of gluten-free polenta offerings. These days, the restaurant has moved out of its large-window dining hall and onto a heated patio, and also offers its pastas and sandwiches for takeout and delivery with online orders.

Previously Portland’s best Italian food cart, Gumba has moved inside, taking over the space previously home to Aviary. Down the line, people can look forward to late night snacks and a bar, but for now it’s selling its decadent, loaded pasta dishes for takeout and for delivery via Postmates. The menu changes daily and can generally be found at its Facebook page, but Wednesdays are reserved for its very non-Italian, but very delicious, fried chicken sandwich.

While pasta doesn’t seem the most intuitive cuisine for a food cart, but L’unico Almentari at the Cartside Food Carts more than pulls it off. In addition to the fresh made pasta dishes like the spaghetti aglio e olio — light and delicate with a subtle heat — or the orecchiette al sugo — a rich and warming dish with tender bits of stewed beef in a sweet tomato sauce — the food cart also serves Italian sandwiches, including meatball, chicken parmigiana, and a vegetarian mushroom crostino. L’unico offers pick-up and delivery, and the Cartside Tap House offers seating and drinks.

The minimalist Italian marketplace will one day offer much more dining options for pastas and cocktails and desserts. For now, though, Cooperativa offers essential Italian products and produce for home cooking, as well as grab-and-go pizzas (including dessert pizzas), fresh panini (including breakfast panini), and coffee drinks. All of it is available for pre-order online.

Like a number of other openings this year, Montelupo opened as a two-in-one market and restaurant. Those looking to dine in can do so in the heated tent the restaurant shares with the neighboring vegan restaurant Epif. The full-service menu includes generously sized bowls of rustic pasta dishes — the prosciutto and mortadella-stuffed tortelli calls for a side of bread to sop up some of the rich and warming tomato butter sauce, while the lighter tajarin features delicate noodles, truffle butter, and a pile of parmesan. Inside, shoppers can find jars of homemade sauce, Italian pantry staples, and cook-at-home pasta packages, including tomato butter sauce spaghetti and the tajarin. Most of the restaurant’s dishes are also available for takeout and delivery. 

The lauded Italian eatery from Portland luminary Cathy Whims remains as relevant as it was when it opened in 2005. Out on the newly expanded patio, diners enjoy wood-fired oven pizzas, rotating pasta dishes, and robust Italian entrees made with local, seasonal ingredients. Of course, things have changed during the pandemic; visitors must have a reservation for the distanced dining and make all orders online. Those who would rather pick something up to take home can find a more limited menu.

Renata has faced considerable uncertainty since the COVID-19 pandemic began shutting restaurant doors. While for a moment it looked as thought it would close, at the time being it has shut the doors on its sprawling and vaulted dining room, and offers instead a limited menu of its delicate wood fired-cooked pizzas and hand made pastas dishes for takeout. And while the lovely bar remains closed, its numerous Italian wines are available to-go by the bottle.

An old fashioned dining room with white tablecloths and a name reminiscent of terrible ‘90s alt-rock bands keeps 3 Doors Down from being as hip as other Italian restaurants in Portland. It’s a shame, because the restaurant has been offering reliable Italian fare for decades, including vegetable-heavy pastas and classic Italian starters. It’s also secretly one of the geekiest wine spots in town, with a voluminous, global bottle list that makes it an industry hangout. 3 Doors down does offer indoor seating, but for those who don’t feel comfortable inside, it has a new outdoor dining area and offers takeout and delivery.

An intimate interior with porcelain tiles and a beautiful, tree-lined patio give Burrasca a major upgrade from its modest beginnings as one of the city’s most popular Italian food carts, but the simplicity and quality of the food hasn’t changed. Today, diners can still find classic Florentine cuisine, like rustic meat sauces served over robust pastas and glasses of rich Tuscan wine. Burrasca currently offers indoor distanced seating, outdoor seating, and takeout. Reservations are strongly encouraged, and takeout is available by calling during business hours.

A homey, romantic Italian restaurant A Cena (pronounced ah-chay-nah) has remained a staple of the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood for years. Often changing with seasonal ingredients, it offers more robust pasta dishes made in-house (think rabbit sugo pappardelle and raviolini with lobster), as well as some meaty mains and fun sides, including onion rings. Its white tablecloths and painting-lined walls evoke an earlier dining style, and diners can now enjoy in-person dining with a reservation-only system and a plasma ionizer HVAC system. Those who still prefer to dine at home can find delivery and takeout options.