Mary Maeestri’s Changes Menu, Marks 75th Birthday This Year

For the first time since the early 1980s, Daniel Maestri is redesigning the menu at Mary Maestri’s, one of Northwest Arkansas’ favorite restaurants for three-quarters of a century.

The Italian restaurant was opened by Maestri’s grandparents, Mary and Aldo Maestri, in 1923 in a remote farmhouse. Back then, reservations were dropped by airplane into the yard at the restaurant by a neighbor who had both a telephone and an airplane, says Maestri.

“I’m not just adding items to the menu,” Maestri says. “I’m redesigning the menu. I feel like it’s time. The area has changed enough to warrant a broader selection. People come here because we’re unique. What we’re going to add are more unique items. We developed them right here.”

Maestri says changing eating habits prompted him to add more low-fat and healthful items to the menu. A total of 10 entrees are being added. They include: capellini pomadori, a thin pasta with tomatoes and artichoke hearts seasoned with basil and garlic and cooked in olive oil; veal picatta, Mary Maestri’s first veal dish, charbroiled with a lemon caper sauce; and two new fish dishes, charbroiled North Atlantic salmon and orange roughy sauteed in white wine, then baked.

“These new dishes as far as I’m concerned, will rival any in the country, anywhere,” says Maestri. “We’ve been working on them a long time.”

Maestri says all dishes are developed at Mary Maestri’s and made from scratch. He emphasizes that no items are being removed from the menu as a result of the redesign.

The original menu at Mary Maestri’s had just three dishes. The current menu has 19 items. After the redesign, which will be implemented this summer, the menu will have 29 entrees.