Most people may remember Tattoni’s Restaurant from its Chambersburg location at 800 Chestnut Ave. The menu was small, but customers said the food had the taste they expected to find in their grandmother’s kitchen. Since its establishment in the 1950s, Tattoni’s has seen several changes, including a move to Hamilton and an expanded menu. But the “Grandma’s kitchen” style food has stayed exactly the same.
Tattoni’s first opened in 1958 at 477 Chestnut Ave. in Chambersburg. The owner was Dominick Tattoni, who had learned to cook at another restaurant on Front Street and finally decided it was time to start a restaurant of his own. Tattoni eventually opened the restaurant at a second location, 800 Chestnut Ave., after he attempted to retire for a year and discovered he really didn’t like it.
Tattoni sold the Chestnut Avenue property in 2007 and established the current facility on Route 33 with his son, Lou. The younger Tattoni managed the Hamilton location until this past winter, when Miguel Quijada stepped in to learn the secret recipes.
Quijada had worked at Tattoni’s for several months before he officially began managing the restaurant under Tattoni’s direction, during that time learning to cook each of the family’s original recipes.
“He’s learned to perfection how to cook all our recipes, and he’s probably the only one that knows all our recipes,” Lou Tattoni said.
One of those recipes is for the chicken cacciatore, a dish that Tattoni said really made the restaurant what it is. The key part of the dish is that it’s cooked in a white wine sauce, not a tomato sauce.
“And if my father ever allowed me to cook it in tomato sauce, he would throw me out the door, because he said it was only chicken stew. That’s what he used to classify it as,” Tattoni said.
Shortly before Christmas, Quijada started managing the restaurant after perfecting his knowledge of the recipes.
“As far as the cooking, you cannot tell the difference,” Tattoni said. “His food is just as good as any food my dad or myself put out on a dish and served.”
While the Tattoni’s father and son team were busy managing and relocating the restaurant, Quijada had been developing his own set of cooking skills in restaurants throughout his hometown of Hamilton.
“He’s worked at different restaurants and not only knows our food, but has quite a bit of knowledge from other restaurants, too,” Tattoni said.
The result was the expanded menu customers will now find at Tattoni’s. The original menu consisted of about 20 pasta and entree options which could be accompanied by numerous homemade sauces. Since Quijada has taken over, he’s added pizza, sandwiches, paninis, salads and appetizers, all made from original recipes, to create quite an extensive menu.
“That’s good for the families, when they come in with kids … they can ask for whatever they want, and I have it right here,” Quijada said.
The menu features a lunch special for $9.95, which includes soup, salad, pasta and an entree. Dinner entrees start at $13, and include bread and olive oil with “secret spices,” antipasto, a side of pasta and a main entree.
Tattoni’s is located at 1280 Route 33, and is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. For more information, call (609) 587-9700.
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