Geoff Fleming, the assistant manager at Gardino Fresco, shows off a bottle of wine. The restaurant has been at its N. Santa Cruz Avenue location for eight years.
Photograph by Paul Myers
Family-run Gardino Fresco offers gourmet Italian fare
By Suzanne Cristallo
Gardino Fresco in Los Gatos is a small Italian restaurant with a big menu. The staff of four can prepare orders from a list of up to 45 entrees and serve 25 customers at a time while limiting the wait for patrons gathered out front to an average of 15 minutes. That's pretty good for a group that came from varying beginnings before hitting their stride together in the restaurant business.
Manager Peter Jillo, 28, started out to become a police officer. Armand Charleboix, 75, and a waiter of the old school, was a chemist. Jeff Fleming, 25, has talent as a karaoke crooner. Only Tom Jillo, 38, owner of the restaurant since 1993, seems to have been marked from an early age to be the chef he is today.
"Our mom says Tom always wanted to play with pots and pans," brother Peter says. "By the time he was 15, he was cooking all of the family holiday dinners."
At the time, the Jillo family lived in Chicago, where Tom learned from a family friend--Al Gardino, a Sicilian by birth and a North Chicago restaurant owner--all that he knows today about Italian cooking.
The extensive Gardino Fresco menu offers veal dishes--Marsala, picatta, Parmesan and cutlet (all $19.95)--along with chicken and fresh seafood dishes, which are served with mostaccioli pasta and vegetables. Among the seafood is Gamberoni del Los Gatos, comprising lightly breaded prawns sautéed to a crisp with a lemon herb and white wine sauce for $19.95. The cioppino is a mix of calamari, clams, mussels, prawns and scallops in a hearty tomato sauce, also $19.95.
Probably one of the more popular dishes is mostaccioli and sausage pomodori--a Sicilian sausage tossed with garlic, tomatoes and basil for $12.95. The dish will be named at the next menu printing after its biggest fan, Los Gatan Dr. Bill Lonsdale, who orders it two or three times each week.
"Tom's the star. He can cook anything," says Peter, noting that their extensive Italian menu is augmented to include many ethnic foods when they cater private parties in the area. He adds with a chuckle, "Tom claims that girls I date like his food more than they do me. 'I know,' he'll say, 'she has no interest in you. She's coming over for the fried calamari.'"
The fresh fish also may be a lure. Several fish like mahimahi, Chilean sea bass and salmon are offered each day. When it's available, the most popular is Alaskan halibut.
Besides beer and various soft drinks and waters, specialty wines are available but not necessarily on the menu. "Some customers ask us to order $100 to $200 bottles of wine for them," Peter notes, and says he's happy to comply.
Tom Jillo first came to San Jose in 1980. He started as a waiter at By the Bucket restaurant, staying with them for 13 years. Then the opportunity came to buy his own restaurant, which he named after his cooking mentor, Al Gardino. Meanwhile, Peter studied administration of justice at De Anza College and came to help out waiting tables after classes. What was intended as a fill-in job has turned into his profession.
At the start, they were joined by Charleboix, a veteran waiter of 50 years, who had worked with Tom at By the Bucket. A French-Canadian by birth and now a Los Gatan, he is a "fixture" in the place, charming guests with his warm and personable manner and showing up mostly on weekends. Sometime later, the Jillos' cousin Jeff Fleming joined the staff.
"After dinner, Jeff will do Sinatra songs," says Peter. "And his Happy Birthdays are in nice, lovely tones."
Gardino Fresco, 51 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. Open for lunch Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-2 p.m., dinner 5-9:30 p.m. Dinner only Saturday and Sunday 5-10 p.m. Call 408.354.8788.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
