OK, so who out there remembers this Mario’s location? This is at Tecumseh and Ouellettte, in the X-Ray clinic that can’t keep a restaurant open. If we were to peel away all the layers is this underneath? This is from the 1948 Visitor’s Guide. The location is still featured in the 1954 guide book as well.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at the Ouellette Ave. location.
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Wow, what a great shot...does anyone actually remember dining at this place? It was way before my time....
Do you think it's the location that can't keep a restaurant, or the business owners>? Is this not prime location?
Oh...the only name I remember this building having was Crabby Dicks?...Anyone else care to add to that?...When was that 6-7 years ago?
I am 54 years old and remember eating there a number of times. The owners later moved to a restaurant downtown. I believe it was next to the Windsor Utilities office. Might have been the Bentley's location.
Next door was the Colonial Tavern owned by Rob Katzman's father. Rob is the owner of the strip clubs. ( Cheeteh's )
The restaurant was best known as being the Hecienda. It had 2 railroad cars in front. It was not well received by certain ethnic groups with the box cars as many jokes were made because of the use of box cars in WW2 to transport people to death camps.
It was a greek place in its last incarnation I beleve, before that it was Mr. Bar-B-Q or something, going back farther Crabby Dick's, Last Harry's, O'Tooles... That's just since about 1990...
Right after Mario's moved to another location it was called Nero's for awhile. That was in the 60"s.
We used to go there for breakfast on Sunday, but my father did not their dinners so we stopped going.
What I remember most about Mario's was there spaghetti and meatballs.
Great topic.
Andrew, Mr. BBQ was further east up Tecumseh on the north side of the road; it closed a few years ago. The gentleman that operated it had a nice small menu of well prepared dishes and had a small but loyal customer base but the business floundered.
But yeah, there must have been a dozen different restaurants/bars in the old Marios location over the years, and all eventually failed. My reasoning is that it is a poor location to get in/out of by car - still is. If you are coming from South Windsor - unless you thought ahead and came up by way of Dougall, you can't make a left into there from Ouellette. After your left onto Tecumseh, daytime traffic is often backed up so that you can't get in from that side either unless a kind motorist leaves space. The next two streets, Pelissier and Victoria, and "no left turn" from 3-6, dinner hours, which sends the driver up to Dougall for the trip around the horn. Anyone attempting to approach from that way will be disappointed again if they make the mistake of trying to use Pelissier which is one-way going south. It's not impossible to get in/out of, don't get me wrong, but I can see diners getting fed up.
I actually grew up down the street on Pelissier, so the this corner is fairly well burned into my memory, including the Colonial House that burned out in a spectacular fire in the late '70s. They boarded it up by the neighbourhood kids had no problem getting in and exploring it before it was finally torn down. ;) Very creepy.
The Hacienda was not well-received by the neighbourhood as some felt the box cars were ugly. I thought it was a novel idea. I have never heard of the ethnic-related complaints though.
Around 1989-90 it was hugely successful for a few years as a kiddie bar, O'Toole's, introducing to the neighbourhood for the first time what it must feel like living downtown in the shadow of these type places. As with all kiddie bars the novelty wore off and it eventually closed too, followed by all sorts of different restaurants, sports bars, etc. with some not lasting more than a month or two.
Mario's was at the current Bentley's location but recall that after Mario's left that site, it was Pit Martin's for quite a while prior to becoming Bentley's. I have a few memories of both. Back in the day, Fiddler on the Roof played at the Fisher Theatre and my parents wanted to introduce a little culture into my life as well as my brother's 'cept I forgot all about it and was out playing. When my brother finally found me, he said my Dad was ready to crown me and we would be late. We rushed off to Mario's, ate as quick as we could...and got to the Fisher Theatre. Of course we were the first one's there.....
As for Pit Martin's (after Mario's left), my best friend and I went there and ordered two bottles of beer at the bar (probably Blue) and a short little man was sitting next to us. Turn's out it was this guy named Jimmy Devallano and he was just hired by the Red Wing's as General Manager. The Wings were awful, bascially the doormats of the league but P.... said to Devallano, that he felt the Wings would turn around and that Devallano would do a good job. Jimmy basically grunted and returned to drinking his beer. I laughed. I figured the Wings would continue to suck. Who knew?
Gary - as you will see tomorrow, they had both locations for a while...
John - it was some kind of BBQ place after Crabby Dick's but before the Greek Place... I remeber eating there...
I always wondered why that building was so close to the corner of the street but now I know it wasn't originally like that.
Did the Hacienda expand it to it's current size and shape? What a nightmare for pedestrians and the building owner considering that the corner of the building gets marred every 6 months or so from trucks trying to turn on that corner.
Interesting you brought up Pit Martin AllenParkPete. In the late '90s I was able to fly one of the planes he used to own. When the current owner told me it was Pit Martin's I thought it was kind of neat.
Andrew - Yep, it wouldn't surprise me if it was some sort of BBQ place at one point. I think it's been about everything from soup to nuts since the Hacienda closed. I remember the seafood angle too. Just wanted to differentiate between the actual Mr BBQ and whatever was in there, much as I am at a loss to remember what it was, specifically. I did not eat in during that part of the building's history. BTW, you can see part of the original building from the south side, last time I was snooping around there. There is a large chimney and brick wall. Who knows maybe there was a brick oven inside there at one time for the pizzas? And yes, I remember my parents mentioning two locations, with each being a somewhat different type of restaurant - the one that is the subject of this post being a diner/pizzaria and the other more of a formal sit-down restaurant, I believe.
Any chance on digging up anything on the old Colonial House at all??? Gary is the first person I've seen mention it on this site, I thought it was otherwise completely forgotten. On a recent postcard auction on eBay you could see the C.H. poking up in the background behind Marios.