Ten years after East Mamma first proved that Big Mamma could make Parisians wait in line for spaghetti, the group’s latest opening feels like a victory lap. Gloria Osteria, which quietly opened its doors on November 28, 2025, at 41 rue de Lille in the 7th arrondissement, is Big Mamma’s first new Paris address in six years, and its most self assured yet. After conquering London, Madrid, Berlin, Milan, and Barcelona, the squadra has landed on the Left Bank with a restaurant that trades youthful exuberance for something closer to grown up glamour.
Old Paris Bones, Riviera Attitude
The building itself does a lot of the talking before a single plate hits the table. Gloria occupies the former Maison des Dames des Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones, a landmarked Art Nouveau structure from 1905 sandwiched between the Musée d’Orsay and Boulevard Saint Germain. Its protected stained glass windows and carved stone facade look every bit the part of a serious 7th arrondissement institution.
Then you walk inside, and Paris disappears entirely.
Big Mamma’s in house design studio, Studio Kiki, has reimagined the interior as a 1970s Venetian villa on holiday, all amber light, animal print, and unapologetic glamour. Oversized gilded glass chandeliers with a distinctly Murano glow hang low over a dining room grounded by a zebra striped carpet. A hulking bar carved from brown Tuscan marble anchors the space and opens onto a private lounge where custom built speakers, the kind you’d expect at a listening bar rather than a restaurant, sit next to a curated stash of vintage Italian vinyl. Tucked further back, a winter garden room does its own thing entirely: ebony velvet, floor lamps scavenged from Turin flea markets, and windows tall enough to make the room feel like a conservatory.
Out back, a courtyard has been turned into a 46 seat terrace that channels the open air osterie of Venice, complete with reimagined Roman statuary and emerald parasols standing in for a proper canopy. It is, by Paris standards, a genuinely rare thing: an outdoor space that feels private rather than glimpsed at by passersby, and it opens for lunch once the weather cooperates.
The Chef Bridging Rome and the Right Bank
In the kitchen is Francesco Fronda, a Roman through and through, who started cooking at 17 in the city’s old school trattorias before working his way into more refined, bistronomic territory. That dual education shows up on the plate: Fronda’s cooking leans hard into Northern Italian tradition while quietly flirting with French technique, resulting in a menu that reads as confidently bilingual rather than confused.
Front of house, director Fabien Ledentec runs a team of 55 with an approach that’s both exacting and warm, while manager Rada Kuzmenko brings the kind of easy, magnetic energy that makes a big room feel intimate.
What to Order
Start where Fronda wants you to start: with the raw ingredients doing the least amount of work and the most amount of talking. That means burrata and fior di latte mozzarella from Caseificio La Murgia, and prosciutto crudo Gran Riserva from Azienda Agricola Bettella, the kind of cured ham you eat slowly and think about.
From there, the crudo section is where the kitchen shows its hand. Bluefin tuna from the Balfegó fishery arrives tonnato style, all creamy caper sauce and delicate fish. Raw amberjack gets brightened with Sicilian citrus, and a carpaccio of Mazara red prawns is finished, somewhat audaciously, with shaved foie gras from Gers.
The pasta program alone is worth the reservation. Fresh dough is rolled by hand daily, and the cacio e pepe gets its punch from a four peppercorn blend, Tellicherry, smoked black, wild Madagascar, and Sri Lankan white, that adds real complexity to a dish that too often coasts on cheese alone. Fazzoletti come stuffed with a cheese quartet of Parmigiano Gennari, ricotta, roccolo, and Taleggio, while pyramid shaped osso buco parcels get a saffron sauce that ties the whole thing together. If you’re going all in, order the lobster casoncelli, finished tableside with a Kaviari caviar beurre blanc, or the gnocchi, available with either seasonal black truffle or the more rarefied white Magnatum Pico.
For a main, the saltimbocca alla romana keeps things classic: veal, Bettella prosciutto, sage, done exactly as it should be. The veal Milanese arrives dressed with radicchio and colorful heirloom carrots, while a pearlescent John Dory swims in a pool of clams, confit fennel, and beurre blanc. The whole sole meunière, meanwhile, splits the difference between an Italian seaside trattoria and a serious French brasserie.
Save room. The Sicilian citrus panna cotta, finished with a grapefruit and blood orange coulis, is bright enough to reset your palate, while the warm Valrhona chocolate soufflé, studded with La Preferita pistachio and served with house made gelato, is a masterclass in the hot cold contrast that makes a good soufflé a great one.
A Bar Program With Some Theater to It
Behind the bar, Leonardo Battistelli has built a list that isn’t afraid to mess with the classics. The Negroni Zafferano gets an infusion of cinnamon and saffron that adds warmth without losing the drink’s bitter backbone, while an Espresso Martini spiked with truffle blurs the line between cocktail and dessert. For something lighter, the Gin Ramos made with burrata and orange blossom sounds like a gimmick and drinks like a genuinely well balanced cocktail. Purists aren’t left out either: Martinis, Manhattans, and Sazeracs are all built tableside, some using rare vintage spirits from the 1970s through the 1990s.
The wine list might be the real headline. Under the direction of longtime Big Mamma wine director Alberto Sinibaldi, Gloria pours from a list of roughly 250 bottles pulled from Italy’s best regions, Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello di Montalcino, Super Tuscans, Valpolicella, Franciacorta, mixing grand cru names with small production, family run, organic and biodynamic estates. Sommelier Lucas Calla, who trained under Paul Bocuse in Lyon, is on hand to talk you through it, and refreshingly, a serious chunk of that list pours by the glass.
Worth Knowing
Big Mamma has been a certified B Corp since 2018, and that commitment carries through at Gloria: direct relationships with Italian producers, reduced food waste, and a focus on sustainability that doesn’t get advertised loudly but shapes how the kitchen sources.
Gloria Osteria
41 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris
