Live, from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night Take-Out starring this week’s host, Leonardo’s / La Gondola and featuring special guest star, Jake!

Now put your hands together and please welcome this week’s host, Leonardo’s / La Gondola!

Here we are at Leonardo’s / La Gondola.

This has been a family-owned Italian restaurant here in Peoria for over 40 years. Let’s go inside and see what’s happening.

I went up to the front counter and Jake came out with my take-out order. He gave me the okay to take a few photos of the restaurant.

So let’s snap some photos in here!

Here’s the front dining area with lit-up Italian art that was donated by a man who had a restaurant named, Leonardo’s in Chicago and he had this art commissioned for his restaurant.

His restaurant closed, so he donated this art to Peoria’s Leonardo’s. Very cool!

Plastic grapes and leaves hang from the ceiling and there’s a lit up tree in the middle of the dining room.

These have been in place for as long as I can remember and they add such a unique ambiance to the dining area!

Comfortable leather booths and Italian art line the perimeter of the restaurant.

There’s some pizza boxes stacked up and ready to house delicious pizza pies to go.

One last shot of the main dining room and it’s off we go…

Back to MBIP World Headquarters Kitchen and Tasting Area.

Tonight we have a five-course Italian feast! Mangia!

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First Course

The first course is a giganzo can of Bud Light. Cheers!

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Second Course

Next we’ll dive into a side salad with their house-made Italian dressing.

It was crispy, tart and delicious!!

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Third Course

I got an appetizer order of meatballs and a half a tub of extra meat sauce to dip them in.

They were tasty, seasoned orbs of ground beef and the meat sauce is savory and compliments the meatballs perfectly! All of a sudden I’m having this flashback!

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