Now Gamble has a restaurant of his own in downtown Homer at 601 East Pioneer Ave., in the Kachemak Center.

Spices Restaurant serves pizza, burgers, pasta, soup, appetizers, salads and entrees that touch on the exotic — such as Luke Gamble’s Provincia, an oven roasted chicken with tomato, garlic, peppers, mushrooms, olives — and spiced by rosemary.

He’s also invented new ways of seeing the hamburger, in addition to the unpretentious “classic.” The Ring of Fire burger is a spicy rendition that includes jalapenos.

The lunch menu is an abbreviated version of the dinner menu, which offers meals for kids that grownups are invited to order if they don’t want full-size helpings.

Working in his family’s restaurants helped Gamble gain experience. In addition to the Homestead, through the years his grandparents also variously owned the Waterfront (now called Duggan’s), Glacier Drive-in and the Sunrise.

His parents are familiar faces as well. Brad and Barbara Gamble own the Duncan House, also on Pioneer Avenue.

Yet Luke Gamble went his own way in 1998 at age 17 when he attended the University of Alaska Anchorage Culinary Arts Program. “This is a really good program for young people,” he said. “I learned a lot there and really recommend it.”

For the next four years, he traveled around the United States to Colorado, California and Arizona working in a variety of dinner establishments, including a dinner theater and at a French resort.

“I worked from the front to the back of the house — dishwasher, bartender, weddings. That’s really how you learn the business.”

Gamble moved back to Homer in 2002, and went right to work for his parents at Duncan House, where he has cooked for the past five years.

Last fall, the space formerly occupied by Mangia! Mangia!, an Italian restaurant in the Kachemak Center, came open. “I have a whole family of support, so when I saw this opportunity, I took it,” he said.

For the next two months, he and family members painted the interior creamy yellow and added new accents such as a fireplace and a fountain. They remodeled a former playroom into a private dining space.

After batting around a few names, Gamble said he settled on “Spices” because it’s an easy name to remember and it embodies his belief that food should be well-seasoned as much as basic and not overpriced.

Opening in the winter should help smooth out the menu and systemize his business, Gamble figures, before tourists start arriving in late-April, early May.

The restaurant does not serve alcohol, a decision Gamble says has brought a few compliments from the community so far. “There are so few places people can go to eat that do not serve drinks,” he said. “I’ve had people thank me.”

Spices is open 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Gamble is considering opening for Sunday lunch hour, and will lengthen the days for summer.

In the meantime, he said he’s grateful to Homer for being so supportive. “I really want to thank everyone — this is an incredible community.”