The mood was joyful on Tuesday (May 28) night inside Gio’s Villa Vancheri in Mandeville, where owners Giovanni and Yoko Vancheri hosted a dinner celebrating the restaurant’s victory on the Italian reality TV show, “Little Big Italy.”

The premise of “Little Big Italy” is this: Italian restauranteur Francesco Panella meets with three Italians now living in cities around the world. He and the expats visits three restaurants that serve Italian food, tasting three dishes. At the end of each meal, the diners have up to five tokens to award for each plate of food served. Panella has one more vote, “the Italian vote.”