As the dust settles from a nasty legal dispute between some upstart refurbishers, whose love for the building can be traced about the hand-painted Greek murals never painted over by the prevailing current landlord, Dominic Geraci, this 1890s Prague-inspired opera house is drawing a new curtain as a fine-plate Italian restaurant and gelateria.

Geraci, not a newbie to gelato (see Wicker Park's Caffe Gelato), befitted the back of the lofty, gold-draped house with a full coffee bar and over 18-flavors of made-on-site ice cream. Meanwhile, two floors of ornate, wood-fired pizza oven-speckled dining rooms play audience to over 20 Neapolitan pie creations, hand-made pastas and calamari and mussel antipasto standards.

The building can't help but steal attention away from the place, ribboned in baroque architecture by poor pre-war Czech-to-Chicago migrators, nickel-and-diming together a community space. Not that Geraci's kitchen is lighting up eyes, anyhow, dishing out nothing you can't find a few skips away in Little Italy for both a cheaper price and a better experience on the tongue. But the gelato's a tasty, $3 way to soak up the past on the cheap.

Average cost: $10-$20

Centerstage Reviewer: Gavin Paul