Gia, a new Italian restaurant nestled into the former Cavé Vin space in Minneapolis’s Armatage neighborhood, opened this week on February 6. Chefs Jo Seddon and Lisa Wengler, both alums of Gavin Kaysen’s Wayzata restaurant Bellecour, have run Gia as a pop-up over the past three-and-a-half years — now they’ve found a permanent home for their fresh, thoughtful menu of sharing and small plates (artichoke and polenta fritti; bruschetta pomodoro), mains (Chianti-braised beef; shrimp bucatini studded with plum tomatoes), and desserts (affogatos; lemon tarts with cream).

Seddon and Wengler met at Bellecour in 2017. Wengler, born and raised in Minnesota, worked at Shakopee’s Cocoa and Fig Bakery during her college years before attending New York’s Culinary Institute of America and eventually landing back home, where Kaysen hired her. Seddon practiced medicine in London for years, but she always had a “culinary edge,” she says — so she made a career 180 and enrolled in culinary school.