MARINO'S ITALIAN CAFE

Austintown caf & eacute; owners are crafting a new image for the eatery once known mainly for pasta and pizza.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Change is in the air at Marino's Italian Cafe.
Traditional pasta dishes, homemade pizza and made-from-scratch bread still top the menu, but now they share space with some less-traditional entrees -- stuffed salmon, pork chops simmered in wine sauce, chicken saut & eacute;ed with prosciutto ham and eggplant.
John Marino, 30, has joined his mother, Anna Marino, as chef and co-owner of the longtime family restaurant, and together they're crafting a new image for the eatery that's been operating at 5423 Mahoning Ave. since 1979.
Inside, the mirrors are coming down, to be replaced with Italian art, and a coffee and wine bar is going up. Just around the corner, the owners are opening a second dining room they'll rent out for private parties, banquets and meetings.
And there's a new name. The business used to be called Marino's Restaurant, but the mother-son team decided Marino's Italian Cafe better conveys the kind of welcoming, informal atmosphere they hope to cultivate.
"We want to be known as a place where people can stop off to relax with an espresso or a class of wine. It doesn't have to be a pasta dinner," John Marino said.
How things are going
The new concept seems to be working. He said sales have increased 20 percent or more annually since he joined the business five years ago and have continued strong this year.
Competition from new franchises like Eat 'N Park and Ruby Tuesday, which both opened new restaurants nearby on Mahoning Avenue, doesn't seem to hurt business. In some ways they help by bringing more traffic to the Austintown business corridor, he said.
John Marino said he started thinking about changing the restaurant's image in 1998 when he took off on a walking tour of Europe, a trip he considered a "sabbatical" after earning a bachelor's degree in philosophy and history from Ohio State University.
He'd considered going on to law school, but the European trip changed his mind. He loved the culture, the sidewalk caf & eacute;s, the light, French-style cooking many of the caf & eacute;s featured, and he returned hoping to bring some of that European atmosphere to Marino's.
What he's trying
Experimenting in the restaurant kitchen, he tries to replicate recipes he's eaten at restaurants in Europe and in Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and other cities.
Dishes with elegant-sounding names like Pork Rotolini and Chicken Sorrentina are offered as daily specials, John Marino said, and he tries to keep his prices lower than what some upscale restaurants might charge for similar dishes. Entrees range from $7 to $20.
He pushed for adding a coffee and wine bar to attract busy people who might not want to sit down and order a full meal.
"It's the kind of thing you see in cities like Columbus and Cleveland," he explained. "You see that people like to move in and out more quickly. In some respects, I'm marketing to a new lifestyle."
Anna Marino said she had mixed feelings about bringing her son into the business at first.
"It's taken a lot of the pressure off me, but in a way, I didn't want him to do this because of the work. Running a restaurant is a hard life," she said, shaking her head. "I'm here seven days a week, usually 10 hours a day."
She enjoys eating her son's culinary creations but doesn't like to make them because they require speed and quick-cooking techniques. "I like to make the bread, the wedding soup, the things that don't require a fast pace," she said.
Restaurant history
Anna Marino opened her first restaurant at the Mahoning Avenue location with her husband, John, in 1979.
They had no experience in the business, but Anna's mother, Maria Madamas, had been making rolls, pizza dough and other specialties at a Warren restaurant for years. She brought her recipes and joined her daughter and son-in-law in the new venture.
Madamas retired five years ago, but at 78, she still comes in to make gnocchi, a potato dumpling that neither Anna nor John Marino has been able to duplicate.
"They say we have the best gnocchi in town, and Grandma is the only one who knows how to make it," he said with a wide grin.
John Marino's younger brother, Danny, 25, also works in the family business. His older brother Vincent, 31, is a doctor and medical director of the nearly Austintown Ambulatory, but he eats at Marino's Italian Cafe several times a week.
"He's two minutes away," John Marino joked. "We know he took the job because he wanted to be close enough to get good food."
vinarsky@vindy.com