There’s a café in Little Italy with a very special soul… a place that’s been operating since 1963 and is located just steps from Dante Park, right across from Pizzeria Napoletana and next to Miss Napoletana. We’re talking about Café Conca d’oro, which opened in 1963 on Dante Street and has been managed since 2010 by Gino Dini, an Italian-Uruguayan-Canadian whose family hails from Pisa, in Tuscany.
“I arrived in Montreal in the 1990s,” Gino tells us. “I’ve always spent time in Little Italy, at Dante Park, the surrounding cafés—places that feel like a village and a European neighborhood at the same time. Especially during this time of year, there are these nostalgic undertones that, despite everything, immigrants love to reconnect with. For me, buying the café about ten years ago was a way of making peace with my distant Italian roots. It was, in essence, a cultural and commercial compromise, because it allowed me to renovate and carry on the soul of the old traditions of the Italian-Canadian community (like the passion for playing ‘Scopa,’ the Neapolitan card game, and for ‘calcio/soccer’), while also looking forward by adding Uruguayan-Argentinian touches, more modern customer service, and hospitality. And I can’t forget the key role of my wife, Line Champagne (and her delicious empanadas), in this adventure.”
Mission accomplished! Over a decade later, this is a café with a wonderfully diverse clientele, new woodwork, and vintage photos of people, landscapes, and caricatures. A place that has forged a warm identity of its own, where accents blend together between sips of espresso, a sandwich, a shout for a soccer goal, or the notes of a song. Yes, music too! In fact, Conca d’oro hosts some of the city’s liveliest karaoke nights every Friday and Saturday. “Karaoke here is always a real party! People have fun, and we help liven up the neighborhood during winter evenings. Sure, a café is a business, but if there’s one thing COVID taught us, it’s that gathering places like cafés really contribute to everyone’s well-being. That human and communal aspect—that’s the real reward for people in this line of work.”
So, shall we meet at Café Conca d’oro, in the heart of Little Italy?