La Gondola

Situated in the Italian restaurant enclave of Chambersburg, food is this restaurant’s biggest asset: It may not dazzle with innovation but will make you happy at a good price.

By: Antoinette Buckley

   LA Gondola is prominently situated on a corner in the Italian restaurant enclave of Chambersburg. Its food bypasses temptations toward eccentricity and lingers at being consistently good.
   The restaurant seems to cut some corners with ingredients and service, which probably accounts for the very reasonable prices. Perhaps some herbs are dried instead of fresh, but just about everything I sampled was pleasant and seasoned appropriately.
   La Gondola is a veteran institution in Chambersburg, operating for more than two decades before closing its doors for a few years. Then, about two years ago, it re-opened under the new ownership of hospitable Tony Kite and continued serving the same style menu featuring homey Italian cooking.
   Within the last two years there have been two chef changes. Currently, Nick Pasquito is in the driver’s seat. He draws you in with well-prepared food in line with the restaurant’s Little Italy personality.
   From the aesthetics to the dinner music, La Gondola is a bit of a throwback. White stucco makes up the top half of the walls; red brick makes up the bottom half and also outlines the arched interior windows that separate two dining rooms. Faux flower arrangements are scattered here and there. A prominent mural of Venice and its gondolas is outdated and painfully stereotypical, and heavy gold-embossed frames for the paintings are on the gaudy side. Big-band music and ballads sung by such old-timers as Eddie Fisher croon in the background.
   Many details are overlooked. Candles burn on some tables and not others. White tablecloths cover the tables in the main dining room and even the booths in the bar, but the ceramic-topped tables in a smaller dining room are naked, seeming unfinished against the crispness of the others. Some tables had bread plates ready and waiting. Ours did not. Our table for three was set to accommodate another diner we weren’t expecting; the place setting was finally removed midway through the meal.
   Service was pleasant, but unenthusiastic and not especially knowledgeable about the food. Sharing antipastos at the table is handled with ease by the wait staff. The scungilli ($7) was tender and buttery against a whisper of dressing and a small bed of greens. Arangini di Riso ($6), a fried ball of risotto, cheese and beef, didn’t stand a chance on its own. It was dry, lifeless and in need of a discernable amount of cheese. Its only refuge was a quick dunk in the accompanying chunky tomato sauce.

Staff photo by Frank Wojciechowski

From the aesthetics to the dinner music, La Gondola is a bit of a throwback. White stucco makes up the top half of the walls; red brick makes up the bottom half and also outlines the arched interior windows that separate two dining rooms.

   Chef Pasquito handles pasta well and is happy to do a half portion as a pre-cursor to the meal. In fact, ordering a few different pasta selections for the table could do it for the first course of the meal. Al dente rigatoni ($13 full/ $7 half) luxuriates in a silky vodka sauce with bits of prosciutto. Homemade gnocchi ($13 full/ $7 half) are tiny round dumplings that matched well with a serving of thin, herb-driven pesto sauce it’s served in.
   The menu makes no mention of this, but entrées came with a bowl of hearty soup or a salad. It would be helpful to add this fact to the menu, as it helps make for a hearty meal and presents even more of a value. The mesclun salad was fresh and lovely with the occasional olive and white cocktail onion and a substantial homemade balsamic dressing that clung to every leaf. A tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder with chunks of vegetables and an abundance of clams danced around a hint of spiciness. Pasta e fagioli was heavy on the tomato, making it feel more like minestrone. Still, the two kinds of beans and small rings of overdone pasta made a tasty and very comfortable mix.
   It is always a good idea to go with the specialties of the house on a first-time visit. We ordered all three. Pollo alla Gondola ($16) was rich with portabella mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and asparagus in an earthy white-wine sauce accented with fresh herbs. The boneless chicken breasts were pounded thin, exposing more surface area to the vibrancy of the dish. An eye-catching seafood specialty ($21) was the most innovative and the most expensive of the dishes we sampled. Two delicate sheets of pasta sandwiched a mélange of scallops, crab meat and small shrimp. The overzealous quantity of a fine chunky tomato sauce served mostly to bury the dish rather than exalt it.
   Vitello alla La Gondola ($17) was sluggish. Thin veal was fresh and tender, but had no spark amid an under-seasoned white-wine sauce, feeble button mushrooms and uniform slivers of roasted red peppers. The only support for the dish was the marinated artichoke hearts.

Staff photo by Frank Wojciechowski

   The wine list is ample. Most desserts are homemade and worth the extra calories if you can squeeze it in after such a well-rounded meal. Blueberry Sauvignon ($5) was presented in a tall dessert glass commanding the respect that the name implies. The dessert was packed with the sweet and delightful sensation of blueberries starting with a bottom layer of blueberry custard, then blueberry syrup and a shower of blueberries on top. The crème brulee ($6) was lovely and the cannoli ($3.50) was fresh and light, but the Tiramisu ($5) was to die for.
   La Gondola’s aesthetics could use a face-lift or at the very least a tuck and a pinch. The service, too, could be more polished. The food is the restaurant’s biggest asset. It may not dazzle you with stylish presentations and imaginative combinations, but it will make you happy. And the prices are just right.
For directions to La Gondola, click here.