Mary Maestri’s Re-Opening in Springdale
by August 22, 2012 1:39 pm 718 views
Mary Maestri’s, a landmark Italian restaurant for more than eight decades in Tontitown, will re-open later this month on the east side of Springdale.
Daniel Maestri, grandson of the restaurant’s founders, Aldo and Mary Maestri, said he has signed a lease agreement to operate in a 4,856-SF building at 669 E. Robinson Ave. in Springdale.
The space formerly housed Catfish John’s and is owned by ISC South LLC, a company headed up by Springdale businessman Joe Edwards. Maestri did not discuss any of the lease terms.
Maestri did tell the Business Journal the restaurant has a scheduled opening date of Aug. 30. He termed it a soft opening. Renovations are being done to the property, including signage, exterior painting and construction of an outdoor patio.
Unlike in the past, the restaurant will offer lunch from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on weekdays. Dinner hours are 5-9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 5-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Maestri said he has not decided yet whether to open for lunch or only dinner on Aug. 30.
The restaurant, which makes all its menu items from scratch, will also feature Aldo’s Wine and Coffee Bar.
The restaurant’s seating capacity will be about 240, Maestri said, an increase of about 80 from the previous location in Tontitown.
Mary Maestri’s is approaching its 90th year, but that was thrown into flux in May 2010. The restaurant was delinquent in paying thousands of sales-tax dollars several times in the two years before that, and was closed by the state.
“What happened next, in my opinion, forced us out of business at that location,” Maestri told the Business Journal in January. “The unthinkable hit us when Signature Bank of Arkansas, who we had a lease agreement with, demanded that the First National Bank of Rogers remove all of our restaurant equipment, which led them to foreclose on our loan.”
Maestri, who became the business’s leader in 1977 at the age of 22 following the death of his father, said the matter is still in litigation. He has remained fiercely protective of the Maestri name.
He told the Business Journal in January the name “Mary Maestri’s” is protected by copyright and resented the notion that the restaurant was ever closed, saying, “Mary Maestri’s has never been or never will be a building or land.”
Mary Maestri’s, opened in 1923, operated its first 24 years out of a farmhouse on Barrington Road. It was located at the corner of Highways 412 and 112 in Tontitown from 1947 until 2010.
That building is now a memory, demolished in February by the property’s new owner — Cave Springs developer Brett Hash— to make way for a retail shopping center.
Maestri temporarily found another outlet for the restaurant. In January 2011, he and Suzie Stephens, owner of the culinary school/restaurant Nibbles Academy of Cooking in Fayetteville, entered into an agreement for Nibbles to offer some of Mary Maestri’s handmade Italian classics.
Maestri said the business arrangement did not work out, and it ended Dec. 31. At the time, Maestri said he was still looking for a permanent brick-and-mortar location in Northwest Arkansas to revive the restaurant.
He expects the business to be better at its new location, citing the addition of a lunch menu and the growth of east Springdale.
“There are 3,000 people who work within a mile of this building,” he said. “And I think our customer base is stronger here than in Benton County. And there are just an awful lot of restaurants in Benton County. It’s an oversaturated market.”
Maestri’s two sons — Jon and Jordan — will be the restaurant’s chef/assistant managers. Karrie MacDonald will be an assistant manager in charge of the dining and bar areas.