Few restaurants last five years in this business. Fewer still last twenty-five. Gambino’s Italian Grill in Fairhope has just cleared fifty — and it has done so under the same family the whole way, through three generations of Gambinos working the same dining rooms on Laurel Avenue.
Rick Gambino opened the restaurant in 1976 as a self-made Italian American with, by his own telling, little more than talent, ambition and a dream. This May, he marked the milestone with a month of celebrations, capped by a big anniversary day on May 9 that brought a magician, a clown, face-painting for the kids and live entertainment to the dining rooms he built.
Three generations in the kitchen
What makes the anniversary unusual is not just the number of years but the continuity behind the kitchen door. Rick’s son Josh has worked in the restaurant for more than 36 years. Josh’s daughter Maddie joined her grandfather and father around 2018, and Rick says she took to the work immediately. “She was made for this line of work. She’s a natural.”
Rick’s other sons — Rick Jr., Brett, Adam and Luke — have all pitched in over the years, but it is the line of father, son and granddaughter that keeps the operation running day to day. In an era when the average restaurant’s lifespan is measured in a handful of years, a family business that has survived into its third generation is a statistical rarity anywhere, and a small marvel for a town the size of Fairhope.
The menu that built the reputation
Gambino’s menu leans traditional Italian, with Gulf Coast accents. Diners swear by the Eggplant Parmesan; others come for the steaks. The regular rotation includes Chicken Marsala, Shrimp Giardino, spaghetti with meatballs, cannoli, steamed mussels and fried crab claws — a Gulf favorite that sits comfortably next to the lasagna. Dessert loyalists hold out for the bread pudding with bourbon sauce, a longtime house signature.
The restaurant says recent national recognition has followed: Rick Gambino notes that TripAdvisor has ranked Gambino’s among the top six restaurants in the nation, alongside other awards the dining room has collected over the years.
The setting has as much to do with the loyalty as the food. The dining rooms are elaborately decorated, and when the weather cooperates guests can take a table in the enclosed courtyard, complete with a koi pond. The piano bar runs live entertainment nearly every night, with karaoke on Tuesdays — a schedule that has made Gambino’s as much a night out as a dinner.
A Fairhope institution, in context
Restaurants on the Eastern Shore come and go with tourist seasons and real estate cycles, and the last half-century has seen the area’s food scene transformed — fine dining rooms, oyster bars, rooftop decks and farm-to-table concepts have all arrived along Fairhope’s avenues. Through all of it, Gambino’s has stayed put at 18 Laurel Avenue, serving dinner seven nights a week, from 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4 to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Longevity like that changes what a restaurant means to a town. First-date tables turn into anniversary dinners; kids who grew up on spaghetti and meatballs bring their own children back for the same booth. In a family-run operation, the staff tends to stay, too — and the servers who have worked the floor for decades become part of the reason people keep coming back.
For Rick Gambino, the principle that carried the place through five decades is simple: never give up. The vision, he says, has been met with one success after another — even if the early days were anything but certain.
The party continues
Anniversary celebrations ran throughout May, with the May 9 event serving as the centerpiece. But the real celebration at Gambino’s happens every evening the doors open: a third-generation family restaurant still making eggplant parmesan, still pouring espresso, still lighting up a piano bar on a weeknight in Fairhope.
Here’s to fifty more.
Gambino’s Italian Grill, 18 Laurel Avenue, Fairhope. 251-990-0955. Open 4-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 4-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.