Because Daphne's is not an isolated case: there are several restaurants that, according to the newspaper, would make an Italian grandmother flinch. Café Mars promises to be eccentric, right down to the pink designer chairs at the bar, designed by Studio Apotroes, and the neon, reminiscent of the Memphis Group.

Here, Castelvetrano olives arrive in cube form, inside a Negroni-style jelly nut. Then there's Marie's, where James Beard Award-nominated chef Miguel Trinidad serves coaster-sized cheese ravioli and lamb ragout pies.