Center Harbor's Gusto cafe honored with statewide award

CENTER HARBOR — Nick and Elena Gagliardi opened Gusto Italian Café, an eatery bringing the best of Rome to a small lakeside town, four years ago. Establishing a business, and sustaining it through a global pandemic, has been a consuming task. The effort of the past four years made it all the more sweet when, earlier this fall, the owners of Gusto were honored as Restaurateur of the Year.

“It feels amazing, because as restaurant owners, it is a struggle a lot of the time. Maybe it’s slow, maybe it’s busy,” said Nick. “You’re dealing with employees and customers, and at the end of the day, you’re wondering, 'Am I doing OK as an owner?'”

“It’s a big, important award,” Elena added. “This was ... imagine if someone came in and shook our hands: 'You’ve done good so far.'”

The award, given as part of the New Hampshire Restaurant and Lodging Associations’ Annual Stars of the Industry event, is significant to the Gagliardis for two reasons. The award isn’t just for best food, though their pastry cases are stocked with a dizzying spectrum of temptation. Rather, the mantle of “restaurateur” includes all elements of running an eatery, from recipes and food to presentation and service, to recruiting and managing of staff, to the vision and care of their business plan.

Additionally, the NHLRA awards process requires vetting by both industry experts and the general public. First, nominations are solicited from the public. Then, a team of experts, including media personalities as well as hospitality professionals, identify which of the nominees should be included in a list of finalists. The winner of each category is then selected by popular vote.

“It’s special,” Nick said. “It makes me feel like we need to keep working really hard.”

The people behind the food

It would be easy to presume that a restaurant’s success is determined by what’s on the plate, but for the Gagliardis, their focus is first on the people who create that food.

Gusto started with a cafe, located across the street from the town's docks on Lake Winnipesaukee. Since it opened in late December of 2019, they’ve added a juice and smoothie bar, as well as overflow seating and an event space in the second floor of the same building, a pizza truck and a market for prepared foods and specialty goods in a neighboring building.

“We feel that we achieved this as a group. We feel that we achieved this because we care for the group of people we work with,” Elena said. “We feel that people feel this now — that’s the absolute best feeling for us.”

An important step for Gusto’s team development has been the embrace of a visa program that allows them to hire kitchen and counter help from overseas. Yes, some have come from Italy, but they’ve also found talented culinarians from Turkey, Spain, Jamaica, Honduras and Belgium, who all share a passion for Italian food.

“That was giving us so much strength,” Elena said. The confidence of a strong employee base meant that they could explore broadening their business plan — such as the market and the juice bar — without fear of detriment to the café, which is the core of their brand. “Everything was possible because we had this group of people around us who are enthusiastic, bringing extra energy from other places in the world.”

Year 5 and beyond

The NHLRA honor serves, for the Gagliardis, as an indication they’re heading in the right direction, and it comes at a point when they were already considering their next steps along that path.

Very soon, Gusto will begin utilizing a space in Moultonborough, less than a mile away, as its “laboratory,” as Elena called it. The lab will occupy a space in a strip mall that previously was home to Piccolo Market, another Italian-inspired business. Gusto will use the space for recipe development, as well as its baking headquarters.

There are ideas for further developments, but they aren’t ready for public discussion. Suffice to say, though, that Gusto knows where its home is.

“We believe that we will not go far from here. Center Harbor will be a destination for Italian food,” Elena said. “Gusto will not change,” its emphasis will remain “simple, high-quality food — and keep the quality all the time.”

The Gagliardis say the success of the company is due to the strength of its team. The leadership has something to do with that.

“A lot of couples don’t run businesses together, but with Elena, it’s easy,” Nick said.

“We are very complementary together,” Elena added.