The candelabra on the bar at Gigi’s Italian Kitchen & Restaurant has accumulated so much wax that it’s beginning to look like a grotto on the isle of Capri. The drippy trio of flames is so much a part of the ambiance of the delightful Italian-American pop-up, run by Atlanta chefs Eric Brooks and Jacob Armando, that it inevitably gets posted on Instagram — an unlikely mascot of sorts.

When the lights dim, and the Negronis mist the moment, you’d swear you are in some mythical Little Italy of days gone by, when veal piccata and chicken parmigiana were the last word in American-style Italian. And, yet, there is something more profound happening at Gato’s Sundays-Tuesdays pop-up. Gigi’s is not your typical spaghetti-garlic bread-big salad theme night.