Long Beach just scored a new wake-up call along the Naples Island canals, as Gondola Café, a waterside coffee window from the team behind Gondola Getaway, opened this week. The fully al fresco spot sits beside the gondola slips at 5437 E. Ocean Blvd., serving the company's house-style misto, including a tiramisu misto, plus simple Italian bites aimed at walkers, boaters, and morning commuters. Through April, the café is running a limited schedule with weekend early hours and midweek service, and the owners say they may expand hours in May.
Owner Mike O'Toole described the café's tiramisu misto as "it's creamy, cocoa-dusted comfort in a cup — almost like a liquid ladyfinger," according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram. The Press-Telegram notes that for now, hours run 10 a.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays through April, with earlier starts under consideration in May. The paper also calls Gondola Café one of the city's few fully al fresco coffee operations. The café will serve walk-up customers from a dockside window right beside the Naples canals.
From Canal Cruises To Coffee Refills
Gondola Café is a spin-off of Gondola Getaway, the Naples Islands operator founded in 1982 that runs private gondola cruises through Long Beach's canals, according to Gondola Getaway. The operator's Vogalonga page documents decades of trips to Venice and presents the crew's annual racing delegation as a local tradition. Visit Long Beach lists Gondola Getaway among the city's waterfront attractions and gives the business's Naples Islands address. The café is meant as a low-key complement to those cruises, a simple way to grab coffee before or after a canal ride.
Gondoliers Set Sights On Venice
The Gondola Getaway team plans to send four top gondoliers, Tom Wood, Scott Engedal, Nick Washburn, and Sam Cowan, to compete in Venice's Vogalonga and is seeking community support to cover travel and race costs, as reported by the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Organizers have set up a crowdfunding page that lists airfare, lodging, registration, boat rentals, meals, and uniforms among the expected expenses. A GoFundMe fundraiser shows community donations coming in to support the trip, and the team says the race helps keep a decades-old cultural link between Long Beach and Venezia alive.
For Long Beach locals, the café offers a new, reliably waterside option for morning coffee and quick Italian snacks, while the Gondola Getaway website remains the go-to for cruise schedules, special events, and any updates to café hours. For visitors, it is an easy combo: a canalside espresso followed by a short gondola cruise. For the gondoliers, the café is another way to support the crew and the long-running Vogalonga tradition that connects Long Beach to Venice.
