I should have known Corrado Palmieri would not stop at perfecting the pastries and gelato, but take the final element as well to its next logical amelioration and conclusion.

In December, Palmieri, the owner of the Italian café that bears his name in the Dallas Farmers Market shed, unveiled a project he had been working on for over a year. “An expansion,” I thought, somehow imagining his coffee shop inhabiting the entire end of the cavernous hall.