Angela Olivito & Gary Barney

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Petite tenderloin with Gorgonzola cream sauce and crispy onions, from Small Plates, a favorite place of Angela Olivito. // Photograph by Joe Vaughn

Angela Olivito is the chef/proprietor of one of the most charming restaurants on Windsor’s Via Italia. When she gets away from La Casalinga, it’s often to head for this side of the river with a group of five or six friends. Among her favorite spots is Small Plates, because she loves to “sample as much as I can, tapas-style.” Often, she and her friends go to Somerset Collection, where they can shop as well as eat, with some in the group fans of rib-eye steaks at the nearby Ruth’s Chris. “I am not a big meat eater,” she says, but she does love the beef carpaccio at Somerset’s Brio Tuscan Grille and the appetizers at Ocean Prime in Troy. “In Windsor, I’m totally Asian,” she says of her dining out at home, although she says she wishes there were more authentic Thai restaurants in Windsor.

Gary Barney, proprietor of The Metropolitan Café in Shelby Township, still has a warm spot in his heart for the Vintage Bistro in Grosse Pointe Farms. “It’s no longer there, but it’s one of my all-time favorites,” he says. “And it was inspirational, in a sense [when he opened his restaurant earlier this year]. “Simple food, done well.” Another favorite of his and wife Jennifer’s is Atlas Global Bistro in Detroit, “a nice combination of food and atmosphere.” The couple also like Mr. Paul’s Chop House, for the filet and made-at-the-table Caesar salad. “It’s an oldie but goodie,” he says of the Roseville restaurant. “Like walking back in time.”