Although Gambino’s is approaching its 10th anniversary in September, the staff is just as excited to serve the Palouse as they were on the restaurant’s opening day.
Destiny Alvarez, a University of Idaho graduate, has worked at Gambino’s for two-and-a-half years. She said Gambino’s is the best place to relax for the price, location and good food.
“It’s a Chicago-based Italian restaurant, so it’s not necessarily 100 percent authentic Italian,” Alvarez said. “It’s more Americanized, but there is such a large range of food for good prices. The portions are huge, they’re always so huge. Everything is giant, but that’s good in a college town. Hungry college students really like having left-overs.”
Jordan Lockard, who has been an employee at Gambino’s for nearly six years, said the management, his relationship with his coworkers and the community have kept him around for this long.
“It’ll be six years in August,” Lockard said. “I’ve loved it. Chris (the assistant manager) and Jim (the general manager) have made us feel like family. I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s hectic — busy — but I’ve worked at other restaurants where the people in charge have not been pleasant. It’s an easy industry for servers to be taken advantage of and be made to feel bad the whole time, but this is the one that I’ve seen that our bosses actually care about us. Yeah, they’re hard on us to make sure we do our job right, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt so supported.”
Lockard, who also works as a psychology and world history teacher in Lewiston during the week, said he comes to Moscow to work on the weekends because of the loyalty he has to his managers and to the restaurant.
“You kind of develop a loyalty to them because they have always been there for us,” Lockard said. “Six years is a lot of my time — a lot of my life — and a lot of things have happened. But, at the drop of a hat, they’ll go out of their way to help us.”
Alvarez echoed many of the same sentiments held by Lockard. She said the idea of having to leave for graduate school has become more difficult now.
“You know, I started there in the middle of my first semester during my junior year, and I am actually leaving in two months for graduate school in Oregon. It’s really hard to leave,” Alvarez said. “Chris and Jim are probably the two greatest people you could ever work for. It’s an amazing place.”
Marisa Casella, who attends UI and has been an employee at Gambino’s for nearly two years, said Gambino’s is the ideal mixture of a nice restaurant and a place to hang out with friends.
“What we’re trying to go for is a mixture between an Italian restaurant and a sports bar,” Casella said. “So, we have pizzas, pasta, salads, sandwiches and then we have things like wings to go along with the sports bar theme. We also have a bar — we’re one of the few places that actually has a liquor license, so we can give shots and mixed drinks as well.”
Casella, who works closely with the food and cooks, said Gambino’s food is freshly made, and includes local ingredients.
“Most of our ingredients are fairly local I think, for salads and such,” Casella said. “But, for the most part we prepare everything ourselves in house.”
Casella advocated for new people to take a shot on Gambino’s.
“Come try Gambino’s, it’s such a good place to go, and I don’t just say that because I work there,” Casella said. “But, if you’re there, feel free to say, ‘hi.’ I love meeting new people, and I know everybody else does as well.”
Andrew Ward can be reached at [email protected]