Caro Amico Italian Café -- a Portland Landmark

Est. 1949

Originally designed to operate as a Speakeasy, Caro Amico began business as an old-world style red-checked-tablecloths, candles-in-wine-bottles café in the fall of 1949.

An insomniac Anglophile Farmer and an Italian Restaurateur who were looking for opportunities in après-war Portland reconnoitered after a newly elected Mayor dashed their plans for a “knock-three-times” joint, and making the best of a bad deal, went ahead and created what would become a favorite Italian restaurant for 3 generations of local patrons.

Still here after all these years, Caro Amico continues to serve its Famed Thin crust Pizza, Hearty Italian Fare, and Tasty Daily Specials. We have been described as “retro-60’s,” and our unique Mid-20th Century building retains much of the funkiness of those times.

On three floors, our two dining rooms and a dark and cozy bar are often filled with devoted customers as well as newcomers to our City and our Café. Our clientele is “welfare-to millionaire, and dress is anything from casual to formal. Families as well as romancing couples feel comfortable here, and everyday someone tells us about having proposed to their wife here years ago, or about a special Birthday celebration they attended here, or even a pre-prom dinner when they were teens.

We are a “touch-stone” for many people. We’ve changed very little in either venue or style, and there’s something reassuring about that in today’s faced-paced world. Order a Baker’s Special Pizza today, and it’ll taste just the way it did many years ago.

Join us at Caro Amico for a lot of the old, and some of the new -- Yes! watch the trendy new Aerial Tram as it plies it’s way from the waterfront below us to UOHSC above us. Now that’s Amore!!