L EOMINSTER — Inside, it’s still the same inviting floor plan left over from a renovation almost 50 years ago. The same booths, the same bar, the same mournful Frank Sinatra painting that watches over customers as they walk in.
The only thing to call you back to the present is the distant sound of a Top 40 station coming from a radio somewhere back in the kitchen.
Little has changed in the 58 years the Gondola Restaurant has been in business as one of Leominster’s most beloved restaurants, but outside, just beyond the parking lot, the world couldn’t be more different.
“It’s a different life now,” said Margaret Wood, co-owner and manager of Gondola. “It’s not as easy to keep a business on top. There’s much more competition today. There are just so many other choices.”
On Oct. 31, Gondola will close its doors for good.
In 1957, when the Lelli family bought what was then called The Lazy A, choices weren’t the same as they were today. According to Wood and her siblings, Barbara Mahoney and Louis Lelli, with whom she co-owns the business, back then a restaurant was less of an option and more of a home base that you always ended up coming back to.
“You could come in any night of the week and always see tons of people you knew,” Mahoney said. “People would sit at their tables for hours because it was like a family. It was home.”
Gondola was the creation of Fitchburg siblings Gus and Mary Lelli, who first bought the restaurant 58 years ago. They purchased it as The Lazy A, which had been run by another local family, then went through a drastic renovation 10 years later, which resulted in the name changing to Gondola.
Before then, the siblings had a bit of a history in the restaurant business. Mary had owned and operated a diner in Worcester, while Gus had been working in Fitchburg at a restaurant called The Buttercup.
In the nearly 60 intervening years, Gondola became interwoven into the lives of almost every member of the Lelli family. Cousins, nieces, nephews and siblings all found themselves employed in some way.
Gondola was almost completely family-run until its 1967 expansion, when the Lellis had to start hiring additional staff.
“Those people became like family and would stay here over 25 years,” Mahoney said. “We had a lot of waitresses who would retire from here.”
The work ethic of their father and aunt is described by the Lelli children as being legendary. As Mahoney put it, they were workaholics before the phrase was even invented.
Despite the busy lifestyle, retirement loomed in the future, which prompted Wood and her husband, Rick, to take over the business on a more full-time basis. Since taking on more responsibility fifteen years ago, the Woods have watched the shifting landscape of the local restaurant world.
Small, family-owned establishments have died out as chain restaurants moved in. Wood and her siblings point to competition with established corporations, as well as customers’ willingness to travel greater distances for a meal as the primary reasons for Gondola’s imminent closing.
The siblings feel confident they’ll be able to move on when the end comes on Oct. 31. Seemingly keeping with the family tradition of staying busy, all three work day jobs in addition to working at the restaurant.
The real uncertainty lies with the future of all family-owned restaurants and the emotional loss Gondola’s closing means for the Lelli family.
“This feels so final,” Mahoney said. “We grew up here with our friends and our family, and now that’s a part of our life that’s just gone.”
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