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This venue is closed.

In this vast, confusing city of ours, people can develop some suspect restaurant loyalties. Cafe Gigi is a dingy, mothball-y sort of place located in a sub-street -level warren in the East Village. The menu consists mostly of fresh salads, sandwiches, and a variety of pizzas—none of them particularly outstanding, and some of them downright soggy. Yet East Villagers love this spot. Maybe it's the novelty of sitting in a different mismatching chair every visit. Or perhaps it's the restaurant's liberal BYOB policy: diners are encouraged to sit, drink, and chat all night if they wish. For easy-to-please hood-dwellers, Gigi offers the well-worn feeling of hanging out in their own scruffy living room. But for the rest of us interlopers, it might take a little while to feel at home. — Jon Steinberg

Avocado salad with tuna or chicken, $8.95; quatro formaggio pizza, $8.50