Just A Bite … Pasta Night at Pasquale’s A Great Way To Feed A Family!

By Carol O'Biso

From Issue 22: Spring 2014

If you (or your kids) have the capacity to consume scary quantities of food, the solution can be found at Pasta Night at Pasquale’s Pizzeria in Gardiner every Tuesday. “It’s really Pasta Day,” says owner Pasquale Iovieno. “Pasta night is all day.” 

On a recent Tuesday I gave it a try with a friend and her grandsons. The boys each had a children’s portion of Pasta with “Meatball” ($7.95, with one large meatball), my friend had the adult Pasta with Meatballs ($7.99, plus $2.50 for two large meatballs) and I ventured into the pasta specials, ordering “Farfalle Tre Colore,” (bowtie pasta with sundried tomatoes broccoli and chicken, $12.95). The adult meals come with a  mixed salad and a basket of very good homemade bread. My Farfalle were perfectly “al dente” and deliciously seasoned, and I ate every single little bowtie. Because it was one of the specials, I could have had a second helping at no charge, but Pasquale’s is not stingy with the portions to begin with, and even I couldn’t manage more. 

Extra helpings of pasta with sauce come at no charge, extra pasta with sauce and  meatballs is only the cost of the meatballs ($2.50), and kids’ portions of pasta and meatballs are no charge.   

Seconds (or thirds!) on Pasta Night are only available when you eat in the restaurant, but do remember that Pasquale’s otherwise delivers free within seven miles. Their delivery service once saved us; during Hurricane Irene my husband and I were on vacation when my elderly mother and her equally elderly companion had to evacuate their South Jersey home and head for our house in Gardiner. While I was panicking about how they would take care of themselves there, my husband picked up his cell phone, pulled out his credit card, called Pasquale’s and, from seven hundred miles away, ordered copious quantities of food to be delivered to our house. My mother and her friend were stranded there for four days, and they ate well the whole time. (135 Main St., 845 255-4455).